Talking Internal Communication...

Calling all financial services communicators - your opportunity to participate in groundbreaking research with CiB

Those of you who are Communicators in Business (CiB) members may well know that our agency, Gatehouse, has recently teamed-up with the professional body to launch a programme of communication research called State of the Sector.  The partnership is covered in the latest issue of Communicators magazine:  

 Download State of Sector - CiB

With CiB soon to be reborn as the Institute of Internal Communication (IoIC), we thought that now would be a great time to show our support by joining forces and delivering something that will be of real value to many of its members. The move follows a pilot State of the Sector study we ran last year in conjunction with PM Forum, which focused on professional services.

The first piece of research to carry the IoIC brand, the initial wave of State of the Sector 2010 will focus exclusively on the financial services sector – looking at the current state of employee communication and engagement in banks, building societies, credit card companies, insurers and other FS businesses.  As a sector that has been through the wars recently, it should be fascinating and enlightening stuff!

Our arrangement with CiB/IoIC covers a minimum of two State of the Sector reports and later in the year we plan to turn our attention to the public sector  - another interesting area to put under the microscope in the post-election period.

The State of the Sector research will combine quantitative and qualitative measures to build up a robust and useful insight into the state of IC within each sector – what channels and tactics organisations are using, how they resource the function, what messages they’re communicating, key issues and challenges and much more. 

An online survey will be used to collect key benchmarking data and we will also be undertaking a series of qualitative interviews with senior players and influencers operating in each sector.   

If you work as an internal communicator in the financial services sector and you’d like to participate in this research – either by completing a short benchmarking survey or by participating in the interviews – then please drop me a line or contact Tim Beynon at CiB (tim@cib.uk.com). 

The survey will take no longer than 10-15 minutes to complete and interviews will be face-to-face or over the telephone and are likely to last around 30 minutes. Needless to say, everyone who takes part in the research can opt to receive a free copy of either the full or abridged research reports.

Lee Smith, Gatehouse

Free Engaging Manager webinar exclusively for in-house practitioners

Join us for a free Gatehouse Academy webinar on 1 February 2010 and learn how to put line managers at the heart of your internal communications

To celebrate the launch of our Engaging Manager learning programme for line managers and aspiring leaders, Gatehouse Academy invites you to participate in a free 60 minute BiteSize webinar exclusively for in-house communicators.  

Available on a first come, first served basis, this special web-enabled learning session will make the case for increased investment in line manager communication and explain how to begin creating truly Engaging Managers within your organisation.

In this fast-paced interactive session, which I’ll be leading, you’ll learn:

• The business case for investing more of your budget in line managers
• The six traits of The Engaging Manager – what makes the great ones stand out from the average
• Fascinating evidence and case studies from a handful of organisations that have put line managers at the heart of their communications
• Our blueprint for improving line manager communication
• How to build managers’ communication skills and competencies
• How to hardwire employee communication and engagement excellence into line managers’ roles
• How to ensure you feed managers the right content and avoid overloading them

The session will take place from 0930-1030 GMT on Monday 1 February 2010.

Space is limited. Reserve your Webinar seat now at: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/240330409 After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

System Requirements PC-based attendees Required: Windows® 2000, XP Home, XP Pro, 2003 Server, Vista

Macintosh®-based attendees Required: Mac OS® X 10.4 (Tiger®) or newer

Lee

Thinking about your development - planning your professional detox for 2010

With the festive season in full swing and the New Year nearly upon us, now is the time to start thinking seriously about the state of your career, to plan how you’re going to tone-up those flabby tactical and strategic muscles and to commit to a healthy regime of continuous learning and development for the next 12 months. Yes, it’s time for your professional detox.

Alongside the guilt-induced dieting, hopeless resolutions to get fit and short lived promises to quit smoking, alcohol and other assorted vices, January is the time when many of us dust off our personal development plans and contemplate, albeit briefly, the future direction of our careers.

And like so many of those well intentioned resolutions, our own development is quickly forgotten as work returns to its normal frenetic pace. Development plans inevitably end up at the very back of the filing cabinet, only to be revisited a year later when it’s time for the obligatory annual review.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. The key, as with any self improvement programme, is discipline – setting realistic goals at the outset, approaching the challenge in a balanced, holistic way and staying focused throughout the entire year.

