Recommendations from the Internal Communications Committee
For Strategic Plan Goal 3, Strategy 3.6.1, “Develop and implement programs that strengthen internal communications.”
Committee Members:
Alicia Collins, Staff Welfare Committee Representative
Lisa Durant-Jones, Assistant Professor of Communication Sciences and Disorders
Pat Genthner, Associate to the President
Kathy Hansen, Graduate Student
Charlie Loray, Campus Events Manager
Paul Monachino, Instructional Technology Specialist
Dan Norton, Assistant Director of Residential Life
Jo Ellen Pinkham, Director of Human Resources
Jennie Schaff, Assistant Professor of Education
Michael Smith, Web & Digital / Academic Technology Manager
Diane Riley, Director of Technical Services & College Archivist, Library & MediaCenter
Sara Rusick, Graduate Student Services Representative
Originally completed: May 4, 2009
Revised: September 11, 2009
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Introduction
In 2005 the strategic planning consultants met with groups of faculty, staff, and students. A theme from these constituents was a need to intentionally foster the sense of community on campus. The College had grown geographically and programmatically since 2000 and this reinforced a sense that the community was literally and figuratively drifting apart. A result of this input to the strategic planning process is Goal 3, and specifically in terms of this report, Strategy 3.6.1: develop and implement programs that strengthen internal communications.
From January 2007-2008 a Strategy 3.6.1 Committee was addressing internal communications, albeit with a technology focus. Simultaneously, a Portal Implementation Committee was working with its focus. The work of the committees was similar and the committees joined together for several meetings regarding a portal. With the Information Technology Services department under considerable personnel transition during this time, it was determined in January 2008 that the Portal Implementation Committee and the Strategy 3.6.1 Committee would be reconstituted into one committee, identified as the Internal Communications Committee with faculty, staff, and student representation.
The Internal Communications Committee:
- defined the intended outcomes of its work to be (1) improving satisfaction,
(2) ensuring availability of effective tools, and (3) acquiring necessary skills and knowledge.
- considered a variety of modes of communication including technology (e-mail, electronic bulletin boards, instant messaging, portal, etc.), hard copy posters/postings, and in-person communications.
- collected input from faculty, staff, and students. An electronic survey was sent to faculty and staff in summer 2008; a staff assembly program with an outside facilitator was held in September 2008; electronic surveys were sent to faculty, and undergraduate and graduate students in February 2009.
The recommendations that follow are separated into the headings of Keep, Improve, Implement, and Consider to distinguish the spectrum of avenues for internal communication that the committee considered, and whether or not action is needed. The items under these headings are further broken into categories of building and maintaining community, broad communications, regular communications, and technology and training. This document is presented for consideration to the Senior Staff, the Associate Vice President for Technology and Campus Operations, Director of Information Technology Services, and the Director of Marketing & Communications.
Keep
Many activities now cyclically occur that provide opportunities for internal communication at Nazareth. These activities should continue to be supported by the College through existing resources (current operating budget allocations; personnel; space; technology; auxiliary services).
Building and Maintaining Community
Activity/Initiative / Recommendation / Who has responsibilityCoffee hours / Continue Staff Welfare's fall 2008 reinstatement of coffee hours - quarterly basis / Staff Welfare Committee
Holiday/New Year celebration / Keep / President's Office
Picnic / Keep / President's Office
Celebrate Naz / Keep / President's Office
Broad Communications
Activity/Initiative / Recommendation / Who has responsibilityState of the College / Keep / President's Office
Assemblies / Keep - 1 per semester for faculty and 1 per semester for staff / Faculty - VPAA/Executive Committee; Staff - HR and President's Office
Town Hall Meetings / Keep - hold as needed / President's Office
Naz in the News / Keep / Marketing & Communications
Annual Institutional Goals / Keep- communicate annually and update on progress mid-year / President’s Office
President's Blog / Keep / Daan Braveman
Special Announcements / Keep - based on the announcement, gather faculty and staff together in person or have electronic communication / Senior Staff
Technology & Training
Activity/Initiative / Recommendation / Who has responsibilityZimbra, Blackboard & AdAstra / Retain all – each perform unique functions / ITS
Additional Zimbra training / In process / ITS
Improve
The following reflect areas in which the Internal Communications Committee sees potential for improving upon existing tools.
Broad Communications
Activity/Initiative / Recommendation / Who has responsibilityAnnual Divisional Goals / ICC recommends that the annual goals of each division and progress on these goals are communicated: (1) within the division on an on-going basis, and (2) to the entire community of faculty and staff on an annual basis with a mid-year progress report / Vice Presidents
Regular Communications
Activity/Initiative / Recommendation / Who has responsibilityList serves / ICC recommends the formation of a task force to develop:(1) guidelines to be approved by VPs (communicate who is on which; (2) clear process for add/delete and ownership, etc.); (3) clarified faculty/staff status and inclusion on appropriate list serve. Membership of the task force to include representation from ITS, Staff Welfare, FEC, HR administrators of undergraduate and graduate programming. / ITS
Forum / ICC recommends the creation of a combined faculty/staff forum for communication and dialogue to be utilized by active Nazareth employees. Retain the current faculty forum and monitor its use in 2009-2010 to determine future need.
