Creating a workplace that is conducive to an internal communication strategy is only the beginning. The critical and challenging part is actually keeping your chosen strategy going, essentially for as long as the business is operating. In order to make sure that your internal communication keeps on going, you have to make it a point that you regularly check on your plan and how it is going. Through regular monitoring, not only are you able to determine what is working and what is not, but you are also able to create changes in order to improve your internal communication strategy.
Monitoring and analysis can prove to be difficult – after all, communication is rather vague and abstract. However, the following are some of the more concrete and simpler ways you can monitor your internal communications to at least make a determination of how well it is working for your organization:
1. Determine how satisfied your staff members are when it comes to the speed, level and inclusivity of the information they receive.
Ask your employees if they feel a sense of belongingness based on the information being provided to them. Ask they if they are well informed about the things that affect them, and if they have all the information they need to perform their jobs in the best and most effective way possible. You can collect information as the ones mentioned through surveys, but if you believe that your employees may hesitate to answer truthfully, give them the option of giving their honest opinions anonymously.
2. Make sure to bring up the effectivity or infectiveness of your internal communication strategy during evaluation sessions and employee retreats. Open forums allow for employees to have a voice and a say regarding how people communicate and interact in the workplace.
3. At the end of staff meetings, ask for feedback.
You can ask for feedback from the whole group after meetings regarding work processes or anything that concerns them. You may also opt to regularly meet individually with staff members to ask them to give their honest review about your internal communication strategy and if they feel that anything needs to be changed or altered.
4. Make a determination if there are internal problems that occur during the time period you are assessing, and if these issues decrease or increase in frequency or severity. If there is a significant change for the better, it is more likely due to the fact that your internal communication strategy is working.
5. Identify and rectify individuals, systems or organizational inertia that are deemed to be sticking points. Sticking points are those which cause processes to halt, slow down or be problematic.
For individuals, pull aside employees who you deem to be bottlenecks in the communication flow. Ask them for possible solutions to the issues and address the challenges they have that keep them from communicating effectively. If they refuse or are unable to be effective communicators, bypass them.
For systems, you can work with your team to make changes or modifications to the systems in order to make them more responsive to your internal communication requirements. This may mean looking for other alternatives when it comes to relaying messages to employees, such as shifting from staff meetings to more effective methods, to even rewriting existing procedures and policies.
When it comes to organizational inertia, change within the whole organization might be needed in order to improve internal communications. Policies might need to change, and outdated and ineffective attitudes or preconceptions once alive within the organization might have to be given up in order for change to occur.
