Reassessing internal communication's core competencies with Melcrum's Strategic Research Forum

 by Kelly Parsons, VP Research and Content,

The Strategic Research Forum’s work on The Future for Internal Communication study and, more recently, the Optimizing Global-Local Communication report has highlighted a breakdown in our approach to IC competencies and professional development.

As we push to elevate the role of internal communication in the global organization, we must take a hard look at the expectations and performance management systems we put in place for ourselves – these systems are in dire need of an overhaul.

Let's take a look at some core competencies, issues and how Melcrum can help:

• “Trusted advisor”: While a laudable outcome, this is not in itself a competency. We need to hone in on the specific skills and knowledge that allow us to become business leaders and advisors and then hire – and develop – against those.
• Project management: Rising in importance, this “baseline” competency is often lacking in IC’s toolkit. Yet the pace of change and proliferation of channels and audiences require IC to scope, plan and deliver projects efficiently and effectively.
• Digital: This is a tough one because, while it may be “just another channel”, it’s one that’s on the up. Furthermore, it’s disrupting many of our business models in ways we couldn’t have predicted five years ago. Smart communicators are asking “what will digital do to our business and how can I get out ahead of it with?” Understanding and tapping into digital channels and networks is likely a competency area that will set winners apart in the future.
• Global: No, global is not a competency. But it is a driver of the need to standardize competencies. IC professionals, like the entire workforce, are becoming more mobile. Without global expectations, tools, and assessments in place, we cannot have confidence that an IC professional in London will be successful when transferred to Hong Kong. 

Melcrum’s plan

We’re revisiting internal communication competencies with a critical eye, collapsing skills into broader groupings and blowing out emergent competencies to understand the specifics of success underneath. Look out for a new model in the coming weeks, followed soon after by interactive tools and systems to help you evolve your own competency models.

Until next time,

Kelly

BBC internal comms team delivers bad news well

By James Bennett, Head of Content, Melcrum

UK newspaper, The Guardian, has managed to get hold of an email sent out by the BBC's internal communication team to its staff notifying them of it plans to close its final-salary pension scheme to new joiners, and restrict its benefits, in order to stem a £2 billion ($3bn) deficit.

There's never an easy way to announce to your staff that there's a whopping great hole in your company pension fund and that from April 1st 2011 future salary increases for calculating pension benefits will be limited to 1% per year.

They even go on to explain: "In other words, after this date pensionable salary will grow at a maximum of 1% per year, no matter what actual salary increases an employee receives." Brutal but honest and equally inevitable considering many assets within many other pension schemes around the world have also performed poorly due to the global economic downturn. If any of these grand schemes of old are to be successfully phased out and new "sustainable" versions take their place, as appears the case within most large organizations, then this is potentially the only way to go.

Give the BBC internal comms team some credit though, they deliver the news (that many expected) in a very clear and precise way allowing employees to give their feedback via a hotline, email address, and a series of staff seminars hosted by its pensions team from 5th July who will explain the proposed changes in greater detail and give staff the chance to ask questions face-to-face. All existing scheme members will also receive an email from Jeremy Peat, chairman of the BBC Pension Scheme Trustees, with further details of the 2009 interim valuation of the scheme.

So who's next and are you having to deal with a similar change? Let us know.

