The organisation that I am working at is quite small, with only 2 fulltime employees in the office and one part time. There is no HR manager and it is quite a feat that they even have a Marketing/PR manager. In what situations does that role of internal communications fall into the area of PR, and in what situations into HR? I would argue that in this organisation, all the responsibilities should be the PR Manager’s, maybe with some help from the CEO.
Internal communications is vitally important in any organisation. Keeping employees happy means that they’re productive and in a service organisation, means that they deliver better service quality. In an organisation like this, when employees are happy and passionate about the experience that they are promoting it seems more genuine.
In this organisation there is a lack of communication between the employees and management and they often don’t know about special deals, upcoming events and functions and are not consulted about content for newsletters, the website and any other promotional material. There is a slight feeling of unrest from the staff who feel that they are not valued because they are not kept informed. There are no staff meetings.
Possible consequences from a PR perspective? Employees are considered one of the publics that an organisation needs to develop a strong relationship with and keep positive two way communication. Without this, employee turnover is high, productively is lower and it can lead to public sabotage of a company. Dealings with customers, tour operators, outside function and catering staff and industry bodies is often left to the reception staff. In order to develop strong relationships and so that these people have a positive perception of the organisation staff need to be happy and most importantly, informed of what’s going on.
3 comments:
Hi Gemma,
I totally agree with you.
From a PR perspective it is vital for there to be good internal communications, since employee relations are one of the publics.
I've been working in a relatively small organisation too with only 5 full time staff and what I've noticed a heck of a lot is that job descriptions and titles tend to get a little blurry around the edges. I don't know if this is always the best thing. From what I've seen it creates employees to be carrying a lot more than what their job requires, producing stress and pressure.
Two-way communications is definitely very important for employees.
Hi Gemma,
You are right on my thought process at the moment! I am in the process of discussing this exact matter in my report.
I actually work in HR in my current role, and we don't have a PR department in Australia, so a lot of PR issues, fall under our roles.
I agree with you, it is the PR manager’s role to look after internal communications in this instance, and it is extremely important to ensure this role is taken care of, as unease with employees encourages a negative workplace and low morale.
From all my research, you are quite correct, the correlation between a happy workplace and profit margins are closely linked; in saying this, it doesn’t take much to boost morale, especially when there are no expectations.
Maybe starting with a staff morning tea now and then, and following on with weekly or fortnightly newsletters updating them on company happenings. Small gestures such as these can do wonders for the morale and potentially staff turnover.
Hey Gemma,
I could not agree with you more about internal communications.
Doing work at such a small organisation, it was vital that everyone kept in contact.
Unfortunately, without the capacity to keep everyone in the loop, it was hard to even keep track of who was there and who had left.
A lot of volunteers came through, and communicating became an issue much in the same way. Communicating amongst peers in the workplace also eases the tension and burden of workload that is placed on each individual.
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