Chapter 43: Putting the numbers together
Russell-Olivia Brooklands (ROB) FIIC
Creator of the Shareable Justifiable Confidence Model - which can support you as an Internal Communication Specialist, while enhancing psychological safety at work, lowering operating costs and increasing brand value.
“Sorry, ‘bout that guys.? Dublin can be like this sometimes.? Although, to be fair, it’s not that different from Bristol.”?
In the doorway of the Abbey Street café, to which he’d been leading them, Barney Holloway shook his mane of soaking ginger hair, as he and his companions took refuge from an impromptu downpour to which his more recent home city was occasionally prone,
It was Graham’s sudden brainwave that had brought him and Darren to Ireland’s capital.? Ostensibly it was so they could bounce their business case questions off Barney, but had also been an excuse to invite Tobi for a weekend getaway.? He was unsure how she’d take to the idea of mixing business with pleasure.? But when he’d mentioned it, while walking her out after their lunch meeting, she’d been delighted.
“Are you kidding?? I love Dublin.? And kicking ideas around with you and Darren is always a blast anyway.”? She ran her index finger down the side of his neck.? “And it’s not as if we won’t have time for anything else, is it.”
So, while Darren’s girlfriend Melanie amused herself in the Trinity College library, the rest of them had crossed the Liffey, and now dripped their way to a table where they could chew the fat, and, according to Barney, the city’s finest flatbreads.
Their host had been only too happy to give up a couple of hours on a Saturday to find out how this IC Practice Governance project was shaping up.? Graham had emailed him Darren’s copious notes, which had confirmed in his mind that this was one of the most exciting ideas he’d come across in years.?
“So how can I help?” he asked.? “Oh, and can I just say: Transparently Fit for Valid Purposes, and The SMARTIED Principle; great concepts; hope you won’t mind I’ll be nickin’ them for other purposes.”
“Oh, nick away, my friend,” encouraged Graham, taking Tobi’s hand and looking into her eyes “If that’s OK with you.? They were mostly your ideas, after all.”?
“But of course.”? She turned to Darren “Is he always such a sweetheart?? Coz if he is, I may have to consider going against my policy of a lifetime, and seriously falling for him.”
“I honestly couldn’t say, Tobi.? Never having dated him myself.”? Darren was unused to seeing either of them behaving like this.? And as he couldn’t make up his mind if it was heartwarming or icky, he decided to bring the conversation back to more practical matters.?
“OK, so we need to put together the business case, Barney.? Obviously we have to show what it’s all going to cost, what it’s going to be worth, and how quickly the business can expect to start seeing that ROI.? But this is such an unprecedented project, with so many variables and unknowables, that we’d like your take on what we should start with, and how best to put it together.? So, as a numbers man, what would you suggest?”
Barney had already been making a few mental notes.?
“OK, then.? Apart from the investments, there are really two sets of figures you need to think about, aren’t there.? First off there’s the waste.? Then there’s the impact you can have on that waste.? So let’s start with how you can measure the waste.? A sort of IC Financial Audit, if you will.”
For the next 30 minutes they worked through the steps they could take to credibly identify some of the waste arising from Transparently Unfit Internal Communication practices.? Without Darren there, they might have done it in ten.? But the IC man - ever wobbly around numbers – kept losing faith in the process.? To his colleagues he seemed to be thinking they would need not only belt and braces, but a life jacket, hard hat, safety net and parachute.
Even so, not all his concerns were invalid.? No question Internal Communication would affect all of the twelve costs they’d previously identified with Barney.? But how many could be attributed exclusively to IC?? If a staff member were, say, giving short shrift to a customer, it might be solely because they were outside their comfort zone thanks to poor communications.? Or it could be because they were going through a messy divorce, or they were stressed about their kid having a tough time at school.?
To be on the safe side, then, the Dublin conspirators agreed to focus solely on wasted time.? It would be impossible to measure it all, but Barney reassured Darren that the huge numbers of hours - which they could measure as going needlessly down the toilet - should be enough for his initial business case.
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“Of course, it’ll represent only a fraction of the total costs," said the accountant. "But everyone will know that.? So let’s just check we’re agreed on what you can credibly measure:?
A.??? Employees’ hourly costs
How much does it cost to employ people in different roles across the business?? For your proof of concept maybe you should stick to the UK operation – although you could include us over here in Ireland, if for no other reason than I’m kinda curious about this myself.? You don’t need exact figures for each individual.? But each of the salary bands has a certain range.?
Payroll should be able to tell you how many people there are in each band.? And we use the generally accepted rule of thumb that you divide the annual salary by 1000 to get a rough hourly figure.? This takes into account the additional costs of employin’ each individual: equipment, insurances, benefit packages, and so on.
B.??? Weekly/monthly communication hours
Once you know the hourly costs of the employees, you can run your series of short surveys with each salary group, to discover how many hours those employees are spendin’ – in a typical week or month – engagin’ in various communication-related activities.? You reckon those activities should be:
C.??? Wasted time
Your surveys are also goin’ to ask them how much of that time is bein’ wasted because of the Transparently Unfit IC practices and/or infrastructure they’ve inherited from their predecessors.? This is where you were sayin’ it’s vital to emphasise to everyone how and why it’s no one’s fault this time is bein’ wasted – otherwise they might not feel safe to be honest.? And it’s here that you can also add in that fifth communication-related activity: rework – whether it’s duplicatin’ effort, or correctin’ mistakes or misunderstandin’s.?
These first three steps should give you a reasonably credible take on at least some of that wasted time.? Now for the trickier piece: comin’ up with credible numbers for the impact your TFVP practices could have on those costs.
This is where it starts to get interestin'."
About the author
We are Russell+Olivia Brooklands (ROB) - and we've been working in the field of Internal Communication for over 25 years.?We specialise in enabling IC Teams to get everything they want, to do the job exactly the way they want to do it – for good.? If you're an IC Manager we can help you secure all the:
…you desire (and may not yet have).
Some people don't dare to dream this is doable.? But in fact it's all within your grasp.? And imagine what a difference it could make to your day-to-day working life, and your long-term career, if you had it all. We’ll be delighted to explain how you can make it happen.? Message us if you’d like to have a chat.
Internal Communication Specialist at Scandic Hotels
5 个月I really liked this read! Great use of short story-ish writing too. ??