11 ways communications links to organisational performance

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Powered by #11ways Part II - Does communication really make a difference? Research Conducted by Michael Ambjorn, Dana Poole and Stephen Welch #11ways via Twitter 125 respondents covering over 100 organizations with over a million employees

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Page 1: 11 ways communications links to organisational performance

Powered by

#11ways Part II - Does communication really make a difference?

Research Conducted by Michael Ambjorn, Dana Poole and Stephen Welch

#11ways via Twitter

125 respondents covering over 100 organizations with over a million employees

Page 2: 11 ways communications links to organisational performance

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Who we are

Michael AmbjornPassionate about helping leaders achieve purpose-driven impact - and willing to cross oceans to make it happen.

Chair @IABC, Founder @alignyourorg, Director-at-Large @NearDesk

LinkedIn

Twitter: @michael_ambjorn

Dana PooleHelping communicators understand the digital landscape and deliver business strategy and goals through Digital Literacy.

Internal Communications and Social Media Consultant at Unilever

LinkedIn

Twitter: @dana_poole

Stephen Welch Helping organizations improve their communications to support culture change, innovation, communication, leadership development.

Leading the development of the Communications Department at Dialog Semiconductor

LinkedIn

Twitter: @stephenwelch11

Page 3: 11 ways communications links to organisational performance

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#11WAYS RESEARCH INSIGHTS & TRENDS

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#11ways Benchmarking ReportMichael Ambjorn, Dana Poole and Stephen Welch

High performers think “impact”

Our research – covering over 100 organizations with over a million employees – tells us that there are some clear differences between high performing organizations and others in terms of their communications. 89% of high performers align communications and strategy, but only 58% of

average companies do.

High performing organizations are 3 times more likely to rate their communications as excellent or very good.

A clear theme emerges in high performing organizations – a theme which is absent from the others: They think about impact, not just output.

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#11ways Benchmarking ReportMichael Ambjorn, Dana Poole and Stephen Welch

High performers understand “business”

In a high performing organisation, communicators are twice as likely to claim that they have strong business know-how and operational understanding.

Less than one in five communicators in an average organization would say this.

Those that do: Find it easier to get senior leader buy-in for budget and resources

Show more agility in responding to change: adopting new technologies, influencing culture change, managing competing agendas

Navigate complex and siloed organisational structure to achieve their goals

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#11ways Benchmarking ReportMichael Ambjorn, Dana Poole and Stephen Welch

High performers think “audience”

53% of communicators surveyed keep their language simple and jargon free

The high performer organisations are more likely to keep their language simple, make emotional connections, and think about communication from the audience’s point of view.

In these organizations, we also see stronger connections between the communications team and the rest of the business: In an average company, only 12% of communicators rate the

communication skills of line managers and business leaders as excellent or very good. This figure is 3x higher for high performing organisations.

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#11ways Benchmarking ReportMichael Ambjorn, Dana Poole and Stephen Welch

High performers are fast adopters

Most communicators surveyed have adopted new tools and technologies during the past year and almost 70% said this has been very helpful when engaging with stakeholders.

We see the emergence of messaging apps (Microsoft Lync) and wider spread of webex/video conferencing (Skype for business, Google Hangouts)along the more traditional channels: intranet, social networks, online newsletters

High performing organisation have developed staff capabilities and talent to not only adopt new tools and technologies but embed them through new ways of working and cross-silo governance models

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#11ways Benchmarking ReportMichael Ambjorn, Dana Poole and Stephen Welch

High performers align communication to strategy

89% of high performing organisations align communications and business strategy

Only 8% of the communicators surveyed said they measure the strength of their communication activities by organisation productivity. Perhaps is unsurprising then that the biggest barriers to improving

communication were seen as:

Lack of senior buy-in

Leadership does not value comms

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#11ways Benchmarking ReportMichael Ambjorn, Dana Poole and Stephen Welch

Trends

Since our 2014 survey, we’ve seen some positive trends: 71% (from 54%) now say they align communication strategy and goals

53% (from 32%) now aim for simple and jargon-free language

47% (from 31%) now have processes for creating great stories

53% (from 34%) now claim to regularly make emotional connections with audiences

But the overall level of business knowledge and operational understanding of the communication professionals has worsened: 25% (from 31%) now claim to have an excellent or very good business

knowledge

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#11ways RESEARCH PURPOSE

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#11ways Benchmarking ReportMichael Ambjorn, Dana Poole and Stephen Welch

Why conduct this research?

