How to use Internal Communication more strategically

This blog is the third part of our series on the adoption of social intranets. In part 1, we explained what adoption truly means and why it is a continuous process. In part 2, we discussed benchmarking and how you can compare your intranet performance with other organizations.

In this third part, we focus on the crucial role of Internal Communication. How can a strategic approach to Internal Communication contribute to higher adoption and better performance of your social intranet? And how does this relate to your ambition level and objectives?

In this blog, we will cover:

• What your ambition and objectives mean for adoption.
• How the role of Internal Communication shifts from operational to strategic.
• How you can use the Plek Engagement Score to determine and improve your communication level.

Read Part 1: How to Measure and Improve Social Intranet Adoption
Read Part 2: Benchmarking Social Intranet Adoption

When is adoption sufficient?

Adoption is measurable with the Plek Engagement Score. The next question that quickly follows is: when is our adoption good enough?

The level of adoption is partly related to how the platform is used and its size:

• Adoption of an intranet is much higher than the adoption of a community, such as an association or a professional organization.
• Smaller organizations generally have much higher adoption rates because they have fewer platforms and employees typically work very closely together.

But the most important answer to the question "how are we doing?" is that it depends on your ambitions and objectives. A construction company with 300 employees, which primarily aims to reach and inform people on construction sites across the country, will have a very different score than a healthcare organization where knowledge sharing, internal alignment, and employee turnover are the key topics. This is related to the ambition of Internal Communication.

So, before we can answer the question "how are we doing?", let's first take a detour to "how are we doing right now?"

Ambition level of Internal Communication

When determining where organizations stand in terms of Internal Communication, we use a model with four levels. The level of ambition that suits you depends largely on your organization's culture and objectives.

Depending on your ambition level, the role of Internal Communication shifts from operational to strategic, from editor to conductor/facilitator.

This classification of ambition levels is not an exact science. The key takeaway is that organizational culture plays an important role in achieving your objectives. In practice, we often see organizations defining goals that require them to move to a higher level of Internal Communication.

For example, an organization that operates at level 2, Informing, and aims for knowledge sharing or collaboration, will likely find it difficult to achieve those goals in practice. It requires a different approach and a different mandate for Internal Communication, with the ambition level of Co-creation. This is a change that requires more than just a new tool.

The Plek Engagement Score and the level of Internal Communication

Adoption is measurable through the Engagement Score and the 5 underlying components. And the question "how well are we doing?" depends on your ambition regarding Internal Communication.

How are these two connected? We can see that by analyzing the data from our existing clients:

The dynamics that emerge from this:

Initiation: Reach is high, but Visit is low and View is disappointing. The system is underused and therefore not ingrained in people's routines.
Informing: There is a constant stream of relevant information. View reaches 100%, and content is relevant to everyone. People visit the platform more often, so Visit increases. Contribute remains low, limited to one or two people from Internal Communication and perhaps HR.
Engaging: The group of content creators grows, so Contribute increases along with Interact. With higher activity, the number of visits also grows, so Visit goes up. Interestingly, View drops because not all content is equally interesting to everyone anymore. Personalization becomes more important, and people start choosing.
Co-creation: Contribute increases further, as team leaders and management become active. Visit reaches 100%, and the platform takes a central place in the organization. Personalization becomes even more important, so View decreases a bit further.

From this, it follows that depending on where you are and what your goals and ambitions are, it is fairly easy to predict how you should score on the 5 components of the Engagement Score. Conversely, based on your scores, something can be inferred about where you stand in terms of Internal Communication.