Excellent employee information
The Swiss Association for Internal Communication (SVIK) has been comparing the quality of «in-house magazines» for over 50 years. Twenty-nine magazines were submitted for the 2011 competition.
Since the good old "in-house newspaper" to the newsletter to the intranet, internal communication has not only constantly evolved technically. Graphically and journalistically, the offerings have also been adapted to modern needs. Whereas in the past, uncritical adulation of the last company outing was celebrated, today's employee publications contain valuable dialog on issues relating to the company's future, job security and strategies. The language used must be entertaining and informative at the same time so that the magazine is not just perceived as compulsory reading. These demands are reflected in the quality of numerous magazines, which are no longer produced by "B journalists", as was noted at the SVIK awards ceremony last week in Zurich. 19 neutral experts with practical experience were allowed to evaluate 29 magazines "of the highest professional standard". For the first time, the publications were analyzed in two categories: Publications "over" and those "under" CHF 750,000 annual budget. Only three titles were submitted in the "expensive" category. However, all of them were deemed worthy of an award by the jury and the Credit Suisse magazine also won bronze at the Federation of European business communicators associations FEIEA, while the SBB newspaper even won gold. No ideas were submitted in the "Concepts and Strategies" category this year. Do people not dare to look at their cards or do they not have the courage to have their concept judged? Fortunately, the final results ultimately made a very different impression. pan
