Search

Presents views on corporate communication. Culture of service among employees; Optimization of employee performance through computer resources; Executive participation in the creation of a company obituary.

This article focuses on corporate responsibility (CR). There is a great deal of pressure on leadership to address many aspects of CR and that there are disparities between employers' definitions of CR and those of their employees. A big CR problem for companies is that they don't know how to prioritize whom they should listen to. There's a huge role for internal communication. If companies start to realize that CR is at the heart of business - how business conducts its activities, how it treats its customers and employees, they can improve employee motivation. If the goal is to raise morale, boost productivity and make employees feel that they're being respected, then obviously there has to be a genuine two-way communication and internal communication is essential to that, face-to-face communication is vital. CR policy needs to be part of the company strategy and tied to its results. If not, it causes cynicism. Corporate responsibility should permeate the company, starting at the CEO and percolating down via senior management.

This article presents information on the importance of communication in Knowledge Management. The author discusses how the marketing, human resources management, corporate services and communications departments deals with different challenges in communication and KM. From a certain perspective, a lot of communication is where the main content and purpose is related to what the communicator wants to convey. When intention dominates communication it often comes across as hierarchical and can involve power relations.

The article discusses the results of a study conducted by a practitioner working group that aimed to uncover best practices and key tips when working with external companies. It is important to choose people who naturally enjoy networking and relationship building when developing a relationship team. It is highly encouraged to avoid any misinterpretation of language and terms and ensure a message gets through during the initial stages of a relationship. Intense communication is vital throughout the relationship. The four main categories of inter-organizational relationships, each with different benefits and needs are discussed.

Explains the role of communication in fostering productive employees and a culture that is not afraid of change. Rise of the 'knowledge worker'; Need for managers to develop innovative techniques for motivating and maximizing the potential of driven, thoughtful employees; Combination of strategy and culture in knowledge-based organizations.

Discusses the importance of content management in knowledge management systems and how five companies provided a platform for the development of a productive knowledge management system. Management of intranet network contents at Uniqema; Intranet use for knowledge sharing among staff members; Communication challenge posed by the company's merger; Alignment between existing company culture and objectives and strategies.

Explains how strategic communication can optimize knowledge management (KM) performance. Definition of strategic communication; Classification of employees into four knowledge archetypes, knowledge seekers, knowledge keepers, knowledge sharers and knowledge avoiders; Recommended steps to ensure that message is transmitted to its target audience. INSET: Keypoints.

Provides a guide to promoting knowledge management (KM) to those in positions in power, convincing them to provide budget and credibility to the project. Parts of a white paper or memorandum proposing a simple KM model; Delivery of the message to senior managers face to face; Establishment of a 'strategic knowledge management council.'

Takes a look at knowledge management from a practitioner's perspective in the extraction of information through different interview techniques. Reliance on two-way communication to capture a person's tacit; knowledge; requirement for employees to summarize their experiences; Need for focus on body language and inflection during investigative interviewing.

The article presents a guide for business communicators to climb the corporate ladder. Business communicators should ask themselves where they want to go before attempting to move ahead in their career, should examine their current job and ask what competencies they need today, should make sure that their skills will be good enough in the future, consider receiving training, pursue professional qualifications in order to meet fellow professionals, and consider hiring a personal coach that will help them learn.

The article discusses ways to improve the writing skills of corporate communications teams. According to a survey by the Public Relations Society of American's Counselor's Academy the area where young professionals need the most work is writing. The author believes that offering incentives such as pay raises to good writers will help foster better writing in an organization. The author recommends the development of an assessment tool for evaluating writing samples and projects. Also suggested is having managers attend employee writing workshops scheduled with outside trainers.

The article presents news briefs pertaining to communication in the workplace. A method of using print rather than e-mail to present information in the workplace is presented. Shannon Holms of British Columbia Pension Corporation has been successfully using print posters to announce events and messages from the chief executive officer. The Stockport Council of Great Britain has encouraged its employees to go on an e-mail diet as part of their new year's resolutions. For its 20th birthday, Direct Line insurance company of Great Britain posted photos of all of their employees.

