Taking internal

communications

out of its comfort zone2 November

Today’s discussion hosted by

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Laura Jameson

Director, Internal Communications

Ruder Finn

Nick Leonard

Managing Director

Ruder Finn

Share your thoughts

and questions in the

chat window

Our starting point

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Organisations with high levels of employee engagement can expect to see at least a 20% boost in productivity and profitability.

But only 13 per cent of global workers feel engaged in their jobs.

Source: Gallup

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What we wanted to know

What is the general perception of internal communications in organisations today?

About the survey

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34% Large size

43% Medium size

23% Small size

54% internal comms

8% external comms

37% both

1% other

Responses

collated between

May – June 2016

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• Many organisations are under huge pressure to change

• IC has a pivotal role to play in the transformation process

• Senior leaders believe IC represents a significant risk

• IC functions are still operating firmly within their ‘comfort zone’

Overview

Definition of ‘comfort zone’

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1. A situation where one feels safe or at ease.*

2. A settled method of working that requires little effort and yields only barely acceptable results.*

*Oxford dictionary

An important distinction

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The ‘comfort zone’ is not necessarily a choice

In most cases it seems enforced by culture and structure

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Five reasons why this situation exists

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One: Paranoia causes paralysis

A risk-averse attitude prevails

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70%

30%Risk averse

Risk takers

Attitude to risk

Not just a risk - but a threat

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60% also agreed that their senior stakeholders believed the prospect of an IC leak externally represented a significant risk to the business

What does this lead to?

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Top down approach with internal communicators lacking mandate to engage

‘Bare minimum’ commswith strong company line, leading to low believability and relatability

A workforce which is not inspired, engaged or motivated by internal communications

Excessive control

Lack of transparency

Dull, uninspiring

comms

Expert recommendation

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Consider how you can get senior leaders involved in internal communications

Start small and build

Help them to feel comfortable with the approach and content

Encourage them to open up and be human

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Two: Low empathycauses apathy

Not enough is done to deliver reach

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Agree Disagree

IC only engages a small proportion of staff

65%

35%

And whole sections of organisations are ignored

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Only 20% of respondents said their

organisation was good at engaging

employees in countries outside of

HQ – nearly half said their

organisation was not effective at all

What does this lead to?

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The feeling that

only HQ matters

The feeling that

information is delivered

on a ‘need to know’ basis

Business units feel

disjointed and

disenfranchised

Excessive centralisation

Us and themErosion of

team dynamic

Expert recommendation

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Build a three-dimensional view of employees

via a comprehensive map to understand their needs

Translate!

Be mindful of platforms – particularly in Asia

Use champions and advocates to support

as part of a wider virtual team

…and get them to feed back

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Three: IC is not close enough to the strategy

Internal communications is often just an afterthought

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1 in 5

What does this lead to?

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No ability to set a plan, deliver it and measure outcomes against business goals

Communications that are poorly thought through, rushed, inconsistent and expensive

How can you deliver campaigns in line with strategy if you don’t have the necessary insights?

Poor planningKnee-jerk comms

A disconnect with the

company

Expert recommendation

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Improve integration with other teams

within the business

Know what they are doing and build it

into the plan

Start the process early and be clear

about the timescales you need

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Four: Organisations are not reacting to changes in working practices

Offline staff are suffering

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80%

20%

How are you performing at reaching front-line staff?

Could do better

Satisfactory

Current Future

How we need to evolve

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Email

Intranet

Events

Printed newsletters

Posters/visual boards

Employee generated content

Video/animation

Blogs

Online and offline events

Mobile specific content

Expert recommendation

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Ensure your channels cater for your employees’ needs

Make the medium the message

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Five: External and internal commsare divided

External operates independently

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Could you do better at joining up internal and external comms?

Works well

Could do better

76%

24%

What this means

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Employees hear different messages from different sources

Different stakeholders with different degrees of understanding

Do shareholders matter more than employees?

Two-stroke comms

Low consistency

Perception of low priority

Expert recommendation

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Plan together – and share a diary

Repurpose materials based on the needs of your internal audience

Always be thinking “How can this work for employees?”

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What are the key priorities for 2017?

What internal communicators want to do

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There is a desire amongst internal communicators to step away from the well-known

Respondents highlighted several areas where they wanted to improve and

make significant changes …

What are the key priorities for IC in your organisation for the next 12-18 months?

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“Help employees understand corporate scorecard”

“Develop more two-way channels which support collaboration”

“Taking the organisation through a changeprogramme”

“Introducing a form of internal social media to revamp some existing channels”

“Building internal communications in to our new 5-year strategy”

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Taking internal communications out of its comfort zone

Full report available soon

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Q&A

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Ruder Finn UK

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Get in touch with us

Laura Jameson

ljameson@ruderfinn.co.uk

07837 943645

CIPR News

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