Talking Internal Communication...

Copacabana call centres?

According to new research, it might just be time to move our call centres to Brazil...

Dr Garry Gelade of Cass Business School has recently undertaken research which suggests that employee commitment is higher in 'happier' countries. Dr Gelade studied national differences in organisational commitment across 49 countries and looked at the impact of the economy, national personality, and cultural values. 

Brazil, Israel and Cyprus were ranked as the countries with the most committed employees, and at the other end of the scale, Russia, Japan and Hong Kong had the lowest.  The UK was ranked 34th, preceded by Estonia and followed by Taiwan.  Australia, the Netherlands and Switzerland were ranked as the happiest, while Latvia, Bulgaria the Russian Federation were the least happy.

Dr Gelade found that commitment is higher in countries where the population is ‘extrovert’, and lower in countries where the population is ‘neurotic’, that is, more prone to negative tendencies, such as anxiety.   As a result, commitment is also high in countries where the population is happy. 

With the exception of the most global of corporations, I'm not sure what we can do with this new found wisdom, but it's nevertheless a fascinating piece of research.  Who knows, perhaps this could spark a new trend in exotic off shoring? 

Thanks to Suzanne Peck, CiB chair, for spotting the research - I read about it in her 'Chairman's blog' this month. 

Social media for Government and public sector communicators - free report to download

New Communications Review (NCR) has just published a link to a superb 99-page report about public sector blogging. I thought I'd pass it on.

It's called "The Blogging Revolution: Government in the Age of Web 2.0" and it's published by the IBM Center for The Business of Government. You can get the the PDF here. Although US-based, it's an excellent piece of work and will help anyone in that sector grapple with the challenge of implementing a workable social media strategy.

A few months ago I ran a session on social media for a small group of Government and public sector communicators. We got talking about the challenge public sector practitioners face when it comes to encouraging Government ministers, MPs, councillors and the like to use social media tools - particularly blogs - to connect with their employees, constituents and the wider public. 

It was a fascinating discussion and, whilst many members of the group were extremely excited by the potential of social media, a number feared that letting their leaders loose with a blog or other social media tool might cause them all sorts of problems. The general view was that the negatives outweighed the positives -that dabbling in social media in this sector is not for the feint hearted.

I can see their point. In a world where every message is deconstructed and every word dissected, ensuring your boss stays 'on message' is pretty damn important. Giving them the freedom to publish - the ability to comment on anything, at anytime, from anywhere - could be career limiting in more ways than one.

I stuck to my (rather idealistic?) belief that transparency is a good thing in a democracy and that old school PR-style message management will, in time, become a thing of the past. In the end we all agreed that making social media work in the public sector, and particularly inside Government, is quite a challenge. 

This new report is great in that it sheds much needed light on that challenge. Whether you're in the public or private sector, it's well worth a read - an excellent introduction to the impact of social media on communication, and on democracy. While you're at it, I recommend you sign up for NCR's free ezine - it's a first class source of interesting and academically robust information on the social media phenomenon.

New Ferrabee book celebrates People Power

Blogger extraordinaire David Ferrabee has just published his first book on internal comms.

Called People Power, it's described as "an easy to read guide to internal communications and change management from someone who really knows."

As you'll see from the back page of People Power (my very first critique published on a book!), I'm a big fan of David. His blog is always a great read and I'm sure his book will be equally entertaining and informative.

I've put in my order - and I recommend you do the same. If it's everything I expect it to be, People Power is likely to become one of the standard texts for our profession, up there alongside Bill Quirke's Making the Connections and John Smythe's Chief Engagement Officer.  I can't wait to read it....look out for my review in October's Simply Communicate ezine.

US spies experiment with social networking

I was chatting to Marc Wright the other day about about the potential internal uses of social networking software - basically building internal sites like MySpace, Facebook, MyRagan and Melcrum's Communicator's Network to connect employees.

We both got really fired up about the enormous potential these tools offer for business leaders and communicators - to enhance communication flow, to boost employee knowledge and to drive organizational performance.  Put simply, we believe they have the potential to revolutionize employee communication.

Then we got to the $64,000 question - who out there is already doing it? Beyond some of the big hi tech companies and a handful of innovative firms like Dow Chemical and Accenture, we couldn't think of many.

So I was delighted to see this piece in Tuesday's FT explaining how the US intelligence community is about to get its own MySpace. The CIA has already used Facebook for recruitment and the Department of National Intelligence has created a wikipedia-like tool for internal knowledge sharing. So, whilst there may be very few good examples in the corporate world as yet, it seems that other unexpected types of organization are seeing the light.

This is a sure sign of things to come - I'd wager that within a decade social networking tools, or something very similar, will be commonplace inside large organizations. Where spies tread today, CEOs will follow...

Is technology reducing our reliance on line managers?

Here's one to set the cat amongst the pigeons...

US blogger Bernie Charland, a senior communication strategist at PC manufacturer Dell, has challenged one of the sacred cows of internal comms by suggesting that developments in technology - RSS, wikis, social networking, video conferencing, intranets and so on - are reducing the importance of line manager communication. Check out his post here.

He is clearly playing devil's advocate, but his point is a good one and it's great to see someone challenging the conventional wisdom for a change.

Charland sets out his logic clearly, and on the face of it it's pretty compelling stuff.  I buy his argument that today many employees can access critical information much more easily, both inside and outside the organization. If they want to that is. Social media is, as we have discussed before, blurring the line between internal and external communication. This means that if they have the appetite stakeholders, whoever and wherever they are, can easily become much more knowledgeable.

