Communicating in Turbulent Times

These are difficult and challenging times–for employers facing an uncertain economy and for employees picking up on divergent messages they’re getting from their employers or hearing from family and friends.  We don’t live in isolation. So whether your company is experiencing real economic hardship and facing job cuts or just trying to keep employees on track and focused—keeping employees in the loop with frequent, honest and open communications can help your company through these uncertain times and bring business benefits too.

A recent and most vivid example of how transparent and honest communications to employees at all levels and the public can help a company survive is Maple Leaf Foods. A deadly outbreak of the Listeria bacteria at the company’s Toronto plant was linked to the deaths of 20 people.

Maple Leaf Foods CEO Michael McCain’s practice has been to send regular Friday emails to thousands of his employees.  He shares details of his week, projects underway and upcoming challenges.  The memos to employees about the outbreak and how the company was proceeding were recently revealed in a Toronto Star article. They show a ‘level of frankness that was meant as a private, intimate conversation between the people of my organization and myself ‘ said McCain, in an interview with the Toronto Star.  “ A level of frankness that we would probably not replicate in the outside world.” Nevertheless, the emails show that McCain’s candor and honesty and frequency in which he communicated with his employees and the public will help the company recover, as recent surveys indicate 90 per cent of Canadians have a high regard for how the company weathered the storm and 80 per cent will buy its’ products again.

Candor and honesty is an all important factor in all communications with employees. “Employees are increasingly skeptical, if not cynical, about the communications they receive at work,” says Roger D’Aprix, a well-known author and leading authority on employee communications. “Company leaders need to recognize the change in the employee/employer relationship in which talented and knowledgeable workers have become the very means of doing business in the Information age.”  D’Aprix offers a logical and tested methodology to inform and engage skeptical employees in times of turbulent change. It includes a discussion of how information should be handled, understanding the communication needs of the workforce, the need to and power of engaging employees in face-to-face communications, being open and transparent when communicating, doing audits and employee research and developing a clear and compelling communications strategy

“In my experience,” says Janet Candido, whose company Candido Consulting, works with CEO’s and company HR departments on employee related issues such as compensation and organizational design, “you need to constantly keep employees in the loop.  Talk to then about what you know, be honest about what you don’t know and make sure your CEO engages employees on an on-going basis.  If you don’t, your employees will just find other sources for their information and plug the rumor mill with misinformation.”

Six tips on communicating with employees in turbulent times.

1.    First assess your communications processes and procedures. How are you currently communicating to employees? How often and by what means.  How effective is the process? This might require an audit or employee surveys to determine how relevant and effective your messages are and whether your communication vehicles are effective or need to be revised.

2.    Pledge to deliver transparent and honest information to employees and to share information with them first before going public.  Remember your employees are the key interface with your customers, and will be the first ones to be asked by customers about company issues.

3.    Create a targeted strategy to address the issues and solutions or challenges the company is facing.  Be open and honest.  Develop messaging to each target audience that will answer the questions that are on employee’s minds and want to know.  Keep the messaging focused and consistent.

4.    Communicate often.  It takes time for messages to be absorbed and integrated into the workforce.  Communications should on going and two-way. Think of setting up regular all employees meetings where the CEO and senior team hold information and question- answer sessions face-to-face with employees?
5.    How skilled are your middle managers in communicating company messages and gaining buy-in from employees.  Managers need to be supported and equipped with not only the right messages that will resonate with employees but have the skills to deliver the content. They may need to be trained to understand that effective communications is part of building and sustaining an open and positive corporate culture and helping employee cope with change.

6.    Consider using social media via your company intranet to gain feedback. Develop an internal site and post FAQ’s, with answers, solicit feedback and comment and respond to issues and questions as they arise.

By Marjorie Wallens,  MJW Communications. Published in Workplace, November 2008.

First published in Workplace News, May-June 2007 issue

Rewards & Reconigition-Celebrate Successes… Employee Recogntion Programs can boost employee productivity by 15-25%

Letters of praise, commemorative plaques, the “VIP” branded coffee mug - may not appear to be of value to employees, but when it comes time to clean up or de-clutter our offices or homes, these items are generally among the treasures we salvage. It’s a fact that we all value and need recognition for a job well done.

So powerful are employee recognition programs that a planned consistent program can actually boost employee productivity by between 15-25 per cent. Just as interesting, studies indicate that companies with a strong internal communications focus increase morale, employee retention, productivity and profits. Just think, then, how powerful a planned consistent and well-communicated recognition program can be. Communications plays a significant role in all three key elements in building a recognition program- monetary and non-monetary reward, openly praising employees and communicating and celebrating successes.

Imagine if your birthday wasn’t acknowledged by your closest friends or not celebrated. It’s the same with employee rewards and recognition.

A job well done must be openly praised and recognized in a timely way to have impact. Off-site meetings are excellent venues to share successes and recognition. So are staff meetings, emails, a personal letter of thank you from the CEO along with recognition in an employee newsletter, a special parking space designated for the ‘employee of the month’ and of course that plaque presented in a public forum are all visible non-monetary ways to recognize employee contributions. Some awards, such as a citizenship award for example, may warrant mention in the local community newspaper.

