Acting Human

An efficient intern communication process is important for a good performance of the company. Further it allows a better job satisfaction for the employees. Advanced technology has brought new possibilities of intern corporate communication. But also the classic way have their advantages. Within this post I summarize the different possibilities for the intern communication process as well as their advantages, and respectively their disadvantages.

Intranet

The Intranet is basically a network where the employees of an organization can share information or operations securely. It is restricted to the employees of an organization and requires a special authentication. The Intranet might also only be the company’s own internal website. Normally it can only be accessed by the employees during their working hours.

Sort of a variation is the so called VPNs (virtual private networks). Here the organization provides an access through a gateway with a firewall, along with user authentication and encryption of messages. The advantage here clearly lies within the fact that off-site employees also have access to the company information, their computing resources and internal communications.

Intranets mainly shall increase and advance the productivity of a company. They can give employees an easy access to needed tools and applications e.g. corporate directories, CRM tools, sales tools, space for collaboration and project management and so on. Mainly the thought that the employees can discuss and exchange each other is interesting for companies because through internal forums new ideas might turn out. Different points of view can lead e.g. to a better a service or a new product.

Circular

In the origin a circular was a paper document which had been send out on the postal way to the addressees in multiples copies. Nowadays the advanced technology enables a company to send the circular around via the electronically way as an internal Newsletter.

On this way multiple persons receive the sent information. The disadvantage lies within the fact that the addressees cannot really discuss about the information because they are more of a given fact or final decision. Even in a form of a newsletter the main aim consist on broadcasting relevant and updated information concerning the company.

Bulletin board

The bulletin board provides people the possibility to leave messages and provide information comparable with newspaper advertisements. The messages might consits of advertisements for buying or selling things, announcement for events or free positions, renting apartments. It also can be used as for retention and passing on of thoughts and notes.

Especially the exchange of thoughts and notes is a nice old fashioned way of communicated with each other even if there is no direct contact. But the visualization of different things on the bulletin board might turn into new ideas. The bulletin board also allows that people from different sections get into contact.

This communication tool is not eligible for providing deeper information. Also the bulletin board probably won’t reach every employee in the company because people need to grab the information from there on their own. So it is not recommendable for important information.

Internal communications through employee magazines

Internal magazines or periodicals focus both active and passive employees of an organization or company. It’s also known as Corporate Publishing.

The aim of such magazines or periodicals consist in the information brokerage. Normally the department for Public Relations is responsible for it. The publication of such print articles serves as information source for other employees. It also represents as a connection between the employees and the management.

The content may diversify and includes relevant information of the company, explains decisions of the management and makes them transparent, contains free positions, possibilities for advanced trainings, farewells, and so on.

Weblogs

A weblog can be described as a Website which is permanantly updated with new entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Blogs allow it to leave comments and therefore can be seen as an interactive platform. The articles written appear in a reverse chronicle order so that the newest entry is always on top of the first page.

There are mainly two options how a blog can be integrated into a company or organization. The first option consist in a corporate blog written by mainly one person like the pr responsible like for marketing purposes. The second options would be that the blog is maintained as an employee blog. In that case different employees use the blog as a platform to write about their experiences and thoughts in the company.

The use of a blog can enhance the communication and culture of a company. There are also external effects as already adumbrate. It is good for public relations, marketing purposes as well as branding.

The problem here is that most employees won’t be open to blog. It’s not only a matter of time to do that. Most employees probably are just not open to give out sort of personal details especially since everybody out there might read it. There might also be sort of fear that they write something wrong and the management is not open enough for that. So a weblog written by employees might not reflect their true thoughts.

Information meeting of the management

This form of internal communication only concerns the management itself and not the interaction with the employees. But after all it is also needed. A regular information meeting of the management is helpful to figure out where the company stands, if goals where reaches, which problems need to be solved, and so on. The management normally has to discuss a lot of points always with the welfare of every employee in their mind.

After all a company or organization needs to find the right tools for an optimal internal communication. There just shouldn’t be an information overload because that probably would just lead to a resignation through the employee. So the right mix is important. In a company where the employees mostly work with the PC the electronicaly way probably might be the best way to spread information. But on the other hand classical ways like a magazine might be a nice change.

The other day I tripped over the term “Lean Manufacturing”. The principles sounded interesting to me especially since they seemed to be contemporary. Before having a closer look to the human site of that it is need to know what the term means and where it comes from.

Lean Manufacturing originates from the Japanese automotive manufacturer Toyota. The method was developed in the middle of the 20th century. The aim of the Toyota Production System (TPS) consisted in the creation of a stable process organization which forms the base of the reached quality level of their products. Toyota describes it as follows:

A production system that is steeped in the philosophy of the complete elimination of all waste and that imbues all aspects of production with this philosophy in pursuit of the most efficient production method.

The term was first used by Professor James P. Womack and consultant Daniel T. Jones. They spent years analyzing the success of Japanese companies. Nowadays the lean principles are used in all division like lean production, lean administration or lean maintance. The most usable definition which covers probably the best way the different use of the term “Lean Manufacturing” is the following (Source):

(Lean Manufacturing) is a manufacturing phenomenon that seeks to “maximize the work effort of a company’s number one resource, the People.” Lean is therefore “a way of thinking” to adapt to change, eliminate waste, and continuously improve. There are a number of tools and techniques, to be used in concert, to achieve maximizing the effort of the workforce and to operate as a “lean” company

For reaching those targets it is necessary to eliminate redundant activities and adjust the value added chain in an optimal way. On the one site the needs, wants and wishes of the consuments need to be considered like quality, price, availability and individuality. On the other site the company has to realize that to act profitable and keep its competitiveness on its market. That means that the base for the companies work forms the customer preference with processes orientated towards the customer and with a high efficiency.

For reaching all that the company needs adequate process definitions, descriptions of the cut surfaces, clear responsibilities, and timely reactions on errors, simple organization methods and stable processes.

The question now is what that means for the Human Resources? The targets only can be met when the stuff is embraced early in the conception and realization. The sensitisation of the stuff for errors are important with the aim of motivate them and integrate the knowledge of every single worker.

But for reaching a sensitisation of the stuff it is first necessary that it stands behind the company and its philosophy. If a worker doesn’t share the company’s views he probably doesn’t care of possible errors which might occur. Or he might not be aware of the needs of a client. After all he might not stand in the “full service” of the company. Also the motivation will be hard then.

Further it might be hard for a worker to distinguish problems. Even if there are guidelines, the human acting might differ from it out of his known routine. For him other things might occur right and he probably will act in his way according to the guideline.

So after all it is important for the company to win the stuff for what it does. This also includes reaching a maximum of job satisfaction not only through money.