Happy 40th IABC! 40 things I learned at World Congress 2010

By James Bennett, Head of Content, Melcrum

1. The breakdown of trust in leaders is at its lowest ever point and will deteriorate further. But now’s the time to swap dancing partners. Research has shown that middle and line managers are the most trusted people within organizations and it up to us to get on their side and work with them as effectively as possible to leverage that trust.
2. Social media was discussed in almost every conversation and session I had and attended. But talking simply isn’t enough. The feeling from the profession is that communicators are using the tools, but they don’t seem to be using them to reach a constructive end goal and with the overall company strategy in mind.
3. Employee volunteering works. Fact. It improves communication, morale and motivation, personal fulfillment and those companies that actively engage in volunteering are more profitable, experience reduced absenteeism and are winning the war for talent. Two-thirds of Gen Y employees at Deloitte, for example, said they would rather work for a company that encourages volunteering.
4. In the post-recession age we live and work in, always plan for the unthinkable.
5. Communication is a company’s most powerful ally in a crisis… just ask BP.
6. Empower your employees by allowing them to become product ambassadors. Let them get their hands dirty.
7. Accept the risks of allowing employees to express themselves freely and instead focus on the end goal and the rewards.
8. Have courage part one – don’t be afraid to get fired.
9. Have courage part two – don’t be afraid to tell the CEO he’s a terrible presenter and he “lip smacks” when on video.
10. Leaders are like tofu: clearly part of the meal, perhaps even the main source of nutrition, but the spice is provided by everyone around them.
11. Make it a habit – make engagement part of employees' everyday routines for it to pay dividends.
12. Follow the example of the Me to We philosophy and movement and create a culture of empathy, community, meaning and legacy.
13. Memorise and use this quote: “We can do no great things; only small things with great love.”
    Mother Theresa
14. Content in context is king and data is his queen.
15. Successful leaders should always lead with their ace and play the communication card.
16. Every leader has his blind spot – and it’s up to you to spot them.
17. All communicators are sales people.
18. Information is useless – your audience wants knowledge.
19. Get stuck in traffic – find opportunities to do nothing and when you do, do nothing but think.
20. Read your writing aloud – strive to thrill yourself with what you write.
21. Writing is like a window – it should allow your readers to see what would otherwise be invisible.
22. Make your writing transparent – help your readers see your ideas, not your words.
23. Outsource the gaps in your skill set.
24. Communication can release the best potent asset, the human asset.
25. Communication is the path to survival, recovery and growth and a company’s constant companion.
26. Communication is a leader’s lifeline to results.
27. Communicate the future – write a fake news article showing your employees what the future looks like and how you can all work together to achieve greatness.
28. Only 19% of global employees are looking to leave their current roles, but the engagement gap is widening – Towers Watson 2010 Workforce Study.
29. Employees don’t know where to turn in 2010. In a global study when Towers Watson asked people whether they would like a job for life with one company, follow their opportunities as they come along or only work for two or three employers during their careers, the data was split exactly three ways.
30. Employees are reliant on their managers and leaders but not confident in what they are doing for them.
31. Embrace uncertainty.
32. The recession has ended the “deal” between employer and employee.
33. The “new deal” is about knowing and enabling your workforce, customising their experience and planning for the future.
34. The “new deal” will take courage, innovation and discipline – leaders will play a vital role.
35. The Art of Innovation – Polarize people over issues they care about.
36. Never stop learning and continuously seek knowledge.
37. Act like an agency – make your "clients", a.k.a your employees, the stars.
38. Always seek to add value.
39. As a conference organizer always provide a reliable Wi-Fi connection… although IABC never fear, even Steve Jobs had issues at the launch of the iPhone 4.
40. Canadians say “eh”. Rather a lot.

When will internal comms finally make a TV appearance?

By James Bennett, Head of Content, Melcrum

Just like the viewing patterns of the majority of people who watched BBC 2's 'Inside John Lewis' documentary last night I'll keep it brief.

Now that internal communicators and the value of the function is finally being recognised by global executive boards, surely now is the time for us all to step up and step out of our shells and into the public eye? Rather than the head of PR or a shaky-handed cameraman (it may work for Oscar-winning The Hurt Locker but not when you're touring the homeware section discussing how many bathmats have been sold in the last hour) and his documentary team guiding us round Lewis's British stores, it should have been the retailer's head of internal comms. They could have highlighted how well the comms team coaches the CEO, explain the work they've done to engage employees during the toughest year in the company's history or perhaps guided viewers through the ins and outs of the its change comms strategy?

The BBC described it as a "television first" going behind the scenes of "one Britain's biggest and best known department stores - as it tackles changing tastes, tougher competition and the worst recession for 80 years". And that's exactly why I watched it. But no. Opportunity missed. Instead it was simply an exercise in self-promotion.

John Spedan Lewis, the Partnership's founder, pioneered the commercial co-operative making every staff member a partner and handing out a share of the profits - a unique selling point to any employee current or prospective. We saw none of that in yesterday's episode. Sure, the majority of employees seemed happy to be there. No wonder, each one received a 13% bonus last year. Even the robotic wedding list sellers, who walk innocent newly-engaged couples through which brand of bread bin they should allocate to their guests (on average £60 per head and £1,000 per wedding) seemed engaged enough but it always felt as if the real story lay elsewhere.

