Grassroots safety communication audit

For my Organizational-Leadership program final

leadership project I conducted a communication

audit of a Fortune 200 utility company’s internal

grassroots safety approach.  Grassroots safety

is a significant cultural change that has been

deeply engrained by leadership into all levels of 

the organization that I audited.

 

What competencies were sought and gained from the audit?

This communication audit was able to examine the organizational effectiveness of grassroots communications from the lens of diverse competency approaches. Competencies are the knowledge, skills and attributes that we can develop in every aspect of our life – individually and organizationally.  Communication audits are just one way of validating a broad range of communication styles appropriate to the organizational needs and mission. This audit used a multi-measurement approach as an effective way to examine the grassroots communication proficiency of the organization with reaching its message to audiences in diverse situations.

 

Organizations can show competency when they: communicate in a respectful tone and manner; listen actively and communicate effectively with others; listen and ask questions to understand other people’s viewpoints; communicate issues in a timely manner; are aware of and responsive to verbal and non-verbal communication styles; recognize cultural differences in communication.

 

Other competencies sought and gained by the organizational grassroots safety communication audit included: 

• Teamwork - examining the organizational effectiveness of sharing information and encouraging others to do the same. 

• Research and analysis - using information from a variety of sources—including personal experiences, surveys and observations—to identify options, track and solve problems. 

 

Why is grassroots safety important?

In the past several years, the company I surveyed has made great strides at promoting safety and reliable service with its customers. This derived in the aftermath of a tragedy which resulted in a major loss of credibility with consumers, regulators and the communities it serves.

 

In addition to external communication response efforts, the company has implemented and put into place new organizational structures to encourage a culture of safety that is more holistic and less punitive based. The grassroots communication approach is designed to foster buy-in at the deepest levels of the organization; beyond compliance based behavior.

 

Why are communication audits important?

Communication audits serve as a critical function for organizations. They can help organizations prevent crisis and tune up areas that are ailing or stagnant. In his 1990 work, Implementing Organizational Communication Diagnosis, G. Goldhaber shares with us that “when a doctor gives a patient a physical examination, the physician assesses the patient’s health by comparing his or her vital signs with the norms of healthy people of the same age and sex. Repeating this examination regularly gives the doctor and patient advance notice of developing ailments and may help forestall more serious conditions and lengthen the patient’s life span” (p. 34).

 

What does this grassroots communicate audit measure?

In particular, I have audited the communication effectiveness of a grassroots safety committee organizational structure that is just over a couple years old. More specifically, I examined the communication effectiveness of the grassroots safety team within a subset of the Customer Care organization within the company. I focused on several regional units that make up the Customer Engagement department, which falls under the umbrella of Customer Care and the overarching company grassroots safety team.

 

I inventoried the organizations communication structural make up; communication techniques; established a communication baseline; charted communication effectiveness and presented constructive feedback for consideration to members of the Customer Engagement grassroots committee team.

 

Audit approach:

Several communication approaches were used to identify and measure the effectiveness of the methods: 1) interviews; 2) a quarterly team meeting observation; 3) internal survey questionnaire to grassroots safety team committee members; 4) external survey questionnaire to groups at the Division level who are not part of the grassroots safety committee team.

 

Audit summary of results:

The overall findings suggest that the current communication methods support the strategies to enhance two-way communication about safety and avoidable “near-hit” sharing.

 

Furthermore, the survey and focus group discussion revealed a level of satisfaction and agreement with the methods and approaches currently being used. All four main sources of information gathered provided evidence that the organizations strategy to bridge the communication void between the field and leadership is a crucial element to improving the safety culture, and as a result, the grassroots safety team serves an empowering roll for the company and front line employees.

 

The identity of the participants and organization are concealed from direct identification. This approach helped to ensure authentic participant involvement in the audit.

 

Recommendations for future steps: 

The communication audit identified a number of areas for opportunity that if addressed, will further augment effective strategies. What follows are a series of recommendations derived from the data collected. Each suggestion is designed to help enhance the communication effectiveness of Department XYZ Grassroots Safety.

 

First and foremost, the audit suggests expanding the scope of participants in order to develop a wider baseline of input; and to conduct the audit bi-annually or annually. 

 

Recommendations for External Communication Methods (outside of the GRST team):

• Update the Department XYZ web page with current contacts, goals and activities.

• Share and review Grassroots Team quarterly face-to-face and bi-monthly meeting notes at the Division level so that employees see the larger strategy and know that their concerns are being escalated or heard at the Region Grassroots Safety echelon.

• Consider opportunities to invite guests from the Divisions. Their participation will further validate the work transpiring and discussions taking shape at the Grassroots Safety meetings. It is a great way to also give a glimpse for potentially new incoming members.

• Sensitivity to communication load is important. More effort should be considered for consolidating communications into a grassroots newsletter and especially face-to-face grassroots safety interaction. Face-to-face communication brings the collaborative process to life.

• Consider reversing the responsibility for creating structure for the meeting. Allow Division level employees to frequently help create the agenda by soliciting their input prior to staff meetings. This keeps with the brand that grassroots is from the bottom-up and not top-down.   

• Explore opportunities for senior management to communicate with Division level employees. Build in “walk-around-to-listen-moments” that would allow one-on-one issues and project discussions to informally occur with employees. Doing so will benefit trust building. The principles of systems thinking state requires constant learning and renewal through a means of open communication (Conrad & Poole, 2005).

• Senior leadership presence also serves to support the Grassroots Safety team lead as a volunteer liaison while avoiding any feelings of being removed from the central workings of the organization (such as the day-to-day goals).

 

Recommendations for Internal Communication Methods (within the GRST team):

• Sustain strong attendance and prevent the potential for attendance slippage by centralizing meeting locations and offering clerical support to handle logistic arrangements. Doing so will help respect each Grassroots Safety Team members time and the demands they have for being focused on their personal goal attainment (their day jobs) and take away unnecessary strain for being involved as safety volunteers.  “These costs are often more than offset by heightened morale, improved decision quality, and enhanced information flow with results” (Conrad & Poole, 2005, p. 110).

• There is a need for more structured recognition opportunities, especially “recognize people doing things right.” This approach will set the stage for authenticity towards an open and honest grassroots safety approach. “Publicly recognizing employees’ contributions and creating positive feelings of success give employees a feeling of empowerment: they believe that they really do have the authority to act on their own (Conrad & Poole, 2005, pp. 110-111).

• Rotate Chair responsibilities among team members to reduce the burden, avoid gatekeeper constraints due to overload, and also to support a continuance of creativity.

• Continue with the frequency of face-to-face and conference call meeting ratio. Most employees agree that the current level is adequate.

• Conduct pulse-check communication audits with other Divisions and benchmark results on an ongoing basis. Getting input is a necessary part of the grassroots synergistic process and its sustainability. Solicit expectations from employees to better understand their perception in order to get everyone, including management, “on the same page.”

• Facilitate making bulletin boards a common creativity for grassroots ideas to bloom at the Division level. Find your team “artists” and invite them to assist your team. 

• Develop a newsletter template that can be customized for team leads to distribute collected safety information to their Division workgroups. 

 

Conclusion: 

By upholding the current course of grassroots safety communication methods, a supportive dialogue of open and honest communication from the ground up, this approach and structural format will continue to be matched with innovation balancing the need of the individual and organization in equal measure.

 

When it comes to personal safety, every individual counts, has a unique voice and is confronted with challenges that could strengthen the whole, which is greater than the sum of its parts.

 

To visit my leadership project please click on the linked attachment below. Thanks for your time.