Articles & White Papers
01/20/2004
The Communications Audit
Communications that work help an organization in two ways: they contribute to the success of internal operations; they connect your organization with its target constituencies/audiences and encourage their faithful commitment to your mission. A communications audit by Advancement Associates equips your organization with a comprehensive analysis of how effectively and efficiently you communicate “at home” and how well you connect with the larger world beyond your own property. When done well, a communications audit points to the future as a tool for long-term, strategic planning.
A communications audit is somewhat like a financial audit, excepting that the object to be audited is different, but just as important. A communications audit is a comprehensive analysis of the effectiveness of
An organization’s internal communication system
An organization’s external communication activities
Why make a communications audit?
1. to help an organization stay on tract
“We seem to have lost our earlier quality. What have we lost and why have we lost it?”
2. to help a supervisor figure out what’s wrong with a process that seems not to be working
“No it’s not going OK. But don’t ask me what’s wrong. I don’t know.”
3. to help a manager to manage
“I want to make some changes, but I need more and better information to help me.”
4. to help an organization move through changes
“All of will have more motivation to make this change if we know the advantages for doing it.
5. to give management a fresh look at things
“I’ve been here ten years. You as an outsider have seen some things I’ve missed, probably because I am so familiar with them.”
Auditing internal communication
An organization’s internal communication has to do with people and messages inside the organization. In an audit of internal communications, the auditor asks these questions:
1. What is your organization’s vision (what you hope to become) as it pertains to internal communications?
2. What is your organization’s mission (your commitments) as it pertains to internal communications?
3. What are your organization’s strategies for carrying out the mission of your internal communications program?
4. Who is responsible to manage the implementation of those strategies?
5. How effective are your organization’s internal communications?
To get good answers the auditor looks for information first of all from management to learn about the company vision, mission and priorities. Managers should be the ones who can explain organizational structure, positions and job descriptions. More difficult to define are the many aspects of organizational culture and company morale and thus the auditor may have to survey the entire company to get an accurate sense of values, attitudes, expected practices, and even hygiene factors (light, air, work space, etc).
Auditors are interested, of course, in the internal communication system that is made of many interfaces through which message transfer takes place. What levels of information are needed to get the job done well? At what point do people suffer from informational overload? What is the character of the grapevine? How effective are meetings? What is the skill level in using e-mail, phone and bulletin boards?
The personnel office typically addresses communication issues. What can the audit learn about hiring, training, and firing; the grievance procedure; job performance evaluations and the methods of motivation and the tradition of rewards?
Work processes reveal much about communication. Equipment (“hardware” is the current term in the electronic field), methods of decision-making, deadline management and supervisory methods all contribute to productivity.
Auditing external communications
External communications connect your organization with its many stakeholders. The audit carefully assesses all your communications relationships – personal, print, audiovisual and electronic. In an audit of external communications, the auditor asks these questions:
1. What is your organization’s vision (what we hope to become) as it pertains to external communications?
2. What is your organization’s mission (our responsibilities) as it pertains to external communications?
3. What are your organization’s strategies for carrying out the mission of your external communications program?
4. Who is responsible to manage the implementation of those strategies?
5. How effective are your organization’s external communications?
To get good answers the auditor is likely to begin the search with the marketing department. Does the organization know its stakeholders? all of them? Is the marketing program experiencing success in staying connected with the stakeholders and expanding the family of stakeholders? To what extent has the organization engaged the entire corporate family in integrated marketing?
Contact with the stakeholders (that inevitably includes neighbors and clients and donors) is often given context by the organization’s campus. What is the appearance? What is to be learned about the organization from its parking, landscaping, signage, paint, use of space, etc.
The quality of personal contacts, be they in congregational meetings, club contacts, professional settings or even casual phone conversations, make up a significant portion of an organization’s external communication. These personal contacts are augmented by advertising, print pieces, web site and special events. On special occasions local media do the external communicating for the organization by writing and producing their own feature stores. The auditor wants to look at all of these items.
Fundraising, whether it be for the annual fund or for a special project, will enjoy far more success as all of the other initiatives in external communication give a consistent message of effectiveness.
How does one make a communications audit?
A communications audit is conducted through the review of materials, conversations with key staff, a survey sent to representative segments of your audiences and benchmarking with like organizations. The audit carefully assesses all your communications relationships – personal, print, audiovisual and electronic.
The successful completion of an audit requires that AAI have contact with one executive in your organization who can arrange with her/his staff to assist in provision of background materials, scheduling and other tasks. AAI might ask your permission to seek assistance from appropriate specialists for questions outside our expertise and experience (e.g., legal and computer technology questions).
The amount of time required for an effective audit depends upon the number of people who are involved and the kind of issues that need attention.
A Report
At the conclusion of the audit, AAI presents a report that outlines the strengths and weakness of your organization’s current communications program, and that identifies critical issues and potential future directions. When the audit is complete, AAI is available on a contract basis to guide strategic planning of a new program that meets your needs, and to counsel as it is administered.
