Last week in Sofia members of EACD and Bulgarian Association for People Management gathered together in a discussion on the cross points between internal communications and human resource management. With the kind hosting of Sopharma and active contribution to the discussion of our official speakers Aneliya Dimitrova, Head of HR South-East Europe at Aurubis Bulgaria, Stefka Tancheva, HR Manager at Mania Team, Elena Kratseva, Director Strategic communications and CSR at Sopharma, Daniel Kiryakov, PR manager at Bulgarian Chamber of Mining and Geology and Vanya Babanin, Regional Lead for EACD in Bulgaria as moderator, the regional event shaped the basic lines of cooperation. Many real-life situation from all communication and HR professionals participating in the event brought the positive guidelines into insights for successful IC-management.
The topics that arose during the discussion covered wide spectrum starting from the ways a content can be identified and created, to involvement of CEO and of the informal leaders in the process, to CSR and communication of sensitive information such as remuneration packages. Here the main suggestions for both COM and HR regarding internal communication management:
- the mixture of informal information monitoring and employees’ surveys can bring useful insights for topics and content of interest for the internal communications;
- in oder to support the internal dialogue information should be initiated and flow both ways: up and down the formal structures, the management should be reasonably open for discussions, both on side physically and online - for example leading internal social platform groups
- there is a potential for the middle and senior management to recognise the importance of their leading role as managers and to improve their skills
- mixed teams (HR and Communication) are better suited to approach cross-border topics such as corporate culture and values, involvement and dedication of the internal teams: typical communication tools can be implemented in HR activities, for example fluctuation reduction and vise versa