THE STRUCTURE AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE INTERNAL COMMUNICATION FUNCTION

Executive Summary

1.   Management teams, especially in Britain, are increasingly recognizing the value of a having a dedicated internal communication function.

2.   Internal communication is a relatively new discipline. According to the Business Intelligence/item survey, Internal Communication in Transition,²⁵ exclusively commissioned to support this Report, more than 60 per cent of British internal communication departments are less than five years old; a third of them came into being only in the last two years.

3.   Although in many organizations, internal communication still operates as a sub-department, reporting, variously, to human resources, public relations, marketing, or other functions, a growing number of companies now have a separate internal communication department, suggesting that internal communication is increasingly recognized as a distinct discipline.

4.   Those respondents still working in a sub-department appear to be somewhat uncomfortable in their position. While only about 20 per cent of British respondents currently report directly to their CEO, a striking 52 per cent of British respondents and 43 per cent of international respondents felt they should, ideally, be directly accountable to the chief executive.

5.   One solution is to develop an integrated communications function. Usually called corporate communications, this function is responsible for communications to all of an organization's stakeholders. Under this structure internal communication usually works as an equal partner with the external communications function and reports directly to the CEO.

6.   A number of organizations are also experimenting with an agency model of internal communication, where communications specialists offer their services to other departments as needed.

7.   Perhaps indicative of the function's growing status and recognition, most British internal communication departments have a separate budget. This represents a substantial increase from the 1996 result.

8.   Although there are still many one-player teams out there, almost a third of British internal communication departments now boast at least five full-time professional employees.

9.   Outsourcing of internal communication activities looks set to grow. Although only a minority of respondents report outsourcing a significant proportion of internal communication activities currently, more than a third of British respondents and half of overseas respondents expected the proportion of outsourced activities to grow.

10.   AXA, a Paris-based global financial protection group, operates 150 companies in 50 countries around the world. Its central communication function has sought to find the most efficient structure to meet the needs of its multinational, multilingual workforce.

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