FEIEA has announced the headline results of its latest survey among nearly 5,000 practising workplace communicators. The presentation was made on 21 October 2005 at a conference in Brussels to mark FEIEA’s golden jubilee.

The survey reveals much confidence in the contribution to organisational success that communication plays. However, fewer communicators feel secure in their jobs.

This latest FEIEA survey among professional communicators follows the federation’s first Delphi study into the role of communication in the European workplace, published in 2001. Now as then, members of professional associations in 13 countries across Europe were asked about communication in their organisations, about their own jobs, status, responsibilities, work-tools and key challenges.

Main findings in brief:

Communication is a key success factor for organisations – 84 per cent agree strongly concerning external communication, and 79 per cent agree strongly regarding internal communication.

Although organisational communication is increasingly online and electronic, the most time-consuming task for communicators remains magazine production (92 per cent).

Next most time-intensive tasks are the distribution of internal information (86 per cent) and the intranet and internet (82 per cent). However, communicators believe their time could be better spent on other activities, notably on developing strategies (75 per cent), crisis communication (75 per cent) and communication structure (62 per cent).

Defined goals for internal communication exist, but horizons have changed dramatically since 2001. Then, 71 per cent said that they had long-term defined goals. Four years later, the picture has reversed, with 74 per cent now saying their set objectives are short-term.

The five biggest barriers to effective communication are low management commitment to communication (76 per cent), a lack of time (65 per cent), ineffective organisation structure (59 per cent), insufficient communications skills (50 per cent) and ill-defined communication goals (44 per cent).

The dominant pattern of internal communication in 2005 is still ‘top down’ (69 per cent), but this marks a shift in trend (2001: 78 per cent). Lateral or cross-level communication has increased to 28 per cent (2001: 22 per cent). However, the voice of the ordinary employee remains a rarity – FEIEA’s latest survey found that just one per cent of communicators recognise bottom-up communication in operation in their organisations.

Half of respondents (51 per cent) say that they can address sensitive issues via internal communication channels but over one third (37 per cent) disagree.

Among traditional media, employee magazines remain top with 83 per cent continuing to believe in them as an effective communication tool. This marks a slight decline since the earlier survey (2001: 88 per cent). The popularity of the noticeboard has taken a heavy fall to just 46 per cent (2001: 72 per cent).

Among electronic media, e-mail (82 per cent) and the intranet (69 per cent) remain dominant, a position virtually unchanged since 2001.

A huge majority of respondents (85 per cent) say internal communication in their organisations will become more important but their sense of job security has fallen. Only a half (53 per cent) feel secure in their job compared to 83 per cent in 2001.

In summary, internal communication plays an increasingly important role in organisations and is a success factor. Communication tools are changing, with electronic media being mostly used for immediate information and magazines helping to provide background understanding. There is no consensus about the best single field of professional education for internal communicators. However, communicators underline the importance of professional education in journalism, marketing, public relations and business studies.