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Structuring a Communication Department
January 2008 | Volume 6 Issue 1
Structuring a communication department can be challenging. Budgets and department size must be considered, not to mention the overall function and goals of your organization. Articles in this issue of the CW Bulletin look at some of the forces affecting department structure, like outsourcing and the rise of the virtual office, and offer tips to help build the most effective department.
Natasha Nicholson
Executive Editor
Amanda Aiello
Assistant Editor |
Features
STRUCTURING
by Ron Hess
In the 21st-century workplace, efficiency and speed are demanded, change is the norm, time is at a premium, and stress levels are high. Management has big expectations for what employee communication can accomplish in support of its goals, believing it can play a significant role in solving problems, achieving employee engagement, and building momentum for change and growth.
Building an effective employee communication department that can rise to meet expectations and deliver results is no easy task.
VIRTUAL OFFICE
by Brad Whitworth, ABC
One of the traditional signs of corporate success has been the corner office. Yet today some of the most successful communication executives don't have an office at all. They work from home, the airport, a visitor’s cubicle at headquarters, the back of a cab, a corner Starbucks or a beachfront cottage.
If you’re setting up a corporate communication department today, it’s time to think outside the box—or the cubicle—when it comes to locating yourself and your coworkers.
OUTSOURCING
by Kathy Collura
Outsourcing is not new to the corporate communication department. The breadth and complexity of communication technology and the widely varied skills needed to communicate effectively to all audiences make it nearly impossible for a corporate communication department to do it all.
Every organization handles communication outsourcing differently. However, there are two basic models of outsourcing currently in use.
IN HOUSE OR AGENCY?
by Peter A. Eschbach
When considering possible staffing models for structuring your corporate communication function, your choices typically range from the extremes of establishing an all in-house staff to totally outsourcing the function by enlisting the services of a PR agency (or agencies) to do it all for you. More common is the combination that takes advantage of the benefits of the two previous options, while hopefully minimizing their disadvantages.
Columns
Final Check:
Dotting those i’s and crossing those t’s
by Natalie Canavor and Claire Meirowitz
You’ve worked long and hard on your article, newsletter, press release, promo brochure or report. Now it’s time to move your baby off your screen and into the world. Not so long ago your baby would have gone either onto a printed page or onto the Web. These days, your words will probably head for both. Even materials such as newsletters, white papers, reports and advertorials that are first published on paper are quite likely to be reprinted, archived or otherwise reused on the Web, perhaps even as an audio file or podcast. People may even blog about your content.
What does this mean for you as a business communicator?
Start the New Year Off Right
Five steps on the path to business success
by Daria Steigman
The champagne bottles are empty. The fireworks have long since dissipated into the ether, and the celebrations are over. It’s 2008 now, and if you're lucky you crossed the threshold with a clear mind and a clean slate.
Even if you have leftover To Do items, now’s the chance to either hammer them out or put them at the top of a new list so they’re not the dregs of times past. In the business world, there’s a reason most companies forge multiyear plans and annual budgets. Sometimes a new beginning offers new opportunities.
Facing Facebook
by Geoff Barbaro
Technological changes keep happening, and every time a new phenomenon occurs, employers seem to react the same way. Questions that were asked about phones, e-mail, mobile phones and blogs in the workplace are now being asked about online social networks.
Why do we keep repeating history? In my view, it’s because we can get so overwhelmed by the possibilities of the tools that we lose focus on the basic functions of communication and how these tools can help us with them.
- “Reorganization and Acquisition of UDI,” BAE Systems Inc.
- “We are CVRD (Somos Vale),” CVRD—Companhia Vale do Rio Doce
Related Resources provides additional articles and resources for understanding this month’s topic of structuring a communication department. You can also find some of these links alongside each corresponding feature article for quick reference. Links include:
- “Organizational Structure Can Be Underlying Cause of Workplace Issues,” by Joan Lloyd
- “Which Way to the Future?,” by Michael Mandel
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This issue sponsored by:
Media measurement is a hot topic because it’s the foundation for tracking word-of-mouth, managing corporate reputation and understanding what kind of coverage your brand and its competitors are getting in the press. The new white paper “Best Practices in Media Measurement,” by Professor Paul Argenti of Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business, is essential reading for any PR or corporate communications professional. Download your copy, sponsored by Dow Jones, today.
Interested in sponsoring an issue of CW Bulletin? Find out how to become a sponsor.
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