This article discusses business communications. The author advises that corporations create a managers-only intranet site, in order to foster communication between managers. The author also states that companies should take a renewed look at customer service, especially on their corporate websites, as customers are now turning to web sites more than ever.

The article discusses the strategies implemented by the company Scottish Water in its campaign for effective internal communication. The challenge to overcome was that many of its employees were scattered in remote locations across Scotland. The objectives of the campaign are enumerated, which include improving managers and employees working together, building networks, and promoting personal ownership. It was important to have the senior leadership supporting the effort. Details about the planning, training, events and the results are elaborated.

The article offers helpful tips for effective communication practices. It is suggested that companies going through crisis or change should create events that deal with the issues at hand. This allows employees an opportunity to hear the facts clearly and to ask questions and communicate concerns. ideas are presented for ensuring lively question and answer sessions after a presentation. The importance of having a clear and easy-to-use intranet is discussed. Additional tips are given for communication strategies.

The article offers advice to improve business communication practices. Companies that wish to improve employee ability should adopt a program like McDonald's Corp.'s, which consists of a website that offers employees advice on their social, personal, and working life. Corporate communication can be improved through the use of a podcast for specific issues like health benefits. When re-branding an organization, employee morale is best retained by making the brand meaningful for staff and adopting values at the top of the organization.

The article discusses the impact of self-publishing facilitated by the Internet on business and communication. A study from UK telecoms regulator Ofcom shows that the majority of 16 to 24 year-olds are turning away from traditional media like newspapers and magazines in favor of online interactive media like MySpace and weblogs. Ben Edwards, the head of new media communications at IBM, and Jane Sparrow, general manager for change and communication at Sony Europe, discuss how this trend will affect internal business communication.

The article presents tips to improve business communication. Managers can find out whether employees know company strategy by listing true and false things that the company is doing and asking people which they recognize. By using a red card system similar to that in professional sports, communication directors can help managers break bad communication habits and avoid hampering corporate governance. Advice for how to structure staff surveys is also provided, with four key categories to focus upon.

The article discusses the factors that prevent good employee feedback. The biggest impediment to open and honest feedback from employees is a lack of belief that leaders will act on the feedback, which can be rectified by assurances that the feedback will have an impact on corporate policy. To ensure that employees respond to surveys, employers can make survey questions relevant to employees' jobs and objectives, and forego the use of off-the-shelf surveys that are obviously not tailored to the company.

The article discusses the benefits of blogs and blogging to business organizations in Great Britain. It addresses key considerations regarding blogs from an internal communicator's perspective, clarifying the hype, myths and fear that surround it. The use of blogging in the internal communication of business enterprises can support strategy and allow organizational communications to be multidirectional. It enables the flow of information to move freely between workers, managers and their peer. Blogs are also informative feedback tools for use in management.

The article discusses several effective strategies on targeted communications in business enterprises in Great Britain. Key issues examined include the prerequisites for successfully conducting internal communication focus groups, tips to make company blogs work and how to write an annual report that is interesting to employees. Ways to liven up annual company surveys through the use of the corporate blog, as well as the effective use of electronic mail in internal communications in companies are also cited.

The article reflects on the credibility of corporate blogs. Neville Hobson, communication consultant and blog author, states that good corporate blogs are generally ones where the blogger or bloggers are natural communicators able to write content that comes across as genuine. Blogs also act as conduits for readers' feedback. It becomes a great way of building credibility both internally and externally. Moreover, internal blogs can be excellent tools for companies in very different ways as compared to their external counterparts.