Create new task force charged with addressing several items of electronic communication including forum guidelines. See page7 for further information. / To be determined
Student Email / ICC recommends the students moving to an improved e-mail. Undergraduate and graduate student dissatisfaction with webmail was clearly voiced in survey responses. / ITS
Email – Faculty, Staff, and Student / ICC recommends e-mail guidelines and etiquette for publication. Please see attached document, Appendix A. Do not implement sweeping changes until such time that an alternative electronic communication tool may be in place. / ITS
Technology & Training
Activity/Initiative / Recommendation / Who has responsibilityBetter calendaring tool / Ad Astra: pursue timely implementation of the web based version of Ad Astra as soon as it is available. / ITS
Implement
Among the recommendations are several new initiatives that ICC has determined will provide more opportunities for information sharing. Included are initiatives that may increase professional knowledge and/or contribute to the sense of community.
Broad Communications
Activity/Initiative / Recommendation / Who has responsibilityDivisional description summary of roles and responsibilities / Human Resources maintains for distribution at (1) orientations for faculty and staff, (2) staff assemblies. / HR (coordinates with VPs)
Orientation for part-time faculty / Task force created with representation from the college/schools and Human Resources to develop recommendations. / To be determined
Regular Communications
Activity/Initiative / Recommendation / Who has responsibilityWeb-based message board for both faculty and staff use / Create new task force charged with addressing itemsincluding web-based message board. See page 7 for further information.
ICC drafted guidelines for a message board that can be used to assist the work of the new task force. Please see attached document, Appendix B for draft of guidelines. / To be determined
See #3 on pages 6-7 for the ideal solution as recommended by the ICC.
Electronic newsletter for self submitted newsworthy items - professional and personal (includes circulation to retirees) / Create new task force charged with addressing items including electronic newsletter. See page 7 for further information.
ICC defined/created categories of "news items" and made recommendations for use as can be seen in Appendix B. This can be used to assist the work of the new task force. / To be determined
See #3 on pages 6-7 for the ideal solution as recommended by ICC.
Standing committees with staff membership - establish dedicated, prominent plan for maintaining and providing access to information regarding (1) membership; (2) charge; (3) meeting minutes / Charge the Staff Welfare Committee with developing consistent, published criteria for committee membership and charges, and a process for posting meeting minutes in a prominent, internal place. / Staff Welfare Committee
Technology & Training
Activity/Initiative / Recommendation / Who has responsibilityImplement method for secure document sharing and storage / Recommend that the Information Technology strategic planaddress this / ITS
Implement Ad Astra training / Training plan is ready for web based Ad Astra implementation. / ITS and Charlie Loray
Training faculty and staff supervisors re: communication with employees. Goal is how to provide consistent messaging in the “trickle-down” of information. / 1 session per semester / HR
Creation of a new Task Force referred to on pages 4 and 6:
Based on the recommendations of the Internal Communications Committee that the Faculty Executive Committee has accepted, it is recommended that a task force be formed to address several recommendations. The Task Force for Internal Communications Coordination with faculty and staff representation will be specifically charged to(1) review existing policies and procedures regarding electronic communication, and (2) with an aim to be consistent regarding any existing guidelines for the electronic sharing of information, develop policies and procedures for forum, community bulletin board, and electronic newsletter.
It is further proposed that the timeline for the work of the new Task Force for Internal Communications Coordination is to report recommendations to the leadership of the Internal Communications Committee and the Faculty Executive Committee by February 1, 2010. The goal is to implement policies and procedures with the new electronic tools sometime during the spring 2010 semester. **
** Addendum 9/11/09
The members of the Task Force for Internal Communications Coordination have been identified. The following faculty and staff will serve on this task force:
Daniel Birmajer
Lisa Durant-Jones
Jennie Schaff
Gary Nothnagle
Dan Norton
Michael Smith
Alicia Collins
Paul Monachino
Consider
The following recommendations are presented for consideration. The Internal Communications Committee views these recommendations as improving the timeliness, circulation, targeting, and tools of internal communication; however, ICC recognizes that other priorities may trump these in the short term.
- Re-evaluate portal concept. The Internal Communications Committee recommends that Information Technology consider portal technology when developing the IT strategic plan. Input received from faculty and staff was evenly divided between those feeling there is an excessive amount of e-mail received and others feeling the amount of e-mail received is fine as is.A survey administered in February 2009 to undergraduate and graduate students had a response of 515. While 438 students indicated that e-mail is a tool they use to find out what’s going on at Nazareth and 82% of them check their e-mail daily, 100 students added optional comments.* One student wrote, “We get far too much information via our student emails, and there is no way to opt out of receiving certain types of notices. This concerns me because I often have to sort through 10-15 emails daily to get to 1 or 2 that I really need, and the potential for missing important class information because of emails about club meetings, fundraisers, events, sales, and other mail that I consider to be ‘spam’.” This illustrates a theme of the comments that the volume of e-mail students receive is so great that many consider it to be spam, and therefore is probably deleted without being read. It is clear that ways to electronically target information, with the ability to tag some required while others could be opt in or out options, will be well received by the Nazareth community to reach appropriate audiences in a timely way and combat e-mail fatigue.
