Communication... and Employee Engagement...

I have been reading through a global study of Watson Wyatt Worldwide on the decisive impact communication strategies have in the overall performance of the organisation. The study reveals that the impact of a cohesive communication strategy is significant and impacts.... ............retaining talent and acquiring talent ............increasing employee engagement in a substantial way ............consistent and better performance of the employees, and in turn the organisation ............financial performance of the organisation This is just a part of the findings, and a read of the report throws light on how crucial managing communication in the organisation is to achieve its goals. It is all about creating the brand not only to the external world but to the members of the organisation. This means that the communications team - mostly christened 'corp comm and PR' in many organisations which is more corporate strategy centric needs to have a great degree of alignment with the human resources practice in the organistion. I have seen that, even in many of the midsized and large organisations, the communications team is primarly aligned with the corporate strategy wing, which owns the external branding and image management of the organisation. Sans an alignment and working closely with the HR team, the internal branding objective is hardly going to be served. And in the end, what reallly is most critical to the organisation is how it is seen by its own team and leadership...... they are the ones who are responsible for the performance of the organisation, and they are the ones who would be brand ambassadors to all the internal and the external stake holders....... branding the organisation as a great workplace with a great cause will make all the difference, and infact make the job of external PR much easier that it could ever be....... May all communication strategists please note and comment