Internal communications
Photograph by bulliveron Flickr.
Generalist communicators often take Internal communications on the role of internal communications business partners or consultants, drawing on the support from internal communications specialists who have one or more of the technical skills required to deliver channels (writing, planning, measurement). Responsibility can also reside within different functions: marketing, corporate communications, transformation, HR, CEO office, etc. In common Internal communications with other communication professions, there are different areas of specialism within internal communications: channel management, speech-writing, change communications, HR communications, project communications, event management, social media, intranets, etc. Why does internal communication matter? There are two sides to strategy in internal communications.
In the US, courses are available at Ithaca Internal communications College. Members of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) can apply for recognition as an Accredited Business Communicator. . Often, organisations do not invest the appropriate amount of time and effort in developing managers communications skills.
Often informal internal communications is more likely to stimulate and create discussion and dialogue. Audiences differ according to the core business or activity of an organisation.
Too often this leads to managers abdicating responsibility for communications to their internal communications department and a lack of confidence in facilitating discussion in their teams. The range and quality of channels differs between organisations, depending on their size and technical infrastructure. The American political scientist and communication theorist Harold Lasswell popularised the concept of the communication channel in his 1948 paper The Communication of Ideas where he proposed a simple five-stage model based around the following question(s): In reality internal communications is not a linear system and informal channels exist outside the internal pipework of formal communications channels.
Like any skill it requires training and development. The main purpose of formal internal communications is to inform employees or members of the direction and performance of the organisation (and/or team) to which they belong. The profession of internal communications builds on fundamental principles of other disciplines like human resources (HR), marketing, project management and media planning.
In recent years there has been a growth in the range of short skills courses offered by a range of commercial suppliers as well as institutions such as the London College of Communication and Leeds Metropolitan University. In Europe, courses are available at the University of Lugano and Rotterdam School of Management. However, in recent years thinking has evolved and literature now concentrates on empowering managers to facilitate discussion rather than cascade management of messages which will have little authority or impact.
The main considerations are: An internal audience is rarely homogeneous. A communications channel refers to the medium used to convey information from sender to receiver - in this case from organisation to employee.
those people with whom it has a relationship that requires support, principally direct/indirect employees and/or members. In the first instance there is the organisation s strategy — what it hopes to achieve and how it plans to go about achieving it.
For example, a manufacturing company may have four main groups: Employee communication is an important skill for all line managers, irrespective of their seniority. Employees might not naturally look to managers for advice on the workings of the pension scheme. Sending information down the line to local supervisors, expecting them to deliver it without any corruption, interpretation or deviation has long been the main focus of cascaded internal communications (for example, UK guidance from The Industrial Society, now the Work Foundation, focused on giving managers very clear instructions about what to say and how to say it).
As a result it often gets adopted in organisations under different labels: employee communications, employee engagement, internal marketing, company communications, staff communication, etc. Many people have also taken the postgraduate diploma and Masters in Internal Communications Management at Kingston University and Capita Learning & Development.
That strategy will be supported and, to some extent, delivered through effective internal communications. In this context internal communication can help on several different levels: Secondly, and more importantly, internal communications needs a strategy of its own. This is important for those practitioners that (wrongly) believe that internal communications is simply about controlling the message. Formal channels typically fall into one of four broad categories: These channels reflect the non-linear dynamics of a social network and can be as, if not more, influential than more formal channels.
The UK s Communicators in Business professional association also offers a CiB diploma in internal communications. The channels often manifest themselves via the rumour-mill, water-cooler conversations, social networking, grafitti, spoof newsletters, etc. One of the key challenges any internal communicator will face is how to select the right channels - and the right mix of channels - for both the audience and the message.
In practice, the delineation between these two roles is often blurred but it does highlight the diverse skills required. The internal communications department should be responsible for developing and maintaining a number of channels that allow effective communication to take place across the business. It should be positioned more than a simple plan of tactical interventions in support of business activities.
This is a particularly strong theme in the writing of TJ and Sandar Larkin. There is not yet a globally recognised internal communication qualification, though various training courses and formal qualifications have been established to create and maintain standards. In the UK, formal qualifications are offered by the Chartered Institute of Public Relations. The strategy should consider the following: The strategy will inform the best way to organise effective communications. Internal communications functions can require several skills, eg: writing, marketing, event organisation, web channels, facilitation, advertising, stakeholder management, corporate social responsibility, branding and communications training. Internal communicators are a broad church of professionals with both general and specialist skills.
Internal communications is a generic expression for all communication (formal and informal) that an organization undertakes with its close stakeholders — i.e.
