Conclusion and recommendations
The High-level Group for the Modernisation of Official Statistics has recognized that a strategic communications approach is an essential component to maintain and enhance the relevance of official statistics in today’s society.
Across the globe, statistical organizations are at varying levels of maturity in terms of their communications function. However, all have recognized the importance of building and maintaining relationships not only with expert users, but also with the general public. An effective communications function guides the development of a strategic approach to protect, enhance and promote the organization’s reputation and brand.
This framework proposes a number of components that statistical organizations should consider when developing a strategic approach to its communications function. The following summarizes the recommendations presented throughout the framework.
Recommendations
- It is important for all statistical organizations to control and own their brand. To stakeholders, a successful and distinguished brand heralds quality and elicits trust and loyalty. An organization’s branch should evolve and adapt to organizational and environmental changes.
- One of the most important considerations when developing a brand is to do so holistically. This facilitates a smooth embedding process and ensures staff remain engaged with the defined values.
- Statistical organizations can use the Communications Maturity Model to gauge their current maturity level, identify areas for improvement and design action plans to reach the desired maturity level. The Communication Maturity Model can also be used to evaluate the organization’s communications function and activities.
- Professional communications programs will look different from one statistical organization to another, depending on the organization’s needs, objectives and available resources. There is no preferred or recommended structure. However, there are eight broad functional areas that statistical organizations should consider: leadership and management; strategic communications and brand management; media relations; content creation; website management; stakeholder engagement; social media; and digital media, graphic design and visualization.
- The communications strategy should be aligned with the values and principles that underpin statistical organizations and that are defined by the Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics (United Nations, 2014[1]).
- To guide the development of an effective communications strategy, statistical organizations should consider the following elements: values and principles, environmental scans, communication objectives, audience segmentation, communication channels, and content strategy.
- Effective crisis and issue management is critical to protect and maintain a statistical office’s reputation. All statistical organizations should establish a crisis communications and issue management process to better prepare the organization to respond quickly, efficiently and effectively when a crisis or issue occurs.
Crisis communications and issue management protocols should be tested, and lessons learned from the testing and implementation of the processes should be used to inform and further enhance the organization’s preparedness for successful responses.
[1] https://unstats.un.org/unsd/dnss/gp/fundprinciples.aspx.