STATEC's program to improve internal communication

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

Summary • Introduction • Shut up and work! • Communicate better, work better! • Risks and opportunities • Taking stock after a four years program

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

Shut up and work! From 1962-1990, communication went mainly in a vertical sense.

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).

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

Communicate better, work better!

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: • Personal development interviews (PDI) • Core “working together” program = management training • Heads of unit Forum

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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!

We are heading the right way

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STATEC's program to improve internal communication