The article presents information on ten tactics for aligning intranet goals with organizational strategy. A team of representatives from the major business areas should be assembled. The team will drive a review project and will develop a proposal with clearly identified aims. The key decision makers and drivers of strategy within each business area should be identified as early as possible. A second equally influential group of employees should be identified within the organization. These people will maintain the infrastructure and content and will coordinate groups of developers and communicators. Meaningful input from these two groups should be gathered by using a method that is aligned with accepted practice in the organization. The results should then be analyzed and presented back to the concerned groups and the central steering group in face-to-face meetings. A thorough external research and benchmarking should be done. Although the aim is to align with internal company strategy, understanding the differences between intranets and the reasons for these can definitely open the eyes to the possibilities and allows to take a step back and assess the company's intranet more objectively.

The article focuses on Owens Corning whose corporate communication team has decided to create measurable leadership communication standards. The company's corporate communication team has decided to transform the function from one primarily responsible for managing the company's news vehicles, to one that contributes measurably to the bottom line. The team has created a five-year plan based on improving business performance and driving change by managing communication as a business process. The team has implemented a new performance-based communication effort at the company's Delmar, New York, insulation plant in 2001. By focusing on the communication improvement efforts, the plant had achieved impressive results throughout the five-month initiative. In 2005, the corporate communication team had partnered with the Jim Shaffer Group, for creating the communication standard for the company, named the Core Communication System (CCS). The CCS had been created from proven solutions across the company as well as other companies with world-class communication practices. The CCS has included 10 primary elements with a focus on leadership. The elements include leadership, the story, performance huddles, scoreboards, straight talk, information cycles, all-employee meetings, site visits, proactive feedback, and visual standards.

The article presents information on the measurement of engagement and company values. According to Ann Hood, Head of Internal communication at Scottish & Newcastle, the primary role of employee surveys is to measure intangibles such as engagement. Hood further added that as soon as one measures employees it is the measurement of soft things because the hard things are the results-the rise in share price and so on. According to Susan Walker, Director at consultancy AES, the focus of most measurement has changed. More companies want to measure engagement. She further added that it is more useful to measure the correlations with engagement with other aspects of the organization. If one does too much in a survey he is on the edge of annoying people. Walker has pointed out that asking employees whether they understand company strategy does not necessarily show if they do or not. According to Hood, there are so many things that make an employee happy that it can never just be down to communication. Employee's experience of the organization and all the employee touch points are measured from facility management to pensions and IT.

The article presents a guide for managers in handling the media during a crises, by the managing partner of Pittsburgh-based consulting firm C4CS Oliver S. Schmidt. A lack of preparation for dealing with the media during a crises leads to heightened media scrutiny and unfavorable media coverage that translates into negative stakeholder perceptions and economic damage. Management should be aware that crises presents a unique communication of challenges, they should understand the role of the news media and realize that managing the media by a thorough preparation ensures effective news media management.

The article presents information resources related to business communication including the creation of upward communication process, definition of coaching, and ways to implement an informal communication audit.

The article reports on various ways that communicators will be able to reverse a declining budget. According to the leader of Jim Shaffer Group leader, slashing down costs and reevaluating the role of communication, are the two ways that communicators can achieve more value out of a certain budget. A senior corporate communications consultant of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida Inc. Carol Cox agrees the need for communicators to look for more efficient and effective ways to share information on the focus of a certain project. The general manager for change and communication of Sony Europe Jane Sparrow said that it is important for communicators to not only focus on the business strategy but also consider the cost of all other communications during the hard times.

This article presents recommendations that help corporate and management communications specialists overcome the challenges they face in organizational change communication. Specialists need to be aware that: individuals respond differently to change, there is no right way in change management, they will not recognize the end-point in terms of look and feel, and it is not all about corporate culture. Process elements are: change path, change start-point, change style, change target, change levers, and change roles.

This article presents State Farm communication strategy and planning manager Lewis Pryor's observations regarding the insurance company's organizational and management communication program with insurance agents and employees in the midst of Hurricane Katrina. State Farm's southern zone covers Mississippi, South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama. Traditional forms of communication, namely landline telephone, cellular telephone, and electronic mail, were unavailable. The Weblog was a success as a communication channel for the following reasons: executive support, risk taking, corporate support, consistent blogging, and quick kill date.

