Talking Internal Communication...

A lesson in information security

Today's highly embarrassing announcement by the chancellor, Alistair Darling, that HMRC has lost two discs containing the personal details of 25 million individuals provides a stark reminder of the need for organizations to educate their employees on information security.

It appears that the blunder was caused when "a junior official" sent the two computer discs, containing key information about the 7.25 million families in the UK who receive child benefit, to the National Audit Office.  This seemingly simple administrative task has exposed half the UK population to the risk of identity theft and possible fraud.

The discs were apparently sent unregistered using the internal post system run by courier TNT (Mr Darling was keen to point out that this was a breach of HMRC's own guidelines). The discs never arrived and, at this point in time, could be in the hands of fraudsters or, perhaps, sitting under a bush somewhere. A police investigation is now underway, the chair of HMRC has resigned and the government has egg on its face once again. All in all it's a catastrophic cock up. And all because one employee wasn't aware of, or didn't understand, how to handle data like this (I'm speculating of course, but you get the point).

This debacle underlines the need for organizations to educate their employees about information security and other aspects of risk management. Dull as these subjects may at first appear, all it takes is a mistake like this - somewhere down the line and possibly at a junior level in the organization - to wreck reputations and seriously compromise the security of benefit claimants/customers/voters/clients.

I remember participating in a really dull mandatory workshop a few years back on information security. It was worse than watching paint dry.  It definitely didn't engage me, and I suspect that for most participants the valuable content just went in one ear and out the other. 

What's interesting is that a topic that is so important and business-critical as this is often left to the risk management boffins or data protection officers to drive. Internal communication are nowhere to be seen - usually tied up on other, seemingly more exciting and important, initiatives.

As communicators we should treat today as a wake up call. Use this as a topical opportunity to get involved in information security and other risk-related communications. Find out what your organization has done in this area and/or is planning and offer your services. Educate yourself (the Information Commissioner's Office is a good starting point) and work with those responsible to bring the subject to life. It doesn't have to be dull and, as Alistair Darling would no doubt agree, it's a critically important aspect of organizational life. 

Communication competencies – a great new framework

This week I finally got around to having a proper look at the work Liam FitzPatrick and Sue Dewhurst of Competent Communicators have done around competencies for internal communicators.

I worked with Liam and Sue and a handful of other people a few years back on developing the InterComm matrix, the predecessor to the new framework (here's an article I wrote on it for www.simply-communicate.com), so I was really keen to see what they’d done to build on that foundation.

The good news is that the new framework is a rock solid piece of work and a very worthy successor. Where the original InterComm matrix was the product of a handful of experienced (but arguably biased!) practitioners, the new framework is based upon a robust piece of research – responses to more than 700 questionnaires, focus groups on both sides of the Atlantic and dozens of interviews.

Knowing Liam and Sue, I have no doubt this work was carried out with real integrity and that the findings are, therefore, about as close to scientific as you can get.

The new framework differs from the InterComm matrix in other ways too. Our original approach was based around four arbitrary career levels which assumed a natural progression from level one (new starter) up to level four (experienced professional). The real world is, of course, very different to that. People enter our profession at various levels –and it’s not unusual for someone to move sideways into a senior role from another function altogether.

What’s more, not everyone wants to be a highly paid director of communications. Many practitioners are keen to carve out a niche for themselves as ‘tactical’ specialists, be it writer, intranet guru or events supremo. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that and Liam and Sue’s framework reflects this.

This is a great tool for planning your own or your team’s development, for benchmarking, for building role profiles and descriptions and for recruitment. 

At the heart of the framework are 12 core competencies for communicators (I’ve added the words in brackets):

1. Building effective relationships 
2. Business focus (understanding the business and using communication to solve business problems)
3. Consulting and coaching (being an advisor)
4. Cross functional awareness (understanding and working with other disciplines)
5. Developing other communicators
6. Innovation and creativity
7. Listening (inc conducting research and gathering feedback)
8. Making it happen (turning plans into actions)
9. Planning
10. Specialist (sector and subject-specific experience)
11. Vision and Standards (consistently high professional standards)
12. Craft (practical abilities – e.g. writing and design)

This isn’t the place to go into them in great detail, but if you’re interested you can download a white paper here and also a free article on the framework from SCM magazine. If you’re really keen, you should invest in the Melcrum report that accompanies this research (you can get a £100 discount if you go along to an event Liam is running for IABC later this month – see the Talking IC calendar above).

