Announcing the Results of the 2012 State of the Nation:Internal Communications Survey

• How involved are internal communicators in driving employee engagement?

• What do leaders think of internal communicators?

• What advice do internal communicators have for building a career in this function?

• How promising is the future of internal communications in the region?

• What do internal communicators focus on?

• Has social media adoption increased in internal communications?

Find out all this and more with the 2^nd edition of Intraskope’s State of the Nation: Internal Communications Survey.

 Executive Summary

The 2012 State of the Nation: Internal Communications Survey conducted between September and October 2012 attempts to gauge the progress, maturity and impact of internal communications in the region.

The Survey, in its 2^nd edition, is the first ever study from India that seeks perspectives from practitioners who work or have worked for organizations either in the capacity of a leader or an individual contributor in the internal communications function. Insights from this study can guide leaders, internal communicators and human resource professionals in understanding the opportunities, issues with change management and methods to elevate employee engagement.

This year the survey probed the following topics:

• Employee Engagement
• Change Management
• Leadership Communications
• Crisis Communications
• Manager Communications
• Conflict Management
• Career Advice
• Social Media Adoption
• Stakeholder Management

Twenty two practitioners from industries such as healthcare, automotive, telecom, auditing, IT services, manufacturing, financial services and marketing participated in the study with a majority of them from organizations with over 1000 employees.

Every participant who completed the survey received a free high level summary report of the study.

The 2011 Survey focused on role, channels, measurement, budget, social media, leadership commitment among other topics.

Those interested to receive the complete report for a nominal fee can e-mail Aniisu at [email protected]

Key Findings

• Internal communicators are struggling with keeping the ‘lights on’ and managing the basics of their function.
• Managing communication infrastructure, keeping the lines of communication open and keeping staff abreast of company news are priority.
• There is an opportunity to arrive at a common understanding among practitioners and to educate leaders on impacting staff engagement.
• Leaders didn’t repose much faith in internal communicators to tackle the growing engagement challenges within organizations. Only 43% of respondents were asked by their leadership to champion employee engagement programming.
• Change management isn’t yet on the agenda of internal communicators.
•  Only 14% of respondents said they actively participated in change management at their organization. While internal communicators were confident of implementing change they rarely got opportunities to do so. Interestingly, only 36% agreed to have ever measured the impact of internal communications on change at their respective firms.
• There is a marginal increase over last year in the positive sentiment that leaders have of the internal communications function.
• There is uncertainty on the value internal communicators can add to strategic imperatives.
• Workplace conflicts and management are yet to get the attention of internal communicators.
• Leaders rarely consulted practitioners to resolve such concerns with internal communications.
• Awareness of social media integration within organizations is on the rise. In 2011 only 6% said they had a business case for social media adoption internally. This year 63% acknowledged that their organization had an internal social media strategy and plan in place.
• Over 70% of respondents believed they had the skills to do their work effectively. This is a significant increase – more than 20% from 2011 and a very positive sign.

Author:

Aniisu K. Verghese is an internal communication expert, career coach and author and has over thirteen years of experience in the evolving internal communications domain with leading IT, financial services and consulting organizations. Aniisu is the author of – Internal Communications – Insights, Practices and Models (Sage Publications, 2012).

He managed key internal communication assignments with Fidelity, Accenture and i-flex solutions including the launch and management of corporate intranets, publishing company employee newsletters, coaching senior leadership, leading internal brand campaigns as well as crafting effective corporate social responsibility communication that improved employee engagement. Aniisu often shares expert media commentary and perspectives on culture, social media, employee and leadership communications.

He is the Vice-President – Finance, South India Chapter – International Association of Business Communicators (IABC), 2010-2012 and served as an elite panelist who evaluated and shortlisted Asia Pacific entries for the 2012 IABC’s Gold Quill Awards. He currently serves as the India Internal Communications Lead for a global IT services firm. More information about Aniisu’s is available on his Linkedin page, his website www.intraskope.com and on his blog www.intraskope.wordpress.com.

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 Keen to sponsor and partner on future surveys?

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Interested in a complete report of this study?

Mail Aniisu at [email protected]