Finding the right direction: internal communication can add real value to your organisation.

Internal communication is in a bad way. Communicators across the board complain that their expertise and contribution are not sufficiently valued by top management. And employee opinion surveys commonly reveal low satisfaction scores with communication.

What can we as communicators do to add significant value to our organisations and earn recognition both for ourselves and our profession?

One way that we can make a "step change" to improve internal communication is to survey employees and use modern statistical techniques to analyze survey responses, When we understand exactly which factors will make the biggest difference to overall communication satisfaction among employees, we can concentrate our efforts on them. In this way, we can add considerable value to the business and truly prove our worth as communicators.

COMMUNICATORS NOT VALUED

In our roles, we are expected to manage the totality of internal communication so that employees are as effective as they can be in their jobs, committed to business goals and motivated to stay and contribute to the organisation. To do this, we create various communication systems and programs that help employees carry out the business strategies.

What's required is clear enough in theory. But despite this, all is not well in many otherwise successful organisations.

* Executives frequently complain that communicators have little or no idea about how to support the business. IABC Fellow and consultant Jim Shaffer, of the Jim Shaffer Group, has found that many executives can't see how communicators "add value" and they also hold negative views:

* "Aren't they the folks who put out the employee newsletter?"

* "They don't understand our business."

* "A lot of the time, quite frankly, they're just in the way."

* "I'm worried about the business; they're worried about deadlines."

* Fewer than half of all employees may be satisfied with communication they receive in their organisations. In Australia, only 42 percent of employees, on average, are satisfied, based on communication audits in a dozen public and private sector organisations with 100 to 20,000 employees.

* Communicators often feel their skills and efforts are not valued. In surveying employees, our company hears:

* "We're not on the top team and not consulted about the big decisions."

* "We only get called in when something goes wrong--usually too late."

* "We're not paid as well as line managers or even human resources."

* "We are the first to be retrenched when the cuts come."

So how did we get into this predicament?

One way to find the answer to this question is to ask employees. Employee research reveals a lot. It now seems clear that for years many, maybe most, communicators have concentrated on the wrong things by continuing to focus mainly on traditional communication tools such as print and electronic media. These have been shown repeatedly to have little impact on satisfying employees' overall communication needs, and are of questionable value in facilitating necessary organisational changes.

WHAT EMPLOYEES SAY IS GOING WRONG

Exhibit 1 shows the results of more than a dozen communication audits in Australia. Although we can't assume these findings necessarily apply elsewhere, similar results have been reported from the U.S. and the U.K., and the picture appears to be similar in other developed western countries.

These results are not good. They show that employees are not very satisfied with communication, even in leading organisations with enlightened communicators prepared to put their communication to the test. Hardly a strong vote of confidence in our profession.

Clearly some organisations are better than others, although the best overall satisfaction score was only 52 percent positive. Some organisations had areas of significant weakness. For example, only 15 percent of employees in one major organisation were positive about cross-functional communication.

What's more, focus groups conducted with thousands of employees in dozens of organisations confirm these findings.

TIME FOR COMMUNICATORS TO REFOCUS

Correlational modelling techniques can identify the key drivers (correlates) of employees' satisfaction with internal communication. (It should be noted that the relationships are statistical correlations, not necessarily causal.) These vary from one organisation to another, but in most cases not by much. There was a remarkable similarity in the correlations found. Typical correlations are shown in Exhibit 2.

The problem is that many communicators spend most of their time on things likely to have marginal impact on employee satisfaction with communication, rather than on things that will have the most impact, Exhibit 3 shows the top priorities in Australia--the areas where there are poor results, and where the factors are likely to have significant impact on overall satisfaction with communication.

For example, helping the CEO and senior executives improve their relationships with the workforce is far more likely to improve employee satisfaction with communication than, say, working on the intranet, e-mails or publications. Again, these findings are confirmed by what employees say in focus groups.

