Why, When and How?

Why, When and How?

Yearly in depth surveys. Involvement and satisfaction surveys are usually carried out per annum andcan carry additional questions to provide some insights to the effectiveness of communications.

Prior to some particular communications campaign. To be able to best understand the impact ofcommunications, it is essential to measure (awareness, approaches, knowledge etc) before an effort.

After an important communication or effort. It is important to measure the effectiveness and impactof initiatives and significant communications systems. This permits one to tailor innercommunications to ensure they are effective and delivering quantifiable business value.

At intervals to track attitudes. Routine measurement helps communicators to tailor messages tomake sure they are appropriate to their crowds also to estimate the ever transferring attitudes andfeelings inside an organization.

Beat checks and to collect feedback on issues that are specific also temperature checks during andafter specific occasions offer an understanding to the issues and challenges an organization faces.

At periods against KPI's to track and benchmark. Measuring regularly against benchmarks andtracking trends over time provide an early warning of problems until they've escalated farther, thatwill go undetected.

Things to Measure?

Discovering which areas of communicating to measure willbe dependent on communication goals and theorganization's particular business. A few examples ofcommunications measurements that are useful include:

Baseline communicating measurements to identify otherfactors affecting attitudes and behaviours and beforecommunicating can quantify; existing knowledge, attitudesand behaviours of workers, as well as discovering the existing information available, how easy it's tofind, the current communications channels accessible.

Practical communicating measurements

Following effort or a communicating, functional areas of communication should be quantified.Comparisons to the baselines measurements are useful. Additional measures can include; kinds aswell as the amount of messages sent, timing of messages, message cut-through / reach, channelappeal and effectiveness, audience satisfaction with content (types, volume etc).

What to Quantify - Measuring Impact

Measuring of the impact communication is an essential measure and measures can contain:

Audience perception measurements including factors like; forms and % of messages received,communications recalled. Were messages viewed as related, consistent and credible? Were themessages comprehended? How well do workers feel they're being supported? Do workersunderstand exactly what must occur as an effect of the communication(s)?

Change in Behaviour

Most inner communication's goal would be to modify employees' attitudes and behaviors. Thus, it'svaluable to recognize and quantify factors like; What altered? Was there more or less of abehaviour? What is now distinct?

Impact on company goals / Results

Communication measurement should enable Internal Communicators to quantify the effect ofcommunications on business objects. For example:

The number of workers (following its promotion)

The shift in attitudes involving the planned impact of increased customer retention along withcustomer service

The quantity of usable suggestions submitted via an employee suggestion initiative (and themonetary value of the suggestions)

Isolating the impact of communication

It will often be difficult to isolate the effect of communicating versus other factors andcommunication doesn't really happen in a vacuum (incentive schemes, new product starts, factorsexternal to the organization and so forth). Potential options comprise:

Communications control groups (not conveying them about aim or a specific initiative, and isolatinga group, such as one distant place, then looking at how their activities and groups you might havecommunicated with differ)

Evaluating the change in behavior with regard to a business aim that has been communicated nicely,versus a small business goal with little or no communicating

Estimate the % influence of communications versus other influencing factors.

Calculating the fiscal value of communication

Calculations of the monetary value of communicating will, at best, be estimates. Nevertheless, it isstill a significant part communicating measurement as it begins a conversation with seniorsupervisors at the same time and will show the enormous value of powerful internal communication.

Look at the effect of an internal crisis communication response that is effective. A comparison canbe produced against a situation (internally or inside a similar organization) which was not managedas well, and quantifiable worth attributed to factors such as:

Quantity of customers retained

Retention of good staff who might have left

Tools to aid the Measurement of Internal Communication comprise:

Desktop Computer quizzes and surveys. Aside from paper based surveys or in depth online, pop upHigh Performing Teams desktop computer surveys and quizzes can provide benchmarking abilityand added measurement throughout the year.

Incentives. Staff cans support to engage in a quiz or survey.

Qualitative Communication Measurement

Qualitative techniques can contain:

Free form replies in surveys.

Focus groups

Discussion forums. Although focus groups and face-to-face interviews tend to be the best option forqualitative communicating measurement, internal social media may be a helpful addition orreplacement. Set up worker discussion forums to investigate specific problems. Screen remarksproduced in discussion forums to gather qualitative measures of how employees are thinking feelingand behaving

Preventing Survey Prejudice

Preventing non- response or self select bias. When surveys rely on employees to choose in or 'selfselect', you may mainly hear from the squeaky wheels or folks with the agenda prompting them toparticipate. Random sampling return and escalation options can be provided by a desktop surveytool to help ensure that representative internal communications measurement data is gathered fromover the business.

Control groups. Set up a control groups for communications campaigns. Identify survey responsesfrom control groups and therefore to compare and measure the effect of internal communicationscampaigns.

Multiple select questions. For some types of questions, e.g. "Where did you hear about XXX from?"or "What factors affected your decision" supplying single response alternatives can skew results. Inthese cases, supply multi-select response choices.

Comparisons. Gauge the impact of communications on folks who saw a special communicationsagainst those who did not.

The impact of time . Remember consequently if communication efforts must be compared with oneanother, speeds will drop over time, communications measurement must be completed at exactly thesame time period after each campaign. Ensure that communications measurement is performedafter each effort at a regular time.

Supplying circumstance for survey or a quiz. Context must be given to get a quiz or survey. For

instance, a merchandise knowledge quiz without context might cause employees to be worried aboutthe objective of the quiz and maybe work more difficult to ensure they give you the correct answers.

Encouraging Survey Participation

Boosting the survey to encourage engagement. The higher survey participation rates really are, themore mathematically accurate and useful the results will undoubtedly be. Use innovative internalcommunications channels like; background alerts, scrolling desktop feeds, user and screensavermessaging created staff magazines to improve the profile of surveys and encourage participation.

Communicating survey findings and actions being taken. When workers think that the output signalsfrom staff surveys will probably be used, they may be far more likely to participate. So, ensure thatsurvey outcome and the resulting activities being taken are well communicated to staff. Articles,newsfeeds and screensaver messages in the staff magazines are great ways get messages acrossbecoming entombed in email in-boxes.