To carry out a quick self assessment, select which of the 12 competencies you need in order to perform in your role at an outstanding level. You obviously don’t need to be advanced on all of these, but you do need to excel at those that are most relevant to your role and organization.

 

Once you’ve identified these, decide how much time you should be spending in each area – high, medium or low.  This should then tell you whether your job is focused more towards tactics and delivery, or towards consulting and coaching.  Assuming you know where you want to get to, you can then identify your development gaps and put in place a plan to plug them.

The model is much more than a simple development planning tool though – if you want to progress in internal comms, I recommend you take a much closer look…. 

Harvard on social networking

I spotted a couple of interesting perspectives on social media today on the Harvard Business website & blog. Charlene Li, Vice President at Forrester Research, feels corporations should embrance sites like Facebook, whilst Tom Davenport, President's Chair in Information Tecnhology and Management at Babson College, is a little more sceptical. You can check out their views for and against here. These articles aren't  particuarly ground breaking, but they do provide a good introduction to the debate and capture well the two sides of the argument.  Personally, I'm with Charlene on this.

Silver surfers take on the Facebook generation

Following on from my last post, it's great to see that Saga has launched a social networking site for the over 50s (check out this piece from The Guardian).

Saga Zone created a real buzz during its trials - more than 13,000 'silver surfers' signed up during the four month pilot - and the site has recently been launched in a blaze of publicity.  It's early days, but apparently the site is proving a big hit amongst seniors - the oldest user so far is a youthful 87.

This isn't the first site to be aimed at mature web users, but it's certainly helped draw attention to an online trend that's gone largely unnoticed by the rest of us. According to the media regulator Ofcom, surfers over 50 account for nearly a third of all time spent online by British web users. And there we were thinking it was all teenagers and twenty-somethings.

David Ferrabee recently told the story of his neighbour, Dorothy, who it seems is more advanced in her use of the web than many recent graduates. There are clearly a lot of Dorothys and Alberts out there - and they're not at all phased by this stuff.  Move over Generation Y!

Generation Why?

I’m getting bored of all this talk about communicating with Generation Y employees.  Maybe it’s because I’m now closer to 50 than I am to 20. Or maybe it’s because I’m fast becoming a grumpy old man.

I keep reading about the challenges we all face when it comes to engaging a group of employees characterised by their free spirit, self confidence and determination.  I hear about the importance of social media and networking technologies to this distinct audience segment. And I nod in agreement.

But I’m beginning to grow tired of the chatter. We bang on about diversity and inclusiveness on one hand and then seem to obsess about getting through to employees in their early 20s. I think we’re missing a trick.

I agree that GenY-ers are important, but I think the other end of the working population represents an even bigger and more important challenge right now.

The working population is changing. By 2026 half the adult population in the UK will be over 50. I will be one of them. At the same time the number of younger workers entering employment will fall.

This isn’t just a UK trend - the workforce is aging just as quickly elsewhere in the world. By 2012, workers who are 55 and older will constitute about 19% of the US labour force, compared with 14% in 2002. That's one in five employees over 55 within the next five years.

It’s about time we sat up and took notice of this trend.

Instead of focusing all our energies on Generation Y, it would be great to see a little more debate and discussion about the challenges of communicating with older employees.

Just how do we go about motivating employees who have been short changed on their pensions? Whose dreams of early retirement have been washed away? Who feel they operate in a working world designed for a younger generation? Who have been through boom and bust and come out the other side?

How do we ensure our communications engage and make sense to fifty-somethings (and at the same time appeal to graduates in their early 20s)? How do we embrace social media in an inclusive way, so that our channels appeal to all employees, regardless of age?

These are big challenges for our profession and they warrant much more air time.

Communicating the hard stuff

If you're kicking around London on Monday afternoon and have a few hours to spare, why not head over to Hill & Knowlton's office on Soho Square at 1500 for the latest CIPR Inside event?

'Communicating the hard stuff' will look at the vital role internal communicators play when their organisation or client is under siege. 

Based around a series of high profile case studies delivered by senior communication practitioners, it will explore what happens to your communications when you become the focus of media attention, your organisation is under close public scrutiny or when you need to deal with unexpectedly tough situations.

This is a great opportunity to see how well you handle pressure, as well as a chance to network with like minded professionals.

Speakers include Katharina Auer, Head of Global Internal and Management Communications at Shell International; Robert Nuttall, Head of Internal Communications at Marks and Spencer; and Janet Croissant, Head of Group Internal Communications at Transport for London.

To book a place email ciprinside@ntlworld.com or simply turn up on the day.