Talk Internal Communication

Effective communication and employee engagement go hand in hand. This is encouraging news for those involved in internal communication as the Towers Perrin's 2003 study of over 35,000 employees said that only 17 percent of the respondents to their survey were "actively engaged" in their jobs, while 19 percent were "actively disengaged." That left 64 percent who were "moderately engaged." These findings reflect similary findings by the Gallup Organization which showed that that 16 percent of employees were engaged, 69 percent not engaged and 15 percent actively disengaged.

The support of your CEO is essential to the communication process. What leaders pay attention to tends to get the attention of the entire organisation. In supporting communication the CEO must agree that everything he/she does and says both formally and informally will reinforce the importance of communication. If not everything he/she does demonstrates commitment to communication staff and managers in particular will become sceptical about the importance of communication. For example, if the CEO turns up late to staff briefings, is unprepared, or lets their phone ring during the meeting, the message this conveys is that communication is not really important, it is quite important but when more pressing issues arise it takes a back seat.

Strategic and high performing internal communicators are consulted on: ∎High level strategy long- term ∎Strategic advocacy globally ∎Growth planned, acquisitions ∎New products, services; ROI ∎Sales & marketing strategy ∎Current affairs: now, future ∎Business reputation, branding ∎Stakeholder relations (all) ∎Employee engagement, culture.