What HSBC discovered when they carried out global internal communication research

Research headed by HSBC, and supported by brand and communication consultancy UffindellWest, in late 2008 aimed to discover how internal communication works in a variety of global organizations.

In an article published in the most recent issue of Strategic Communication Management and featured on the Internal Comms Hub, you can see the findings, which reveal that many forward-thinking internal communication approaches are being implemented, and discover what the industry can learn from these results.

"The most noticeable aspect across the study was the emerging importance of employee engagement in the role and purpose of internal communication, says Jo Alexander, head of group internal communications at HSBC, who led the research.

"Increasingly, evidence is proving that engaged employees are more productive but many of us have felt uncomfortable about drawing too hard a line between the communication we do and the engagement scores or indices devised by our companies."

Keep reading to hear more about the research findings.

Interested in hearing the results brought to life? Jo Alexander and colleagues from UffindellWest will be speaking on this topic at Melcrum's Strategic Communication Management Summit in London.

The early bird discount ends this Friday, so book your place today to receive the best price possible!

What's the purpose of the internal communication discipline?
This was our first question, and the answers are familiar but show how different organizations look for slightly different outcomes from their internal communication discipline as follows:

• Create understanding of strategy and direction
• Support organizational change
• Keep people informed of company news
• Build company pride
• Help people to live the values

What complicates the role of internal communicators is the way the discipline doesn't work in isolation but alongside, and reports into, functions such as HR, marketing and external communication, creating a specific bias.

When linked to HR, internal communication focuses on employee engagement. When working with marketing it's on customer service. And when working with external communication, it's geared towards the internal management of the news agenda and corporate social responsibility.

At HSBC, where the Group internal communication team reports into corporate communication, the discipline is heavily involved in day-to-day news management. For Jo Alexander, the wide scope of her team's role means that one of her challenges is finding the time to be a proactive advisor on strategic business projects, whilst needing to align the internal news agenda with the agenda of her colleagues in external media relations.

Working in an industry that's currently very much in the spotlight and undergoing significant media and government scrutiny, staying topical and timely is critical to the credibility of internal communication but it can't be at the expense of the other longer-term projects that they support.

An emerging trend
The most noticeable aspect across the study was the emerging importance of employee engagement in the role and purpose of internal communication.

Increasingly, evidence is proving that engaged employees are more productive but many of us have felt uncomfortable about drawing too hard a line between the communication we do and the engagement scores or indices devised by our companies. "It's about line managers," we say. Or, "Engagement is really an HR topic."

The research showed that many internal communicators are now embracing a role in facilitating engagement, realizing that their skills can make them uniquely qualified to play a key role in supporting line managers and also seeing that they can build a profile for their own discipline at the same time.

How do you drive interaction with employees?
This is one of thorniest questions for internal communicators and our research showed that it continues to receive significant attention, money and creativity as we strive to find an approach that works. We're experimenting with a vast array of social media, investing in expensive TV and video channels and creating bespoke training and coaching programs.

What's clear is that almost all solutions require some kind of technology framework to enable us to easily reach the dispersed audience we're hoping to engage.

Create genuine two-way dialogue
We all know that face-to-face communication is the holy grail of internal communication and that face-to-face communication involving managers (rather than communicators) builds trust, shows commitment and helps employees to connect what they do in their every day jobs with the mission of even the largest business.

Our research confirmed the pitfalls of two-way dialogue:

• Often methods, including conference calls, team briefings and roadshows, are still broadcast channels and don't consistently facilitate dialogue.
• Information is often sent by email and not briefed in person.
• There are no measures to test how effective line managers are at communication.
• Managers may not know what's expected of them in terms of communication.
• There's often no proof that employee feedback has been listened to.

But we also saw what those companies who are getting it right are doing:

• They have a supportive leadership team.
• They make communication a formal part of the line manager's role and give each line manager effective communication training.
• They send briefing materials direct to front line managers and these are tailored to the local context.
• They audit the process to ensure it's happening.
• They use technology to enable a faster, more professional solution.

You can access the full article here, regardless of whether you're a Melcrum member or not.

Until next time,

P.S. Don't forget that the early bird discount for Strategic Communication Management Summit in London expires at the end of this week - book today to receive the best discount.

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