Gower Handbook of Internal Communication

Marc Wright

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9780566086892
• eBook ISBN: 9781317125259
• Topic: Betriebswirtschaft
• Subtopic: Business allgemein

A comprehensive guide to managing communication within organizations, the Handbook recognises Internal Communication's continued growth as a management discipline. It is aimed at leaders who want insight into IC techniques for use in both day-to-day operational and change situations, for example, and also at the communication specialist seeking shared wisdom and new ideas. Early chapters examine changes in the strategic context in which today's IC departments are operating. These include organizations' increasing need for innovation and responsiveness in a superfast changing environment; employees' increasing assertion of rights and personal requirements at work; management's increasing recognition of the importance of corporate reputation/brand value, particularly how to sustain and extend it; and finally, the effects on work and management patterns of digital communication. Step-by-step guides introduce you to creating IC strategies and to carrying out research and measurement.

PART I
The Fundamentals of Internal Communication

1
Measurement

by Susan Walker

Measurement is not just an optional extra for communicators, but an essential part of their professional toolkit. It has been seen sometimes as a threat (Will they cut my budget? Will they cut me?). However it can be an exciting opportunity to evaluate, guide and direct communication initiatives and investment.

The advent of easy to use, do-it-yourself online surveys puts the facility to research and measure employee experiences, opinions and attitudes in the hands of functions and individuals in the organisation.

On one hand, this has the advantage of enabling you to keep in touch quickly and simply. On the other, it can lead to a multitude of unregulated surveys with decisions made on unreliable results. Moreover, the advent of social media encourages people to comment and give opinions quickly and easily. This type of feedback is useful, but remember, it may not be representative of your whole audience.

This chapter outlines what you need to know about measurement to advise colleagues, carry out your own surveys or commission research from external professionals.

Effective measurement has two essential steps: getting the basics right and developing a strategic approach. Before we move on to these, the fundamental question you need to ask is: ‘Why are we embarking on this measurement?’ If you don’t answer this basic question appropriately, then the rest of the process will not succeed. This may seem too elementary to mention, but it is surprising how many research projects start without clear, stated and achievable objectives.

The initial rationale for measurement may include:

• the strategy/values of the organisation: knowledge/commitment;

• understanding of and involvement with a new initiative;

• the communication role of the line manager/supervisor;

• visibility and image of senior management;

• channel access, usage and effectiveness;

• accessibility, tone and honesty/openness of organisational information;

• upward communication – whether a listening process is in place and how well it works;

• lateral communication – sharing best practice and exchange of knowledge across the organization.

A good way to define objectives is to envisage the end of the process: What information do you want to see in the results? How will the information be used? Will it be used at all?

Don’t jump into measurement – take a long, hard look at the water before leaping in. Consult others – function heads, line managers and senior management. What feedback would they find useful to help improve communication?

And do not make the mistake of considering the information channels in isolation. The only way you will be able to assess communication effectiveness is by looking at the media (channels such as the intranet, briefing meetings and publications), the messages (organisational strategy, objectives, values and employee feedback) and meaning (understanding, commitment, involvement and how this might influence behaviours).

Stage 1: The Basics of Measurement

The basics may sometimes seem tedious and even petty and unnecessary. But these are the essential firm building foundations to produce reliable, constructive information. Aspects such as methodology, sampling, statistical reliability, objective questionnaire design and coverage all need to be considered. These will not be separate issues but all are interrelated so they will need to be taken into account together before you make any decisions.

METHODOLOGY

The first step is to consider the outcomes needed. Will a qualitative approach involving focus groups and interviews or quantitative, questionnaire-based research best meet your needs?

Both have their advantages and disadvantages.

Qualitative research is likely to be on a smaller scale and therefore less intrusive for the organisation. It will:

• give faster feedback, provide understanding and insight;

• be able to probe, question and challenge;

• adapt for different functions/levels of employees;

• be well suited to more sensitive topics.

But it will not:

• give hard numbers;

• provide data for future tracking of trends;

• provide information by employee roles or functions;

• enable analysis to reveal key drivers of good communication.

Quantitative research on the other hand will provide:

• firm figures and reliable data;

• a base for tracking any changes in the future;

• comparisons with normative data;

• detailed results by demographics, functions, locations and so on.

But it may not answer all the questions in depth, or explain the reasons behind employee views and opinions.

The two approaches are not necessarily mutually exclusive – both are needed for the full picture. Focus groups sometimes precede the questionnaire design stage to help develop the questionnaire. They can also be used effectively after the quantitative stage to explore the issues raised and gain fuller understanding of the research outcomes.

Qualitative research has a place as a stand-alone project, especially if the topic is sensitive, or if new initiatives are tested or input sought to develop solutions.

Quantitative options

If questionnaire-based research is selected as the most effective approach for your measurement objectives then there will be more options you need to consider, such as the research medium:

Telephone: a short questionnaire delivered via a telephone interview is a good, quick choice to follow an event or a new initiative. However, the time and cost of a telephone approach means it is not suitable for large numbers of respondents.

Face-to-face: as with the telephone interviews, a face-to-face questionnaire can be useful for a short, sharp survey in which respondents are interviewed personally.

Postal: questionnaires can be circulated with reply-paid envelopes to encourage respondents to post them back when completed.

