The communication audit. Three words that can send even the most seasoned communication professional running for shelter. After all, communication audits are supposed to be notorious for uncovering gaps in the communication process, resulting in staff layoffs, budget cuts, and heaven forbid, total decentralization of the communication process. Right?
In reality, though, communication audits can help you translate the internal process into measurable goals, objectives and benchmarks. It can help you find out how employees communicate, what they think about the current communication structure and how well they internalize key messages.
It wasn't too long ago that the function could be managed with years of experience and by relying on gut instincts. But today, you need to know where you've been, where you are now and where you're going. And you need to articulate these clearly to senior management.
That's where CommuniCreations' team can help you. We work with you and your internal staff to assess your communication process, identify strengths, shore up weaknesses and provide an objective top to bottom review of your employee communication program.
An audit is valuable to an organization for three reasons:
- 1) It identifies opportunities and the audience's preferences for communicating,
- 2) It assists in budgeting and justifying strategies and tactics, and/or
- 3) It justifies the existence of the communications function.
Many communication professionals balk at doing an audit citing excuses such as "the climate's not good right now," or "we have to wait until things settle down." But these days, this ideal time will never come. In fact, one of the best times to do an assessment is during times of tremendous change. A communication audit can be the most valuable map you have to guide your management team and employee population toward common goals and objectives.
A solid audit has three basic phases. The first is the "organization assessment," a period of reviewing organizational goals and objectives and defining critical business issues facing the organization.
The second phase, an "audience probe," evaluates the communication needs and processes and tests for agreement on salient business issues. In essence, this phase provides a reality check that identifies the credibility gap between what the organization's goals and objectives are and what employees think they are.
The third phase is the creation of a "measurable communication plan" that includes an objective analysis of the data, appropriate responses and methodologies for evaluating each component of the plan.
The tools you have at your disposal are focus groups, executive interviews and questionnaires. You can use any one or a combination of the three. Regardless of what you use, executive interviews are always recommended because they give you a solid understanding of how management perceives the communication process, their expectations of a communications audit and it also build support for the acceptance of the results of such an audit.
Before you get started, you need to understand what you want an audit to accomplish and the structure for it. Many organizations are extremely wary of audits because they're afraid employees will have unrealistic expectations of the changes that will take place because of the survey process.
If contemplating an audit, it's wise to gain management support for the process. You may even want to choose to call it something else, such as an assessment or a review.
Whatever you call it, be sure that you convey the benefits of an audit:
- Specific, timely information about communication practices, the state of current programs and proposed programs.
- An objective review of current systems and procedures that may result in greater efficiencies.
- An action plan that identifies problem areas, addresses new issues and provides tangible solutions for improving the effectiveness of the internal communication process.
Once you've gained management support, put together a team. Typically, this team includes a representative from each communication discipline (internal, external, etc.) plus one or two coordinators who will be responsible for gathering some of the initial research materials, setting up appointments for the audit firm and performing clerical functions. Keep the number of team members under five.
In meeting with your team, establish an overall budget and timelines for completing the audit. Also assign your team members specific duties in the audit process: promotion, survey design, data compilation, data analysis, report authoring, presentation of results, and communicating the results to employees.
Even if you've decided to tackle a mini-audit on your own, you may want to consider bringing a consultant in to serve as a guide or resource for the project.
The primary reason is objectivity. No matter where you are in the organization, you are part of the hierarchy. As such, conducting an in-house study on your own may compromise your objectivity. Unless you're working in Utopia, some of the results may be hard to swallow and others may hit pretty close to home. If you're doing focus groups, interviewees may pull their punches, soften blows, exaggerate or discourage deep probing. Recognize your own limitations and turn to the outside for some or all of the functions if you feel you can't get the information you need.
The second reason is that you're probably already swamped with work. An effective audit is time intensive and you probably have other things demanding your attention. A consultant can help you select the right audit tools, go to bat for you with the management team, conduct the executive and employee interviews and help you get the results you need to plan and budget your communication programs from year to year.
CommuniCreations is first and foremost a communications company. The company's principals have specialized in internal communications since 1985, turning out solid and effective employee communication programs for such major corporations as Associated Grocers, Providence General Medical Center, Egghead Software and Pacific First Bank.
As communication consultants, we conduct affordable and comprehensive audits for our clients, working within the existing framework to develop audit parameters, collect and analyze data and provide comprehensive reports that offer tangible, measurable solutions for strengthening the process. These solutions are based on a lifetime of experience, a deep understanding of what drives today's workforce in a changing marketplace, and a sincere desire to make the internal communication process an agent for initiating and enacting change at all levels of an organization.
Contact us at (360)769-0623 or e-mail us at ccreate@pacific.telebyte.com to see how we can help your organization or business conduct a communication audit.
