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Welcome to Melcrum's new monthly newsletter on measuring communication (as a subscriber to The Source for Communicators you've been sent this first issue as a taster, but you can subscribe now for the next issue).
Some communicators say their work can't be measured, while a few even say communication shouldn't be quantified.
For example, on a survey I conducted about my regular measurement column in Strategic Communication Management one communicator wrote in to say:
"Each article is well written and conceived. And the ingenuity in operationalising organizational variables is impressive. But [her] ethos … on communication in organizations is a little distasteful. I'm sure the slavish focus on the organization's bottom-line concerns makes for effective consultancy, but it disrespects the humans who invest so much of their lives therein."
The ultimate disrespect
I think shedding staff when a company's bottom line becomes a bit wobbly represents the ultimate disrespect an organization can show to its humans. But communicating with employees in a way that helps them understand the right things to do at work makes it more likely their companies will stay in business and that staff will personally benefit through pay increases and promotions. And I see nothing disrespectful in measuring how well we communicators can help that happen.
Organizational communication is most successful when it makes business issues relevant to the well-being of employees. Here are some tips to keep our measurement relevant and human as well:
- Be respectful of employees’ time. Don’t always use a survey if you could use less invasive measurement approaches instead, such as a pilot/control group study, a content analysis or web-usage tracking.
- When using surveys, measure not just the business impact of your communications, but also how user-friendly, painful or just plain annoying your processes of reaching those results are. Also be sure to feed back to respondents what you learned and what actions you expect to take as a result.
I hope you find this useful. Don't forget to subscribe now for the next issue.
Angela Sinickas
President, Sinickas Communications, Inc.
measurement@melcrum.com
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About
Melcrum
Melcrum is
a research and training business, expert in all aspects of
internal communication. Through our global networks, we connect
more than 18,000 professional communicators in sharing what
works. We produce benchmarking research, periodicals, reports,
membership websites and CD-ROMs and run training coures,
conferences and workshops.