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Internal communications and web 2.0

Web 2.0 is now almost old enough to have been overtaken by web 3.0 but with a few notable exceptions businesses have been seemingly reluctant to turn the potential of the technology to benefit for HR. Science fiction writer William Gibson’s comment that ‘the future has already arrived, its just not evenly distributed yet’ appears especially appropriate and, after all, the HR community does have previous offences to take into consideration – research indicates that e-learning (long available as a web 1.0 technology) has been adopted by only 12% of businesses in the UK. Web 2.0 technology – that where the content is generally created by users – finds its most virulent form in social media such as Facebook and Twitter where the rates of uptake and adoption by the general public are truly astounding (Twitter is less than two years old and reported 9.3 million users in March 2009, Facebook and MySpace have 50 million each) but the rates at which HR departments seek and deploy benefit from the technology are glacial by comparison.

Whole articles could be devoted to the reasons for this and whole other articles could be written about each of the possible uses of the technology in the context of HR activity from Recruitment to Knowledge Management but our focus here is on internal communications – something of critical importance in gaining the engagement of employees which will be key to success as the recession plays out.

Although web 2.0 lends a new and dynamic communications channel to the mix, it is ultimately just that – a communications channel. Starting at the beginning requires an understanding of the strategic benefits that internal communications brings to the organisation.

Internal communications – a strategic issue

Starting at the beginning requires a clear view of what internal communications can do for your business and why you are doing anything about it in the first place. Some tips:

Align internal communications with strategic goals

Understand the organisational strategy and be explicit about where internal communications can support business aims. Be clear and specific about how internal communications activity can deliver success, define your success criteria and build your ROI case.

Ensure the engagement of the Senior Management Team

Its some of their views and news that need to be shared so get them on board early with what internal communications is doing and how its going to help them. Seek their active engagement to gain the active engagement of the business – their passive support is not going to be enough.

Have a plan for all levels in the organisation

Web 2.0 solutions will add benefit to most large organisational efforts, but they work best as part of an integrated solution where all levels of people in the business feel that they are getting the right messages in the right way to help them achieve. Line Managers are vital communicators to their teams and the critical nature of their relationship with employees means that they cannot be supplanted but must be catered for in your distribution strategy. Match the message and the medium to the level of employee to achieve the right outcome and don’t expect team meetings, 1:1s, seminars and other ‘manual’ mediums to be things of the past.

Communicate…

 one consistent message, constantly repeated through as many channels as possible.

Communicate…

…with one voice in a common, consistent language.

Web 2.0 - practical benefits

Where web 2.0 offers advantage is in the speed and directness of the communications, something that would be hard to replicate without the technology, and in the opportunity it offers for immediate sharing across the organisation – not just up and down management lines. The CEO really can message the whole business after a branch visit to praise good work, the CFO can offer today’s trading results to the shop floor and the opportunity to get the message out fast and clear before anyone else does is real and meaningful, but perhaps more than this it is the opportunity for staff spread across the organisation to manage their own communications to mutual benefit that really sets the technology apart.

By way of example, law firm Allen & Overy have created a number of internal websites for staff networking, one of which caters for those around the world who are, or who are about to become parents. The firm makes maternity policy information available here to registered users and dates of lunchtime parenting seminars are published on the site. RSS feeds on children’s news that busy parents might otherwise miss are also made available but there is increasingly large amounts of information generated by members – links to children’s clothes sites, suggestions for school holiday activities and discussion forums around issues generated by the members. The HR department maintain the site, but the users are owning it and making it a community which serves them and their interests. Why does this matter? A look at the number of females in the intake of the average global law firm, a quick calculation of the cost of training a top lawyer and the likely attrition rates of female lawyers post-maternity leave makes the need obvious and the benefit for the firm to be both perceived as family-friendly and to deliver a medium through which parents can support one another is considerable, particularly when it costs so little.

If engagement is the aim of internal communications and web 2.0 offers the opportunity of engagement with the whole of the community that is the organisation, then it is truly a marriage made in heaven. Technology aware HR managers should be going out there and making it happen.