Our monthly digest of news, views and opinion from around the wonderful world of IC…
A new report from the IoIC asked employees what they think of internal communications at their businesses. It’s a bit of a departure from the usual IC surveys, which ask the IC experts for their feedback.
And there are some hard messages for internal communications professionals to grapple with – for example 22 per cent of respondents didn’t even know whether or not they had an IC team.
As the always readable Nicholas Wardle says on LinkedIn: ‘We kept hearing that the pandemic put IC front and centre… perhaps people have short memories. Or are people just unaware about what IC teams do? Is more PR for IC required?’
He goes on to add ‘it’s nice that 61 per cent of people viewed their IC as excellent’ however, ‘this still leaves (at least) 39 per cent feeling their IC is just okay or worse, so plenty of work to do’.
A few other observations from Nicholas on the report include…
- It’s fascinating that the most popular topics people want to hear more about are pay and benefits, strategy and direction, and career and development opportunities. This could be summed up as ‘What’s in it for me?’ So, dialing up the EVP seems sensible advice.
- On the flip side, 23 per cent say they’re hearing too much about diversity and inclusion – perhaps a sign that some IC teams have not found the right way to communicate this topic.
- Only 54 per cent trust the comms they received from their CEO. Oh dear. Perhaps half the IC teams are still using the 1990s-style leadership propaganda approach?
Louise Maclean, Head of Internal Communications, Heathrow Airport, replied to Nicholas by posting: “People not knowing if they have an IC team doesn’t surprise me. We put colossal effort into raising the profiles of our leaders, etc., and tend to neglect our own PR. A personal reflection I would add is that the function of IC is still too often misunderstood by businesses and leaders, in particular that we are employee engagement specialists (as opposed to a news posting service).”
Here’s a link to the report so you can see for yourself…
Has the backlash against WFH begun?
There’s growing concern stirring about work from home culture.
The Wall Street Journal has just published an article with the headline ‘Bosses kick back against WFH die-hards’. These bosses say employees who insist they are more productive while working from home are missing the larger picture: team productivity is taking a hit.
Recruiter William McNamara says in the piece: “Team collaboration really is much better and more effective with actual face time. Career growth also. Sure, zealots will claim you can do it all remotely, but you can’t do it all as effectively for everyone, remotely.”
Still, work-life balance is a vital piece of company culture – one that workers say is helped by the option to work from home, at least part of the time. That leaves bosses to strike a difficult balance, something they are more keenly aware of than their employees might realise.
The F-plan reader
This piece by internal communications consultant Joanna Parsons about how the internet has changed the way we read things also caught our eye.
She talks about the F-shaped reading pattern, saying people read the first line or two at the top of the page, then go down a bit and read across horizontally again. Then they’ll start scanning the content vertically.
They do it like that because they’re in a rush, have things to do, and are scanning to see if the content will be useful to them.
You need to know about this so you can position your digital writing effectively and capture your audience’s attention.
We’ve not been through all the research to see if it stacks up – but it’s food for thought, and maybe worth digging into the detail.
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