P2: Series Tay mơ học làm về Truyền thông nội bộ

Tiếp nối Part 1, mình tiếp tục tìm hiểu sâu hơn về các khái niệm.

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Sở dĩ mình search từ khóa tiếng anh vì mình thấy tài nguyên tiếng anh phong phú hơn và việc tìm hiểu bằng tiếng anh sẽ tránh những lỗi bị hiểu nhầm do lỗi dịch thuật khi đọc bài viết tiếng việt. Ở bài viết lần này, mình cũng sẽ sử dụng tiếng anh để note lại những ý quan trọng. Với những bạn tiếng anh không tốt lắm có thể tham khảo lại bài viết ở Part 1 của mình tại đây:

Internal communications (IC) is the function responsible for effective communications among participants within an organization. The scope of the function varies by organization and practitioner, from producing and delivering messages and campaigns on behalf of management, to facilitating two-way dialogue and developing the communication skills of the organization's participants.

Internal communications is keeping employees connected and informed, and creating a shared understanding of company goals, values, and guidelines. Internal communications is critical for keeping employees up-to-date on a company’s latest initiatives, establishing a voice of authority and trust to combat rumors, and facilitating streamlined, clear communications among different departments.

The goal of internal communications is: - Informing your team of company announcements, job openings, sales and marketing metrics or non-company specific information like breaking news and the weather - Inspiring your team by displaying goals, accomplishments or motivational quotes (influence) - Entertaining your team with social media feeds, live hashtag walls or team photos (engage)

There are five main sources of internal communication:

- Management– who dispense information such as strategies, company results, internal and external information, and other important general information. - Team– between colleagues who work together to achieve the same end goal. - Face-to-face– briefing individuals on tasks and situations. - Peer– informal chats between colleagues to share information. - Resources– the intranet, email, social media, messaging, video calls, telephone.

Each of these types uses a specific channel to achieve its internal communication goal:

- Electronic: Communications that are delivered and/or accessed electronically, either by computer, telephone, television or other devices. Examples include email, intranet, video and webcasts, DVD, electronic newsletters, podcasts, blogs, wikis, voicemail, conference calls, SMS text messaging, screensavermessaging, desktop news feeds, internal social media tools and team chat tools. - Print: Paper-based communications. Examples include magazines, newsletters, brochures, postcards and other 'desk drops', posters, memos, communication packs or 'toolkits' for line managers, etc. - Face-to-face: One-to-one and one-to-many forums where people are physically present. Examples include a 'cascade' of team meetings or briefings, conferences, site visits, 'back to the floor', consultation forums, 'brown bag' lunches, round-table discussions, 'town meetings', etc. - Workspace: The working environment. Examples include notice boards, plasma and LCD screens, accessories (e.g.: mousemats), window decals, etc.

It’s everyone’s responsibility. It also involves many different participants: top management, managers and employees. In that sense, IC doesn’t involve only one department.

- The CEO develops the company’s vision, goals and mission statement - Managers explain the company goals and how employees' role fits in the big picture

FitzPatrick and Valskov argue that strong manager communication systems attempt to address five essential issues: - Do managers understand that communication is part of their role - in general and on specific occasions or topics? - Do managers have access to more detailed background or context - rather than just be supplied with the same material as their teams - Have managers received training or development to support their role? - Are manager supplied with materials to make their task easier? - What attention is given to their feedback?

- Employees contribute to your internal communication by creating and sharing informative content

Tools for Supercharging Your Internal Communications: Intranets (ex: Google Sites), Knowledge Bases, Email, Project Management Systems, Forums, Messaging Systems, Social Media

- Boosts employee engagement and productivity - Promotes the supply of information (Note: delivers the right message to the relevant people through different channels for different employee, avoid information overload) - Improves employee experience (Note: Internal communication can be used to advertise for company events, free healthy drinks and snacks,..) CỦA CHO KHÔNG BẰNG CÁCH CHO- Sharing goals and objectives -> well-informed and capable of taking actions. -> align and guide teams on how to prioritize and distribute effort Note: People are more inclined to respond if they just have to press a button, rather than write a long response - Brings people together in difficult situations - Crosses borders -> Effective internal communication assists understanding, particularly if people speak different languages or have different culture. - Promotes the brand

- Analyze the organization’s current situation – identify where communication is already good and where it can improve.