The development landscape

The development landscape for internal communicators has changed considerably over the last few years. At the start of the decade you’d have struggled to have found more than a handful of specialist courses, publications and events for internal communicators, and many of those that did exist were pretty poor.

Thankfully things have changed and today – as we steam towards the second decade of the millennium - we’re spoiled for choice. There are now three decent professional bodies to choose from, a number of excellent degree programmes, a wealth of specialist training courses and qualifications (see below) and dozens of networking events, publications, websites, LinkedIn Groups and blogs to inspire you. We’re still some way behind our colleagues in HR, PR and marketing, but we’re a lot better off than we once were.

Yet internal communicators continue to struggle with their own development. Proper development plans are few and far between. Many of us remain uncertain about the options and unclear about our roles and future career paths. Some of us are just plain lazy.

But if you’re serious about internal communication; if you want to become a bona fide professional, a credible practitioner and a trusted advisor to your clients and colleagues, then it’s time to get serious about your own development.

So, before reading the rest of this post, think briefly about your own views on development. Do you take it seriously? Have you learned new skills in the last 12 months? Do you have a realistic but stretching development plan in place? Does it cover the next 12 months and map out what you’re going to do to broaden your knowledge, sharpen your skills or widen your experience? If the answer to any of those questions is no, then read on…

There are two very basic questions to consider before embarking on your professional detox – “where am I?” and “where am I heading?”

Every good development plan starts with an honest and critical assessment of your current skills, competencies, knowledge and experience. It can be hard to be objective, so make sure you seek input from your colleagues and clients. If you’re organisation offers it (and you’re brave enough to stomach it), 360-degree feedback is a great way to find out how co-workers at all levels – above and below - perceive you and where, in their eyes, you need to develop. Another useful self-assessment tool is the InterComm matrix.

The InterComm matrix

A few years ago representatives from the Internal Communication Alliance (now known as CIPR Inside), CiB and IABC came together to identify the knowledge, skills and experience internal communicators should ideally have at various stages in their careers. I was part of this small group. The result, the InterComm matrix, is the closest thing we have to a common industry-backed professional development framework.

Although it’s now a little dated (the matrix was first published back in 2004) it remains a very useful tool and I believe it continues to be recommend by all three organisations as a basis for planning your personal or team development, and as a guide to recruitment.

The matrix is based on four career stages:

• Band One - Entry level (6 – 12 months in internal communications)
• Band Two - 12 months to 2 – 3 years
• Band Three - Manager or supervisor with at least 2-3 years communications experience
• Band Four - Senior practitioner – at least 5 years operating at band 2 and above

For each level, the matrix defines the generic business and management knowledge and skills internal communications professionals should ideally have, and their specialist communication knowledge, skills and direct experience.

If you haven’t thought about it already, that’s a great way to approach your development – to adopt a two-pronged approach by focusing on your generic/business skills on one hand and your specialist IC skills on the other.

The bands are slightly arbitrary and they don’t take account of the fact that many internal communication practitioners move sideways from related functions like HR, PR or marketing. But it’s a useful yardstick and a good guide to the sort of areas you should be gaining exposure to as you progress through your career.

More recently Sue Dewhurst and Liam FitzPatrick of Competent Communicators created an excellent framework that builds on the foundation provided by InterComm and takes it to the next level. I’m a big fan - see my previous post for details.

Looking forward

Clarifying where you’re heading can be tougher.

First there are the practical issues. Many internal communication teams are small and there is often little room for career progression without jumping ship. Even then, depending on the sector, suitable managerial or senior level roles may be few and far between. If your desire is to head up a team then you’ll be restricted to large organisations. Then there’s the London bias which can make it more difficult to progress if you’re based in the regions. It’s important that your career goals are realistic, so it pays to think about these factors early on.

