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Measuring Internal Communication
August 2008 | Volume 6 Issue 8
Employee surveys and focus groups are useful measurement tools—if you know how to analyze the data they produce. In this issue of CW Bulletin, our experts reveal how to use these tools to determine the effectiveness of your internal communication, and how to use the information you gather to make improvements.
Natasha Nicholson
Executive Editor
Amanda Aiello
Associate Editor |
Features
EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION
by John Williams
Most people will tell you that a communication effectiveness survey provides an assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of your communication programs. What is less well-known is that through a communication effectiveness survey, you can actually quantify the impact that specific communication programs have on organizational performance—pointing out which programs to focus on to drive positive results in the organization.
FOCUS GROUPS
by Robin McCasland
Unbiased employee research is as valuable in your workplace as external research is to advertisers who need to know what consumers think about their products. Employee feedback is the backbone of a good internal communication strategy because it supports your proposed approaches. Research can include a lot of techniques, including focus groups, which are particularly effective in helping uncover how your employees perceive their work environment.
IMPACT SURVEYS
by Ilene Gochman
How do you maximize the return on your investment in employee communication? How do you demonstrate the value of communication to senior management? It’s simple: Apply your resources to the communication practices that have the biggest impact on business results.
ENGAGING EMPLOYEES
by Marcia Xenitelis
The frequency with which the word “engagement” appears in any discussion about employee communication has begun to make me wonder whether we clearly understand what the term means. We have engagement tools, but can we really say that these tools actually engage employees in the process of change? Or are employees merely engaged with the tool itself?
Columns
The Art of Architectural Photography
by Suzanne Salvo
People are highly animated, emotional creatures. Even while sitting still, their faces constantly change. They yawn, frown, blink—making it hard for photographers to capture them at their absolute best. On the other hand, buildings don’t move. And buildings don’t have emotions. So it should be really easy for anyone to get a good architectural shot, right? Unfortunately, it isn’t so. Buildings don’t move, but photographically they present an irksome set of perspective problems.
The Social Media Gender Gap
by Laura Thomas, ABC
As social media, Web 2.0 and new tools of the unmediated Web become more common to communicators, many of us will try to learn more by attending a conference or workshop on the subject. And there, we are likely to come across a paradox.
A study by the online reputation management site Rapleaf indicated that while both men and women are using social media in huge numbers, women are doing so at a much higher rate. An article in the New York Times earlier this year noted that the primary creators of web content are teenage girls.
Yet at many of these conferences about social media, the people presenting are mostly men.
- “ID Theft Recovery Study,” Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company
- “How Can I Possibly Eat Nine Fruits and Vegetables a Day?,” Humana Inc.
- “Internal Communication Benchmarking Study,” Barclays Global Investors (BGI) and Sinickas Communications
Communication in the News
Related Resources provides additional articles and resources for understanding this month’s topic of measuring internal communication. You can also find some of these links alongside each corresponding feature article for quick reference. Links include:
- “Communicating Employee Survey Results,” by Bill Roche
- “How to Conduct a Focus Group,” by Patrick Williams
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This issue sponsored by:
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