A preview for next week's instalment showed a group of disengaged employees complaining that being part of John Lewis wasn't what it once was. Good enough TV fodder perhaps, but again, why didn't the internal comms team step up to the plate and explain what they're doing to turn this situation around?

Judging from Penny Lawson's comments, head of internal communications at British Airways, at this week's Melcrum third annual Change Communication conference - who took time away from an incredibly stressful situation dealing with a severely disrupted workforce - (search #changecomms on Twitter for some of the highlights) I'd much rather be a fly on the wall inside BA. Now there's a story.

Going under the change communication covers

By James Bennett, Head of Content, Melcrum

First we had the Undercover Boss. Sorry, I mean Melcrum was the first publisher to secure and showcase Stephen Martin, chief executive of Clugston Group and star of Channel 4’s 2009 ‘Undercover Boss’ series, as a keynote speaker for our Strategic Management Communication summit. Now, however, the programme has gone mainstream with a preview from the new American series given a prime time airing directly after last night’s Superbowl, a huge-audience slot normally reserved by a network to launch a new sitcom or drama.

Yes, the Americans have got hold of the format and, like the fast food culture they have so kindly exported to the rest of earth, they've gone large.

But while it might seem that we 'borrowed' an idea from Channel 4 the last time around, on this occasion  it's arguably borrowed one of ours. Tonight at 8pm sees the regular Dispatches documentary team go undercover dressed as agency postmen to find out if the Royal Mail has delivered on claims that it is modernising and improving its service. In 2004 and in 2005, the team also investigated the company and, in Channel 4’s own words, “exposed serious systemic and individual failures within the organisation”, resulting in an inquiry by the postal regulator, followed by a fine of almost £10 million.

But we’ve gone one better. Rather than go undercover we’ve invited Alana Renner, head of engagement & internal communications at the Post Office, to talk about how she has engaged her employees and helped to transform the organisation from a loss to a profit making business at Melcrum's third annual change communication conference. What should be made clear is that the Post Office is a subsidiary of Royal Mail Group and operates under the Post Office brand managing a nationwide network of around 12,000 branches, the largest retail branch network in the UK handling more cash than any other business.

Alongside the Royal Mail, the Post Office has undergone huge upheaval with countrywide branch closures, redundancies and, as the frontline organisation for the Royal Mail, has had to deal with angry customers and equally frustrated employees. Alana will be on hand to answer all your questions so make sure you watch tonight’s show and come armed with any issues you would like to raise.

And if you haven’t yet booked on to the conference and workshops do it now! It's on between 9th and 10th March and is fast approaching. We've got an extremely strong line up this year, including behind-the-scenes case studies from British Airways, Aviva and of course The Post Office.

Vodafone Twitter account suffers internal breach

By James Bennett, Head of Content, Melcrum

If internal communicators hadn’t realised the power, speed and significance of social media then all you need to do is look at the following photo a Twitter user posted only minutes ago responding to a rather nasty message on Vodafone’s official UK feed. I won’t repeat it within this blog as it’s offensive.

According to @VodafoneUK, that is now having to field thousands of customer tweets complaining about the offensive message, the telecoms company’s Twitter feed was not hacked but the offending message was instead down to, in its own words, “a severe breach of rules by staff”. The message then went on to say: “We're really sorry. Dealing with that internally. Please keep your faith in us.”

The tweet out to customers was at least swift and will have salvaged some pride. In fact many customers have thanked the company for its rapid response, but sadly the damage has been done, spread worldwide and all at the click of a mouse button within a matter of nanoseconds. The tweet may have been hurriedly deleted but hundreds of users chose to retweet the original message.

It is still unclear what exactly happened but this must serve as a warning to all internal communicators whose responsibility it is to carefully manage these channels whatever business they're in.

If you haven't already, sign up NOW to Melcrum's must-attend Social Media Conference for internal communications.

Could salary disclosure lead to higher levels of engagement?