Where do you see yourself in five years time? It’s a question that’s often asked in job interviews, but it’s one that’s worth pondering every year. Do you see yourself as a dedicated internal communicator, or as a broader corporate communicator? What aspects of your current role do you most enjoy? And what do you detest? Do you want to lead a large team, or would you prefer to become expert at delivery, perhaps focusing on publications, the intranet or events? Do you enjoy budgeting? Really? These are important questions and will help you avoid the promotion trap – where you end up securing a high status senior role only to find that you hate it.

There are a number of career models out there which suggest a nice, linear progression from being a doer (at the bottom of the career ladder) to being a thinker (at the top). Unfortunately the reality is rarely like that. Whilst there is no doubt that broader managerial skills, like budgeting and business partnering, become more important the higher you climb, there are very few senior communicators who don’t have to roll up their sleeves and muck in at least some of the time. Rock solid tactical skills are important whether you’re a junior team member or a high flying communication director. Ignore them at your peril.

Your development menu

Once you’ve identified where you are and where you’re heading, it’s time to create your development menu – to identify what exactly you should do to plug your career gaps.

As any decent HR person will tell you, there are numerous options for professional and personal development and the obvious choices may not always be the best. In addition to traditional classroom-based training courses, you could consider coaching, mentoring, diploma or degree courses, webinars, teleseminars, secondments, volunteering, planned reading, networking, on the job experience and work shadowing. Indeed, a combination of three or four of these development options will make for a much more rounded and effective development programme.

There are pros and cons to each. Coaching, for instance, is very expensive and not everyone can afford to leave the office for two days to attend a training course (though that’s changing thanks to programmes like BiteSize from Gatehouse Academy which are short, focused and delivered to your door). Your choices will depend on a number of factors, including your budget, your availability, your location and your preferred learning style.

Don’t be fooled into thinking that a limited budget means poor development either – there’s an enormous amount you can do on a shoestring. Many internal communicators are very happy to talk about their work and to share their secrets of success, even with communicators from competitor organisations. Just catching up with a respected communicator over an occasional coffee can be a very effective form of mentoring. And there’s also a huge amount to be gained from getting more involved in one of the professional bodies.

If you need additional inspiration when it comes to formal learning, check out the following links:

• CIPR Internal Communication Certificate from PR Academy
• CIPR Internal Communication Diploma from PR Academy
• CiB Foundation Diploma of Proficiency in Internal Communication
• CiB Advanced Diploma of Proficiency in Internal Communication
• Melcrum’s Black Belt Programme
• Kingston University’s Internal Communication Management PgDip/MA top-up

And if you’re interested in team-based learning, our own BiteSize modular learning and development programme from Gatehouse Academy could be just the ticket.

A highly focused and flexible programme backed by the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR), it is designed to cover the fundamentals of effective internal communication in a fast-paced, hassle-free way. 

Delivered in stand-alone ‘bite sized’ sessions of just 90 minutes by an independent and highly experienced practitioner, this is a great way to provide a programme of targeted learning for your team for a small one-off fee.  What’s more it’s also available as a webinar programme for larger or geographically dispersed teams.

Check out the new Gatehouse website or get in touch with me if you want to know more about BiteSize – lee.smith@gatehousegroup.co.uk.

Continuous development

The best approach to professional development is, of course, a continuous one. Rather than thinking about your skills and experience once a year, you should look for, and seize, development opportunities on a day-to-day basis. You should make learning a habit, not an afterthought.

At present I believe the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) is the only UK body for communicators to operate a continuing professional development programme, but the soon to be rebranded Institute of Internal Communication – the successor to Communicators in Business (CiB) – will no doubt be heading down this route as it pursues Chartered Status itself.

If we really want to be recognised as a profession, then we need to invest a lot more time and energy in our own development. Continuing professional development is, for me, a vital ingredient for success. Whatever your level, there’s simply no excuse for not learning new skills or sharpening existing ones, whether you do it formally or not.

As your other resolutions begin to fade next month, make a commitment to yourself – to create a well balanced and stretching development plan and to review it monthly. If you do, I promise you’ll be an even better communicator in 2010.

Lee, Gatehouse

A thought-provoking day at the 2009 CIPR Internal Comms conference

Earlier this week I spent the day in London at the annual CIPR internal comms conference.

