Style
Review the expectations and communications style among employees in terms of timeliness, accuracy, transparency, relevance,
Review the expectations and communications style among employees in terms of timeliness, accuracy, transparency, relevance, even-handedness in covering the bad/good, upward communication opportunities, e.g. how is difficult news handled? Is management perceived as credible and trustworthy? and the like? Are employees receiving too much, too little or about the right amount of information through different types of channels and overall?
Content Relevancy
How interested are employees in various topics? How well informed do they feel about them? For each of those topics, where do they currently learn about them? Where would they prefer to learn about them? Provide employees compelling content options to choose from, since they don’t always know what they want in terms of company and industry information. Even at the same company over time, changes are made in communication campaigns and channels.
Information Channels
Audit regularly the channels of information to assess relevancy, credibility, speed, timeliness, cost and business impact. Review how many employees have access to different channels and how useful is the information. Assess frequency and convenience, factor face-to-face channels to learn how well supervisors and senior leaders demonstrate their communication skills. For other channels, consider the length, tone, graphics, navigation, and for potential new tools, be certain employees will use them.
Call To Action
Determine the action(s) that occur as a result of the communication. Were employees motivated to change behavior, perform an action and think differently about the company? Outcomes if given the proper consideration can be understood with an internal communication audit.
Carla Ernst, CarlaAnne Communications
carlaannecommunications.wordpress.com 