Communication within and outside the enterprise is crucial for the companies activities. Often people talk about Communication Audit, we explain in today’s article  what it is and how to use it.

The English acronym LCA stands for Language Communication Audit. It consists of a review process that each company may require to identify the language and intercultural barriers which are an obstacle to their business internal or abroad operations.

The procedure is divided into five different stages, the latest in the company’s discretion:

1. The company sends a pre-consultation questionnaire containing essential information on its commercial sector, a result will be contacted by a consultant who will conduct a study visit to the company.
2. The consultant visited the company and conducts its review.
3. The consultant produced a report listing the root causes of the company communication problems suggesting possible solutions.
4. The company responds to a post-counseling questionnaire, giving their feedback on the consultant work, the procedure mechanism and the final report.
5. The company implements  suggested changes.

Companies that are subject to the procedure and have applied the suggested changes to their communication strategies, have seen substantial increase in their turnover in improving efficiency, developing relations with their regular customers and / or starting to export to other countries.

This is the definition and use that generally characterizes the Communication Audit in a company. Gruppo La Meridiana, studying more closely this tool, suggests that it could be considered appropriate an use of controls communication also regarding the internal activities of the company. Especially with regard to workplaces that employ international staff from different nations, Communication Audit tools can be used to solve all the problems and obstacles related to language differences.

But not only this, often in companies you find yourself in times where communication between your employees and/or departments yields, leading to achieve goals at the last minute or late or even preventing to reach results. Sometimes the problem is simply related to the communication. When is it right to communicate and what? And how?

Through the use of external members who shall carry out the communication audit you can clearly understand the communication between members, the different preferences of participation and ultimately determine the best use of resources to achieve goals, mission and the organization vision.

Sometimes is possible to use internal methodologies for Communication Audit without having to turn to external especially in smaller companies or when there isn’t an adequate budget possible to use. Through the study of your internal technical communication it is possible to reach interesting results. Knowing how members of your organization communicate with each other and with others makes possible the identification of obstacles, problems and finally you can decide whether to implement changes aimed at improving the performance of the members and the company in general.