Corporate Communications has conducted an employee survey to obtain tangible information about the use of the company’s different internal information media. Nearly 2,600 employees (about 20 percent of the workforce) of Freudenberg Sealing Technologies (FST) from 25 countries responded to questions about the employee magazine, Sealing World, and the FST Portal.
A comprehensive catalog of questions covered a number of issues: Which of the available internal communication media do employees use? What are the different informational needs and topics that they want to see covered? And what channels do they prefer for the transmission of information? The answers were collected separately for office employees and for those working in manufacturing or related activities. This was designed to take the employees’ different situations into account, for example, whether there is access to Sealing World or to the FST Portal with a computer in the workplace.
EMPLOYEE Magazine
The results of the survey show that almost 80 percent of all employees read at least one edition. The majority spend less than one hour with the publication. About half of the employees would like to receive a digital version at their personal email address, along with the usual print copies available on site at FST facilities. On the other hand, about three-quarters of the respondents consider it unnecessary to mail a printed copy to their home address.
FST PORTAL
About 90 percent of employees with access to the news area of the FST Portal use that option, with nearly three-quarters of them doing so once or several times a week, or even daily. About 86 percent of the readership also view the videos that accompany some of the articles. Nearly half of the employees would like to see even more videos in the future.
FST APP AS NEW COMMUNICATION CHANNEL
In terms of topics, the respondents put current company strategy, innovations, products, and news about their own facilities at the top of their wish list. When asked about their preferred channel to regularly receive information, about 75 percent of employees with computers in their workplace cited the FST Portal as their preference, while 26 percent indicated a potential FST app. Employees in manufacturing areas overwhelmingly favored an FST app, followed by a printed newspaper. More than 70 percent of the respondents would be happy to regularly read an email newsletter containing news from the company and management information.
“The results of the survey confirm our basic perception on the use of internal communications channels,” said Ulrike Reich, Vice President, Corporate Communications, Freudenberg Sealing Technologies. “We have already derived our first measures from it. For example, at the end of last year, we launched a project to explore the potential for using a special app for internal communications within FST.” In addition, Sealing World, formerly a newspaper, was turned into a magazine. It contains background articles on the topics that the respondents prefer, including coverage of employees, teams, the company’s business strategy, innovations and products. “These topics cannot be covered in news briefs. They require more space,” Reich said. Consequently, the FST Portal will focus even more on current news reporting, along with content primarily relevant to the administrative area.
