July 24, 2006

Evaluating the Effectiveness of Distribution and Access

As organizations become larger and more complex, it’s getting tougher to ensure that employees receive your communication, whether you’re sending e-mail, distributing a print newsletter or creating face-to-face venues. That’s why you can’t assume employees “get” communication—you must evaluate the effectiveness of distribution and access just as you measure other critical attributes of your communication program.

We were recently reminded of the importance of measuring distribution and access while conducting focus groups at a manufacturing plant. One of our objectives was to find out why an expensive-to-produce company newsletter got low scores for relevance on the annual communication survey. As it turned out, the root cause of the problem was distribution: Employees never received the newsletter. Instead, unopened boxes were being put into a storage room and no one was accountable for getting the newsletters into employees’ hands.

How to measure distribution and access
Here are some examples of survey and focus group questions you can use to determine if employees are getting the information they need when and where they need it:

Survey questions

Focus group questions

• Do you receive the company-wide newsletter? • Do you have e-mail access? • Can you log on to the intranet? • Are you able to leave your workspace to attend town hall meetings? • Does your manager share information from electronic vehicles with you? • Are bulletin boards at your location updated regularly?

• How do you receive the company-wide newsletter? Is this process effective? Why or why not? • How do you feel about the amount of time you spend reading and responding to e-mail messages each day? • Do you use the kiosk at your facility? What for? How often? • What do you look at when you enter the cafeteria? • If you could change one thing about how internal communications are distributed to you, what would it be?