Public Relations: A Practitioner's Guide (part 12)

Employee Relations (part C)

by

Charles Lamson

Employee Communications Tactics

Once objectives are set, a variety of techniques can be adopted to reach the staff. The initial tool again is research. Before any Communications program can be implemented, communicators must have a good sense of staff attitudes.

Internal Communications Audits

Both a strategy and a tactic, the internal communications audit is the most beneficial form of research on which to lay the groundwork for effective employee communications. Ideally, this starts with old-fashioned, personal, in-depth interviews with management and communicators. It is important to find out from top management what it wants from the communications team. It is also important to find out what communicators think management wants. Often the discontinuities are startling. the three critical audit questions to probe are:

1. How do internal communications support the mission of the organization?
2.  Do internal communications have management support?
3.  How responsive to employee needs and concerns are internal communications?

Audits help determine staff attitudes about their jobs, the organization, and its mission, coupled with an analysis of the existing communications techniques. The findings of such audits are often revealing, always informative, and never easily ignored.

Internal audit can be conducted by organizational personnel or consultants. Sometimes Consultants provide a more objective analysis of the situation and what is required to improve it.

Once internal communications research is completed, the public relations practitioner has a clear idea of the kinds of communications vehicles that makes sense for the organization.

Online Communications

The age of online communications has ushered in a whole new set of employee communications vehicles from email to voice mail to tailored organizational intranets to individual blogs. Such vehicles are more immediate than earlier print versions. They reach employees at their desks and are more likely to be read, listen to, and acted on. Indeed, employees without computer access are increasingly losing their voice and ability to be heard, especially the ability to submit ideas for improvement or to access a company intranet remotely.

Online communications also have the capability of reaching virtual employees at their desks in their homes, on their Blackberries or Palm Pilots, in their cars, or wherever they remotely may be.

As print publications become steadily fewer, tailored online newsletters have begun to replace them. 

Many organizations, from traditional companies to the new high-tech giants, increasingly rely on intranets to exchange information quickly and effectively. Miller Brewing company's intranet "Miller Time," sponsors an interactive forum through which employees offer suggestions to and ask questions of management. Everyone who offers an idea through the Miller intranet is guaranteed a response. Such feedback is critical to corporate credibility. 

The newest online tools, such as blogs and wikis, are still relatively unfamiliar as internal communications vehicles.

• Blogs---or technically, Web logs---are a type of frequently updated online journal. Blogs provide an easy way for employees to post opinions and views of the company on the Internet. Blogging by senior management, a potentially useful device to reach the staff, is still quite uncommon.

•  Wikis, a dynamic website to which any user can add pages, modify content, and comment on existing content, is even less widespread than blogs internally. Wikis may be better suited than a blog for a smaller group, and their ability to provide instant interactive capabilities are unmatched. 

The Intranet

Today, in many organizations, the intranet has overtaken and even emulsified print communications. Intranet Investments remain strong as companies continue to convert sites to portal technology and add streaming video capability.  

Unfortunately, having an intranet site doesn't mean employees will necessarily go there for information. Sites high in visual appeal but low in usefulness will likely be ignored. To prevent that, intranet creators should keep in mind several important considerations:

1. Consider the culture. If the organization is generally collaborative and collegial, it will have no trouble getting people to contribute information and materials to the Intranet. But, if the organization is not one that ordinarily shares, a larger central staff may be necessary to ensure that the intranet works.
2. Set clear objectives and then let it evolve. Just as in setting up a corporate website, intranets must be designed with clear goals in mind: to streamline business processes, to communicate management messages, and so on. Once goals are established, however, site creators ought to allow for growth and evolution as new intranet needs become apparent.
3.  Treat it as a journalistic enterprise. Company news gets read by company workers. That's a truism throughout all organizations. Employees must know what's going on in the company and complain bitterly if they are not getting advance notice of important developments. In this way, the intranet can serve as a critical journalistic communications tool within the organization.
4.  Market, market, market. The internet needs to be sold within the company. Publicize new features or changes in content. Weekly emails can be used to highlight noteworthy additions and updates. Just as with any other internal communications vehicle, the more exposure the site gets, the more frequently it will be used.
5. Link to outside lives. Some CEOs may not recognize it, but employees have lives outside the corporation. An intranet site that recognizes that simple fact can become quite popular. Links to classified ads, restaurant and movie reviews, and information on local concerts are ways to reinforce the internet value and the organization's concern for its staff.
6.  Senior management must commit. Just like anything else in an organization, if the top executive is neither interested nor supportive, the idea will fail. Therefore, the perceived value of an organization's intranet will increase dramatically if management actively supports and uses it. 

