Internal communications
Internal communication is meant by a group of processes that are responsible for effective information circulation and collaboration between the participants in an organization.
Stanford associate professor Alex Heron's Sharing Information with Employees (1943) is an outlier among texts which focus solely on the factors involved.
As organizations became more complex, the impetus to communicate with employees grew and led to the emergence of an increasingly specialised discipline.
In large organizations in Europe, for example, the EU has made very specific provision about workers' rights to be informed and consulted with (Directive 94/45/EC on Works Councils).
[9] Effective internal communications is commonly understood by practitioners to improve employee engagement (see, for example, the UK government-sponsored Macleod Report)[10] and therefore to add significant value to organizations in terms of productivity, staff retention or external advocacy.
This trend reaches its full potential with the arrival of new 'norms' and customer expectations around social media, for example in the work of Scoble and Israel.
As suggested above, employee communications strategy is founded on the essential question of what results does an organization need to achieve.
Specifically, many practitioners talk in terms of 'outcomes' rather than 'outputs'; their concern is what actions are needed from employees rather than what tools or content should the IC team be producing.
[17] The actions needed of a workforce might be to work differently in support of a new business strategy, to follow safer practices or perhaps deliver a particular customer experience.
Such organizations typically face a risk that channels (such as intranet news, or email) are over-used for inappropriate, low value messages, causing vital audience groups to filter them out.
Initially, IC tends to focus on the existing resources of the organization, typically an intranet, email distributions, and newsletters.
However, there is little documented, academic evidence of where it is being used successfully as part of a planned campaign of employee communications, and it is often confused with digital media.
There are case studies published on a number of commercial websites including www.simply-communicate.com and www.melcrum.com (now defunct), and there is a useful chapter on the subject by Tracy Playle in Ruck's Exploring Internal Communication.
IC practitioners might simply correct basic grammar, etc., especially in organizations where many participants may be operating in their second or third language.
At such moments, the support of the internal constituency becomes especially valuable, as employees' friends and relatives seek their account of events, and as talented and motivated participants consider whether or not to remain with the organization.
As with media relations and PR, the role IC plays in a crisis can be decisive for the success or failure of an organization, as it responds to a critical challenge.
Less mature IC functions may find it difficult to bring senior leaders' attention to the internal audience, when critical stakeholders such as investors or customers appear more likely to desert the organization.
As a representative of the audiences with a stake in the developments under discussion, this can be both an awkward and a privileged position to occupy, requiring skills of diplomacy and objectivity.
The UK's Chartered Institute of Public Relations offers training and qualifications in internal communications including Diploma and Certificate courses.
Responsibility for IC may sit within various established functions, including marketing, corporate communications, transformation, HR and the CEO office.
