Internal communication strategies and best practices

Internal PR Action Plan

Effective communications are critical to the success of any organization. Communication is the most important aspect of public relations, which deals with the actual act of communicating critical events to the public, whether the audience is internal or external. Public relations in fact may be defined as a relational process whereby communication acts as the tool through which the organization manages and provides quality service to both its internal and external publics.

United Airlines is one corporation that currently utilizes public relations on many levels, albeit not always effectively. Facts, quotes, key information about a corporation and dates that events occur are all communicated via public relations representatives. It is in some sense a process whereby information is delivered to people through select channels. Despite the availability of PR reps to communicate corporate strategy, at this point in time there is a gap that exists between the level of satisfaction reported from internal publics within the corporation and the organization itself.

There is evidence suggesting that the company currently has a need to communicate to its internal employees on a more consistent basis, due to organizational changes, RIF's and changes in overall corporate structure. UA has been in the news more than any other airline in the industry, and has recently been hit hard by the flailing economy among other things.

Effective communications is vital to the success or failure of any PR campaign. A good communications program can result in content and motivated internal candidates, whereas a poor PR program can result in discontent and lack of support for the overall well being of the organization.

The current PR campaign utilized by United Airlines management is lacking. There are many complaints that have been filed by employees, and the company has been described among other things as "morally bankrupt" and "abusive" toward employees (UAL, 2005). Even passengers have filed complaints, suggesting that the PR campaign is failing not only internally but externally. Former passengers have suggested that the customer service at UA is lacking (UAL, 2005).

Employees have complained about pay cuts, lack of support, and lack of loyalty and suggest that the company operates outside of the parameters of an ethical and moral organization.

Action Plan

How could an effective internal PR communications effort improve employee morale? Bruning & Ledingham (2000) point out that public relations is a form of relationship management. PR representatives within the organization need to approach employee morale from a relational perspective. They need to work together to establish boundaries and clear communication.

Internal PR management involves analysis, strategic planning, implementation and evaluation of the current state of the organization (Bruning & Ledingham, 2000). PR is in an essence the management of the relationships that exist within the organization and its key publics including internal publics. The role of PR reps within UA will be to facilitate positive communication between the organization and its publics, and in order to accomplish this it must build relationships (Bruning & Ledingham, 2000)> One way to do this is to become more people-oriented and focus on relational values including quality and service (Bruning & Ledingham, 2000).

The internal action plan must include surveying internal publics to determine the source of their dissatisfaction with the current level of service the organization is providing them. Based on the information reaped from current practices the organization must then work to communicate its strategic vision with internal publics more clearly and also establish its vision as one that is morally and ethically sound. At this point in time communication is clearly lacking between higher ups in the organization and the rest of the company as a whole.