The current down economy may have prompted some of you to take a closer look at your internal communication function – its position within the business, its processes and indeed, its people.

One of the reasons for this was captured quite succinctly by Bill Quirke, managing director of Synopsis Communication Consulting: "If you’re not looking at your own function and putting it under the microscope, someone else undoubtedly will, and quite soon."

In a new special report by Bill Quirke on Recession-proofing the internal communication function, he offers a four-stage approach to conducting this kind of review. A vital first step, he says, is assessing what your leaders expect from you.

Read on to find out how AstraZeneca R&D's senior communicators gained this valuable information, as a first step towards conducting a full review of their function.

Detailed interviews
The communication leadership team at AstraZeneca R&D started its research by carrying out a series of detailed interviews with internal customers, which identified what was working, what wasn’t, what they valued and what they didn’t. Interviews also looked at how internal customers defined their own role in communicating, and how well they felt they understood, could access and use communicators to help them.

Customer feedback was at best mixed. The perception was that communicators weren’t always giving the business what it needed. Internal customers expected more from communicators than they were getting. They weren’t very happy about the quality of the communication tactics. Messages were muddled with an overload of different themes, initiatives and projects which weren’t pulled together coherently. The employee engagement survey data showed that messages weren’t getting through to their people.

The team was also seen to be large and expensive – over and above the industry benchmarks.

Perception vs reality
The team was high on quantity and low on perceived quality. Leaders expected proactive partners – someone who could look ahead, anticipate communication issues before they hit, assess what was required and ensure that communication and messages were aligned. They wanted help when it came to making change happen, particularly in understanding their audiences, anticipating responses and articulating messages. They felt instead they were getting “crafters and drafters” who though useful and helpful weren’t providing the impact or value leaders suspected was possible.

What was surprising was that internal customers were unsure how to get the best from their communicators, although they suspected there was more to get. Where senior leaders came from the outside and were used to strong communication support, they were much clearer on what was possible, and what they could expect.

Would you pass the test?
The prospect of a recession, and therefore budget cuts, will increase the likelihood of your department being put under scrutiny, but why not make this a regular event, to ensure that your team is ready to take the test of business value at any given moment?

Visit our website to find out more about recession-proofing your internal communication function, or to place an order for the report.

See you next week,

P.S. It's membership month in the UK and Europe this October. You'll save 33% off the price of a 12-month Internal Comms Hub membership. Join today for just £195/€435 + VAT. But hurry, this offer ends on Friday, October 31st.

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The Source for Communicators is a free resource for corporate communicators from Melcrum Publishing.
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