This article presents recommendations to improve the professional practice of business and management communication specialists in Great Britain. An announcements feature on the corporate intranet is an effective way to position the chief executive officer and impart corporate objectives and values. Communication specialists should persuade front-line employees to become organizational change agents. VHA Inc. uses cross-functional teams that comprise corporate marketing, editorial services, employee communications, public relations, and brand management.

This article presents information resources that improve the professional practice of business and management communication specialists in Great Britain. Melcrum Reader Survey reveals specialists are concerned about engagement, strategy and planning, chief executive officer and leadership communication, change management, organizational culture, communication structure, and line manager communication. Terms and phrases related to organizational change management are autonomy at work, change agent, psychological contract, Hawthorn effect, and emergent change.

This article presents recommendations designed to help business communication and management communication specialists discuss organizational change to employees and organizations. A change communication program sets out a clear timetable of expectation, creates a sense of the different stages of the change journey, presents evidence of progress on a day-to-day basis, publicizes quick wins, and formulates messages that are consistent, simple, and revelant to the target audience. Change communication leaders should, in the specific case of downsizing, remember the needs of employees who are leaving immediately, individuals departing at a future date, and workers staying on in the organization.

The article presents a discussion between two leading communicators, Anne Marie Bell of Reuters and Lesley Allman of Coors Brewers, to improve business performance and suggests ways to go about it. A three-part communication model is offered as consisting of channels, content and capability. Communicators should extend their domain to be truly strategic. They need to have more influence over leaders that goes beyond ability to hone their communication skills. Their contributions should focus on advising on plans and projects and how messages, timing and channels might be used be effectively and efficiently used by an organization. Communicators also need to understand the business strategy to make it easier for employees and focus on quality rather than quantity. It is recognized that organizational strategy should be broken down to the level of five objectives, goals, activities or priorities that the company needs to fulfil. The drinks industry exhibits a market with cut-throat pricing and points to a disturbing uncertainty. The role of leaders lies in communicating a vision that is inspiring and enabling.

This article describes how ArvinMeritor Inc. improved performance of its employees with communication plans. The automotive industry has struggled in recent years. While ArvinMeritor has benefited from manufacturing products for both light vehicle and heavy truck markets, giving it a balanced portfolio, it has been a challenging time. To ensure each of its manufacturing plants operates at optimum level, the communication function performs audits on individual sites and tailors action plans. ArvinMeritor supplies systems modules and components to the motor vehicle industry, employing 31,000 people globally. As well as cascading its main corporate messages throughout facilities worldwide, it also runs a site communication program, which looks at the individual performance of sites and how well communication is carried out. The program was established in 2002 and so far several site audits have been conducted worldwide, including sites in North America and Europe. Key findings from past audits have been that employees spend up to 30 minutes of each shift looking for information they need to do their jobs and there is a need for supervisors to better motivate people. INSET: LINE MANAGER STATISTICS..

This article describes how Diageo PLC, supposedly the world's largest producer of alcohol beverages, developed leadership communication skills among its managers. Diageo was formed in 1997 as a result of the merger between Guinness and Grand Metropolitan. Two years later, the company acquire Seagram's drinks business. In 2003, after five years of continuous change, the company decided it needed to rally its leadership in an effort to unite and engage employees. In 2003, Diageo began implementing leadership communication workshops for its senior leaders. As preparation for the workshop, leaders fill out personal style assessment forms to get them thinking about their own communication style. While finding innovative ways to address leaders' communication styles, behaviors and skills is a difficult task, the communication team have been able to get leaders to partake in critical self-evaluation by using real-life leadership examples, a number of hands-on exercises and a variety of practical application techniques.

This article presents information about various resources related to the field of business communication. According to a report titled "Delivering Effective Senior Leadership Communication" published by the Strategic Research Forum, Melcrum Publishing in 2005, the vital key to internal communication effectiveness in any organization is held by the company's leadership, a fact that is self-evident to all with the possible exception of the company's leadership. The report follows a survey of over 1,000 communication professionals in 91 countries carried out in July 2005. Furthermore, Alastair Ham, director of organizational development at Norwich Union Insurance, lists ways to win grass-roots support for changing behavior in an organisation. Ham suggests that if possible, an executive should not present a business case to his or her executive team. The risk of rejection is high and once leaders have said no, they will defend their decision making it almost impossible to move forward.

