Assessing the effectiveness of an internal communications program

Challenge:
CIT's new Internal Communications team needed a way to understand the effectiveness of their communication program, so they could make the case for change and measure their performance.

Solution:
Our first step with CIT was to conduct an Internal Communications Survey. Based on results, the team made some immediate changes, for example:

• Streamlined vehicles: Collapsed and eliminated two vehicles
• Consolidated announcements: From a single e-mail address—Corporate Communications
• Developed a message platform: Key topics for the year

In the survey, employees identified leader/manager communication as a strength of the organization. In order to understand how to leverage this strength, we conducted focus groups with leaders and managers, and helped the team to implement a formal leader/manager communication program, including:

• Leader Briefings in advance of major announcements
• A microsite, Leader Connection, devoted to leaders' and managers' communication role

Results:
CIT's focus on using data to drive change helped to increase employees' knowledge of five key topics, increase employees' ability to participate in existing vehicles and support leaders/managers to answer questions from their employees.