How well do we communicate? Internal communications review
February 2013
Slide 2
Methodology An electronic survey was developed and distributed
initially through an email to all staff. This was supplemented by a
notice on the staff website - http://www.hud.ac.uk/staff/
throughout January.http://www.hud.ac.uk/staff/ At the time that the
survey was live:: The University employed circa 1,770 individuals
across the Organisation 39% of these are Academic staff, 6% are
Senior staff and 55% are Support staff 56% of staff are female and
44% male. An overall response rate of 42% was achieved across all
staff a total of 741 completed surveys.
Slide 3
Who responded? The survey achieved 741 responses, from a wide
cross section of departments. The charts below demonstrate the %
breakdown of all respondents Base: 741
Slide 4
How do we communicate? Email is by far the most prevalent way
of sharing information across the University, 99% of information is
sent this way. The Staff Pages of the website are a good source of
bulletin updates, 64% of respondents use this as a source of
information. External websites (42%) are a popular way of receiving
information about the University; this is most likely Press
Releases and reading third party analysis of the University. Base:
741
Slide 5
Sending information through social media channels Using social
media channels as a method of sending information is popular and
well integrated, Twitter is the most popular outlet (39%) with
Facebook following behind at 36.7%. Linkedin (7.2%) and Blogging
through Wordpress, blogger etc (6.4%) are popular channels of
communicating. An emerging tool is Yammer, a company specific,
private, social network. There are currently 248 users from the
University who access this. Base: 192
Slide 6
Receiving information through social media channels Facebook
(40.2%) is more popular than Twitter (31.4%) when it comes to
receiving information. LinkedIn is also more prominent at 12.5%. An
interesting point within this is that blogging as a method to
receive information is almost unused, An emerging tool is Yammer, a
company specific, private, social network. There are currently 248
users from the University who access this. Base: 192
Slide 7
Staff Pages & Staff Portal This report focuses on two areas
of the hud.ac.uk website. Staff pages Staff portal
(http://www.hud.ac.uk/staff/)http://www.hud.ac.uk/staff/
Slide 8
Use of the Staff Pages 87% of staff these access Staff Pages at
least once a week. On a daily basis, news pages (33%) and the staff
directory (21%) are used most frequently, support services (26%)
are accessed less frequently. Employee benefits (59%) &
academic calendar (38%) are accessed monthly. Support Staff in
Schools and Services were least likely to access the Staff Pages on
a daily basis, and more likely to access them on a weekly basis.
Low base (23)
Slide 9
Use of Staff pages 63% of staff use the Staff Portal, with a
majority 90% accessing it at least once a week. The staff pages are
acting as a gateway to the information and resources that are
supplied to staff. Access is the key reason for using the Staff
pages with access to MyStudents, Timetabling, remote file access,
Unilearn and email being most popular.
Slide 10
Improving the staff pages Staff were asked for comments about
the existing staff pages and portal. 84% of respondents said there
was nothing they felt missing from either the staff pages or staff
portal, the most common themes were: A mobile compliant version
would be useful Starting to look old fashioned Starting to look
confusing and too much information on one screen The events
calendar is irritating to use Cant access it when outside the
University A single sign-in to the Portal and other services would
be useful Staff pages are very difficult to use and have little
useful info - plus no links to other parts of the University's
website, so I bookmark a different page. The staff portal is very
cluttered, plus very difficult to multitask - I prefer the desktop
which allows me to have multiple programs up and running at the
same time.
Slide 11
Use of the Staff Portal 63% of staff say they use the Staff
Portal. Academic staff members are most likely (82.7%) to use the
Staff pages, followed by Research Staff (65.7%). 55% of Service
based support staff claimed to not use the Staff Portal. 42.6% of
School based support staff also claimed to not use the Staff
Portal. Base: 741
Slide 12
Internal Communications satisfaction 91% would recommend the
University as a place to study 86% would recommend the University
as a place to work 59% feel confident they could talk about what is
happening at the University to external contacts 83% are aware of
the mission, values and vision of the University 47% feel they have
the opportunity to share news and ideas with current students 57%
think they can do this with other staff 65% feel well informed
about what is happening across the University
Slide 13
Internal Communications satisfaction On the whole, staff across
the University are satisfied with communications. As can be
expected, satisfaction with communication in Departments is higher
than Organisation-wide communications. 27% are Very satisfied with
internal communications within their Department, 16% within the
School/Service and 14% across the Organisation. Dissatisfaction is
very low, with only 1% being Very dissatisfied with internal
communications across the University.
Slide 14
Improving internal communications Staff were asked to comment
about internal communications; The most common themes were: It's
great that the staff page is generic and the portal is personalised
It is my fault that I do not use the portal more It works and is a
good first stop for information and links to other work-related
areas It is very useful when it is needed Would be nice to find
things out from the University staff pages rather than The Examiner
Have photos of staff alongside their profiles in the Staff
Directory Considerate use of email ie keeping recipients relevant,
leading to too much communication More transparency on departmental
budgets Briefing/training sessions for social media for internal
communications for staff I think there is an over reliance on
email, its slow and really inefficient. There is an assumption that
if an email has been sent then the message has been 'appropriately
communicated'. There are far more suitable communication methods
such as social media or instant messaging (Lync). I think it would
be good to try and encourage staff to use alternative communication
methods, maybe a non-email day?