Your business might have great programs in place to increase employee engagement, lower its environmental footprint, or reduce production costs,  but you should challenge yourself to ask the following questions:

• How do the programs tie back to the business strategy?
• Are your employees aware of them and understand how they’re affected?
• Why are we giving so much to this one particular cause?
• Why do we take the lead on certain topics and follow on others?
• And ultimately: How do they all relate to each other?

Answers might be hard to find. Maybe it’s because they actually don’t relate to each other. Or maybe it’s hard to talk about them in a coherent manner. Programs also could have been initiated at different moments without a clear overarching goal in mind. And even if all goals were set with a sense of urgency, it might be unclear how they relate to what matters most to all your stakeholders.

If you can’t connect all the dots in an easy manner and have a hard time explaining why you’re doing what you do, it might be because you lack a clearly defined overarching communication framework — whether it’s for your CSR strategy, community outreach program, talent recruitment efforts, or overall company narrative.

A framework is designed to meet the business goals, vision, or purpose of a specific department or for the company as a whole. It addresses all involved stakeholder groups and is broad enough to encompass all aspects of the area for which the framework is designed. An effective framework is aspirational and invites clear action. Once launched, the framework will help stakeholders understand why it matters to them and how they can be active participants in meeting the goals communicated through the framework.

The development of a communication framework requires a set of necessary steps and a predefined process to ensure you end up with a solid end product that has a high chance of success. Download our communication framework process map to see how you can lead your company through this process, what steps are involved, and how much time is required.

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