Creating an effective communications strategy: 2 Business Case

Internal communications is generally treated as a cost centre and when it comes to setting the budget.. er.. what budget? If you are starting an IC function, implementing an employee campaign or trying to expand your comms budget, we provide some tips on making the business case.

If it’s not customer facing, then it its going to struggle to be heard in the annual round of budget setting. That’s too often a management view of internal communications. Even some employees will give you a hard time if they believe that the latest leaflet, newsletter or messaging is perceived as extravagant!

However, if we accept that helping the organisation to better communicate in all directions, giving employees a clearer understanding of direction and making everyone aware of progress is good for business, why don’t we fund it and manage it better?

It helps if you can make the business case. Here are five pointers:

1. Business direction – Well-informed employees are more focused and more efficient. Too often when management sets direction, communication is just an item on a checklist. By enabling people to make sense of their direction for their own areas of work, it extends the collective company direction throughout the workplace.
   Benefits: aligns effort with direction, improves performance, saves frustration and confusion and ultimately positively impacts the effectiveness of work.
2. Progress and feedback – This translates to mean ‘how effective are we in achieving our goals’. Improvement is so often seen as a journey without end; sustaining people’s enthusiasm and motivation can be a real challenge - the figures may excite management, but they don’t necessarily do it for employees! Getting employee feedback ensures that people have understood where you are going and can even provide some short-cuts.
   Benefits: helps to sustain effort, encourages ownership of performance and provides staging points during long-haul improvement and helps to identify possible obstacles.
3. Share knowledge – provide effective channels plus the incentive for people to more easily share the information they need to do their jobs well.
   Benefits: improves productivity, mobilises and captures knowledge and helps to rapidly spread good practice.
4. Employee satisfaction – clear and timely communication values people - it’s an indication of respect. Satisfied employees are easier to retain, plus the visibility of good communication within the organisation sends out a positive message to prospective employees, that this is an inclusive culture. When your people come into contact with customers they are ambassadors for your brand - satisfied employees are influential.
   Benefits: well-informed and valued workforce, less staff turnover, a higher rating in the annual employee satisfaction index and a positive influence on customers.
5. Channels and technology - Communication will always involve time and effort. Today’s technologies can make a real difference. An investment in the company intranet can be a way of being proactive, automating repetitive tasks and helping to provide a central communication channel. It enables employees to access information and create their own agendas that are relevant to their work requirements. It requires investment, but singularly, it can carry the organisation to the next level in communications and helps mobilise many of the returns available in items 1-4.
   Benefits: do more with less, save on paper based communications, provide immediate contact and a catalyst for sharing knowledge.

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