The problem, as Charland rightly points out, is that use of these tools are in no way universal. Employees in hi tech and knowledge-based companies like Dell may well utilize the latest communication technologies, but they are still alien to the vast majority of workers (perhaps even more so here in Europe). Factories, call centers and the like are just the tip of the iceberg. Indeed, I would argue that outside big business, most employers don't even have the basics in place yet (one of which is effective line manager comms).   

Charland acknowledges that managers are still important and I completely agree. For me, there will always be a need for line managers to have meaningful conversations with their people, to show they care about employees, to really listen, to provide context for corporate decisions, to motivate and to inspire. At its best Web 2.0 technology certainly enhances workplace communication, but, fan as I am, I honestly can't see it ever replacing traditional face-to-face comms.

That's my view, but I'd love to know what others think (and I'd really love to know what the likes of T J Larkin, Roger D'Aprix or Angela Sinickas - communicators who have done so much to underline the importance of line manager comms - have to say on the subject). 

The hidden blogosphere - blogging inside the organisation

Just stumbled upon a really interesting article from Innovations magazine - on internal blogging.  It talks about the way large companies like McDonald's are using blogging to engage employees and tackle email overload. Well worth a read.

Now we're talking

I've just added a fantastic little widget to this blog which means Talking Internal Communication can now actually talk.

Inspired by a cryptic comment left by Marc Wright when he recently reviewed the site for Melcrum's Communicator's Network ("I keep expecting it to talk"), I thought I should take action.

The Odiogo button on the left and the 'listen now' buttons linked to each post enable you to listen to, rather than read, the content. Better still, you can now subscribe to Talking IC as a podcast, via iTunes, Juice or a whole host of web readers. So you can take me with you wherever you go!

The voice is a little Stephen Hawking for my liking, but it does the job and, more importantly, it means you don't have to listen to my daft Brummie accent. Go on, have a listen...

Financial education - part of our remit?

This morning I received an interesting press release from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD). Headed "Stockmarket turbulence highlights the need for employer provided financial education", it was a timely reminder of the need for us to educate employees about the financials and keep them informed about organisational performance.

CIPD pay and benefits expert Charles Cotton says that educating employees about financial matters could help businesses reduce the negative impact that a crash in share prices could have on the workforce. It's an interesting point.

Cotton says, “It makes good business sense to ensure employees have a good financial understanding because financial concerns can cause stress and depression, resulting in poor performance and increased sickness absence. This is becoming important as more employees are covered by defined contribution pension arrangements and employee share plans. Employees may stop, or cut back, on their contributions to these schemes. However, by educating them about the long-term nature of pensions and share plans and their tax advantaged status this risk can be reduced. 

“Providing employees with advice and education about financial matters will help them make more informed decisions about how to save for the future and deal with concerns when they arise. Better financial awareness will also help minimise the risk of people making inappropriate benefit decisions subsequently blaming their employer and impacting negatively on employee engagement, employer brand and possible litigation.”

Cotton is basically saying that financial education is a win:win for organisations - protecting the employee against stress and depression and helping safeguard their long term savings, whilst at the same time helping the organisation maintain performance during tough times and avoid the risk of litigation and/or damage to their reputation.

With so many employees now worried about their long term pension provisions and others fretting about the short to medium term value of their share options, it's a point well made.

There's no doubting the importance of financial communication and, for me, it's part and parcel of our role as internal communicators.  I've been in to far too many organisations where the employees don't have a clue how the business is doing - often to the point where negative change (a redundancy programme, for instance) comes as a complete shock. 

Roger D'Aprix pointed out years ago the need for us to answer the question "How are we doing?" for employees. That is as true today as it was back then.

Take time now to think about your activity in this area. Are you helping educate employees about the financials? Are you regularly communicating performance in an accessible and interesting way? Are you providing context for the ups and downs in the company's share price? This is important stuff and it's something we should all be focused on.   

What do you think of this blog? It's feedback time...

Okay, it's time for some audience feedback...

Melcrum's recently-launched Communicator's Network site now includes a great reviews section covering books, webinars, training, podcasts and, last but not least, blogs.

The Talking IC blog is listed there (see page 2 of the blog reviews - it's alphabetical) but to date I've received only three reviews, for which I'm very grateful. The four star rating they've given us is wonderful, though I'd really love to get a better feel for what the rest of you think (I know I have more than three subscribers!!)   

If you're a network member you should be able to access the page here. If, however, you're one of the few internal communicators who hasn't yet signed up for the site, why not take a few minutes now to register (it's completely free - just follow the first link in this post) and then give me your verdict. 

As with any feedback, the most useful bit is the comments - so please do take the time to share your views on what I'm doing right, and what I could be doing to further improve the site.

If you don't fancy joining the Melcrum network, then why not leave a short comment here? Feedback is, after all, the lifeblood of communication. 

I look forward to reading your reviews!

Free article to download - Moving Minds

Those of you who aren't CiB members (it was recently published in Communicators magazine) or who don't subscribe to www.simply-communicate.com may be interested in this new article penned by Simon Wright, my business partner at Gatehouse.

It's all about communicating office moves, something we believe represents a unique and powerful opportunity to engage employees and kick-start a culture change programme. 

Simon has focused here on his experiences as a senior communicator at Ernst & Young, the global accountancy firm (which, incidentally, was one of the stars in the 2007 Best Companies to Work For study). He explains how the firm capitalised on its move to a new head office to re-engage its people and provide a catalyst for change. He also shares ten useful tips for communicators embarking on an office move.

Let us know what you think - and don't hesitate to call us if you need help and support with your own office move.