Internal Communications as Business Booster

8/9/2019 Internal Communications as Business Booster

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Internal Communications as Business Booster

Mohit Kumar

Accenture India

As the world slowly recovers from the economic nightmare, we the ‘community of

communicators’ are faced with a challenge and an opportunity that is unprecedented in nature

and limitless in its bounds.

These are times of change. We can see change everywhere. Business models, organizational

structures, operational norms and methods – evolution has once again proven to be the key of

survival, only this time the species in question is businesses. Status Quo is not a choice anymore

and the way things were being done so far is not just obsolete, it can be harmful as well.

Yet merely saying that we are changing is not going to be worth anything unless change actually

comes. Change comes when people change and for businesses, it’s the internal stakeholders who

lead and implement the changes.

Your internal stakeholders, primarily your employees, need not only be aware of everything

going on in the organization that relates to their immediate result areas. They need to look at the

‘bigger picture’. They want to see how their organization is actually walking on the path of

evolution.

The approach of internal communications thus far has been – bring out a newsletter or two,

publish a corporate blog, hold an occasional open house session and your employees will be in

sync. Despite all the effort and expense, ‘ water cooler communication ’ or ‘the grapevine ’, as it is

known among the echelons, continues to drive communication within most organizations.

Today when employees are connected in multiple ways (instant messaging, email, cell phones,

social networks, etc.), the electronic grapevine and virtual water cooler have become all the

more effective, sometimes to the disadvantage of organizations, because it does not differentiate

between information that is good or bad.

At the same time, various line managers and business leaders form the assumption that their

people are as well aware of the organization’s vision and mission as they are aware of their job

requirements and allied aspects.

These are testing times and communication approach and strategy of organizations is under the

scanner. Reliance on the classical model of internal communication is not going to help for



much longer. The days of ‘fire and forget’ in internal communication activities are numbered.

What is needed is that businesses overlay a measurable component that is strategic in nature.

The role of internal communication in an organization needs to change from broadly

informational to largely influential and engaging. This outward expansion in the role of internal

communication is necessary if businesses want to use internal communication as a bondingagent for employees and the organization.

Internal communication can no longer be an over glorified mail service. It is time for the

function to become a catalyst for implementation and achievement of organization’s strategy

and goals. Vertical nature of internal communication must change to an all encompassing, 360

degree approach that helps everyone understand what is going on.

The first step, for an organization’s communication strategy to actually render results , is to

make sure that everyone appreciates its importance as the method to spread information with. Itis necessary that all employees of an organization deliver the same message and speak in the

same voice. This can be done by employing a method known as multi-dimensional distribution

of strategic measures. Internal communication must be present at every point of origin and

dissemination of information and needs to identify and enable addressing of any organizational

concerns.

The still uncertain economic climate has created anxiety among employees and they are

concerned about the health of their organization like never before. The leadership wants to take

a more transparent approach and they need effective internal communication to talk with their

people about the opportunities and issues. If employees can get accurate and proper information

from official channels and they are able to take up their queries with the leaders, businesses can

avoid any unwelcome surprises. Once the employees know the facts, they will not be alarmed by

rumors.

The alternate condition where leaders refuse to communicate with the people is fraught with

disasters. Lives, families, companies, societies and nations, at any level, lack of communication

can and has led to problems and avoidable damages. Businesses must have an inclusive andengaging approach for internal communication because people make mistakes due to lack of

awareness. If a person knows what to do in a given scenario, there is no reason for him to

attempt otherwise.



What to do?

Now we come to the main thing:

How do we take our internal communication to the level of engagement?

How do we make communication work for us? How do we make employees speak the organization’s message?

Start with ‘listening to your employees’. Take any management or communication dy namics

related book. You will see that the most important aspect of the success of communication

process is feedback. We must become good listeners and understand what employees want to

know. Find out what is important to an employee and what is the information he needs and

needs to deliver to become the best in terms of not just business operations but also as a value

creator and people developer. Based on this information, adapt your communication channels

and messages to align them with organization’s go als and success parameters. Communicate

these messages such that you can get the maximum possible buy-in from you employees.

This will help you in two ways.

First, it will help by providing employees with critical information that they need at

various decision points. Second, it will provide a two way communication structure so that leadership is aware of

what is going on in the organization and what people are thinking and talking about.

We must also realize that having a steady-state internal communication structure is not enough

because it tends to fall in stagnation very fast. Additionally, the organizations tend to focus more

on communicating with external stakeholders on a regular basis and this much thrust is rarely

put on the internal communication. Leaders need to be aware that any organization, be it in a

growth mode or a transition mode, can only succeed with the support of internal stakeholders.

