Invest in internal communications. Why? Because employee disengagement costs your organisation £15,000 a year.
£85 billion. That’s how much employee disengagement costs the UK economy every year.
Take that number and divide it by the 5.7m businesses in this country. That’s nearly £15,000 going out the window for every single organisation.
Faced with these damning stats, I have one question. Why aren’t organisations investing in internal communications?
Internal communications builds employee engagement
Researcher De Ridder established that internal communications is 1) important in creating organisational commitment and 2) vital to create the single quality that defines highly performing teams: trust.
Another study by Sparrow & Cooper found that low levels of organisational trust are associated with poor internal communications. In their own words: ‘communication leads to trust and understanding of strategic decisions. If internal stakeholders do not understand their organisation’s strategic decision, they cannot be committed to it and may be reluctant to trust it or their senior managers.’
More recently, the guys at Bambu released a report that speaks volume about the impact of internal communications on employee commitment and advocacy. Nearly 2 in every 3 employees say that internal communications help them to build stronger relationships with their colleagues, and over 6 in 10 say it would help them to become brand advocates.
They’re right under your nose.
Do you want another stat? I’ll give you one. Employees spend nearly 20% of their time searching and gathering information that allow them to do their jobs. Put another way, employees show up to work 5 days a week, but can only work 4 due to a lack of proper internal communications.
The 3 organisational environments and their impact on employee commitment
‘Internal comms is just about sharing company news.’ No it’s not.
Internal comms takes a stakeholders approach. The success of an organisation is not only down to internal factors — environmental factors play a big role too. That should be reflected in the way organisations talk to their employees.
The macro environment
This includes everything from the political, economical, social, technological, environmental or legal conditions.
If you work in the marketing industry like I do, a good example of a macro environment factor is the recent introduction of GDPR. With the new legislation, predictions say that 43% of EU consumer audience data became unusable overnight.
Things like that will have significant consequences on the way organisations operate — and it’s crucial that employees have awareness of the context their organisation is operating in.
The micro environment
Customers, suppliers, intermediaries, competitors — they all fall in the micro environment.
As I’m sure you’ve heard (sorry if you’re not from the UK!), supermarket giants ASDA and Sainsbury’s may be merging. If the move comes through, it will have tremendous implications for everyone in the industry. One of them might be a decline in business for Tesco, which in turn may affect employee commitment.
So if you work in the internal comms team at Tesco, you need to be open and transparent about what this potential merger will mean at an individual level.
‘73% of employees would like their employers to communicate with them more frequently through written means’ (Shandwick, 2014)
The internal environment
Finally, the internal environment includes the organisation’s structure, processes, culture (and subcultures), management, employee relations and internal communications.
On top of these, employees need to have clarity over where the business is going and what they can do, at an individual level, to help. They need to feel like they belong.
When employees believe that their work is meaningful to the company, they’re more than twice as likely to be engaged. You don’t have to take my word for it, just trust the data:
I’m a big believer in building businesses from the inside-out. Your best brand advocates are right under your nose: they’re your employees. And it’s by investing in internal comms, explaining the organisational environments , and trusting the intellect of your employees, that you will build or consolidate their commitment to your organisation.
So before you splash your cash in an employee engagement program, get your house in order and tidy up your internal communications first. Remember that with awareness, comes understanding.
Let’s chat @wakanouka
References:
- Baumeister, R.E. & Leary, M.R. (1995) The need to belong: desire for interpersonal attachment as a fundamental human motivation. Psychological Bulletin, Vol 17, pp. 497–529.
- De Ridder, J.A. (2004) Organisational communication and supportive employees. Human Resource Management Journal, Vol. 14(3), pp.20–30.
- Freeman, R.E. (1984) Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach, Pitman, Boston, MA.
- Ginter, P.M. & Duncan, W.J. (1990) Macroenvironmental analysis for strategic management. Long Range Planning, Vol 23(6), pp. 91–100.
- Handy, C. (1985) Understanding Organisations. Penguin Books, London.
- Schein, E.H. (1984) Coming to a new awareness of organizational culture. Sloan Management Review, Vol 25 (2), pp 3–16.
- Shandwick. (2014) Employees rising: seizing the opportunity in employee activism. London: Weber Shandwick.
- Sparrow, P. & Cooper, C.L. (2003) The Employment Relationship. Butterworth Heinemann, Oxford.
- Welch, M. & Jackson, P. (2007) Rethinking internal communication: a stakeholder approach. Corporate ocmmunications: An International Journal, Vol 12(2), pp.177–198.
