STATEC's program to improve internal communication

Topic (ii) - Improving internal communication: working better together

UNECE Work Session on Communication and Dissemination of Statistics(13-15 May 2009, Warsaw, Poland)

Guy ZACHARIAS, STATEC-Luxembourg

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Summary

1. Introduction2. Shut up and work!3. Communicate better, work better!4. Risks and opportunities5. Taking stock after a four years program

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Introduction

• STATEC was founded in 1962.Until 1990: the vertical communication era.

• Contemporary communication policy started in 2003 with the Intranet

• 2007: start of a multi-annual communication plan

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Summary

1. Introduction2. Shut up and work!3. Communicate better, work better!4. Risks and opportunities5. Taking stock after a four years program

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Shut up and work!

From 1962-1990, communication went mainly in a vertical sense.

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Shut up and work!

• Communication between units was mostly sporadic and limited to the strict necessary

• The hierarchical relations were slightly structured (direct relations between the director and the staff members)

• “Knowledge is Power- Hide it well” was the slogan of a big part of the staff

• Organized communication was limited to written instructions from the director general and one annual planning meeting of the management board (heads of unit at that time).

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Summary

1. Introduction2. Shut up and work!3. Communicate better, work better!4. Risks and opportunities5. Taking stock after a four years program

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Communicate better, work better!• New director general appointed in 1990• More communication =

- better working climate- more confidence- more knowledge-sharing- better efficiency and performance

• Communication was favoured by the “Zeitgeist”• Tasks increasing relatively stronger than staff• New director introduces monthly planning

meetings, task forces and a permanent management board

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Communicate better, work better!

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Communicate better, work better!• New director general appointed in 2003• Setup of the Intranet; implementation of a web

calendar; “economic seminars”• “Working together” program started in 2005

with following actions:1. Personal development interviews (PDI)

2. Core “working together” program = management training

3. Heads of unit Forum

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The Intranet• Not easy to implement: needs resources for

regular update• Unconditional support of the director general:

declared that the Intranet has a compulsory status

• News and archive of important documents• Became an inevitable tool for internal

communication

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Network calendar

• overview of the scheduled activities• everybody is informed on time about important

dates, holidays, meetings, tasks• provides a feeling of being perfectly informed

and involved in all the activities• prevents the constant worry to forget or miss

important events

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Personal development interviews (PDI)• Master plan of the modernization, the promotion of

quality and the development of staff management in the public administrations

• Identifying the degree of satisfaction of the personnel.

• Analysis of the training requirements.• Once a year. A fairly harmonized questionnaire. 30

to 60 minutes per person. Summary report.• The fixed topics are discussed systematically and

bilaterally between the chief and the different members of his unit.

• Utility is recognized by the majority of the agents.

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Working together

• Learn how to mobilize the staff and to improve their competences

• Training course for better management and communication given by an external expert (management level).

• Encourage the communication between hierarchical levels and strengthen the co-operation in the daily work.

• Reflexion workshops at employee level.• Results: broadmindedness of the management

facing criticism and complaints by the staff members.

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Economic seminars

• Seminars on new results for staff members, internal and external experts, before the official release.

• 10 sessions per year. • One session lasts more or less 1 hour.• The average audience is about 25 persons • Open for the entire staff

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Meetings

• Annual planning meeting of the management (20 heads of division and unit). Review the activities of the past year and present the program and the strategic objectives for the coming year.

• The Management Committee. Meets weekly. Deals with budgetary and personnel issues and ensures that urgent matters are attended to.

• The monthly planning meeting. Common projects, information exchanges, follow-up of day-to-day issues, monitoring of the annual programme.

• Monthly Division meetings. Prepare the planning meetings

• Weekly staff meetings. The head of unit meets his staff to discuss problems and to fix priorities.

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Heads of Unit Forum

• Felt not enough implied in the decision-making process and many ideas did not find their way to the “Belle Etage”.

• Meets once a month to discuss subjects of general interest, in order to make recommendations to the top management.

• Contributes to innovation and progress of the working methods

• Heads of unit feel less isolated with their problems. Solidarity is reinforced

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Summary

1. Introduction2. Shut up and work!3. Communicate better, work better!4. Risks and opportunities5. Taking stock after a four years program

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Risks and opportunities

Main risks and problems:

• Some people hate or have problems to communicate, or are not trained in communication

• They think that all these efforts are an unnecessary burden.

• They prefer the “shut-up-and-work” system.• The fact that some people refuse to play the

game creates a two-class society.

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Summary

1. Introduction2. Shut up and work!3. Communicate better, work better!4. Risks and opportunities5. Taking stock after a four years program

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Future challenges• Internal communication is an full-fledged (and often

underestimated) task to improve efficiency.• The fixed objectives are not attaint yet. There are still

many colleagues to convince.• Intranet, Economic Seminars and Planning meetings are

well accepted.• Division- and staff-meetings are not held consequently• ~ 60% are participating in the heads of unit forum• Management training and PDI’s are partly accepted.• Awareness of the importance of a good internal

communication has raised• Internal communication has been improved!

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We are heading the right way

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Questions?