As nearly a million gallons of oil flood into the Gulf of Mexico each day, an internal investigation into the BP oil spill - now dubbed the worst in US history - reveals serious IT failures contributed to the devastating Deepwater Horizon disaster.

Preliminary findings from the investigation, released by the US government, contained some damning facts about IT at the rig, which is operated by BP but owned by Transocean. The energy company has said: "There were multiple control mechanisms - procedures and equipment - in place that should have prevented this accident or reduced the impact of the spill."

But as the Obama administration piles pressure on the industry to pick up the bill for the billions of dollars of damage that's been estimated, perhaps the President would find some comfort in knowing BP's communication function fully understands the impact communication and engagement have on levels of performance.

Back in 2007, Kathleen Rojas, director, DCT Communications for the IT function of BP Plc., told Melcrum how the organization invested significant resources into coaching IT managers to communicate more effectively with their teams.

"As sources of information, immediate line managers are the chief influencers and opinion leaders in the business. Evidence also shows that messages received from immediate line managers are most likely to affect employees' levels of engagement." To find out how BP improved manager-employee relationships, read the full article on the Internal Comms Hub.

Also, why not check out our Social Media Conference speaker preview clip featuring Louise Denver from Deloitte Australia.

Until next time,

Nishwa

P.S. The SCM Summit London is taking place on 11th -13th October. Email us if you want to be notified when the full programme is available.

Editor's Choice

Coaching BP's IT managers to engage their teams Kathleen Rojas, the Internal Comms Hub Recognizing the value of line managers when it comes to internal communication prompted BP's IT function to look at how well equipped its managers were to do this effectively. The investigation turned up a familiar story of dull presentations and round-robin emails. Here, Kathleen Rojas explains the company's quest to improve internal communication with some unusual - but ultimately very effective - techniques. Read more...

Time we got back to basics? Nishwa Ashraf, Editorial Assistant, the Melcrum Blog An abundance of technology may be at our fingertips, but are communicators aligning these tools with their comms strategies or just jumping on the tech-bandwagon? Read more...

Three ways to improve manager communication Andy Szpekman, the Internal Comms Hub Managers are popular sources of information because employees often have little interest in what's communicated through other sources. Andy Szpekman, president at AHS Communications advises how to harness the organization's most popular information source. Read more...

The positive impact of communication on safety at Shell Anthea Cudworth, the Internal Comms Hub In the energy and resources industries, fatalities are far too frequent. However, in the Shell Group's exploration and production upstream business, the number of accidents has been dramatically reversed after the launch of "Goal Zero". Anthea Cudworth, who led internal communication for its launch, describes how it galvanized the firm to shift the way people thought about safety, and thereby how they managed the business. Read more...