The event was chaired by my CIPR Inside committee colleague, Hill & Knowlton’s Scott McKenzie, and was attended by around 60 communicators from a wide variety of sectors and organisations.

I ran a brief workshop on measurement and evaluation and a lunchtime clinic on change communication.

Having failed to have blogged about the event within a few days, I’m going to leave it to two of my faster and more agile committee colleagues to give you the low-down on the day…

• See what CIPR Inside chair Scott McKenzie had to say here
• See what CIPR Inside committee member Sean Trainor had to say here

I will be posting separately about some of the themes discussed during the measurement workshop – so watch this space.

The next big event in my diary is the SCM Summit on 14 & 15 October – a must-attend conference which always provides bucket loads of inspiration and good practice. If you haven’t already signed up for that, it’s not too late – check out the conference website now via the Summit logo on the right of this page.  

Lee

CommsFlashMob – what on earth is it?!

It all started with an innocent throw-away comment a few weeks back…

Anyone interested in social media and communications will know just how big Wikipedia is these days - a staggering 3 million entries and the seventh most popular website globally. But despite its huge reach and considerable influence it’s clear that the entries on some topics, like Internal Communications, are a little way off the mark.

Enter the CommsFlashMob.

The child of some idle Twitter-based banter between Rachel Allen, Abi Signorelli, David Ferrabee, Liam FitzPatrick, Wedge and myself, the idea is to get a bunch of passionate communicators together, lock them in a dark room with coffee and biscuits and try to “fix it” in one afternoon. 

That afternoon is tomorrow (Thursday 20 August) and, work commitments permitting, we’ll all be getting together in London – and online - from 3 pm to 5 pm BST (10 to 12 EST).

But we’re not trying to do it in isolation - we hope others will join us online and contribute from a distance.If you’re around at that time feel free to roll up your sleeves and join in – either way you can follow us live on Twitter at CommsFlashMob.

It may not work, but we’ll give it our best shot!

L

MacLeod Review provides a timely reminder of the importance of employee engagement

Published today (16 July 2009), the MacLeod Review of employee engagement has recommended government support and more cooperation by UK businesses both large and small, to make sure the relationship between employees and employers is at the centre of successful business plans. 

Led by David MacLeod and Nita Clarke, the independent review was commissioned by the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills in September 2008 to make recommendations on promoting employee engagement.

The findings, which are published in this 157-page report, make very interesting reading. There’s nothing particularly new or groundbreaking in there, but the document does provide an excellent overview of the topic, the business case for engagement, the barriers and enables and makes some very sensible and welcome recommendations on the way forward. 

Commenting on the report, David MacLeod said: “This is about unleashing the potential of people at work and enabling them to be the best they can be. Whether we are in a downturn or in better economic times, engagement is a key to innovation and competitiveness.

“Engagement is increasingly recognised as vital by senior figures in the public sector, the private sector and trades unions. We are delighted that if our recommendations are accepted, a distinguished sponsor group has already agreed to work with us to raise awareness and understanding.

“Employers in all parts of the economy can make a success of employee engagement through culture change, rather than investing significant financial resources.”

My own view is that this is really useful stuff. First off, it’s a great primer on the subject – essential reading for anyone with an interest in employee engagement. Second, its contents can be used with sceptical leaders and managers to underline the importance of engaging employees and the benefits of doing so.

Importantly, it illustrates some of the links between engagement and performance – swiftly moving the discussion away from the ‘soft and fluffy’.  Amongst the hidden gems are some powerful research stats, e.g. Gallup in 2006-8 examined 23,910 business units and compared top quartile and bottom quartile financial performance with engagement scores. They found that:

• Those with engagement scores in the bottom quartile averaged 31 – 51 per cent more employee turnover, 51 per cent more inventory shrinkage and 62 per cent more accidents.
• Those with engagement scores in the top quartile averaged 12 per cent higher customer advocacy, 18 per cent higher productivity and 12 per cent higher profitability.

A second Gallup study of the same year of earnings per share (EPS) growth of 89 organisations found that the EPS growth rate of organisations with engagement scores in the top quartile was 2.6 times that of organisations with below-average engagement scores. 

