Internal Communicators Elevator Pitch

At our next meeting, the idea is to refine an ‘elevator pitch’ for Internal Communicators.

Having had a bit of a think about this, I’m personally coming to the conclusion that Internal Communicators do so much that it’s hard to boil it down to one sentence. The solution could be to have a ‘menu of options’, then, depending on the audience and their ‘hot buttons’ we can select from a list of options.

Here’s a few I came up with, please add to them and we can discuss at our next meeting

CEO / COO
"There’s strong evidence showing the link between effective internal communication and better business performance. My job is to help our company achieve better financial results. We can do this in lots of ways, for example, aligning people to our brand and values and drawing a clear line of sight between jobs and business outcomes".

- Watson Wyatt’s research shows that organisations with effective internal communications have a 19.4 % higher market premium and deliver 57 % higher share holder return.

HR Manager
"There’s strong evidence showing the link between effective internal communication and employee engagement and retention. My job is to ensure that people are aligned to our brand and values, feel involved and enthusiastic and have all the information they need to do their jobs".

- Watson Wyatt’s research shows that firms communicating effectively are 4.5 times more likely to report high levels of employee engagement and 20% more likely to report lower staff turnover than their peers

Line Managers
"My job is to help reduce information overload and confusion and to ensure that people have all the information (and the right attitude) to do their jobs. It is also to make sure that you are informed and up to date so that you can manage your teams effectively".

Of course we can end all of these statements with specific examples or "I’d love to spend some time with you filling you in a bit more, have you got time for a coffee later this week….?"

Please feel free to blog or comment with your thoughts, that’s what this site is for…

What's a blog, then?

Here's three articles you might find intersting if you're new to the wonderful world of blogging:
-The Corporate Weblog manifesto - Robert Scobles, Microsoft Blogger
- Corporate Blogging
- Blogs Will Change Your Business - Business 2.0 magazine

Some examples to give you an idea of what blogs actually look like:
- PublicAddress – NZ blog with several contributors
- 43 Folders – personal productivity blog by Merlin Mann
- BoingBoing – the world’s most popular blog covering anything and everything geeky
- Gladwell.com – the zany-haired, ubiquitous author of Tipping Point and Blink!

This is NOT an interesting blog

Books for Internal Communicators

At our recent get together, the idea came up for creating a list of books for internal communicators to put on this blog.

I’ve read “Making the Connections” by Bill Quirke which was great in terms of strategy but not up to date in terms of the latest technology available to communicate and the issues relating to these technologies. I’m assuming this will apply to any book that is older than a year or two…when I started to look for books published in the last 2 years with good reviews…there were slim pickings!

The best of the lot would appear to be “Engaging Employees: How To Create A Communication Culture That Delivers” by John Smythe but it isn’t published until June 2007…..I’m pre-ordering this one so can bring it along to a meeting when I receive it.

Others recent books are listed below:

“Hands-On Guide to Video Blogging and Podcasting: Emerging Media Tools for Business Communication” (Hands-On Guide Series) by Lionel Felix and Damien Stolarz (Paperback - April 24, 2006)

“21 Strategies for Improving Employee Communication by Staff of Davis & Company” (Paperback - Dec 15, 2005)

“Effective Internal Communication (PR in Practice)” by Lyn Smith and Pamela Mounter (Paperback - Sep 1, 2005) - Illustrated

“Best Practices in Employee Communication: A Study of Global Challenges and Approaches by ABC”; Michelle Mahony, MA; Jamen Graves, Ph.D Christie Gay (Paperback - Aug 15, 2005)

“Light Their Fire: Using Internal Marketing to Ignite Employee Performance and Wow Your Customers by Susan Drake, Michelle Janette Gulman, and Sara Roberts” (Hardcover - Jun 1, 2005)

If you have read a particular title, please feel free to give a quick book review via a comment.


If you’re interested in finding out about older books with relevant strategic content, a good book review can be found on Rodney Gray’s web site http://www.employee-communication.com.au/templates/page.jsp?id=72