The inte rnal stakeholders are the keystone of organization’s success. It is only when the

leadership realizes the value of internal communication and how it can help strengthen the

company’s bottom line that they can properly harness its complete potential.

Two considerations come in the picture here. First is to ensure that your messages/voice should

be aligned with the overall business goals and must be regularly adhered to in all messaging

streams. Second is to be consistent in communicating, with strong focus on targeted

messaging . The message must be at the same time simple so that it can be easily understood



and strong so as to make an impact. Communicators in turn need to realize that message visible

in action is stronger than message heard or read.

Once the understanding of employees about their company’s growth plans and objectives and

overall vision and mission becomes strong, they can have meaningful interactions with other

stakeholders like leadership and investor community. Internal communication presents an

opportunity by which companies can inform personnel and then help them identify their own

goals with the long term and short term goals of the organization. Four factors help in this

regard. The communication should be open , it should be honest . It should be informative and

above all, it must be continuing . Once you are able to make the internal communication work on

a few people, you will see that the message will become self propagating and gradually lead to

changes in the organizational culture.

Furthermore, your employees are the face of your organization to the world. They must be ableto sell your product and your organization with it at many levels, not just in sales and marketing

terms. The recruitment force of the company for example, needs to present a very strong brand

of the company to attract the best talent. With employee loyalty on a perpetual decline, this can

be achieved only when your recruiters themselves are aware and engaged.

Usage of technology has made the communication process fast and cheap. You can have emails,

eNewsletters and corporate blogs as points of information dissemination. Yet these are no match

for personal communication where interaction is face to face and floor meetings and open house

sessions where people interact with leaders in person and can have their queries resolved and

concerns addressed instantly. Thought leaders in the field of communication have tried very

hard but completely failed to find any substitute to face to face interaction. The confidence

building capability of such communication and its ability to generate instant feedback remains

unmatched. True, we can have interpersonal communication over phone or through

teleconference system, but the actual physical presence of all parties is still the best and most

rewarding approach.

The ‘technology-based ’ and ‘in-person ’ modes of communication can be and should be used inan optimum mix where communication teams can enable two way flow of information among

the leaders and personnel. The perfect internal communication approach must combine the

correct mix of technology powered and people powered communication channels.

Communication delivery can only render effective results when proper research has been

undertaken before the formal communication plan is developed. Proper research helps the



communicators understand both the nature of message, medium and possible outcome of the

entire exercise. Unless communicators are aware of the current state of the organization, they

cannot achieve this. This research can be done in both formal and informal manners. Formal

research involves primary data collection and its analysis based on defined parameters. This can

only be done with scientific representative samples in place. Surveys etc. must be done so as toensure that results have least margin of error. Considering informal research methods, the best

possible choices are focus groups, one to one interaction, feedback analysis etc. Such methods

work best when the goal of communication is to address a concern or resolve a problem

scenario.

A successful communication plan can be built by leveraging your internal communications

personnel working in coordination with HR and marketing teams as well as leadership. If the

company does not have identified internal communications resources, they can engage external

consultants or even full service communication consultancy firms. Your communication

professionals will bring skills and experience that will be pivotal for the overall success of the

communication strategy.

Once the basic structure of internal communication team and processes is in place, the

organization can aim for multiple best practices like People CMM Communication and

Coordination guidelines and Risk Communication guidelines. The role of management cadre is

also very important here. They will be the nucleus for a number of communication activities.

They will also be the final implementers of communication process. Managers, who fail to listenand work upon the feedback they get, defeat the entire purpose of communication activities.

What not to do?

Realizing and avoiding the things not to be done is as important as doing what is to be done!

First of all, internal communication must at no point become complacent. Just because you have

been doing something in a certain way is no justification to avoid change. Complacency is one of

the strongest enemies and a rather persistent one as well. It must be dealt with frequently and

swiftly. If you have been doing all your internal communication through a company newsletter

and it has been delivering results, there is nothing but complacence stopping you from

experimenting with other media. Newsletters, for example, are not very effective when instant

communication and response is needed. Email based messaging works well for such things.



Second thing is to ensure that your communication should be two way. Employees are not just

the receivers of communication and just because you pay them, you cannot expect them to pay

constant heed to every message you send out. Have a feedback mechanism in the form of

bulletin boards for open, and email feedback for closed, feedback options.

Internal communication as a function in an organization is very important. It might seem

expensive and time consuming at the beginning, but it works well once it becomes established

and everything is in motion.

As said earlier, these are times of change. An organization needs to ensure that everyone knows

and does what is the best for the organization itself and its people. With a formal and effective

internal communication structure and plan, companies can hold things together and emerge

stronger than ever.

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Internal Communications as Business Booster