These figures will make most CEOs and cynical finance directors sit up and listen. They are expanded upon in an excellent chapter looking at the business case evidence.

As you might expect, the enablers section is where the discussion turns more directly to organisational communication. Here the role of leaders and managers is scrutinised and the concept of ‘employee voice’ is explored. There is a wide ranging discussion about the role of senior leaders in providing a strong strategic narrative – a clear and compelling vision for the organisation. Executive visibility is highlighted too. 

The pivotal role of line managers is then explored – particularly how they create ‘line of sight’ (show the link between the big picture and what an employee does day in,day out) and address those burning ‘me’ questions, what’s my job? how am i doing? does anyone care? (source: Roger D’Aprix).

Note that this is internal communication in its broadest sense – process, not product.    

The report then looks at the role of values and, most importantly, the need for consistency between what managers and leaders say and do, whether they walk the talk. Like others before them, MacLeod and Clarke underline the critical importance of behavioural integrity.

The recommendations themselves centre on increasing awareness of the importance and value of engaging employees and providing additional support to organisations to make it happen. All very welcome.

All in all, this is a very timely report and one which should be applauded by those of us who work in this area. It puts engagement back under the spotlight at a time when many organisations are turning their back on it and eroding the psychological contract with their employees through their often short sighted, short term actions. If you’re struggling to convince leaders of the value of engagement and the need to invest in it (or at least not to cut their investment in it) then this should help. No, it’s not specifically about internal communication, but the topic is woven throughout and good IC underpins much of what is discussed here.

Lee

Watson Helsby’s verdict on IC: there’s more to deliver

Having sat in my ‘must read’ pile for the past month or so, today I finally got around to reading the latest report on internal communication from specialist headhunters Watson Helsby.

Entitled ‘Internal Communications – More to Deliver’ the report is the sequel to a similar research exercise undertaken way back in 2002, which was widely acclaimed at the time. A free summary report is available online via the above link (the full report is priced at £275) and, from my perspective, it’s recommended reading for anyone with an interest in IC.

Based on qualitative research with 75 senior in-house ‘movers and shakers’, the research was designed to assess the state of internal communication practice, to identify some broad themes and issues and, specifically, to provide some pointers on the best way forward for the profession and its practitioners. It was written by two seasoned IC commentators, Nick Helsby of Watson Helsby and Michael Croton of Comma Consulting.

Having sat here nodding my way through the report for the last 30 minutes or so, I find myself agreeing with the vast majority of what’s contained within – it’s  an excellent assessment of the state of our emerging profession in 2009.

To summarise, the big messages are:

• We’ve come a long way since 2002 - companies have invested heavily and are demanding more and better IC. However, the results IC has delivered have not always matched expectations.
• There is now broad consensus on the scope and remit of IC with most respondents saying they were accountable for developing and communicating the corporate story, developing channels, leadership comms, campaigns and programmes, internal news management, supporting engagement and employer branding efforts, crisis comms and measurement & evaluation.
• We’ve still got a long way to go to become a genuinely mature profession - there are many challenges ahead and numerous areas where we could and should be doing better to demonstrate our value to organisations.
• The best is yet to come – the future for IC is rosy, if we continue to professionalise the function, raise standards, build understanding and appreciation in the board room and get the talent right.

One of the most useful sections of the report is the discussion on obstacles to progress, where several themes emerge:

• Lack of coherence – an increasing focus on IC has resulted in an increase in noise and clutter. As business unit heads, functional leaders and others battle  to give their messages prominence this is creating a situation where there are simply too many badly coordinated messages bombarding employees. The result is a cacophony.   
• Poor governance – unlike PR/external comms there are few checks, balances, controls and protocols in place to guide internal comms. It is often informal and decentralised and, as a result, leaders cannot be confident that (a) communication is flowing through the organisation effectively (b) they have the ability to communicate quickly and consistently in a crisis situation.
• Employees’ ranking in the audience hierarchy –external stakeholders (shareholders, media, etc) are often viewed as more important than employees and, as a result, these audiences often receive more focus, attention and senior executive time. Put simply, IC still often plays second fiddle to external comms.
• Senior level support – to thrive inside an organisation IC needs to have a senior sponsor who really ‘gets it’ – someone who understands what good IC looks like and can deliver in its broadest sense (i.e. beyond simply pumping out messages). Likewise, it’s vital that there is someone at a senior level – someone with ‘clout’ – who is proactively championing the work of the IC team and helping push through organisation-wide initiatives. 
• Shortage of talent – IC is still not attracting, nurturing and growing sufficient talent.  As a result there is little in the way of a succession pipeline inside organisations, meaning that candidates have to be lured from elsewhere. Even then, there is a relatively small pool of good practitioners to fish from.  