Employee Annual Reports

It often makes sense to print a separate annual report just for employees. Frequently, the lure of this report---published in addition to the regular corporate shareholder annual report---is that it is written for, about, and by the employees.

Most employees care about how their organization functions and what it's management is thinking. The annual report to the staff is a good place to discuss such issues informally yet candidly. The report can be both factual, explaining the performance of the organization during the year, and informational, reviewing organizational changes and significant milestones during the year. It can also be motivational in it's implicit appeal to team spirit and pride. 

Staff reports observe few hard and fast rules about concept and format. Staff annuals can be as complex as the shareholder annual report itself or as simple as a brief outline of the company's highlights of the year. Typical features of the employee annual report include the following:

1. Chief executives letter: a special report to the staff that reviews the performance and highlights of the year and thanks employees for their help.
2. Use of funds statement: often a graphic chart that describes how the organization used each dollar it took in.
3.  Financial condition: frequently a chart that describes the assets and liabilities of the corporation and the stockholders equity.
4.  Description of the company: simple, graphic explanation of what the organization is and where its facilities are located.
5. Social responsibility highlights: discussion of the organizations rule in dating, Society through monetary assistance and employee participation during the year.
6.  Staff financial highlights: general description, usually in chart form, of salaries, benefits, and other staff related expense items.
7. Organizational policy: discussion of current issues about which management feels strongly and for which it seeks employee support.
8.  Emphasis on people: in-depth profiles of people on the job, and pictorial essays on people at work to demonstrate, throughout the report, the importance of the people who make up the organization.

Employees appreciate recognition. The special annual report is a measure of recognition that does not go unnoticed or unread by a firm's workers. 

Bulletin Boards

Bulletin boards, among the most ancient of employee Communications vehicles, have made a comeback in recent years.

For years, bulletin boards were considered second-string information channel s, generally relegated to the display of federally required information and policy data for such activities as fire drills and emergency procedures. Most employees rarely consulted them. But the bulletin board has experienced a renaissance and is now being used to improve productivity, cut waste, and reduce accidents on the job. Best of all, employees are taking notice. 

How come?

For one thing, yesterday's bulletin board has become today's news center. it has been repackaged into a more lively visual and graphically arresting medium. Using enlarged news pictures and texts, motivational messages, and other company announcements---all Illustrated with a flair---the bulletin board has become an important source of employee communications. Hospitals, in particular, have found that a strategically situated bulletin board outside the cafeteria is a good way to promote employee understanding and cooperation.

One key to stimulating leadership is to keep boards current. One person in the public relations unit should be assigned to this weekly task.

Suggestion Box and Town Hall Meetings

Two other traditional staples of employee communication are the suggestion box and the town hall meeting.

In the old days, suggestion boxes were mounted on each floor, and employees, often anonymously, deposited their thoughts on how to improve the company and its processes and products. Often rewards were awarded for the most productive or profitable suggestions.

Today, the only necessity and implementing a successful suggestion box program is to ensure that there is "feedback"--- that is, management action that deals with valid suggestions.

Town Hall meetings are large gatherings of employees with top management, where no subject is off-limits and management staff dialogue is the goal. That was the conclusion of one study of 200 employees some of whom labeled these vehicles charades, phony, management games, and a joke.

Town Hall meetings must encourage unfettered two-way communication. Too often, questions from the floor are screened by the public relations people, thus causing suspicion from the crowd. The more open the format, the greater management and the organization will be trusted. 

Internal Video

As important as broadcast and cable television are as communications media in society today, video has had an up-and-down history as an internal communications medium. On the one hand, internal television, including streaming video, can be demonstrably effective. A 10-minute video tape of an executive announcing a new corporate policy imparts hundreds of times more information than an audio tape of that same message, which in turn contains hundreds of times more information than a printed text of the same message.