Communicating change is a critical function and worthy of detailed examination.

KEY DRIVERS OF EFFECTIVE CHANGE

A 2003 project for clients of The Allen Consulting Group, a dozen of Australia's leading public and private sector organisations, set out to identify the key drivers of employee satisfaction with effective management of organisational change. The criterion of change management consisted of two survey items: "major changes appear to have been well planned," and "implementation of change is generally well handled." The main findings are shown in Exhibit 4. Although we can't be sure about cause and effect, the pattern of correlations found makes sense. The research showed that effectively managing major change requires attention to change communication, organisational satisfaction and culture and upward communication. In turn, there are several other important drivers of these factors.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Exhibit 5 shows the sorts of things that were found to correlate less strongly with effective change management. This means that when it comes to major change such as mergers, restructures or significant downsizing, local managers and team communication are less significant than communication from senior levels. So communicators who try to drive major change at the local level or primarily by using electronic distribution of information--without managing other more significant aspects are unlikely to be successful.

KEY DRIVERS OF CHANGE COMMUNICATION

If we consider the key drivers of change communication in the same project, the picture is as shown in Exhibit 6. The strength of the correlations indicates that all of these aspects are important to effective communication, and the management of major change.

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FUTURE SURVIVAL

Why is it that many communicators spend nearly all of their time working on "tools" that research shows to be relatively ineffective? Communicators say it's not because they think they have much impact with media solutions. In fact, IABC's gurus have been speaking and writing about the limited effectiveness of craft approaches for decades. The problem is that sending information is not necessarily communicating, that is, creating meaning.

The evidence seems clear. Communicators should be concentrating their efforts on what will really make a difference and add value to the organisation. Quality research can show what this is. There will be some differences from one organisation to another, so it's wise to conduct individual research. Even so, it's more than likely that the sorts of priorities listed in Exhibit 3 are typical responses. Acting on these may not be what communicators trained for, but our credibility, effectiveness and, ultimately, our survival depend on it.

Exhibit 1. Australian Employees' Ratings of Communication
in Their Organisations

GOING RELATIVELY WELL:              % Positive   % Neutral   % Negative

Job information ("what's
  expected of me?")                      63          24           13
Intranet                                 62          21           17
Team communication
  (including team meetings)              61          25           14
Immediate manager or supervisor          61          22           17

CONSIDERABLE ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT:

Personal communication skills            59          21           20
Senior executive road show               56          33           11
CEO communication                        54          38            8
Performance feedback
  ("how am I doing?")                    53          23           24

LESS THAN 50% SATISFIED
Communication of
  strategic direction                    48          31           21
Company newsletter or publication        48          38           14
Communication media                      47          29           24
E-mail messaging                         44          27           29
Overall satisfaction
  with internal communication            42          34           24

VERY POOR - HUGE EFFORT REQUIRED:

Upward communication
  and management "listening"             40          29           31
Consultation and involvement             40          23           37
Provision of company information         38          37           25
Senior management communication          38          37           25
Change communication                     36          36           28
Cross-functional (horizontal)
  communication                          29          33           38

Exhibit 2. Key Drivers of Communication Satisfaction in Australia

                                                               Typical
                                                        Correlations *

Overall satisfaction with internal communication                   1.0

Extremely strong correlations with
overall satisfaction                                         about 0.7
Senior management communication
CEO communication
Upward communication (feedback to management)
and management "listening"

Very strong correlations with overall satisfaction           about 0.6
Change communication
Consultation and involvement
Cross-functional communication

Moderate correlations with overall satisfaction              about 0.5
Provision of company information
Communication of strategic direction
Immediate manager or supervisor communication
Team communication (including team meetings)
Job information ("what's expected of me?")
Performance feedback ("how am I doing?")

Usually insignificant impact on overall satisfaction   less than 0.3 **
Company newsletter or publication
Senior executive road shows
E-mail messaging
Intranet

* Rough averages of correlations with overall communication
satisfaction in audits.