Group self-completion: employees are gathered together in groups and given the questionnaire to fill in there and then. This methodology is most appropriate in a manufacturing or similar work environments where the response rate for a postal survey may be low.

Online: this is becoming the preferred approach as it gives people the chance to complete a questionnaire online which is fast, convenient and cheaper to distribute and analyse. Typically a link is sent out to employees that leads to an electronic questionnaire for them to fill in online.

Sample or census

You will also need to decide whether to sample a proportion of employees or invite all to participate. With any organisation employing under about 5,000, the most sensible method will probably be a business-wide census. Larger organisations may wish to consider a sampling approach depending on a number of issues:

• For some methodologies (postal, for example) a sample will be less costly (saving print and postage.) However, there is much less investment difference between a sample and census for an electronic survey.

• A sample tends to get a lower response rate as communication campaigns/follow-up reminders (see below) cannot be publicised to all employees.

• What are your measurement objectives? If the intention is to provide management information by all units then a census may be more appropriate so results can go back to line managers. If the feedback is needed only at corporate level, then a sample may be sufficient to provide the top line data required.

• How big should a sample be? Again, there is no easy answer as this depends on the measurement objectives. You will need to build up your sample from the required result outputs (what level of detail will you want to report on) with statistical reliability in mind.

Statistical reliability

The subject of statistics may sound boring but is an essential part of the measurement process to gain reliable, robust data. When reporting around election time, the media often refers to plus or minus 3 per cent reliability on a sample of 1,000. This means that a survey result of, say, 70 per cent who express a certain opinion, could be either 3 per cent higher or lower than the reported figure. Sometimes the media ignores this rule of statistical reliability and reports a difference of 1 per cent which is meaningless. When considering the size of your sample, you may find the following web link useful in assessing the reliability of the numbers: http://www.surveysystem.com/sscalc.htm.

You will need to take this into account when deciding the size of your sample. The employee groups that you want to look at will need to be sufficiently large to give reliable data – that is data on which you can rely to give a dependable, representative view of your audience’s opinions which you will need for effective decision making.

QUESTIONNAIRE DESIGN

Another essential to gain reliable measurement is a relevant, objective questionnaire. When developing the content of your questionnaire, it is valuable to consider the information which will be needed for assessing and prioritising communication. There is little point in asking a question which cannot result in action. So, if there is no chance that the quarterly publication will be published more frequently, a question about frequency of publication is pointless.

However, if a more general question about timeliness of information shows this to be an issue, there may be a number of ways this can be addressed: for example, the use of ‘standard’ questions about the level and credibility of information, information sources, opportunities for upward and sideways communication. There will also be questions specific to your organisation such as new initiatives, values and mission statements. Here you may want to look at awareness, understanding, involvement and support.

The questionnaire needs to be interesting to complete otherwise people may give up half way through so a variety of question types can be used rather than a long list of agree/disagree statements. It can be tempting to ask for ‘yes’/’no’ answers for simplicity. But a balanced scale – usually five points, with the midpoint neither positive nor negative – is essential.

There is also a school of thought that dismisses the midpoint as the ‘easy option’ which should not be included otherwise people will choose this rather than think through their answer. However, this is an important group. If they have no strong views either way then – as ‘fence sitters’ – there is more potential to move their views into the positive group as they are not actively negative and are still waiting to make up their minds.

In addition to the pre-coded questions, open questions can be included which invite people to respond spontaneously in their own words. Beware of including too many; these questions will require coding into response categories.

How long should be questionnaire be?

You should consider questionnaire length from the perspective of the time taken to complete the questionnaire – between 8 to 20 minutes depending on the audience. Managers and staff in professional roles, for example, may take the 20 minutes needed – others may get bored after 10 minutes and fail to complete the questionnaire. Remember to factor in the level of literacy of the group for whom you are designing the questionnaire.

Before you go live, you will need to test the questionnaire by asking several employee groups to complete the draft. This will reveal the length of time it takes to fill in, its relevance and ease of comprehension. Here you would be looking at whether the topics are within the experience of the employees and if the language is understandable to them. Some of the questions may be couched in a way that is open to misinterpretation or full of ‘management speak’ so your test is an opportunity to get the questionnaire right before circulating to all.

DEMOGRAPHICS

One section of the questionnaire will ask about the profile of respondents. Too much detail may produce piles of computer tables without adding useful information to the final findings. This is especially true of communication surveys where it may not be possible to respond to individual groups of employees. Location, employee level and service length are usually included in the profile. Employees can be concerned about the privacy of their individual responses and concerned about cross-analysis that could identify them so only essential personal details should be included.

The Market Research Society best practice guide recommends that no group smaller than 10 should be analysed separately to ensure that the views of individuals/small groups are protected from identification.

STIMULATING RESPONSE RATES

The challenge for both postal and online surveys is how to gain the highest possible response rate. Typically a communication survey which tends to focus on communication media and messages gains a lower level of response than a full employee survey which covers ...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• About the Editor
• About the Contributors
• Introduction
• PART I THE FUNDAMENTALS OF INTERNAL COMMUNICATION
• PART II CLASSIC MODELS FOR COMMUNICATION
• PART III SKILLS AND MEDIA
• PART IV LEADERSHIP AND CHANGE COMMUNICATION
• PART V ADVANCED COMMUNICATION SKILLS
• PART VI SOCIAL MEDIA INSIDE THE ENTERPRISE
• Index