The report also identifies a number of key areas where IC can add – and be seen to add – more value. This provides a useful checklist for any communicator who wants to develop themselves and/or their team.

The report concludes that, in order to realise its full potential, IC needs to focus on getting the right people in the right roles, developing that talent, winning support from senior leaders, beefing up the role, becoming more proactive when it comes to identifying and grabbing opportunities to demonstrate their value, and getting the operating model right.

If you haven’t already done so, read the summary report (at least) and take on board the findings – it’s wise counsel and provides an useful blueprint for doing IC really well.

Lee

The tragedy of poor communication

The tragic and horrific case of Baby Peter, the toddler who died in August 2007 after receiving sustained abuse from his mother, her boyfriend and their lodger, provides a stark reminder of the importance of communication at work and the potential consequences of getting it wrong.

The Care Quality Commission today released its report on the role of the NHS in this case. It is broad in its range and highlights a number of systemic failings, some of which relate specifically to communication.

Two of the six themes or topics investigated by the CQC jump out for me – lack of communication and lack of awareness of child protection procedures. These are covered in detail in the report, but the key deficiencies were described by the CQC as:

• Poor communication between health professionals and between agencies, leading to a lack of urgent action with regard to child protection arrangements, and no effective escalation of concerns.
• Lack of awareness among some staff about child protection procedures, and a lack of adherence, by some staff, to these procedures.

What lies behind this is a range of issues relating to ineffective organisational communication. These issues range from straight-forward communication breakdowns where groups who should be talking to each other aren’t, problems with the visibility and access of some of the key players (they were on the road, rather than on the ground), healthcare professionals failing to turn up to vitally important case conferences, basic processes that were either broken or inconsistently implemented (like writing up and circulating the minutes from case conferences and following-up a child protection referral), steering groups and boards that were described as ‘closed off’ and uncommunicative and patchy employee understanding of policy and procedure.   

These areas may be operational and therefore outside the typical remit of the internal communicator, but I believe these are precisely the sort of challenges we should be grappling with – ensuring managers and front line staff interact in the right way, taking the pulse of the organisation and providing an early warning of any issues, building awareness and understanding of key policies, making sure leaders are accessible and visible, engaging diverse stakeholder groups. Internal communication is not ‘soft and fluffy’ – it is at the very heart of the organisation, whatever its purpose, and is critical to its effective functioning.

These communication issues are, of course, not unique to the organisations involved here – they are pretty commonplace – but the consequences in this example were on a whole different level. A tragedy in so many ways, let’s hope the lessons really will be learned this time around.

Lee

Reflecting on my year as chair of CIPR Inside

The CIPR Inside Annual General Meeting took place in London last week and, as part of the proceedings, I gave the following brief address. It contains some of my thoughts on the challenges of the past 12 months and where we currently stand as a profession, as well as touching on some of the things the Group has been up to recently. I thought I’d share it with you…

“After a number of years of significant growth within our sector, it seems the world of internal communication now stands at a cross roads.

Without doubt the last 12 months have proved to be amongst the most turbulent and challenging times our young profession has ever faced. This is certainly the toughest environment I have experienced during my 19 years in this business.

Against a backdrop of a global economic meltdown, internal communicators have been under more pressure than ever before – to convey ever tougher messages to a dazed and confused workforce, to prove their worth, and to defend their own roles, contracts and budgets.

With the world in such turmoil, it is not surprising that as a profession we are currently experiencing a period of consolidation and soul-searching.

There are more out of work or ‘resting’ communicators today than there have been for as long as I can remember. This is particularly frustrating when you consider that organisations have never been more in need of good quality communication advice and support than they are right now.