- Consider instant messaging in the future. Instant messaging is not currently supported through Information Technology Services. Employees and students who currently have this technology toolobtain it through an off-campus provider. While survey results do not indicate a majority of internal community constituents want this tool now, ICC recommends that IT explore implementing this feature in the future as it will become an option of a new release of zimbra.
- Establish a dedicated role (or portion thereof) with responsibility for internal communications at Nazareth. An e-mail questionnairewas sent to Rochester Area Colleges’ departments of Human Resources, and web site searches and phone callswere made to seven of the colleges listed in the July 2008 edition of the Chronicle of Higher Education’s “2008 Best Colleges to Work For” who were praised for outstanding internal communications. The information gathered shows a widely accepted practice of the department of marketing and communications or public relations as having responsibility for both external and internal communications on campuses. Referenceswere made to the descriptions of departments’ responsibilities or director positions that clearly state oversight of internal as well as external communications.
* survey results as of 2/27/09
Keeping pace with the happenings of the Nazarethcommunity of faculty, staff, and students is not currently within a specific position or department. The issue of internal communications came forward through the strategic plan for purposes of information specific to the work of a position/department/committee as well as enhancing the sense of community. It seems that improvements with internal information sharing will best be served by responsibilities in the Marketing and Communications department for a liaison to coordinate the timely and accessible dissemination of information for offices, individuals, committees, clubs, etc.
The Internal Communications Committee understands the current economic situation affectshiring at Nazareth; however, the ICC requests that thisrecommendation be kept on the radar screen for future consideration through the re-structuring of an existing position in the M&C department or a designated portion of a new position that M&C may initiate in the future to meet other departmental needs in combination with this.
Role and Responsibilities of Position:
- Act as a liaison between staff, faculty, administration, and students to improve and maintain internal communications on the Nazareth campus.
- Monitor communication channels – email, postings in campus facilities, verbal/virtual on message board, etc.
- Develop, update, and enforce guidelines and policies regarding use of communication modes.
- Generate innovative new ideas for internal communication. Implement and oversee some of the ICC’s new ideas, e.g. newsletter, online forum.
- Implement training regarding guidelines and policies, and new communication technology.
- Develop assessment mechanisms to track the use of modes of communication, user satisfaction, and receiver satisfaction.
- Has authority to approve/disapprove information for distribution based on policies and guidelines.
- Collect data on staff and faculty involvement in professional organizations, community boards, publications, research, etc., for circulation internally. Maintain this resource.
Position Requirements:
- Communication skills – experience in communicating within both large and small groups, feedback collection and analysis, publications and campaigns, etc. Should be familiar with training large or small groups for implementation of new communication tools.
- Organizational skills – necessary for funneling the mass amounts of messages needing to be shared and streamlining the process
- Technology skills – Must be technically savvy. Familiarity with the technological aspects, as this individual will be working closely with ITS. Able to navigate new events calendar, email, publication programs (i.e. Adobe suite), message board/forum, etc.
- The ideal candidate should have a background in communication, marketing, and information technology.
Other Endorsements
The following items are a reflection of work that is either in process or an awareness of a department that a solution is needed. The Internal Communications Committee endorses the work of the individuals/departments involved, and looks forward to implementation of these initiatives.
- The Internal Communications Committee believes that the role of the Campus Events Manager is important to the smooth functioning of the College as evidenced by the representation of the Campus Events Manager on the ICC. Additionally, it seems the responsibilities have evolved during the initial year of this position. Therefore, the ICC recommends that a detailed role description be shared widely with all campus constituents. This information can be shared in various ways with the campus community to include incorporating it with the rollout and training of the upgraded Ad Astra scheduling software, and inclusion with orientation materials
- ICC endorses efforts currently underway to develop a Nazareth Employee FAQ. There is an intercampus task force working on this information for on-line access.
Assessment
The Internal Communications Committee proposes that a dedicated position or portion of an existing position in Marketing and Communications have responsibility for assessment mechanisms of use of communication modes, user satisfaction, and receiver satisfaction regarding internal communications. However, until such time it will be necessary that a survey to faculty, staff, and students be circulated every 2 years to provide measures that will affect change. The Institutional Assessment department has obtained a new survey tool that will be helpful. There will be on-going discussions as to how this will be effectively used so there is not a drain on the community with too many surveys resulting in very low response rates. ICC can pursue discussions with the Director of Institutional Research and Assessment regarding this as an option for cyclical assessment.
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Appendix A
Nazareth Email: Guidelines, Policies and Procedures
Email is a communication resource used for interpersonal messaging and collaboration.
Email is an official form of NazarethCollege communication for use by faculty, staff and students. The College faculty and staff use Zimbra, which is an open source service for messaging and collaboration.