A recent article and download from Melcrum features "five groundbreaking internal communication innovations." They've identifed these as the "coolest" innovations that communicators should be focusing on.
They are:
- Agile processes for improved planning: It’s now about being cross-functional, flexible and constantly inventive, so solutions can encompass the intricacies required by different internal contexts, while aligning with external communication.
- Driving dialogue to enhance employee advocacy: Employees want to understand the big picture and why it’s crucial, and – importantly – they aspire to play a role in helping the organization achieve it.
- Systematic collaboration to unlock better business results: Using a framework of five components – strategy; structure; people; incentives; and lateral mechanisms, i.e. “connective tissue” – brings collaboration alive in a meaningful way.
- Shifting the social media focus for improved ROI: Investment in internal social media platforms has exploded. But while conversations focus on the technology and its features, rather than workflows and benefits to employees, many organizations have yet to exploit their full potential.
- Redefined competencies for a new world: We’re now as much organizational connectors as tactical experts, required to encompass traditional functional responsibilities along with new competencies.
These are certainly worthy as they position the communicator as more than "just a communicator" but as a true business partner and facilitator. But I argue (like I always do) there is a sixth innovation in internal communication.
Data, data, data
"I don't do numbers." I'm tired of the cliché that communicators claim to be bad at math. This simply is not true (for most). So what if communicators used numbers and data that impacted communications. What if data dynamically determined employee communications content?
Let's say, for example, that you're in manufacturing. And let's say that do to some recent incidents, some key health and safety KPIs are faltering and below goal. An intelligent communications platform could monitor this data. When certain thresholds are hit, the platform would start driving content focused on corrective behavior. In this case, basic reminders about health and safety policies would become more prevalent and potentially override some other content.
Or perhaps you're a retailer and the team hit a big sales goal for the month. Wouldn't it be great if once that sales goal was hit, a congratulatory message was sent out to the team? Yes, it would.
That's just a few examples of how data can drive content. We all know that relevancy is vital to successful internal communication programs. Data can determine what's relevant and what's not.
The term "big data" seems to be a bit of a buzzword but for the right reason. It's all about making data relevant. And in the right situations, data can drive and improve employee communication.