Growing pains
As the recession bites, we are also continuing to experience the sort of growing pains that come with professional adolescence.

But, at long last, it feels like we are beginning to emerge from the insecurity of our youth. The quality and range of professional development options is improving rapidly. There is more of an appreciation of what we do inside Britain’s boardrooms. The professional community is stronger and more confident than it ever has been. Good practice abounds – and it can often prove its worth though meaningful research & evaluation.

These are all positive signs.

But we still have a long, long way to go to become a strong and mature discipline.

For every CEO who now gets what we do, there are a dozen others who treat IC as a luxury, bolt-on or a nice-to-do activity. The painful evidence of this is all around - comms budgets are being slashed, channels axed at the stroke of a Finance Director’s red pen and far too many communicators are being made redundant.

So it is clear that this recession will be a big test for internal communications.

But that is no bad thing and in my heart I believe internal communication will emerge from this period a leaner yet much stronger discipline.

Those practitioners who remain active in the sector will be stronger and more professional. They will combine great tactical implementation with delivering real, tangible business results – helping realise an organisation’s strategy by engaging employees in the right way.

CIPR Inside will be there too – helping to raise the professional bar, champion good practice and bring like-minded professionals together under the banner of the UK’s only Chartered institute for communicators.

A challenging year

As my year as chair has coincided with a global downturn of epic proportions, we – the CIPR Inside committee – chose to focus very much on a ‘back to basics’ agenda over the last 12 months. This has involved revisiting the role and purpose of the group, recruiting new committee members (a particular challenge in these turbulent times), developing and delivering a robust programme of events, gradually reinvigorating our dialogue with members, and clarifying our business model.

We have delivered a wide variety of events this year, from a successful one day internal podcasting workshop in Birmingham, to a London-based session focused on the challenges of leadership communication. We have piloted a new format – the CIPR Inside Book Club – which has featured sessions from some of Europe’s leading thinkers, including Bill Quirke and Damian Hughes. We also took the lead on the development of the CIPR’s annual one day internal communication conference, which attracted more than 100 delegates back in September.

The past year has also seen the CIPR launch an eagerly awaited internal communication certificate in conjunction with training provider the PR Academy – a development we have actively championed.

In the past practitioners who wanted to gain a formal qualification in internal comms had very few choices – there were a couple of specialist courses out there, but none of them were backed by the CIPR. 

This course is yet more evidence of the CIPR responding to the huge demand that exists amongst junior practitioners to ensure they have a sound professional knowledge built on robust theory and current good practice. The certificate is proving popular and I hope that this is merely the first step towards creating a more robust and comprehensive CIPR professional development framework for internal communicators, whatever stage they are at. 

Whilst we have made good progress in many areas and the Group is, I believe, in a stronger position now than we have been for some time, there is still considerable work to do. The areas I believe require further focus and attention are around our business model, enhancing our ability to successfully market and promote events, and making more of our Advisory Board as a way to predict future trends in our maturing profession and to ‘influence the influencers’. These are areas I intend to help drive forward during the remainder of this year.

As always I would like to take this opportunity to extend my personal thanks to my fellow committee members for their help and support over the past 12 months. As a voluntary group, CIPR Inside exists only because of the considerable effort and commitment of a small number of people who share one thing – a passion for internal communication and a desire to see it realise its full potential.”

If you want to give something back to the profession by getting more involved in CIPR Inside, please do get in touch with me– we are currently on the look out for new committee members to join our small but dedicated group of professionals.

Insecurity on the rise amongst communicators

Touching on the same theme as my last post, I was interested to read about some research carried out recently by Communicators in Business (CiB) which shows that internal communicators are feeling increasingly insecure about their jobs.

The poll, which ran on the CiB web site for two months, attracted 213 responses. Of those 28 people (13%) had actually lost their jobs. A further 39 (18%) said that they felt “very insecure” and 45 (21%) said they were “quite insecure” in their current roles.

Okay, so it's not a large scale or overly scientific piece of research and there are no big surprises in there, but it does provide a useful insight into the state of our profession right now. 

L