** One tool out of dozens, an electronic newsletter, did
correlate 0.7 with overall satisfaction.

But overall audit results for the organisation were only
average, suggesting that some of the budget for the
e-newsletter shared with other key drivers (e.g., executive
communication, change communication) would give improved
results overall. Although it is possible to have a
communication tool that is a key driver of satisfaction,
the evidence is that this is highly unlikely.

Exhibit 3. Top Priorities for Action Are the Key Drivers of
Satisfaction With Low Scores

                                             Correlation
                                  Positive       with
                                  median %   satisfaction

Extremely strong correlates
of overall satisfaction
Senior management communication      38          0.7
Upward communication
(feedback to management) and         40          0.7
management "listening"
CEO communication                    54          0.7

Very strong correlates of
overall satisfaction
Cross-functional communication       29          0.6
Change communication                 36          0.6
Consultation and involvement         40          0.6

Exhibit 5. Core Issues Less Strongly Correlated With
Change Management

                                           Correlation with
                                          change management

Employee acceptance of change                          0.37
Frankness and openness of communication                0.35
One-on-one and team meetings                           0.34
Access to electronic technology                        0.34
Immediate manager or supervisor                        0.33
Team interaction                                       0.33
Other communication
approaches (including publications)                    0.29
Electronic communication                               0.21

CASE STUDY: STANDARD CHARTERED BANK, HONG KONG

Standard Chartered Bank is a global corporation with some 5,000 employees in Hong Kong.

In 2001, the Hong Kong executive team concluded that better communication would improve morale and engagement, but were not sure what changes would have the best chance of success and be most cost-effective. Communication in branches was primarily face to-face with local managers, plus newsletters, quarterly management videos for team discussions and biannual all-staff meetings. At the time, branches did not have extensive intranet or e-mail access but have been connected since.

Elizabeth Armstrong, then senior manager, corporate affairs, decided to survey employees, act on the survey findings and then resurvey to measure any improvement.

A short questionnaire (of 28 items, two tables and a comments section) was designed and sent to a sample of 1,500 employees across the bank. It measured how positive employees were with respect to the main aspects of internal communication. In the tables, respondents selected their preferred source of information for 24 different topics such as the future direction of the bank, job vacancies, performance feedback and change projects. To measure the information gap, employees also were asked how interested and informed they were on these topics.

Employee Communication & Surveys analysed the results, compared them to audit benchmarks, identified the "key drivers" of satisfaction and reported comments. In addition, the research revealed the sources and the media that employees preferred for receiving communication on the 24 topics, and what they wanted to know more about.

Armstrong and her team then conducted a campaign to tackle the priorities, to communicate in the manner preferred and to narrow the content gaps. Activities included bringing managers together for a series of breakfast meetings addressed by the group executive director and CEO. These covered values, business updates and motivational speeches. "Cascade Packs" of materials enabled managers to then brief their teams.

A follow-up survey six months later showed employees were already more satisfied in all of the categories (into which the 28 survey items statistically clustered). Research was thus able to demonstrate the effectiveness of communication efforts in various areas.

The project received a number of major awards: IABC Gold Quill and Business Issues Awards, the Golden World Award from the International Public Relations Association and the Asian PR Week Award for Internal Communication.

Improvement From May to December
and Correlation With Overall Satisfaction

                                          Improvement %   Correlation

Overall satisfaction with communication               5          1.00
Openness of communication                             6          0.71
Trust of senior management                           11          0.69
Upward communication                                  5          0.69
CEO communication                                     5          0.63
Official communication channels                       1          0.63
Change communication                                  7          0.61
Downward and job communication                        4          0.54
Immediate manager or supervisor                       6          0.52

Rodney Gray is with Employee Communication & Surveys in Sydney, Australia, and has worked with the IABC Research Foundation. He can be reached at [e-mail].