Communication

Service Offerings > Communication

What It Is
Seeking a way to measure internal communication effectiveness, get hard-to-find benchmark data, and share in the experiences and results of peer companies?

Towers Perrin is pleased to announce the second year of our Communication Effectiveness Consortium. Based on solid research and real-world experience, the Consortium offers member companies the opportunity to:

• Cost-effectively take an in-depth measure of internal communication effectiveness.
• Benchmark results against those of other leading companies.
• Participate in a network of practitioners committed to advancing the art and science of effective communication.

This study is among the first and only to survey employees themselves — the actual recipients of internal communication — on a global basis about their opinions of what defines effective communication, whether or not their company communicates effectively, and their preferences about how they'd like to receive information.

Listen to a recording of our recent webcast for more information about the Consortium and to hear comments from current members.

2004 Highlights
In the first iteration of our study, conducted in March of 2004, we reached over 25,000 employees representing 17 U.S.-based companies, most of which have a global workforce.

In the study, we identified — and took a closer look at — the top five drivers of employee communication effectiveness, as defined by Consortium participants. These drivers include supervisory effectiveness in communication, well developed basic communication tools, market understanding (do I know about our competitors and our customers?), business understanding (do I know how we succeed?), and a well communicated employment deal.

Our findings are revealing. For example:

• Employees who said their senior leaders demonstrated a sincere interest in employees' well being rated communication effectiveness 12 points higher than those who did not. However, less than half of all respondents — 42 percent — answered that question favorably.
• On average, employees gave their company a rating of 69 (on a scale of 0-100) when it comes to overall communication effectiveness. In addition to an overall rating, the data allow us to identify the top drivers of communication effectiveness.
• 66% trust the information they receive from their organization more than what they hear from external media
• 60% say they receive the information they need to do their job well
• 57% say communication from corporate headquarters is clear and understandable
• 51% say their company is open and honest in its communications to employees
• 53% say their direct supervisors take the time to explain company strategies and important company developments to them.

Individual company results, which were blinded, varied considerably from the Consortium average in both directions. Not surprisingly, companies in the top tier scored highly in communication fundamentals such open and honest exchanges, clear and understandable materials, timely distributions, two-way feedback systems and consistent messaging.

What Does the Research Offer?
Beyond our aggregate findings, the primary focus of the Consortium is on acquiring actionable data (company-specific and benchmark) to enhance the impact of communication investments.

Our 2004 survey produced an overall definition and measure of communication effectiveness as mentioned above, helped to isolate the drivers of effectiveness, and established a baseline measure relative to quality, quantity, and effectiveness of specific communication tools. So, in addition to providing a difficult-to-obtain comparative benchmark, the results can serve as a roadmap for pinpointing areas of vulnerability, measuring current investments, refining strategies in the future, and improving the return on investment for communications.

Our charter members also find great value in the opportunity to come together, face-to-face, several times each year to discuss aggregate results and evaluate ways to advance communication effectiveness both organizationally and as individual professionals. This year we've added a private web-based information exchange site to facilitate ongoing contact and information sharing between members.