Internal Communication

According to Thomas White, effective communications between leaders and the rest of the employees is certainly necessary for building a strong workforce. Dr. Argenti also points out that two way-process of communications help enhancing employee’s loyalty, retention, and also productivity. An effective internal communication program must be able to deliver messages with the right content and in the right channel. Communication experts explain that the content of the messages should be honest and reflect employee’s concerns. Even though nowadays managers count with a variety of channels for delivering internal communications, apart from the traditional face-to-face mean, building genuine relationships with employees still is a challenge. Each organization needs to develop strategies to improve internal communications that fits in its own environment.
Last year, when I was working at Accenture, the annual employee survey reflected that a high number of employees working in the Service Center felt that they did not have fluent upward communication. They said that a lack of trust in their supervisors prevent them from expressing their concerns. As a result, the Service Center launched a plan to strengthen upward communication. The plan consisted in that every employee could choose a mentor with whom he or she was going to have monthly face-to-face meetings. Mentors were supervisors other than the employee’s direct-superior. Although many doubt on the usefulness of this plan, after a few months of its implementation it has demonstrated to be a successful method of addressing employee inquiries. Workers said that, for certain topics, it was easier for them to communicate with their mentors rather than with their supervisors because they did not feel fear of reprisals. I think that this is a good example of how a corporation can develop a creative plan to enhance its internal communications.