On the downside, internal video is a medium that must be approached with caution. Unless video is of broadcast quality, few will tolerate it---especially an audience of employees weaned on television. So there are always risks in producing an internal video.

Face-to-Face Communications

First and foremost, employees want information face-to-face from the individual for whom they work. Supervisors, in fact, are the preferred source for 90% of the employees, making them the top choice by far. The reason is obvious. You report to your supervisor, who awards your raise, promotes you, and is your primary source of corporate information. 

That's the good news.

The bad news is that despite paying attention to enhanced supervisory communications, most companies are still inconsistent when it comes to supervisors relaying important information. Thus, even though most employees vastly prefer information from their supervisor over what they learned through rumors, many still rely on the grapevine as a primary source of information.

What can public relations departments do to combat this trend?

Some departments formalize the meeting process by mixing management and staff in a variety of formats, from gripe sessions to marketing or planning meetings. Many organizations embrace the concept of skip-level meetings in which top-level managers meet periodically with employees at levels several notches below them in the organizational hierarchy. As with any other form of communication, the value of meetings lies in their substance, their regularity, and the candor managers bring to face-to-face sessions. 

The Grapevine

In far too many organizations, it is neither print nor the internet that dominates the communications but rather the company grapevine. The rumor mill can be treacherous. As one employee publication described the grapevine:

“Once they pick up steam, rumors can be devastating. Because employees tend to distort future events to conform to a rumor, an organization must work to correct rumors as soon as possible.”

Identifying the source of a rumor is often difficult, if not impossible, and it is usually not worth the time. However, dispelling the rumor quickly and frankly is another story. Often a bad news rumor about layoffs, closings, and so on can be dealt with most effectively through forthright communication. Generally, an organization makes a difficult decision after a thorough review of many alternatives. The final decision is often a compromise, reflecting the needs of the firm and its various publics, including, importantly, the workforce. 

In presenting a final decision to employees, management often overlooks the value of explaining how it reached its decision. By comparing alternative solutions so that employees can understand more clearly the rationale behind management decisions, an organization may make bad news more palatable.

As diabolical as the grapevine can become, it should not necessarily be treated as the enemy of effective communications with employees. Management might even consider ways to use it to its advantage. A company grapevine can be as much a Communications vehicle as internal publications or employee meetings. It may even be more valuable because it is believed, and everyone seems to tap into it. 

Last Word on Employee Relations

The best  defense against damaging grapevine rumors is a strong and candid internal communications system. Employee communications, for years the most neglected communications opportunity in corporate America, is today much more appreciated for strategic importance. Organizations that build massive marketing plans to sell products have begun today to apply that same knowledge and energy to communicating with their own employees

A continuing employee relations challenge for public relations communicators is to work hand-in-hand with human resources officials. In the 1950s, personnel departments began to change their name to "human resources" to more accurately reflect the personal focus of their responsibilities. Over the past half-century, human resources functions have concentrated on such areas as organization, staffing, benefits, and recruitment rather than communications.

The responsibility for communicating to employees has largely fallen on the public relations function, which must coordinate its initiatives with human resources priorities to create a culture of professionalism, accountability, and candor.

In the 21st century, organizations have no choice but to build rapport with and morale among employees. The shattering of morale and distrust of top management prevalent in the first two decades of this century will take time to repair. Building back internal credibility is a long-term process that depends on several factors. Among them, listening to employees, developing information exchanges to educate employees about changing technology, empowering them with new skills and knowledge through strategic business information they require, and adapting to the new culture of job mobility that is replacing job stability.

Most of all in this new century, effective employee communications requires openness and honesty on the part of senior management. As legendary Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett has said, "We can afford to lose money---even a lot of money. We cannot afford to lose reputation---even a shred of reputation."

Public relations professionals must seize this initiative to foster the open climate that employees want and the two-way communications that organizations need. 

*SOURCE: THE PRACTICE OF PUBLIC RELATIONS, 10TH ED., FRASER P. SEITEL, PGS. 227-238*

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