Institute of Internal Communication

Across September and October 2010, 72 employee communicators from seven countries completed a short on-line survey covering their involvement in engagement in their organisation.

Mark Shanahan of Leapfrog Communications, who undertook the survey, has now produced a short report on the results.

This summary report captures the key findings of that survey and outlines the relationship between those paid to manage communication within their organisation and the wider cultural term of ‘engagement’ – still something of a Holy Grail for many employers today.

• Well over 40% of respondents said that their organisation still has no engagement strategy
• 11% of respondents stated that Employee Communications was solely responsible for engagement in their organisation while a further 77.2% said they had a defined role in their engagement strategy/process and/or activities
• More than a third of respondents’ organisations really don’t see a difference between communication and engagement while a further 25% are firmly on the fence
• HR is still the primary owner of ‘engagement’ and the most popular home for the day-to-day management and delivery of the engagement agenda
• Employee Communications is playing a leading role as a contributor to the development of the engagement strategy in organisations
• Just over half of all respondents consider their workforces to be relatively engaged (scoring 7+); but 36% state their workforces remain largely disengaged with their employer
• Electronic tools dominate the employee communicator’s toolkit, with email and intranets virtually ubiquitous. Face to face communication is regarded as vital – but print appears in decline
• Social media is now a planned part of the communication mix in more than 70% of respondents’ organisations

The most effective employee communications tools in delivering the employee engagement agenda rank as:

1. Face to face meetings (four times more popular than any other suggestion)

2. Communication Champions

3. Line managers

4. Intranet

5. Annual engagement survey

The top three factors that would make the greatest beneficial difference to the role of Employee Communication in organisations’ employee engagement came out as:

1. A joined-up approach across functions

2. Effective line management support

3. Active buy-in from the CEO/Top Team

Mark Shanahan said: “For me, there are few surprises in the responses I received - there's a huge amount of talk about engagement - but too little is truly informed ..... and too little again is taking place where it will really make a difference. Meanwhile, the role of employee communication is heading in the right direction, but it still has quite some way to go.”

Download the complete report.