Hardsale/ASPRA presentation

ASPRA Conference

The Importance of Internal CommunicationsJune 21st, 2011

Today’s Topics

Critical importance of internal communicationsToday’s schools environmentTraditional communicationsLeveraging ResearchExploring New MediaMessengers and messagesCommunications strategies

Critical Importance of Internal Communications

• Employees represento Frontline communicatorso Brand advocates

According to research, teachers especially

•District employees are deeply rooted in the community

They are the most trusted source of information about the district

Considering Your Placement

• School Districts are usually the largest employers within their boundarieso Employees buy homes, make

other large purchases and pay taxes

o Employees are involved in community organizations churches and other influential groups

Critical Importance of Internal Communications

• Disparate messages deployed by messengers can dilute the message of the district

o Through research, we understand that most employees who understand the message are willing to deliver it

o Commonly when employees do not understand the district’s message or its purpose, their conversations can undermine the intended purpose of messaging

Current Educational Environment

•Arizona’s political environment has created the most competitive school choice programs in the world• Important facts

o More than 1 million public school studentso 130,000 + children are in charter schoolso 25,000 + children are in private schoolso 5,000 + children are homeschooled *As a result of the last legislative session,

more public dollars are being leveraged for school choice

Current Educational Environment

• What does this all mean?o School choice will continue to create a

need for strength in both internal and external communications

• Empowering employees with diverse communications tools will support your efforts to retain and recruit students• School district communications, both internal and external, are directly related to school funding

Traditional Communications

• Traditional Mail• Email• Phones• Face-to-Face• Meetings• Website

Traditional Communications

• Email• Less than 50% are opened• Less than 20% are read for

comprehension• Only 5% result in action*This research comes from school districts within

Arizona

Traditional Communications

• Traditional Mail• Paper can be cost prohibitive• “Snail mail” generates low response

rates• It becomes part of the paper trail,

and gets left behind at work• It is not easily shared with others

Traditional Communications

• Create opportunities for face-to-face conversations

o Controlled environmento Well-trained messengers o Well-defined purpose

•One-on-one conversations yield better results than any other type of communication

Research; the Cornerstone of Communications

• Communications strategies are only as effective as the research used to develop them• Research methods

o Surveys Face-to-face Phone Online

o Focus Groupso Application Research

Research; the Cornerstone of Communications

• Action as a result of communications is a better indicator of success than response rates

o The evaluation of communication already implemented is vital research

o If your target audience is not receiving the information, then your communications plan is not working

Research; the Cornerstone of Communications

• Your research is only as good as the administration’s willingness to address the results

o Be sure you have an engaged administration

o Leverage existing research to demonstrate the rapidly changing world of effective communications*e.g. the dying art of email

360 Degrees of Communication

• Implement research to better understand existing conversations • Devise your strategy from research• Implement your strategy to manipulate the conversation• Evaluate the success of your communications

Exploring New Media

• Diversity among employees requires disparate forms of communications

• Be creative, implement as many new forms of communications as you can within the confines of your resources

Exploring New Media

• Take a step back from traditional methods. What new ways of communication have you found to be effective?

*e.g. Facebook, Twitter, Linked-In, Blogs, Podcasts, Message Boards, Web Conferences, etc.

Exploring New Media

• Administrators are often:• Nervous about the use of new media• Cautious of the open conversational

environment it creates• Skeptical of its effectiveness

*research, research, research

Messengers and Messages

• It can be easier to rely on district administrators to deliver our message

• The messenger will always be important

o Remember; it doesn’t matter what you say if the wrong person is saying it

o Examples?

Messengers and Messages

• Messaging is the key component to implementing the tactics of your district’s strategic plan

o Survey research will dictate the messenger and language of your message

o Application research will dictate the method you will leverage to communicate

The Importance of Internal Communications

• Internal and external communications are of equal importance

o Internal communications can become the driver of effective external communications

• Our employees are receiving information in new ways every day and it’s our job to keep up with them• Always be considerate of your most effective messenger

Questions?

www.hardsalecommunications.com