By James Bennett, Managing Online Editor, Melcrum

In my previous position working for a newspaper in the Middle East I remember walking into the newsroom, sitting down at my desk, switching my computer on and checking my emails. It was a day like any other. What I didn’t expect was complete silence. The usual buzz of mobiles, sound of scurrying feet and crashing of keyboards had been replaced with the low hum of staff whispering to one another. Something was wrong. I’d heard it all before. It was the sound of sackings, budgets being slashed, staff being asked to take voluntary redundancy and the imminent arrival of the editor in chief employee list in hand ready to wield the axe of doom. But it wasn’t. I was wrong. It was worse.

A disgruntled employee had managed to not only abscond the country (the UAE) with hundreds of thousands of dirhams worth of debts and leave his car running at the airport, he had also managed to hack into the company’s system, copy and paste everyone’s salaries and post them on a site called Wikileaks, famous for its ability to destroy reputations in one email. His plan to get back at his superiors had worked perfectly.

Two things happened, one that affected all the employees and caused huge unrest for months afterwards, and another that affected the relationship between employees and senior leaders. Firstly, several members of staff were found to be earning far larger sums than their so-called equals and rumours rapidly circulated this was because of either their gender or their nationality, not because of their superior work experience or qualifications. Then, we all discovered how much our line managers and some of the senior staff earned, a small number of which were being fed more annual income into their bank accounts than Barack Obama or Gordon Brown. One even earned more than the GDP of small third world nation - not the best morale boosting news for a company that had only been running for less than a year.

Today’s news, however, that UK banks will be forced to disclose the number of employees who earn more than £1 million a year will bring a smile to many consumers who have watched from the sidelines as government and essentially taxpayers money has been used to prop up several large failing financial institutions. Oh, and don’t forget the bonuses, billions of pounds of which has been given to those who landed us in this mess in the first place.

As Sir David Walker, who led the report, says: “We're going to have to fund the problems generated by the banks not only this year but it's our children and grandchildren who are going to have to pay these costs."

But what about those poor old bankers who will, like me, wander onto the trading floor one day soon to discover that everyone knows exactly how much they earn? In their case it’s arguably needed. The financial services industry should be more transparent and risk averse in order to avoid another collapse. We need to know how much is being spent on salaries, especially when the money being spent is effectively ours.

I have nothing against the banking and finance industry but change here is clearly needed. The question is, should this apply to other industries and what effect would it have on the overall communication policies of thousands of organisations? The experience I went through was wrong, out of control and hit the employees hard and without warning. Done within a controlled manner and for good reason - transparency and a “nothing to hide here” culture being just two - disclosing everyone's salary from CEO to the cleaning staff, could well have a positive effect on morale, engagement and employee confidence during the toughest of times.

Let me know what you think either by emailing me at james.bennett@melcrum.com or on Twitter either at Melcrum's Twitter feed or my own.

Living in the clouds: Is this the future of comms?

By James Bennett, Managing Online Editor, Melcrum

As business and the world around us continues to evolve and speed up we constantly need to adapt to our surroundings, more so now of course as companies across the globe cut back, trim budgets and get used to life in a long-term recession.

So what should they do? I’m sure if everyone knew the answer they’d have done it by now. But it only takes one and the rest will follow. The one in this case being global services firm Rentokill that is switching all its 35,000 employees in 50 countries from 180 different email domains and 40 mail systems to ‘cloud based email’ (email that sits within a virtual online server and that is managed by a cloud service provider such as Google or Yahoo) provider Google Apps by 2010 savings them millions in costs and at the same time encouraging all of its employees to use a far simpler, more integrated and collaborative set of tools with which I’m sure the majority are already familiar. We all know how to use Google effectively; we don’t all know how to use Lotus Notes or Microsoft Outlook.

Google Apps is a service from our friends at Google that allows you to use custom domain names with several Google products featuring various Web applications with similar functionality to traditional office suites, including Gmail, Google Calendar, Talk, and Docs. The standard edition is free and offers the same amount of storage as regular Gmail accounts. The Premier Edition, which offers 25 GB of email storage, is around US$50 or $33 per year, per account.

This could well turn out to be an internal communication masterstroke both in terms of cost but also by bringing every employee closer together onto one system allowing them to share calendar information, chat live to one another, and have access to email translation and video.

