Martin Elbel is a lecturer in "Management of Internal Communication" at Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts. He most recently worked as Director Corporate Communications at the MedTech company Medela and now manages projects in the areas of communications, change management and employee engagement. He began his career as a journalist and consultant at a Zurich PR agency before heading up communications departments at UBS, Lucerne Festival, Switzerland Global Enterprise and Swiss Re. Internal communication and employer branding are particularly important to him.
Why is internal communication important?
Good internal communication informs all employees continuously and transparently about important events in the company. Employees have the feeling that they are being taken seriously. They understand management decisions better, which can be unpleasant in difficult times. Praise and success stories motivate employees and they become authentic and committed ambassadors for the company. The company can thus retain valuable employees and become interesting for good new employees. The company's reputation remains high or even grows.
Many companies work with outdated intranet solutions. Why might it be that many companies are still struggling to provide a modern employee communication platform?
Management underestimates the value of internal communication or lacks the will or courage to provide continuous and transparent information. Even if these managers are active in internal communication, they often underestimate the effort involved and are not aware that good technical systems can make communication even faster and better. Finally, other IT projects are often considered more important, which is why it takes a long time for budgets for efficient employee communication platforms to be approved.
Internal communication to ALL employees is still seen as a "nice to have" in many companies - especially in industrial companies. What is your opinion on this?
We are hungry for information in our private lives, aren't we? WhatsApp, Facebook, Linked-In, news platforms: We visit these sites many times a day! And in the company, where we work over eight hours a day, that shouldn't apply? Internal communication turns employees into self-thinking employees - and no company can be successful today without them!
To what extent has the demand for well-functioning internal communication increased since COVID-19? Can internal communication benefit from increased working from home?
COVID-19 brings with it an enormous potential for uncertainty, which can have a major impact on productivity and the quality of work. With many people working from home, there are no other functioning direct channels available, such as face-to-face meetings and brief encounters at the coffee machine. In the past, people used to go into the next room to talk to colleagues, but now they want to at least be able to talk to them via the intranet platform. Intensive, good internal communication has become even more important under COVID-19, and I have seen for myself that it is more appreciated since COVID-19.
Has the Covid-19 pandemic changed the requirements for communication channels?
Yes, especially in two areas: Top-down information should be even faster and easier to find, and platforms need to make virtual meetings, exchanges via chats, dialog and document sharing straightforward. The rapid transformation from a simple information platform to a comprehensive collaboration platform is now required.
In your opinion, what are the biggest challenges in internal communication for Swiss companies?
Management needs to get involved in internal communication and take independent action. They need to recognize that this requires good specialists in the communications department and that systems that enable dialogue and are easy to use make the entire company more successful. It is helpful if employees themselves request more information (for example in employee surveys), and it is valuable if the little communication that is already taking place - despite unfavorable conditions - is of good quality and has a positive effect.
What are the criteria that determine agreement when choosing the right tool for an intranet?
For me, three criteria are of primary importance: employees should be able to use the tool quickly and easily, without long introduction times and with few basic options; the tool must have simple interfaces so that it can be easily integrated into an existing IT environment; it must be scalable and the provider must be able to adapt it to new developments on an ongoing basis.
In your opinion, who are the most important stakeholders in an organization when introducing a new tool?
Project management is the responsibility of the communications department. It integrates IT and formulates the requirements. The communication managers convince the management (who approve the budget) and support them in creating good internal communication. And by telling good stories, the communicators awaken the employees' desire for more internal communication.
