PR in INternal Communications

For all businesses, no matter how big or small, faith and trust in your work force is necessary for collaboration and overall successful achievements. But, how do you earn and create faith and trust in employees? Well, management of internal (aka employee) communications, allows for any business to be more efficient and for executives to get more respect. It is the pr practitioner’s job to provide consistent roles and processes for all communicators in the business, which urges cooperation within the business and makes it easier.

A great example of internal communications at work is General Motors (GM), a company that realized it needed to revamp its employee communications after a big strike in 1998. According to an article, GM created a new position to help do this–Business Communication Integrators, whose job it was to consult head quarter executives on local performance and instill consistent roles and processes for all employees. Ultimately the goal became for GM to create relationships between their managers and employees with more trust, understanding, and communicating. So, GM created the Internal Communication Improvement Process (ICIP) to help make relationships stronger on all levels of the communication hierarchy.

I think GM’s efforts seem great, but it’s hard to know if they are really doing a good job and creating stronger relationships via better communication. This slide show from the Institute for Public Relations (IPR) shows how GM measures the effectiveness of its employee communications. After looking at their plan, it seems to me GM’s employees really do have great internal communication. Their overall internal communication plan seems very thorough and effective. I’m impressed with its internal public relations!

INternal Communications: Recruiting & Retention »« “Going Green,” Sprint’s new CSR Initiative