Good communications practice and organizational performance are inextricably linked.

Our 2014 survey of 81 organizations, across 10 countries with approx 390,000 employees identified 11 challenges that today's communicators are facing.

We saw a link between some of the 11 factors identified and organizational underperformance.

This year are updating the data in order to analyse year-on-year trends.

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#11ways2015 RESEARCH

DETAILED RESULTS

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About the organisations surveyed

No of employees No of employees in Communications

100 organizations with over a million employees

0-5 6-10 11-20 21-50 51-100 101-300 300+0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

45%

39%

16%

6%8% 7%

11%8%

Less

than

100

101-

500

500-

1000

1001

-5,0

00

5,00

1-10

,000

10,0

00-5

0,00

0

50,0

00-1

00,0

00

100,

000+

0.0%

5.0%

10.0%

15.0%

20.0%

25.0%

14.0%

7.0%5.0%

9.0% 10.0%

23.0%

18.0%

14.0%

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#11ways Benchmarking ReportMichael Ambjorn, Dana Poole and Stephen Welch

About the respondents surveyed

Strategic Advisor - You coach and support business leaders, and are seen as a true partner to the business

Generalist - You have a management role in your function to deliver programs and initiatives, working across channels and approaches

Specialist - You work in a particular area of communications and are an expert in your organization

Business Leader - You lead your function, have a view across the organization, and a role on the management team

Foundation - None of these apply to you.  Perhaps you have just started your career in communication

30.3%

28.3%

28.3%

9.1%

4.0%

What role best describes your career at this point?

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#11ways Benchmarking ReportMichael Ambjorn, Dana Poole and Stephen Welch

Q1 - How would you rate?

Excellent + Very Good Good/Fair Poor/Terrible0%

50%

100%

150%

200%

250%

23%

66%

10%

20%

61%

18%

25%

66%

6%

The overall effectiveness of communications in your organizationThe general communication skills of the leaders and managers in your organizationThe overall level of business knowledge and operational understanding of the communication professionals across your organization

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#11ways Benchmarking ReportMichael Ambjorn, Dana Poole and Stephen Welch

Q2: How much do you agree or disagree with each of these statements about communications in your organization?

April 17, 2023

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

Strongly /Tend to agree Neutral Tend to/Strongly disagree Don't Know

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#11ways Benchmarking ReportMichael Ambjorn, Dana Poole and Stephen Welch

Q3: What new technologies, if any, have you introduced in the last year for your communication activities?

Social M

edia N

etwor

k

Intran

et

Web

ex/T

elec

onfe

renc

e

Email /

Onlin

e ne

wsle

tter

Inst

ant M

essa

ge a

pp

Onlin

e po

rtal

Social M

edia

Apps

Mea

sure

men

t too

ls

Mob

ile p

hone

s

Vide

o

Blog

s

Digita

l mag

azin

e

Digita

l sig

nage

E-co

mm

erce

Podc

ast

Page 18: 11 ways communications links to organisational performance

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#11ways Benchmarking ReportMichael Ambjorn, Dana Poole and Stephen Welch

Top 5 Tools & Technologies adopted by communicators

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#11ways Benchmarking ReportMichael Ambjorn, Dana Poole and Stephen Welch

Q3: What new technologies, if any, have you introduced in the last year for your communication activities?

April 17, 2023

New devices for teams in every store, a global digital magazine, an online portal for recognition, an online repository for information

Messaging apps - Microsoft Lync is being extended to all countries

Intranets – SharepointOffice 365

New integrated intranet linking formerly unaligned parts of the organization. Leadership video and written blogs and messages (tweets) for internal audiences. More collaboration groups online to connect geographically spread out teams. More online newsletters. Also moved a magazine to a digital format w/ rich content and interactive tools and links.

More use of Google Hangouts with our executives

Social networks - Yammer, Chatter

Email - Newsweaver

Social Media Apps

Shorter, professional video

Webex - Townhalls

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#11ways Benchmarking ReportMichael Ambjorn, Dana Poole and Stephen Welch

Q4: How helpful have these new technologies been in helping you to engage with new or existing stakeholders?

