Providing excellent ammunition to communicator’s claims that its about results – Melcrum’s ‘The Hub’ has picked up on a study on organisational productivity recently published by Proudfoot Consulting. The study compares productivity within companies across 17 nations.

The Hub reports that evecutives cite poor internal communication as a significant factor in poor productivity.

“50% of the total number of survey respondents put the blame on internal communication problems between departments, while 44% cited poor management and a further 33% said it was down to poor employee motivation or morale” reported the Melcrum site.

http://www.internalcommshub.com/open/news/business_inefficiency.shtml

The full report and media release from Proudfoot consulting is available here:
http://www.proudfootconsulting.com/Default.aspx?id=198826

A few weeks ago, I wrote of a study from the UK on the debate as to where the communications function is best situated within a business. A notable addition to the debate also comes from the UK’s the Internal Communications Alliance. In an article on their site, they describe the situation as the “insoluble conundrum”. Nicely put. The article is not dated, so I am unsure as to whether this is a lead or lag thread of the discussion, but worth a look: http://www.cipr.co.uk/groups/special/ica/events/stories_main.htm#insoluble
Also worth a look in the same context is the controversial Fast Company article from last year on why business hates HR:
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/97/open_hr.html
This is as useful to communicators if for every mention of the HR function we substitute the communication function (well, almost every mention). What it does do is provide a clear view of the challenges faced by the organisational software functions – culture, human resources, communications.

Brought to you by IABC Australia NSW Chapter and Impact Employee Communications
TJ Larkin, one of the world’s most renowned communicators, authors and conference speakers, is making a quick trip to Sydney and has agreed to speak to IABC members and guests on change communication. This is an opportunity not to be missed! You’ll hear from Dr Larkin about:

· Why big changes have such a high failure rate
· Communicate early: how to manage fear, secrecy and manage rumours during times of uncertainty
· Face to face vs web vs print: what each channel does best
· Communicate possible outcomes: merge internal and external messages
· Why old communication solutions don’t work anymore – and how to replace them with new delivery methods
· Best practice examples from companies that get it right (and learn from those that get it wrong!)
TJ Larkin has been a keynote speaker at numerous IABC Conferences, most recently in Vancouver in June 2006. This is an opportunity for communicators from all business sectors to hear his thought-provoking views on internal communication. His presentations are renowned for being insightful, stimulating and entertaining.

Date: Wednesday, 23 August 2006Time: 5.30 for 6.00pm start Venue: Level 25, Tower 2 Darling Park, 201 Sussex Street, Sydney Cost: IABC Members: $45, PRIA Members: $55, Non-Members: $65. Hot & cold canapes, wine and juice included Event Sponsor: Impact Employee Communications www.impact.com.au

Links
http://www.iabcnsw.com/default.asp?action=article&ID=146

A recent report from CiB in the UK cites 87% of communication managers as believing that the should not be part of Human Resource functions.
http://www.cib.uk.com/artman/publish/article_665.shtml

This is an interesting result and a contentious debate from where I sit. As a communicator who has had reporting lines via public affairs, human resources, shared services, corporate communications and marketing, I can sayt that while the experience can be variable according to placement, the skill and relationship building ability of the communicator is paramount regardless of reporting line.

As for the argument that employee communication should be a direct report to the CEO, there are reasonable cases for both sides. From a span of control perspective, if the CEO’s direct reports were only those roles that required a strong relationship, close partnership and that could impact their results, it would be a very large executive team. While a head of corporate communication with responsibility for internal, external and stakeholder relations may need to be a report to the CEO, the argument is less strong for the role of internal communication. What is undisputed is the need for direct access to the CEO in order to understand their priorities, preferences and peculiarities. Also undisputed is the need for communication (both internal and external) to have a seat at the strategic decision-making table.

The reality is that employee communication is a specialist advisor function. It does not do the industry any favours to have the old petulant argument that we need to be a direct report – we need to be able to create the partnerships to achieve regardless of structure.

This is also explored at the IABC Employee Communication Blog
http://commons.iabc.com/employee/2006/03/12/should-employee-communications-report-to-hr/

Links

Human Capital Institute Blogosphere – Discussions on the roles of leaders
http://www.humancapitalinstitute.org/hci/blogs.guid