Effects of the financial crisis on the internal communications in the big Bulgarian companies
The analysis gives the most important conclusions from the Apeiron Research survey that was carried out in May 2009 among 76 big Bulgarian companies, representatives of different industries of Bulgarian economy. Respondents were PR and HR managers, assistants, line managers, employees in different departments, CEO, etc. The main goal of the research was to determine the influence of the economic crisis to nation's big taxpayers in the context of their internal communications. One of the specific sub goals was to determine how the crisis has become a reason for more intensive dialogue with the staff in one company and how communication can prevent negative consequences.
The research showed that more than half of the big Bulgarian companies have started communicating more actively with their staff as a result of the financial and economic crisis. 42% of respondents have pointed out that they have more active internal communications compared to previous months. This tendency is most common in companies with over 750 employees. Bigger is the percent of companies in which the level of internal communications has not changed or has decreased, though.
All participants in the survey have expressed that the active company communication with staff is of great importance - 75% of respondents said active dialogue is very important, for the other 25%, the communication is more important when there is a problem rising. Despite that, about 50% point out that their company communicates actively with the staff.
The most visible change in communication was determined to be in the messages that companies send to their staff. This change is admitted by 70% of the respondents. These are mainly companies with more than 750 people personnel which are struck more tangibly by the crisis. The leading change in messages is the sharing of more information about different aspects of the company and how it is affected by the crisis - what the market situation is, what the current projects are, and what the employee responsibilities are. More rarely, companies communicate the long-term business plans for development of the company with their staff.
The Research showed which the most preferred communication channels for communication with the staff are. We can see there are barely any changes before and after the crisis has started.
Financial crisis has affected the behavior of employees too. There are two main tendencies - bigger engagement to company activities in order to remain at work (43%) or demotivation because of limited opportunities for development (37%).
The key conclusions from the research show that the ability to communicate efficiently with staff will turn to be of great importance for managing an organization during 2010.
Internal Communications in 2010