Not only that the system will also provide email access to 20,000 regular PC users, as well as 15,000 on-the-road staff. The remote workers, who did not originally have a company email account, will now be able to access Google mail from any internet-connected device such as a PDA, iPhone or home computer.

Are any of the businesses you work for/with considering this or have they already switched over? Let me know either on email: james.bennett@melcrum.com, on Melcrum Communicators' network on Linked In that has 2,500 active users or tweet us on Twitter. We’d love to hear from you!

US firms favour internal comms as no.1 retention tool

By James Bennett, Managing Online Editor, Melcrum

Retaining key staff is the Holy Grail of maintaining productivity and profitability during an economic downturn, however retention often involves boosting salaries to keep- employees sweet – something that very much against the culture of almost every business that has suffered at the hands of the worst recession in 60 years.

That said a recent survey out today by workforce productivity improvement group i4cp found that 18% of high-performing organizations have already taken the step of increasing compensation levels to reduce turnover, compared to 7% of lower performers, while the same ratio of high performers (18%) and 24% of lower performers plan to implement pay raises in the next six to 12 months.

The highlight, however is that this doesn’t necessarily have an effect on staff retention, internal communications does, with the majority of US respondents (81%) naming the function as their favored method. Among higher market performers, a massive 91% pointed to communication as their top method of staunching turnover, compared to 71% of lower performers. An increased focus on talent management (77%) was the second-highest choice, with succession planning (59%) third.

Looking to the future and the eventual recovery that is slowly materializing, 70% of higher-performing companies said they were planning to stem the number of staff departures by increasing their focus on succession planning and talent management with leadership training being planned by 66% of higher-performing firms. Lower performers said they planned to focus first on talent management issues (71%), followed by 62% who plan to increase internal communication.

The study showed that higher performers are more likely to involve employees in the process, however an incredible 21% admitted they had never surveyed their employees about engagement issues, compared to a more credible 36% of lower performers. Both higher and lower-performing companies that conduct surveys are  most likely to survey their workers annually. More reassuringly, and based on the results of their most recent surveys, 49% of higher performers reported an increase in engagement, compared to a quarter (26%) of lower market performing organizations.

10 great reasons to attend this year’s SCM Summit London

By James Bennett, Managing Online Editor, Melcrum

If you haven't already, make sure you sign up the Melcrum's SCM Summit in London 13th to 15th October 2009! It's only 27 days away!!!

  Here are 10 great reasons why you should!

1. The economic recovery - looking to the future: find out why successful internal communicators are the key to leading us to economic recovery, how they can rebuild trust in leaders, re-engage employees and increase performance, and plan for 2010 by refreshing your ideas and knowledge and finding out what’s working for others.
2. Take the lead - find out how your peers are becoming trusted advisors to the leadership team, and coaching managers to be better communicators.
3. The best networking - rub shoulders with the best and brightest in the industry, the largest gathering of senior communicators in Europe this year.
4. Latest research - hear the latest trends and Melcrum research into internal communication best practice in rebuilding trust, change communication, social media and employee engagement.
5. International perspective - meet delegates from all over Europe, the US, Africa and Middle East and gain an international perspective.
6. Case studies: hear first-hand accounts from senior communicators at HSBC, ING, KBC Group, Network Rail, Westminster City Council, Asda, Volvo and Vodafone amongst others.
7. FIRST UK PRESENTATION!!! A CEO’s unique view of comms - don’t miss this year’s special guest Stephen Martin, star of Channel Four’s ‘Undercover Boss’ series and CEO of construction company Clugston Group as he recounts the lessons he took back to the boardroom after working on the frontline.
8. Ideas you can put into practice - you’ll come away with dozens of proven techniques and ideas you can use back at the office.
9. Get involved - the SCM Summit is more than a conference, it’s a chance for you to gain feedback, discuss your challenges and hear what’s working via roundtable sessions, panel discussions, and interactive workshops.
10. Communicators trust Melcrum to deliver - now in its 8th year, the SCM Summit is the one event you tell us you can’t afford to miss, even when your budgets have been cut.

We have three summits, one in Australia, that is in its first day today, one in the US in Chicago and of course London.

Follow us at all three summits on Twitter via the following hashtags:

Australia: #scmau
United States: #scmus
United Kingdom: #scmuk