This article presents several tips on how to make effective communication between managers and employees. Not all managers are convinced of the argument that good communication not only improves employee morale but also business performance. Alex Jaconelli, development manager at Scottish & Newcastle, has tackled the problem head-on by providing them with proof from their own workforce. He conducted a survey of 150 employees at a workshop, asking them to think of the best and the worst managers they had worked for. Next they were asked to imagine that they currently worked for their best manager but were offered a promotion working for their worst manager. Those on the lowest pay scale said it would take at least a third of their current salary before they were tempted. Those on higher salaries said that no pay rise would make them move. The team then asked the employees to describe real-life examples of what the best managers did. Unsurprisingly, they made them feel included and involved by communicating with them regularly.

This article debates the role of line managers in business communication. It is a popular misconception that line managers are the preferred source of all information, and the misconception is based on poorly carried out research that's been very well publicized. While line managers may be the preferred source for information about pay and performance and how jobs connect to the bigger picture, employees do not necessarily want to hear about wider company strategy from them. And while they may want to talk through strategy with their line manager, they do not expect him or her to be the primary knowledge bank on the subject, only to be able to help them understand how they form part of the wider strategy, how they contribute to the organization's goals, and what they should be doing to help the company succeed. However, typically less than half of employees say their supervisors are capable of supplying this information. She points to three factors behind this: line managers themselves are not very confident about what the strategy is; they are short of time and often cancel meetings because they cut into productivity; and information provided online is often unseen by employees who have restricted or no online access.

Presents several tips related to business communication practices. Benefits of using the telephone instead of e-mail for business communication; Need to respond to e-mails within 24 hours; Strategies to be adopted increase the readership of one's news pages.

The article focuses on activities to build up and strengthen corporate communications. One can create a logic model; this is a team exercise where the person shows the link between one's internal communication roles and activities, the outputs and short/mid/long-term outcomes of those activities and their impact on human resource and corporate goals and mission. Then one can develop a scorecard, thinking through how one would evaluate his/her internal communication outputs and short/mid/long-term outcomes and the different measures he/she could produce. One can also create a dashboard: from the scorecard, can select the most important measures he/she wants to display on a dashboard on his/her department's website. INSETS: Tailor-make communication training;Campaign for computers to be turned off.

This article presents information related to good ideas and targeted communications at Citicorp Inc. According to Kate Nelson, who headed up human resource (HR) communications at Citicorp., it was an extremely robust network and communicators learned a lot from one another with relatively little effort from the network's managers. Among the activities that were organized were: an annual two-day conference for communicators. It was always well-attended and people came in from around the world. The conference included presentations on corporate strategy; how various programs were being communicated around the world, training, networking events etc. Since they had access to Citicorp's executives, they would interview them on key corporate initiatives or programs, write a press release and send it to all communicators worldwide. They even indicated what questions the local communicators might want to ask their local management and how they could adapt the press release for their audience. This was extremely effective in communicating consistent corporate messages globally. INSETS: Join a professional or community body;Get to know your CFO.

This article presents information related to professional development. Professional development doesn't just stop at a postgraduate qualification. It is continually looking for what else one can do to help the organization. Sue Dewhurst, who represents the Internal Communication Alliance on Inter-comm's education group, the Inter-comm skills matrix which was devised by her was devised to help practitioners define standards across the industry, whether one is looking at one's own development, managing a team or trying to recruit somebody. As for contacts, it's critical to ensure that the in-house clients are on your side. Human Resource (HR) is a key client if one is the head of internal. How one develops professionally depends on the job one wants to do. It splits into either channels and tools delivery role or one that works closely with senior management, organizational development and HR to develop and advise on change communication. Those skills are very different and there's a wide gap between them.

