Internal Communication practices for an informed and engaged workplace.

Internal Communication is the effective communication between people within an organisation. Effective Internal communication creates an informed and engaged workplace, therefore better results can be produced.

I think that internal communication is important because it encourages people to connect and share their work and ideas. It ensures that all team members are on the same page, making projects more cohesive and consistent.

 

Photo credit: Ipsia Mishra from "Literally Communication"

 

I have focused on Internal Communication in this blog post because at Tourism WA it is the responsibility of the Corporate Communications department to improve and maintain it.

The Corporate Communications department puts together a internal communications newsletter every two months. The next newsletter is due to come out this month and I'm hoping to get the chance to work on it. The newsletter:
- informs employees of current news, activities and events,
- includes staff member photographs,
- includes updates from key individuals in the organisation;
- introduces new staff members through short bios.

Within the department, both Corporate Communications and Stakeholder Engagement team members communicate effectively through a series of practices, such as:
-weekly meetings, to discuss current and potential issues, monitor activities, present research findings, collaborate and delegate roles,
- office structure. The layout of the department allows for discussion and collaboration conveniently
- after discussing a project I have observed that it is common practice for staff members to confirm key points discussed via email;
-feedback on others performance through saving document edits and verbal discussion allows staff to evaluate what they need to improve. Majority of staff are open to feedback and give it when others want to check up on their performance.

Other examples of internal communication practices at Tourism WA is bulk emails from key figures of the organisation, such as the CEO Stephanie Buckland.
On my first day I had a direct experience with internal communication, my placement supervisor Kelly sent out an email to a majority of the organisation informing them that I had started my placement with them, my dates and intensions.

Internal communication assists in ensuring staff members are in a comfortable, enjoyable and rewarding environment. Workplace culture can be improved by focusing and improving internal communication. During my time at Tourism WA in the Corporate Communications department I have experienced a office culture that is:
- open and easily accepting environment. From day one I felt welcome,
- supportive The office has a strong sense of mateship, people seem to have mutual support for one another,
- respectful;
- flexible.

Tourism WA offices are located on Mill street in Perth CBD. Photo credit: realcommercial.com.au

 

If your interested...
Here is an example of a modern style of office structure in Singapore, known as an "agile workplace," I would like to one day work in an office with this structure.

If anyone is interested in reading more about workplace support, I've found a great article produced by Californian University-Berkeley's University Health services. The article is easy to understand for people wanting to improve their supportive skills. The article assists people through providing guidelines on how to be supportive to co-workers as well as friends and classmates.
 
 - Caitlyn :)
 
 

 

An introduction to the tourism industry and worries about time management

After being stressed for weeks about not having a placement confirmed I have finally found myself with an internship in Tourism Western Australia's Corporate Communications department. I will also eventually work within the Public Relations department and the Media and Trade Familiarisation department later in my internship.

I was so nervous on my first day. I got up really early to go over my factsheet I had made of the organisation, ensure I had remembered to pack everything and to make sure I dressed professionally. I had planned out my route to the office, taking the train then walking through the city, however, I ended up arriving 40 minutes early which is a clear giveaway that I was freaking out. I told myself that being early is better than being late and sat and waited patiently.

When my supervisor arrived, greeted me and gave me and introduction to the office and its safety requirements my stress levels calmed down. All the staff in the office are welcoming and answer any enquiries that I have.

After being briefed on the Corporate Communications department's role and the remaining departments role, I began work on my first assignment with was to write a story for the corporate website.

I also wrote a draft letter for about an upcoming project and updated and contributed to the weekly e-newsletter.

On the second day I was looking over the website and it was really surprising to see the story I wrote already on the website. Obviously I knew it was going to be updated, however, it was just great to see that on day one I was contributing to the organisation. I feel like it's really important for employees to understand their role in the functioning of their workplace, I'm really stoked that I felt that sense of belonging and contribution so early.

In terms of my initial perspective of how the organisation operates, I believe that Tourism WA and its staff stand by their mission statement and core values, are transparent in their dealings, behaviour in a responsible and accountable manner and value their safety and wellbeing of their staff. All of which I value highly in a workplace.

On my second day I continued working on updating the e-newsletter and wrote more articles for the corporate website. I also received a report from a recently conducted survey then turned that in to a website story and piece for the e-newsletter. I like finally seeing the relevance of content studied over the last few years. This semester I am undertaking the new PUBR3001: Planning and Evaluation unit, and although it's not even halfway through the semester yet I can already understand why the unit has been introduced this semester. Whilst writing this stories and articles I have mentioned above I have also had to undertake secondary research.

The following day my work got edited by the Manager of Corporate Communications then was edited by the Director of Corporate Communications. I received a lot of red back on my work. Which didn't faze me at all because I understand that I don't understand the style of the voice of the organisation yet and also I am still familiarising myself with the publications stylebook which is an organisation wide guide to spelling, grammar, punctuation and word usage. Feedback is vital to understanding where you can improve, so I welcome the opportunity to gain that insight.

 Lastly I want to talk about my realisation of time slipping away from me. On blackboard whilst preparing for this internship I read about how time will become precious whilst completing this unit. I've never heard anything more true. I have only done four days so far and I'm struggling to fit in time from studying my three other units.

 I have definitely benefited from undertaking the optional time management module, but I'm still stressed about the workload.

Fingers crossed all works out.

Until next time.

-Caitlyn Rintoul

16172526

 

 

 

 

Don't forget to evaluate...

From my three years at Curtin University, I’ve seen the ‘Don’t forget to evaluate’ tab appear in Blackboard every semester. There’s usually an incentive for an individual to complete the evaluation, but it’s just a great chance to help give feedback on the units you studied in that particular semester too.

I’ve been contributing to evaluate for the past three years. But it wasn’t until my experience at Skye Gilligan Consulting that I realised the significance of monitoring and evaluating how successful a unit is, or in my case, a strategy is to an organisation.

Throughout my 20-day placement, I was implementing strategic communications for one of Skye’s

major clients, a two-way radio organisation named The Orion Network. Some of these strategies included updates to the ‘News’, ‘Events’, ‘Case Studies’ and ‘Product’ tabs on the website as well as developing and sending out MailChimp campaigns. These strategies were to promote the organisation’s activities and engage with stakeholders.

But was the communication effective? This was the question in which clients expected to see results and whether their investment in public relations paid off.

Through Google analytics, I was able to select the dates and times, meta-data, specific media sources (i.e. Facebook, Twitter, Gmail, etc.) and other ways in which consumers visited the Orion website.

From this information, I created tables of key statistics and summarised some of the changes, in comparison to the previous Google analytics report.

The results were incredible! I discovered that the increase in social media strategies had boosted traffic to the website and the duration of each visit to the site was longer.

This was a positive reinforcement of the work Skye and I had completed to increase stakeholder engagement with the organisation.

Although I’ve completed my placement at Skye Gilligan Consulting, I’ve learnt so many new things to which I can apply in the PR industry as well as everyday circumstances.

I’ve realised the significance of monitoring and evaluating a unit, a strategy, a placement, etc. and I’m sure there’s so much more to learn along my PR journey.

So here comes my evaluation…

PR 393 has provided me with a once in a lifetime opportunity to gain real-life experience in the PR industry. My time at Skye Gilligan Consulting was filled with excitement, learning and development and building strong relationships. I look forward to pursuing a career in public relations and I feel industry ready to take on whatever the world of PR has in store for me.