ON Message : The primary audience for leaders

ON Message : The primary audience for leaders.

MATTHEW SMITH

It could be argued that a corporation's most important audience is its customers. We're talking about revenue when we talk about customers, so that's an easy one. But the reality of any organisation is that the people within the organisation are the primary audience for the company's leaders.

Employees are often listed toward the bottom of a list of target audiences presented in PR strategy meetings, usually right next to catch-all terms like "general public". This is unfortunate, seeing that regardless of intent, they are often the first to learn about developments and first to pass on that information. They are your default audience. But they should not be treated as such.

The best companies know this and manage internal communications well. There is an entire industry of consultancies and professionals who work solely on helping companies communicate to themselves. Communicating effectively to employees is the single best way to boost morale, productivity and navigate through times of crisis or change.

This is not meant to suggest that internal communications is the sole answer to aligning employees with the company's overall goals. Other issues, such as training, leadership decisions and organisational development, play a more critical role and are beyond this brief discussion. However, by applying consistent internal communication principles, organisations can speed up the process of changing employee attitudes and aligning them to the changes or goals at hand.

A critical question is, how do we distinguish good communications from bad? This is no less easy to answer than "what are good external communications?" The two are closely linked to one another. Following that, when companies use the same type of critical approach to evaluating internal communications as they do for external communications, most companies will see a significant improvement in performance, morale and overall alignment with corporate goals.

One of the biggest challenges in developing internal communications guidelines and strategy is defining the scope of these efforts. It will take time and effort to clearly identify the critical points of communications that need to be aligned with the overall communications platform. You can look at all of the company's memorandums, e-mails, training programmes, brochures, meetings, presentations, gossip sessions, etc, as comprising the full body of internal communications. There is a lot of material that could be covered or controlled more closely. Many companies will find that trying to cover too much ground will lead to an overall stagnation of the internal communities programme in general. It is much better, of course, to pick your battles and focus on a few key elements to refine.

Another mistake corporations make is with the longevity of the programme. Large corporations are especially prone to this type of failure: they roll out a one-time programme to re-evaluate and redefine internal communications, in the process creating a wealth of internal communications materials, and quickly put the activity behind them, happy with a job well done. Companies such as this can be identified by store rooms full of company T-shirts, coffee mugs, newly formatted manuals and maybe an annual picnic on the calendar. They tackle the problem with a massive effort, and often budget, and then write the issue off.

Regrettably, this has as much effect as a one-time advertising campaign would have. Employees, armed with nothing more than a new coffee mug, are left back in the dark quickly after the programme is over. A communications programme must consistently and regularly communicate business plans and overall culture to its employees. It must not be looked at as a project, but a permanent function of management.

Just as external communications are, internal communications must be evaluated and planned in light of audience, frequency and message as well as other areas in order to develop a plan that creates the most impact for the least amount of resources. There are no hard and fast rules for this; each company has its own needs and resources available to address those needs. These problems do not always need complex or costly solutions. The backbone of effective communications could be as simple as a monthly lunch with senior management, an e-newsletter or a weekly brief from a supervisor. It depends on each company and their current situation.

Matthew Smith is chief operating officer of Vivaldi Seasons Co, a local public relations consultancy. He can be reached at matthew@vivaldiseasons.com or see http://www.vivaldiseasons.com

Bangkok Post
Friday January 12, 2007