The following article appeared in
Strategic Communication Measurement, February/March 2002
Melcrum Publishing Ltd., London

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Connecting surveys to
the bottom line

By Angela D. Sinickas, ABC

Most communication surveys pose questions about how well messages have been understood and how effective different communication channels are. What surveys usually lack are questions that link the communications you manage to the effect they have on employee behaviors, which result in improvements in the bottom line. Here are two examples of communicators who used surveys to analyze behavior and build a business case for their budgets.

1. Connecting communication to a company sales goal

A division of Pharmacia Corporation identified five goals last year. One was to increase sales of their highest profit-margin product, a goal that they exceeded. They did this without increasing the advertising or PR for this product, and without changing the sales incentive plan. The main method used to increase sales was increased internal communication, especially with global marketing employees. To measure this, Wendy Kouba, Senior Director of Global Internal Communications, wanted her survey to include questions designed to correlate employee communication with achievement of the goal. The survey asked questions at three levels:

1. Attitude: How well informed did employees feel about the goal?

2. Knowledge: How accurately did employees identify an incorrect element of the goal from three or four possible choices?

3. Outcome: How much impact did employees think communication had on achievement of the goal ?

The results were quite compelling, as illustrated in Figure One.

• 55% said they felt well or very well informed about the sales goal (only 37% felt informed about the other goals).
• 62% knew the right answer on the knowledge question about the goal (only 29% to 46% answered knowledge questions about the other four goals correctly).
• 54% believed communication was either the main reason or a major reason the goal was achieved.

The numbers were even stronger among the global marketing employees, who were the primary target of the communications:

• Although only 56% of the global marketing employees felt well informed about this goal, 78% answered the knowledge question about this goal correctly.
• 78% of the global marketing employees believed communication was a major reason the goal was achieved.

2. Showing a publication's impact on the bottom line

We also recently completed a readership survey for PacifiCare Health Systems (PHS), where many of the questions asked about traditional "satisfaction" issues, such as content, length, design and tone. However, we also asked the audience how reading Inside PacifiCare affects the way they do their jobs. That's a money question that showed how the publication affects the bottom line:

• 53% said it helps them do their jobs (influencing productivity and quality).
• 80% said it helps them talk with customers more knowledgeably (influencing customer satisfaction, customer retention and new sales).
• 81% said it helps them feel more positive about the company (influencing employee satisfaction and retention).

The numbers on two of these items were even more favorable for the sales and marketing subgroup, who generate revenue for the company:

• 63% said it helps them do their jobs.
• 89% said it helps them talk with customers.

These bottom-line-impacting results, along with the other findings in the survey, have helped Tracey Kincaid, VP of Organizational Communications, show a return on the company's investment in the publication.

In conclusion, when you next conduct a survey, don't just ask about your audience's satisfaction with your activities. Connect your output with your organization's outcomes.

Angela Sinickas, ABC, is president of Sinickas Communications, Inc., a communication consultancy specializing in helping corporations achieve business results through targeted diagnostics and practical solutions. You can visit her new website, CommToolbox.com, to see the automated planning, measurement, and benchmarking tools she has developed based on her manual, How to Measure Your Communication Programs.