How Your Communications Team Can Have Maximum Impact

Communication teams have an important role to play within organizations in ensuring that efforts are focused in the right place at the right time.

Many teams churn out deliverables, but few have a structured system for alignment, prioritization and indicators. As a result, there is often a lot of effort, but little precision with regard to determining value creation.

In order to ensure maximum efficiency, communications teams must go beyond simply responding to requests. Instead, they must anticipate the impacts.

Which challenges do communications teams frequently face

In several sectors, certain factors can hinder a communications team's efficiency.

Incomplete marketing communication strategy

Action plans are drafted, but often without an integrated strategy. Objectives, messages, audiences, channels and governance are not always aligned. As a result, the lines between administrative communications, policies and client experience are blurred.

Roles and responsibilities to clarify

A willingness to move from a process-based approach to the role of a business partner is evident, but accountability remains undefined. Team overlap causes disruptions in workflow and slows down decision-making.

Limited prioritization

Requests are submitted through several different channels and often handled on a first-come, first-served basis rather than prioritized based on objective criteria related to risk, impact and strategic alignment.

Equipment and project management requiring modernization

Templates, approval matrices and collaborative platforms are rarely standardized. Where there is no integrated system for planning and tracking capacity and hours, visibility remains restricted

Limited performance measures

Teams are achieving good results, but their performance is not effectively evaluated. Without clear indicators, the communications function struggles to demonstrate its organizational impact.

How can you make communications efficient?

Best practices to retain

Despite these challenges, several best practices have emerged and are gaining momentum.

Role of business partner

Consultation processes and workshops to define roles and responsibilities (RACI matrix) in particular and, in certain circumstances, creating a project manager role can improve assignment flow and reduce bottlenecks.

Structured segmentation based on consulting, strategy, and creation

Inspired by agencies, segmentation clarifies the value chain and accelerates the execution and approval cycles.

Power of internal communications

This is finally viewed as a strategic tool that supports mobilization and transformation when used as a product with targets, channels, pace and indicators.

Five keys for enhanced performance

Five key tools are most effective for positioning your communications as a vital performance driver.

1- Clarify the assignment and proposal

Illustrate what the department does and does not do, who it serves, service levels and how requests are submitted, and share this information.

2- Introduce priority-based governance

Replace reactive governance with planned management and prioritize based on the impacts and your organization's strategic alignment. Certain planning tools to consider include:

• A standardized request form;
• An assessment matrix with evaluation thresholds and service levels;
• Quarterly planning.

As a result, you'll have a better overview of the team's operational capacity and timelines.

3- Adapt your operations model

Clarify responsibilities and eliminate bottlenecks involving overlapping roles by determining the difference between the functions of business partners and experts across all teams. Strengthen the advisory role and ensure accountability among key resources.

Adapting this operations model could involve creating an operations manager position for increased capacity and visibility or dividing activities into three components (advisory, strategy and creation) and defining who is in charge and the specific milestones.

4- Standardize project management and tools

• Formalize the "how" to boost efficiency without sacrificing quality.
• Standardize templates (briefs, plans, timelines and approval loops for each risk level).
• Deploy effective collaboration tools (planning, tasks, files, approvals, time and capacity tracking).
• Define internal service levels and introduce clear versioning rules (retaining previous versions of your tools may be useful).

5- Foster a culture of performance

Choose value rather than volume. Define an indicator framework to support the internal client experience in particular (satisfaction and response time), the scope of each channel, efficiency (rate of deadlines met and cycle time) and the brand (tone of each media). Wrap up each strategic project with an analysis and a formal learning process.

A high-potential function that's ready to become a key factor

In order to become a widely recognized strategic asset, communications teams must set aside their habit of producing on demand and embrace a process that focuses on impact.

Organizations that invest in this shift will become more efficient and benefit from brand consistency and strategic credibility while freeing up time for innovation, creativity and intelligent data use.

This article was written in collaboration with Andréanne Brousseau, Senior Advisor in management consulting at Raymond Chabot Grant Thornton.