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#11ways Benchmarking ReportMichael Ambjorn, Dana Poole and Stephen Welch

Q5: What methods do you use to measure the strength of your communication activities (internal and/or external)?

Web

site/

Intra

net a

nalytic

s

Surv

ey re

sults

Socia

l med

ia m

onito

ring

Numbe

r/gro

wth

of T

witt

er fo

llower

s / F

aceb

ook

likes

Email o

pen

rate

Reput

ation

benc

hmar

king

Awar

d pr

ogra

ms (w

on/e

nter

ed)

Employ

ee re

tent

ion

rate

PR "Ad

verti

sing

Value

Equiva

lent

"

Sales & p

rofit

Organ

izatio

nal p

rodu

ctivity

Page 22: 11 ways communications links to organisational performance

22Q6: What would you say is the biggest obstacle to improving the performance of your organizational communications?

“Lack of Management buy-in, lack of investment in new channels.”

“Too much noise/too many initiatives both in the business and communications teams, internally and externally.”

“Getting line managers to become better communicators.”

Time - people just don't have time to read, absorb are where necessary act on the communications. The sheer volume of messages also doesn't help.”

“1a) Apathy/participation amongst audience 1b) "I'm good at it, it’s everyone else".”

“Most members of the Communications and Social Media teams have no background in Communications; they've been simply growing inside the company. The age-range is also older, and non-updated, leaving most of the team counting on outdated tools and strategies.”

“To prove the ROI of communications to executives, managers and investments decision makers.”

“Head of organisation dismissive of involving staff, senior advisers not trusting staff.”

“Managers who think they are doing a good job of communicating but in actuality, they have a different perception of themselves than what others have. Also, outdated technology plays a part in ineffectiveness. (We still use pagers, flip cell phones, computer based telephony that is not very reliable...)”

“Even our communications team-leader and director don't understand the need for communications planning. We just do stuff. Even for advertising, we buy ads without any sort of goals in mind or understanding what the need might be.”

“As a board member for a not for profit - lack of easy communication KPI's”

“Seeing the opportunities not obstacles. Most discussions end up repeating what is wrong or what won't work rather than trialling solutions. We need less pilot programmes and more experiments.”

“The complexity of our organisation often means we have to communicate to the masses vs. communicating clear messaging to the right audience, this will improve as we implement a better process for managing our people data. Change fatigue is also a challenge, we've had so much change over the last 3 years people are growing weary.”

“There is not enough belief in the purpose this would serve, it can't be expressed in extra income..”

“Lack of exec buy in, not enough face to face comm.”

“Capabilities and talent of our Communications team.”

“Having everyone on the same level of technology. Not everyone was given the tools at the same time. While some are enjoying the great benefits, others are frustrated.”

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#11ways Benchmarking ReportMichael Ambjorn, Dana Poole and Stephen Welch

Lack

of b

uy-in

- Bud

get,

reso

urce

s, v

isio

n

Lead

ersh

ip d

oes no

t val

ue com

ms

Compl

ex a

nd silo

ed o

rgan

isat

iona

l struc

ture

Capab

ilitie

s an

d ta

lent

Compe

ting

mes

sage

s an

d in

itiat

ives

Social

, dig

ital &

tech

nolo

gy a

dopt

ion

Lack

of t

ime

0

4

8

12

16

Q6: What would you say is the biggest obstacle to improving the performance of your organizational communications?

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#11ways Benchmarking ReportMichael Ambjorn, Dana Poole and Stephen Welch

Q7: Finally, compared to the strategic goals for the year, how would you rate the overall performance of your organization in the last 12 months?

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#11ways Benchmarking ReportMichael Ambjorn, Dana Poole and Stephen Welch

Copyright

A note about how to use this content:

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. In plain language this means you’re free to:

Use the outlined concepts – including excerpts in blog posts, presentations, podcasts etc. as long as you share alike – and attribute accordingly.

If you want to use it commercially, please get in touch with the authors.

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More about #11ways

TwitterSearch for hashtag #11ways

Articles 2015

• 11ways Part 2

• We are all storytellers

• 11 ways to get comms wrong and achieve underperformance

• Do you really make a difference?

• Are you dazzled by comms bling?

• 11 ways strategic communications impacts organizational performance

2014

11 ways session at IABC 14

Do you create or destroy value?

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