Communicating internally using the PR function
Public relations for charities - outward facing, media-courting and publicity hungry, right? Is there really a place for this in difficult times? However, it is precisely when charities' finances are tight that PR has some important jobs to do, but these may be inward facing rather than outward facing. These other jobs are ensuring good internal relations and operations so that staff and volunteers are not only happy, productive and efficient, but understand and are committed to realising the goals of the charity.
Internal PR is all about communication and offers charities an important discipline. Good internal PR can provide charities with a model for communicating better internally with their staff and volunteers. It gives structured ways for management to communicate internally which is effective, pleasant and engaging - about certain issues, what the charity is doing and its objectives.
The bigger the charity, and the more demanding and widespread its activities, the greater the need for this kind of internal PR. It is not just enough to have a message; it needs to be delivered properly.
Not achieving good internal PR can lead to a wide variety of adverse situations, for example, failures in performance which can lead to bad publicity, reputational damage and loss of support. So the charity sector cannot ignore the importance of good internal PR. But how best to integrate it into day to day practice? Here are some things to consider.
Good leadership is a starting point
Good internal PR starts with good leadership. As Kevin Ruck, founding director of PR Academy tells us, people working in leadership positions need to be visible, providing a strong, strategic narrative about the charity, where it has come from and where it is going. The leader needs to be a persuasive spokesperson.
So as well as media training for external publicity, leaders need to be encouraged - if it doesn't come naturally - to host employee briefings and meetings, as well as to become thought leaders and motivators through channels such as blogs, video blogs and ezines. It is the job of internal communications personnel to coax this out of their leaders and facilitate opportunities for this.
It is important this is not just a cascade of top-down information. CEOs and senior management of charities can learn from a newsroom set-up here. Leaders should be editors in an editorial meeting, inviting ideas, feedback and strategy. Often PRs can huddle around senior management and act as their gatekeepers - when really they should be leaving the door open and encouraging traffic in and out.
Employee engagement is necessary
The 2013 Institute of Internal Communication conference saw a huge surge in conversations around "employee engagement" and "employee voice". Employees should be seen as essential to the communications solution, should be well informed, able to provide feedback and be listened to.
The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) says the three factors that influence employee engagement are 1) having opportunities to feed your views upward, 2) feeling well informed about what is happening in the organisation and 3) thinking that your manager is committed to your organisation.
Communication is crucial here. Staff should have adequate information about any changes or news. Staff should not be finding out about these through the press first. This is where external PR and internal PR should be working in collaboration. Staff should also have the opportunity to feedback, whether face to face or through a staff intranet or other online channels – a topic we return to a little later.
Management is the key to engagement
Charity managers need to realise that theirs is as much a communications role, feeding information upwards and downwards, as looking after those beneath them. It is not a job they can leave to the internal communications team. So it is not just about feeding executive strategy down; it is about keeping employees, informed, engaged and feeding their views, ideas and grievances upwards to be taken seriously.
Al Gore's former speechwriter Dan Pink, now a career analyst, describes key employee motivators as autonomy, mastery and purpose. If we are to keep employees engaged and committed to the shared goals of the charity, communication practices and management need to facilitate these three things. Let’s look at each in turn.
If autonomy is the urge to direct our own lives, employees need to be trusted with some self-direction. They need to be trusted with information and given regular opportunities to share ideas. Managers might do this by organising ideas meetings or "unconferences" - meetings where no agenda has been set. Quick and to the point “huddles” or briefings might also deliver more in terms of engagement - so as to avoid long meeting fatigue.
These kinds of exchanges nurture the concept of "working out loud" and encourage colleagues to appreciate what everyone else is working on, rather than people working in silos at their desks.
If mastery is the urge to get better and better at something we are good at, charity managers should communicate the importance of training and development to their staff and give them the time to do this. If that doesn't mean formal courses in external offices, it can mean encouraging participation in webinars or round table talks, where new ideas and learning relevant to the charity's operations are explored.
Purpose is described by Dan Pink as the yearning to do what we do in the service of something bigger than ourselves. In other words, "why" does the charity exist, what does it believe? This may sound obvious, but people in an organisation must never lose sight of "why" they do what they do, and it should be reiterated daily through all communications. It is very easy for staff at all levels to be bogged down by the minutiae of day to day work and forget the bigger picture.
Why does Amnesty International inspire three million members worldwide to campaign for justice where it has been denied? Because at the heart of every action or communication is "why" - because we believe in human rights. Author and Ted Talk host Simon Sinek strongly makes this case - arguing that Apple and Martin Luther King are both so compelling because they communicate why they do what they do before they communicate what they do – or to put it differently, establishing the "need" comes before a discussion of the "solution".
When internal PR is successful, people within a charity become natural storytellers, who can communicate where that charity has come from and why it exists, what it is doing now and where it is going in the future. When staff have purpose, they become natural ambassadors for the charity. This is particularly important in times of crises, when disgruntled or disillusioned staff could just as easily become the PR problem.
Technology is the great enabler
It is all very well saying what needs to happen to instil good communication, but it helps if a charity has the tools to do this. This is where technology comes in: to bring leadership and employees together - to give them their "voice".
Social media is the obvious one and good use of it will inspire staff and volunteers to interact and share and reiterate their sense of autonomy and shared purpose every day. This means good content. The Guardian Voluntary Sector Network suggests this could be "an opinionated blog post about a new piece of legislation, a photo album of your beneficiaries, an infographic, a video, a podcast, a mobile app, a guide".
Then there is a charity's intranet - the internal website that employees in a charity can access. It often contains the charity's news, job vacancies, policies, images, an employee directory etc. It is important staff know how the intranet works and that it syncs with how people socialise and share information online.
The intranet should not just be a forum to upload the charity's press releases and good news. A charity's intranet needs to be a safe and open space for dialogue, collaboration, data sharing and comment. If the intranet sits as a secondary resource to social media and email, staff will not use it. It all needs to be integrated, to be "the" platform to which employees and management turn.
Perhaps it will have a customisable interface with staff profile pages, so that in the manner of Facebook or Flipboard, people can edit who and what they see. It might also have Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and blog feeds, video and other multimedia content embedded into it, as well as file sharing, instant messaging and email functionality, and downloadable resources - such as charity policy and PR tools.
A priority for any charity
Effective internal communications should be a priority for any charity, large or small, and should be woven into the habits and practices of staff at all levels. Good internal PR leads to enhanced employee relations, happier and more motivated staff and, hopefully, a more effective organisation from top to bottom. What is more, this makes the external PR twice as easy.
