9 May 2008
Today's a great day to be an internal communicator
Actually, maybe it isn't ...
“According to the experts, there's never been a better time to be in internal communication,” says Tiffany Markman (pictured, right), writing in an article called "Poking internal comms with a stick" for bizcommunity, but she then goes on to wonder why...
Looking at a range of recent research into communications issues, Markman's analysis has steered her to pinpoint the main challenge for communicators.
“50% of employees don't know what strategy they're supposed to be following – and that's not the 50% at the top of the organization; it's the 50% at the bottom. The people who deal with clients and customers,” she says.
She believes the problem arises because “what people want from their company's internal communication is constantly changing.”
Meeting changing needs
In recent times, employees have requested – and generally received:
- newsletters, and then subsequently internal blogs (which they now don't have time to read); and
- now, they want Facebook, chats, podcasts and text messages.
“Communication should be the means to an end, not the end itself,” Markman says. She also advises “Don't do what Bill Quirke, UK-based internal comms guru, calls 'confuse people expensively'.”
Be specific, not abstract
In order to follow this advice, Markman urges communicators to “be specific” because, “People a) don't like and b) don't understand, abstraction.”
On point a) she says, “People are happy to chat, but they don't really want to communicate.” This feels like too much effort – “How much of my time are you going to waste?”
“The average corporate individual receives 178 messages a day and corporate communication grows by 2% a month.” Markman suggests getting tips from the news-readers “who unpack the situation in the Middle East.” It's a very complicated situation to explain, yet it only takes them 2 minutes.
The average corporate individual receives 178 messages a day.
"Write to be said, not read"
“Write to be said, not to be read. If people need additional info or context, they'll go and look for it. That's what Google, your intranet or your website are for.” It's good advice.
On point b), abstraction, Markman says, “This is why, when McDonald's changed its internal communication approach, it stopped telling its staff to, ‘Generate more volumes at the customer interface’ and started telling them to ask customers, ‘Would you like a drink with that?’”
Have your say
Are we guilty, to quote Bill Quirke, of “confusing people expensively?”
Who remembers that old story, “I’m sorry I had to write you a long letter, I didn’t have the time to write a short one?”
Discuss these issues with other comms practitioners by joining the Internal Comms Hub members' group on the Communicators' Network.
Other recommendations:
A communicator's guide to Generation Y
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