Middle market companies may overlook rewards and recognition as a significant part of employee communications. However, while large companies have entire departments devoted to employee communications, some middle market companies may overlook the importance of communicating effectively with employees when it comes to sharing the company vision, or latest strategy. This is also common with employee rewards and recognition programs. When reviewing various tactics used by a mid-sized company to show recognition, the CEO expressed frustration that the employees took the programs for granted and accepted them as part of their ‘due’, when the real reason was that the company programs were ad hoc and had not been packaged or communicated as part of an overall planned and consistent program.

Involve employees in the development of the program.

If you want your employees to share in the excitement of your company and become motivated, involve employees from the programs inception and include representatives from all employee groups on a planning team. If your program is up and running, involve employees in reviewing your process, that way employees not only provide feedback and insight into the development of a program, but become goodwill ambassadors of the program relaying company messages back to the workplace. Brand your recognition programs.

One newly merged national company that wanted to encourage a new entrepreneurial approach among its store managers, created an “Academy Awards” type celebration evening and awards program. It used a catchy and meaningful name for the awards not only for the awards, but also to characterize its top performers. Now the branded name has become synonymous with excellence and the employees as leaders. A prominent location on the main floor of the head office also displays the award trophies and names of the winners.

So when planning your recognition program, keep in mind that even long after that letter or plaque from the boss or team leader has been misplaced, the memory of where and how that message of praise was celebrated and recognized will be strong.

By Marjorie Wallens, MJW Communications. www.mjwcommunications.com

First published in Workplace News January/February 2007

MJW Communications is a media and public relations company that works with companies to make contacts and build relationships to build awareness for products and services that result in increased sales.

First published in Workplace News, March, 2007

Let’s talk: Effective conversations can ease the stress of organizational change

By Marjorie Wallens

So you want to reshape the organizational culture. Your company and HR team have spent months and devoted costly resources towards working on redesigning the organization to improve the business.
Your communications team is all revved up and ready to go deliver the new key messages in company newsletters, intranets, town hall meetings, on posters and bulletin boards throughout the company. Standard practice is an important part of any successful internal communications plan.But wait a minute; can more be done? Hey, here’s a novel idea: why not start a conversation? Research in workplace culture shows that face-to-face and peer-to-peer communications are critical in changing behavior at work. So, if communication is one person trying to share ideas and meaning with others, then “talk” is a powerful tool to help facilitate change.

Several years ago, the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC), a global professional organization dedicated to the education and enhancement of the careers of communication professionals, published several articles related to research on the connection between leadership and communication and peer-to-peer conversations, and their impact on learning in the workplace.

A key finding in the IABC’s 1998 study on effective supervisor-employee communications underscored how learning in organizations can be nurtured through effective communications between leaders and their employees. And business communicators who tap into the ‘power of talk’ in their companies can increase the organization’s ability to learn faster than its competitors and gain the competitive edge.

Following on that, study results from research on organizational communications at a Canadian financial cooperative was profiled in IABC’s publication, Communication World. The company had a staff of 250 and consolidated assets of over Cdn$3 billion.

The study was undertaken to help the organization understand how communications between leaders and employees could help reshape culture and support organizational learning. At the time, the organization was coping with change on many fronts including globalization, new technologies, changing demographics, and increasingly sophisticated customer needs.

The study shed light on how leaders and employees experience their conversations and what makes a conversation from which two people can learn, including:
• the role conversations play in organizational learning;
• characteristics of effective and ineffective workplace conversations; and
• best practices for enhancing organizational learning between leaders and employees.

For example, a conversation with a leader or supervisor and an employee was perceived to be effective if the participant learned something that was helpful in his or her work. The partnerships, while taking time to develop, then helped build trust, idea sharing and meaning, making employees more open to being guided, supported and constructively challenged and by extension more productive.

Conversely, a conversation with an employee or leader where the participant was not able to learn something that helped with his or her work, or was perceived as playing politics, intervening for a non-work purpose or pursuing a hidden agenda, was remembered as ineffective and likely would not help employees improve their work performance.

Finally, I’d like to pass along just one more example of why employee dialogue and communication should be a key communications priority by company leaders and is critical to a company’s long-term success.
In introducing a formalized employee recognition program at one mid-sized company, peer opinion leaders from all levels of the company were brought in to learn about the new program and to provide feedback.

When the program was launched, this review team, or “ambassadors” as they came to be called, had been involved in the program’s development and had the inside story. They were able to discuss the new program with their peers and answer questions. In conversations, they carried key messages about the new program to their colleagues, thereby assisting the company to gain buy-in from its employees and save valuable work time for more productive endeavors.

So, how do you begin successful conversations in your workplace? Some simple conversation starter suggestions include:
• asking questions in a constructive rather than an accusatory way;
• building partnerships between leaders and employees to explore workplace issues and problems as equal, open, and active participants; and
• sharing a case study to help start a conversation or establishing a clear and common purpose for the conversation so that both participants know the purpose of the conversation, eliminating confusion and mixed messages.

So, if organizational change is on the horizon, why not incorporate the practice of talking and entering into conversations. Far from being cheap, talk may turn out to be one of the most valuable assets your company owns.

Marjorie Wallens is President of MJW Communications. MJW Communications is a media and public relations company offering special expertise in employee communications to enhance organizational effectiveness. www.mjwcommunications.com.