Fitz N10. Research and Evaluation in IC

Every investment needs to show that itsresults are worth the resources involved. Showing your 'rturn on investment' or how you add value to the business is an obligation for communication managers.

Communicator needs evidence and data to help them understand:

• Data intelligence. What are people saying and thinking? How might we expect them to react? Where are the hotspots and where should be we putting our efforts?
• Targeting. What are we trying to achieve? What are our goals and how do they support the wider objectives of our organization? We call the proccess of data analysis that allows you to predict what you need to do to get results.
• Tracking. What is working and what is not. What is it that we actually do that makes a difference? Are there tools that are delivering what they should be? Are there refinements we can make to our messages? Are we doing what we set out to do? Are we spending resources wisely?

Three levels of understanding

There are essentially three levels of measurement when it comes to IC:

• Reporting and analysing your activity - did we do what we set out to do?
• Understanding whether people got the message and how they are reacting
• Seeing if anything has changed as an intentional result of the communication

Outcome measures

Data-gathering exercises should begin and end with this simple model - what do we want people to know, understand, what level of enthusiasm, excitement and personal commitment is necessary and finally what do we want people to do differently as a result of our communications?

Return on Investment (ROI) - holly grail or fool's gold?

Because there is no perfect methodology at the moment, should we give up trying to explain the link between communication resources and business results?

Start with the leaders

Before conducting any research or evaluation, a smart communicator asks senior leaders what value they think communication should add to the organization.

If you are in an organization obssessed with costs you are unlikely to do yourself any favours if you miss cost control from your reporting on communication. Where leaders are concerned with safety you will need to have metrics which help them understand the impact that communication is having on the issue.

QUANTITATIVE MEASURES - SURVEYS AND TRACKING

Most organizaions today have annual or biennial employee survey - measuring employee engagement, understanding workplace stress, combating bulling or promotingstaff wellfare are common motivations.

Before youstart on anyresearch process there are some simple questions that you should consider:

• What exactly do I need to know and why?
• What do I want to happen with the information after I have gathered it? Your results have to fit for purpose. If you're hoping to challenge senior managers with your findings it is often wise to involve them at an early stage in the data-gathering process.
• Will I need to ask everyone or will a sample suffice?
• Does the information already exist somewhere?
• What resources do I have?
• How detailed?

Gallup's G12 survey

Response rates for employee surveys can be helped by simple tricks:

• Make sure the survey is simple and quick to fill in
• Perceived anonymity
• Is there any point in this?
• What has this got to do with my day job?

Reporting the results need to happen within a sensible timeframe. Reports should be simple and tell a story covering:

• What have we achieved? What activities have taken place since the last report and how they changed awareness, understanding and behaviours?
• What are the opportunities ahead? What gaps are there in knowledge or attitudes that can fill and what communications event might possibly help us close those gaps?
• What risk can we see? Are there forthcoming events or issues that we need to take account of? What might happen if we do not address misunderstandings or negative attitudes in the workforce?
• Actions: What specific actions do we propose that leaders and the communications team consider?

Figure 10.1 CIPR Inside Communication Measurement Matrix

Source: Internal Communications: A Manual for Practicioners (2014) by Liam FitzPatrick, Klavs Valskov