Why Internal Communications Matter

In contrast to external communications, internal communications are often treated as an orphan by senior managers and executives. But what many organisations don't know is that internal communications are a crucial part of organisational communications, although their contribution to the business success is not that obvious.

Good internal communications can drive Employee Engagement. Robinson et al. define Employee Engagement in the following way:

"A positive attitude held by the employee towards the organisation and its values. An engaged employee is aware of the business context, and works with colleagues to improve performance within the job for the benefit of the organisation. The organisation must develop and nurture engagement, which requires a two-way relationship between employee and employer."

(Robinson et al., 2004, p. xi)

The level of engagement surely depends from the personal disposition, but apart from that, internal communications can in fact contribute to encourage employees. If the organisation manages to successfully drive engagement, it can reduce recruitment costs, lower turnover rates and even increase customer satisfaction. 

Happy employees = happy customers. It's that easy. Well, not exactly. It is rather difficult to implement a strategy that engages employees and to measure the actual behavioural change, respectively. 

For the first part, MacLeod and Clarke identify four "enablers" of employee engagement:

1. Leadership providing a strong strategic narrative

2. Engaging Managers who focus on their employees

3. Employee voice throughout the organisation

4. Integrity: practice what you preach

(MacLeod & Clark, 2009, p. 75)

The second part, the measurement, is fairly easy: the "magic tool" called VMM (valid metrics matrix). If you're a PR person and don't know what it is: Google it. You should know! 

Thanks to my lecturer, I even dream about the VMM! ;)

According to MacLeod and Clarke,  engagement is a circle of Attitude, Behaviour and Outcome. These attributes "trigger and reinforce" each other (2009, p. 9). The problem is that many organisations measure staff satisfaction and think, people are engaged. Well, they are, but only to a certain point. Satisfaction reflects Attitude. We're not speaking of behaviour or even outcome. Yet. 

Virtuous Circle of Employee Engagement
Source: myself

Suitable metrics for outcome would be turnover rate or recruitment costs. Happy employees stay with their organisation. Some companies do in fact manage to change their employees' behaviour. With great initiatives that affect not only the workplace atmosphere but also the private atmosphere. But they don't know because they don't measure it. 

So, as you can see, internal communications can have a huge impact on business results and also on the workplace atmosphere. Speaking for myself, I had always thought it was more or less about informing employees and telling them how great the company is. But it's way more than that. I just learned that in my last assignment for this term (*yay*), that's why this post is so academic-ish.


References:

MacLeod, D. & Clarke , N., 2009. Engaging for Success: enhancing performance through employee management. [Online]
Available at: http://www.engageforsuccess.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/file52215.pdf
[Accessed 29 January 2015].

Robinson, D., Perryman, S. & Hayday, S., 2004. The Drivers of Employee Engagement. Brighton: Institute for Employment Studies.

What doesn't kill you (or your stakeholders)...

So last Wednesday was Crisis Day at SSU. In fact, we conducted a crisis simulation with the PR undergrad students. While the undergrad students were the PR teams from the fake uni USS (University of Southern Sarum), we, the MA students were to observe and control them. Southampton Solent University has been running crisis simulations for now several years. 

Why do you run a simulation?

Well, in real life, a crisis simulation is to get trained to know how to behave in critical situations, since it's too late when the crisis hits. At university, it's similar, the students are being thrown into a situation that gets worse and worse every hour to learn how to deal with a crisis. 

As funny and amusing as it was to watch undergrads freaking out, I would have liked to play an active role in that simulation, because you really can get a lot out of it.

What's the deal?

This year's crisis simulation had a very actual topic, so it was even more important to have control about everything being communicated. Fake (private) Twitter Accounts and closed Facebook groups were set up . The simulation was about a student potentially being infected with Ebola. The PR teams were being bombarded by panicking "students" and curious "news reporters" during the day, while trying not to let the issue become a crisis.

All in all, the students did a really good job, although there were times we wanted to take them by the hand and lead them into the right direction. On the other hand, it was good fun to watch them freak out...

Lecturer Dr. Catherine Sweet observing Twitter Accounts.

New year, new me??

It's the same procedure every year in January: The gyms are full (for the next two months...), everyone stops smoking (just to start again at the next party) and you'll only find salad and veggies on the dinner tables (trust me, you'll sin again soon!!). However, I can understand how people use the new year, a new chapter, to start over again, but to be honest, does it really make sense to shoot for the moon when you'll find yourself back at old habits soon?

I have never made a New Year's Resolution. In my opinion, you can - and you should - start all over anytime you want! Don't put yourself under social pressure to make a new year's resolution. A study has found that only 1 out of 10 people actually achieve their goals. So if you want to change something in your life - just do it! Why wait till New Year's Eve?

I set my current goal last year - to finish my Masters having learnt a lot. So you may have noticed that I changed the blog's title from "Great PRitain" (which is still a fabulous name - at least in my opinion) to "Frieda Goes PR". That does not come out of a NY resolution, the timing is just a coincidence (it goes together with handing in my professional development plan assignment...). It is just a part of a kind of "rebranding" process I am going through to continue my professionalisation. Which again is another "sub-objective". The blog's initial purpose was to write about my personal experience, my unilife and, of course, PR. However, I have realised that I would like to keep these things separate. Therefore, my blog will focus on mostly PR-ish topics. 

So be prepared for some further changes on the blog. And, by the way, HAPPY NEW YEAR!

"Frieda Goes PR"