WHERE
The ISB – Gesellschaft für Integration, Sozialforschung und Betriebspädagogik gGmbH (ISB) is a non-profit organisation for the vocational integration of people with disabilities, social research and vocational education situated in Berlin.
Firstly, the company conceives, plans and runs projects for and with people with disabilities. Secondly, it provides vocational training for people with disabilities and for professionals who are working in the area of social and vocational integration of people with disabilities. Finally, it carries out studies in the area of social research.
Temporary working group as problem solver
The ISB has six departments, amongst them there are the departments for the transition from school to apprenticeship, for the transition from sheltered workshop to the first labour market and three specialised mediation services for the integration of unemployed people with disabilities into working life. The company was founded in 1979 and has now 82 employees, including ca. 18% employees with disabilities.
WHY
The internal and external communication of the ISB gave rise to complain (and in fact has been complained by employees as well as by some funders). Mainly the company faced these problems that needed to be solved:
- External communication
- a) Website: The website site did not provide the expected level of presentation of an educational centre and if an employee had written a new article to be launched on the website he or she had – after it was released by the department head - to give it over to the website administrator who again had to insert it to the website, a somewhat expensive and uncomfortable procedure.
- b) Corporate Design: Each department revealed its own design, there was no common understanding in presenting the company behind the undertaken projects; company sign and logos, letter style, leaflets, promotinal pamphlets, exhibition stands, etc. were not standardised.
- c) Networking: The activities concerning the public relations were not inspired by the company’s self-image and not sufficiently coordinated. Especially the company’s presence at committees that are important for its work was not suitable. There was – for example – no knowledge which committees were important and no rules had been laid down who should attend which committee.
- Internal communication
- a) Announcements of the company’s new policies, progress, improvements, successes etc. did not reach every employee.
- b) The valid documents of the quality management system were not available in digital format which meant that the dissemination of these documents was very ineffective.
To sum up, one may say that a well working internal flow of information and a corporate design were needed.
HOW
In lacking enough money for paying external experts who give advice, make proposals or improve the inside and outside communication, the managing board of the ISB (which consists of the departmental managers and the managing director) set up a public relation and communication working team (PRCWT) for improving these matters by themselves.
Representatives were looked for from each department interested in participating in PRCWT. It was thought this would secure the flow of information upwards (what shortcomings of information are encountered by the floor staff) as well as the information downwards (disseminate all agreements initiated by PRCWT more easily into the departments).
But in the beginning a severe problem in establishing PRCWT was faced: Not all participants could be exempt from their original work for working in PRCWT. But this problem could be solved by paying an overtime premium in cases where a release in between the working hours was not feasible. This concerned only few members.
The PRCWT analysed the actual situation with respect to the problems mentioned above, identified the things that were not acceptable and drew a to-do list from the findings.
Example 1: They collected the materials of how the departments and projects of the ISB presented themselves to the public and found that there was no uniform style of letters, business cards, leaflets etc.
In order to change this unsatisfactory state they fixed formal principles (ISB standards) for the creation of such materials (a typeface, a letter style, style of certificates, etc.) and laid down other rules (for example that each leaflet should bear a date of creation and that all PR material should be available in digital format).
Example 2: They made a suggestion for the design and structure as well as for the handling of the website to the managing board of the organisation and this group again gave orders for the realisation.
Thanks to PRCWT the company now has a website that is reasonably well structured and designed and provided with a content management system in the background. Each employee can fit in her or his article by her- or himself. Having put the article on the website the employee’s work is done. The last step in the launching process has to be done by the department head: he or she has to release the article for publication, but this is only a matter of an online check and a click. No hard-copy management and no webmaster are needed any more in this procedure.
Example 3: The PRCWT checked the committees that could be of interest for the ISB’s work and compiled a list of recommended committees. The final decision (which of the recommended committees should be observed by which department) then has been made by the steering group.
Experiences
For the success it is vitally important that the decision-makers know exactly what they want, and to develop this knowledge has been the added value of PRCWT. Since then a to-do list can easily be derived and tasks can be delegated. Without PRCWT the company would not have solved any of the problems mentioned above.
Having achieved the goals there was a long discussion whether the company would need PRCWT any longer and came to the conclusion that PRCWT could be helpful as a kind of supervisor. Now PRCWT meets two times a year. Its main task is to look what went wrong or what can be improved in relation to the ISB’s inside and outside communication, to identify the actions to put things right and to delegate these actions to members of PRCWT or to other responsible persons or units of the organisation.
Transferability
Important points for adaptation:
- In establishing a working team (or at least nominating a responsible person), it is very helpful for recruiting members and for securing their motivation, if the foreseen team leader is a figure of authority or at least a well known and accepted person in the company. This team leader – a kind princeps inter pares – functions as an interface to the outside.
- Identification or definition of the aims to be achieved or the work to be done.
- Identification or definition of the interface between this team and the decision-makers of the company. (In the described case the interface has been the managing board of the organisation: all proposals and recommendations have been handed over to this group for further treatment.)
Another lesson learnt: Five years ago the position of a quality management responsible was created, but this invention was not crowned with success. When we realised the success of PRWCT, we decided to replace this position by a working team consisting of employees from each department. Three quarters of a year later we have achieved a lot and the most important thing is that now our quality management system is more accepted by the whole workforce than it was before. The crucial point is as above the cross-section mixture of the working team that secures the flow of information up- and downwards.
For further information: ISB gGmbH, e-mail: dirk.momper(at)isb-berlin.de