Internal Review

"Gridlock at the intergovernmental level presents a major challenge and requires organizations like GCAP to

find new ways of working locally and globally, which challenge the institutions and processes, which

perpetuate poverty and inequality"

- Kumi Naidoo, Executive Director, Greenpeace International

INTRODUCTION

For GCAP, communication inside the organization is a crucial component of maintaining a cohesive, connected organization. In addition to having a positive impact within the company, internal communication is also the first step to establishing a sustainable and innovative overall communication strategy. The goal is to create a virtual office, an internal community where a physical one currently does not exist. Through this effort, we hope to go beyond the now commonplace intranet to something more malleable and complete. By creating a workable space for each employee to work and interact, we can better develop new initiatives, receive feedback on work product, and expand the organization's capacity. And, because many external communications are produced internally, this space would support an extranet for our partners and other stakeholders.

The development of a true internal community is not simple. GCAP is a multinational organization, with employees working in virtually every corner of the globe. The current system, heavily reliant on email, is not ideal for communication -- the endless criss cross of email traffic often burries important information. Email is also not a coherant, systematic method to respond with or to comments. The answer is to develop an online social media platform that aggregates all internal communications at a central hub, accessible via any internet-equipped device -- that is intuitive. Indeed, the goal is to provide GCAP workers with a space that they want to use -- like Facebook and other social networking platforms -- rather than force it upon them. The platform should also be flexible so that as user comments and suggestions arise it can be adapted. Here re-innovation will come from within.

This new internal and external communications strategy aims to use every tool available through the internet -- particularly social media outlets -- to inspire innovation, promote informational cross pollination, and foster communication between GCAP, our organizational partners and the public.

For an over overview of GCAP's structure and governance please click here the diagram used by GCAP to communicate its structure clearly illustrates some of the challenges facing the organisation in articulating its internal relationships to external audiences.

HOW TO GET EVERYONE HERE.....

...TO WORK AS COHESIVELY AS EVERYONE HERE.

SOLUTION:

An intuitive, online virtual office that will enhance communication between co-workers across the globe. A space in which co-workers can collaborate. An online platform that employees actually want to use.

CHALLENGES

    • Easy to navigate for any user's technological capabilities

    • Well-secured

    • Requires minimal support and training

    • Includes text search features

    • Structure many levels of information and communication coherently

BENEFITS

  • Fast access to up-to-date, relevant nformation

  • Save time and money on travel and paper communications

  • Increase productivity through readily-available information

  • Enhance communication by removing information bottlenecks

    • Promote employee engagement

    • Facilitate greater team camaraderie, communicate on a global scale, and create internal touch points that were previously unavailable.

INTERNAL STAKEHOLDERS

    • Each regional office/employee

    • "Central" office/Amsterdam office

EXTERNAL STAKEHOLDERS

    • Development Partners -- Oxfam, etc.

    • Donors

    • General Public

    • Media

KEY COMPONANTS

    • Video Conferencing

    • Instant Messaging

    • Message Boards

    • Project Pages

    • Comment and Editing Features

    • Joint document editing capability (aka googledocs)

    • Email

PRE-EXISTING PLATFORMS +TOOLS

    • Yammer -- provides secure, business-to-business microblogging capabilities, facilitating a multitude of inter-company communication needs. Yammer is considered enterprise version of Twitter.

    • Jabber -- open-source instant messaging platform.

    • Skype -- a software application that allows users to make telephone calls over the internet. Features include instant messaging, file transfer, and video conferencing. A great example of Skype’s usefulness can be seen in its use by the Australian based surf retailer, Rip Curl. Rip Curl's designers and manufacturers work together on video calls from their bases all over the world.

    • Wiki – a wiki is a website that allows for the easy creation and editing of any number of interlinked web pages. Wikis are often used to create and power collaborative community websites.

    • Digsby – Digsby is an instant messaging (IM) application that supports most mainstream IM protocols such as AIM, MSN, Yahoo, Google Talk, ICQ, Jabber, and Facebook Chat. Digsby also supports e-mail notifications and alerts from MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

    • Podcast – a podcast is a series of digital media files, either audio or video, made available for download via the web. Internally, podcasts may be useful for instructional videos, messages from management, tutorials or other forms of information sharing.

    • GoogleWave -- a software framework centered on online real-time collaborative editing,

    • Zoho.com -- a Web- based online office suite containing word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, databases, note-taking, wikis, CRM, project management, invoicing and other applications developed by ZOHO Corporation (formally AdventNet Inc.)

http://www.hrmreport.com/article/Activating-Brand-Culture-Rethinking-the-Internal-Communications-Platform/

Internal communications as part of branding.

RESOURCES