The author explains how he helped drive understanding and performance and enhanced internal communication at Hallmark Cards. Many reasons prompted Hallmark's commitment to initiate a communication measurement program, but the main one was the realization that the company culture was hampering its success. Also, a paternalistic culture was hampering employees' understanding of business issues. To address this, the company launched a comprehensive communication audit to assess and reinvent its internal management approach. The communication team partnered with the human resources department to produce a leadership transition plan for senior leaders moving into other roles. At the same time, a focus was made on improving open communication, a behavior identified as part of a broader company wide culture initiative.

The author describes how he started the communication program at Siemens Energy Services Ltd. (SESL) in 1998 and how visible measurement has driven cultural change. Communication is very reliant on management delivery because of the public sector history of the businesses that make up SESL. He began by creating a high-level communication strategy process map based on the key principles of the European Foundation of Quality Management (EFQM) process. In 2003, he and his team launched an employee opinion survey across SESL to identify areas of the business with high performance and the factors contributing to this. With the success of the survey, the author and his team are considering the use of the monthly improvement tracker for a generic improvement plan.

This section presents several articles on developments concerning communication practices within business organizations. First, Deloitte executive Alan Schnur spoke at Melcrum's measurement conference in February 2005 on how to make staff feel valued and how to drive commitment. Second, certain organizations in Great Britain will be required to inform and consult with their staff under the Information and Consultation of Employees Regulations 2004. Third, Siemens Westinghouse in Canada has increased response rates to its opinion surveys from 2000 to 2004. Fourth, the communication method used by British company Romec is described. Fifth, a checklist from Jim Lukaszewski on holding effective meetings is presented. Finally, a tip is given on how not to use an out-of-office auto reply e-mail or publicize a company's vision.

This article provides tips on using planning and measurement in order to become a strategic communicator with the ultimate goal of helping an organization achieve its targets through behavioral change. Sinickas Communications president Angela Sinickas and Capital One associate communications specialist Helen Clayton provide their experiences in and observations on communication measures used in companies and how those measures have changed over the years. Sinickas recommends taking measures before and after team meetings or town hall meetings to measure what effect they have had on changing attitudes. There has been a bigger push for best-practice measurement ideas than benchmarking among practitioners, but although communicators are getting more credibility for presenting numbers to non-communicators, they are not yet reaching measurable objectives.

The article presents information on management communication. Speaking at Melcrum's Internal Communication Measurement Conference in February, measurement guru Angela Sinickas gave delegates a simple way to calculate a return on investment for communication. Start with the total financial value of new sales, increase in share price, improved productivity, reduced accidents, etc. A great tip from communication skills and techniques specialists, fecund projects, is the boxer training technique. Use your own resources if you need to brush up on presenting by asking colleagues to watch a practice run. Organization Visa International CEMEA (Central Europe, Middle East and Africa) has just done a branding exercise to help employees across the region understand the brand's relevance to them. It used some innovative techniques to inspire and engage employees in the first phase of a wider brand engagement exercise that will evolve throughout the year. The launch of a book describing the brand and its proposition was supported by guerrilla promotional activity.

This article discusses the importance of helping managers to communicate at Agilent Technologies. It is noted that the company's approach to management communication is threefold. The communication team believes managers must understand their accountability for communication; they need support developing communication skills; and they need message-rich content. Besides a monthly communication newsletter for managers and a robust Web site focused on leadership communication, a key delivery channel is to give managers toolkits to help them communicate with employees. As in any other organization, problems arise and the solutions the team provides have grown organically. Problems may include blockages preventing managers adequately communicating the company direction; cultural differences making communication difficult across the globe; and employee engagement. Here, the author talks about some of the tools the team has devised, how they work, who they are aimed at and the outcomes seen.

This article presents good ideas and targeted communications to achieve smart practice in business communication. These include using small-screen stars to deliver messages; making one's own corporate video; using drama workshops for messaging; embedding CSR in one's organizational processes; making CSR reporting more credible; and avoiding habits of ineffective speakers.