- Define communication goals and objectives– what are the advantages of internal communication for your company?

- Identify your audience and segment it accordingly – define groups by department, location, skills, generation… Choose the categories that are appropriate for your business.

- Outline your core messages – clearly, so everyone understands them.

- Specify your tactics and communication channels – such as Gmail, Slack, Trello, news feed…

+ Top-down Information with common tool choices: knowledge bases, intranets, email newsletters + Rewards and Recognitions with common tool choices: intranet, email newsletter, instant messaging tools. + Company and Team-Related Information with common tool choices: Knowledge bases, cloud-based document storage solutions. + Feedback and Suggestions with common tool choices: email newsletter, forums, Kanban boards. + Informal Discussions and Conversations with common tool choices: project management systems, instant-messaging tools. + Crisis Management with common tool choices: knowledge base, intranet or newsletter for longer content, instant messaging tools, or email for shorter notifications.

- Create an internal communication calendar – and keep it up to date (timeline)

- Determine key performance indicators for tracking results – measuring the effectiveness of internal communications helps to define both short and long term improvements.

Recommended questions:

- Do you have a good understanding of your employees' needs? - Are you segmenting your internal audiences? - Are you using the right communication channels for your internal communication? - Do you take into account the channels your employees feel the most comfortable with? - Do you make sure that each of your employees received the information they need at the right time? - What about your content, it is engaging? - Do you ask your employees for feedback?

Read more in here

Employees should be involved in the strategy and encouraged to initiate discussions. Remember, your internal communication should be a two-way street. 

IC and HR teams need to find ways to actually implement solutions based on the feedback they received from the employees.

It can be challenging for companies with complex organizational structures to make sure that employees get the right information at the right time.

It can be tricky to define what KPIs to track and how to collect data to be able to measure the performance of the strategy in place.

Find solution in this article: How to Measure Internal Communication (IC): Best Practices & Examples

Rather than sending the same information to everyone (regardless of role, location or department), your internal communications strategy should focus on delivering relevant information to the right people, at the right time.

Other common internal communications challenges include:

- Outdated communication ways. - Unequal communication. For example, a company may forget to take remote workers into account. Differences in what’s shared in the office and what’s shared to off-site or remote workers can cause rifts. As a result, employees don’t feel included or may feel like the information doesn’t apply to them. - Information or knowledge silos. It becomes difficult to share and benefit from information if it is stored in an inaccessible way. -> the key to its success is letting communications be a natural part of the everyday workflow.- Don’t just inform – inspire action: internal communications should involve, motivate and inspire your team to go above and beyond. - Don’t lose sight of the big picture: Communicating specific, targeted information is fantastic, but it can come at the expense of missing your company’s overarching goals, mission, and other culture components. - Not consistent on tone, style, and frequency -> Create a Workflow for Internal Communication

--->>> Solve any inconsistencies by establishing a workflow in your knowledge base: - Create a template each for the common communication needs - Craft a process for how you communicate this particular type of information - Create a new communications draft - Add everyone who will contribute - Add everyone who will edit, comment, or approve the draft - Publish and share through the selected channels

Một số lầm tưởng về tư duy của người làm IC, đọc thêm tại đây:

(Smartphones are distracting at work? Internal communications doesn’t affect the bottom line? The comms teams controls all internal communications? Employee-generated content (EGC) has no place in internal communications? You can’t measure success with internal comms?)

Internal communications functions can require several skills, e.g.: writing with the ability to write for different channels (i.e. newsletters, websites, etc.), marketing, event organization, web production, facilitation, advertising, stakeholder management, corporate social responsibility, branding and communications training. They also need to have good listening skills because understanding employees’ viewpoints is an essential part of the job. Creativity is also important.

Case study: LINK Highlight: at TED, all meetings take 18 minutes or less, Amazon employees dole out internal communication in targeted, snack-sized bites, no more than 100 words, 3M instituted a policy allowing workers to spend 15% of their day pursuing fresh ideas in collaboration with colleagues.

Cảm ơn bạn đã đọc bài viết tổng hợp khá dài của mình. Rất mong sự góp ý và đóng góp từ các bạn.