Same reason why we do health assessments!
Same way a health assessment gives you indicators of how well (or unwell) you are, an Internal Communication Assessment will bring information to let you know where you are and assist you on deciding your next steps.
If you have a pain in your abdomen, you don’t run immediately into surgery, you need to diagnose first. Same way, you wouldn’t invest thousands of dollars on communication without assessing your baseline… or would we?
Unfortunately, as some people run into the bad practice of self- medication, many organizations carry on costly communication actions without really knowing where they are standing or where they are going.
“Some organizations don’t assess their communication because they think it is a waste of money. They act the same way that people who self- medicate: they think they know what the problem is.” says Alberto Rafael, Oxean Group senior consultant. “They find a communication problem and they send out a new email campaign, but they are not digging deeper into the causes and therefore they are blinded about what is really happening”.
A starting point
An Internal Communication Assessment can be intimidating, but it is a great opportunity to learn about what is working and what can be improved. Having more clarity about your organization and baseline indicators will greatly improve the design, execution and results of actions and campaigns.
We strongly recommend an initial assessment before we start working with an organization and it would be ideal to repeat an internal communication assessment every 2 years.” Comments Rafael.
What is the focus of an assessment?
– The Internal Communications mission: Is it guiding daily communications? Is it aligned with the commercial plan?
– The storytelling and key messages: Do employees know and feel the history and values of the company? Are these reinforced in the narrative and daily messages?
– Channel strategy: Are we using communication channels just to inform? Are we using the best channels to reach our employees and gather feedback? Are we gathering feedback? How are we benefiting from technology and social media?
“We start by talking with the communication team to better understand where they are standing, to define the guiding questions as well as the scope of the assessment”.
After that, we run qualitative interviews and focus groups and we also deploy quantitative analysis through surveys.
“With these elements we create a 360 internal communication assessment. It will provide an overview of challenges and opportunities and it will give a concrete foundation to design a strategy that will be effective.” concludes Rafael.
Are you ready to assess? Call us!
