Speaking from the viewpoint of management, internal communications is responsible for conveying information, but strategically, it also helps promote organisations’ self-understanding, fosters close relations among employees and helps build workplace culture. In other words, good internal communication helps employees understand organization’s mission, thereby inspiring their devotion to company development.
Stories of success
Over 41 years of development, one characteristic of TRAPHACO Pharmaceuticals Joint Stock Company (Traphaco) that is always easy to spot the harmony and unity among the entire company staff. “We are deeply aware that the solidarity in our human resources system is the critical key behind the success of the company. At Traphaco, with a big staff of more than 1,000 working across the country from north to south, internal communications has been identified as extremely important,” said Ms Vu Thi Thuan, Chairwoman of Traphaco.
Direct, frequent briefings and meetings with employees to discuss goals as well as difficulties of the company, listening to their voices and thoughts are how the leaders of Traphaco connect with their workers, to foster understanding and empathy between leaders and labourers.
As information technology develops rapidly and businesses grow strong than ever in both number and quality, Traphaco has started using various methods to boost internal communications such as internal website, email, social network, etc. Early 2002, Traphaco for the first time released an internal bulletin, published in special times of year. Parallel to that, the entire staff of Traphaco also are connected to each other through intranet at the address http://ift.tt/1kS42DQ. By visiting the website, people can regularly update and share information about all aspects of Traphaco, from business, meetings, cultural programs to other topics of interest. Not to mention the bulletin board, website, SMS channel, all together have made up a comprehensive and professional system of internal communication channels, ready for seamless communication among units.
“It’s effective communication and unity has made us more like a family rather than a mere company, working toward the shared goal of Traphaco’s development and making it a successful company you are seeing now,” said Ms Thuan.
At Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Group (VNPT), Mr Bui Quoc Viet, Director of Centre for Information and Public Relations affirmed that in a union, strength came from organization and knowledge required information. Over the years, communications, especially internal communications in VNPT had been done well and achieved remarkably results, timely conveying messages from the leadership to staff, forming a united force and powering the corporation. Another important factor to VNPT’s success, beside the Centre for Information and Public Relations which has created numerous valuable information products, is the efforts of leaders from all levels, of functional departments and all units, in which work from the head of the company plays a critical role.
As can be seen from two stories above, big companies like Traphaco, VNPT and many others have started to take internal communications seriously and make effort to use it as an efficient method to convey messages of business to each employee. Thanks to that, image, brand and culture of companies are now shown clearer than ever. Value of businesses can be appreciated not only among workers but also reaching towards customers and partners.
The ticket to effective internal communications
Back to the concept of internal communications, Mr Do Thanh Nam, Director of Win-Win Strategy Consulting Company said that internal communication is the totality of interactions within an organisation, including formal and informal activities related to the organisation, to help it understand itself.
To achieve that understanding, according to Mr Nam, it’s necessary to combine multiple channels and expand multi-dimensional interaction among object levels. It’s also important to note that each object would be best suited with a specific message through a specific channel in a specific time. With such broad categories, internal communication lies not only in the work of company’s communication unit, but also responsibility of all levels of management, especially departments working on policies related to employees such as human resources, salaries, unions, regulations and rules, and business departments who work directly with customers.
The bigger enterprises develop, the more decentralized management become, comes with it is the widening distance between the lowest ranking employee to the most senior leader. As a result, the “interference” in two-dimensional information from the top to the bottom is unavoidable. This “interference” can lead to problems of internal communication crisis, distorting information which in turn creates disunity and weaken company’s strength.
Giang Tu
Đăng ký: VietNam News