The future of employee communications (Part II)

The future of employee communications is going to be characterized by four key factors.

1. The future is fragmented. We already live in a multi-channel universe and it’s going to be even more so in the future. We’re entering an age where there is no single employee audience that can be reached easily through one or two channels – but rather many micro-audiences—clusters of employees with specific needs and unique expectations that will require a customized approach.

2. The future works in all directions. There have always been lots of ways to reach employees with information. What is really changing is there are more and more ways for employees to talk with each other about their employer, and to talk back to their leaders, and talk with their customers. Those who ignore this fact will do so at their peril.

3. The future is truthful. We are headed for a world where organizations will simply not be able to afford to be dishonest or uncommunicative. The speed, and the forced transparency that come with living in a wired world will quickly expose those who don’t treat their employees -- and their customers, investors and other stakeholders -- with the openness and respect they deserve.

4. The future is full of unlimited opportunity. The ability of technology to connect anyone with almost anyone else gives professional communicators an unprecedented amount of potential. Bad communication has always, and will always fail, but truly great communications will be more meaningful, more powerful, and more profoundly influential than ever before.

So what roles and skills to employee communicators need to thrive in this fragmented, unforgiving, and promising future? I say they’re the same things that have always separated great practitioners from the stupid corporate propagandists who give our profession a bad name.

To succeed, we need what we’ve always needed -- a sound set of values and principles … the intelligence to understand and interpret the needs of our organizations….and an ability to know our employee audiences – what they think, how they feel, and how we can effectively reach them. The future is different only in the fact that there will be many more ways to reach them than ever before – and even more ways for them to respond, positively or negatively, to what we do.

Comments

[Jeffrey Treem]

Ron,

Great post, I think you hit the nail on the head when you talk about how changes in technology will make it more, not less, important to act intelligently. Accountability is a beautiful (albeit scary thing).

One thought. I think the most important thing about the future is the combination of #1 and #2, the seamless intergration of information flows.

Sure I work on a team of only a few people and much of what I work on has little relevance to the other people in my company. However, with the click of a button I can reach thousands of people, inside and outside the company. I can connect with people with similar interests, share information and post thoughts.

Thomas Friedman summed up these seeminlgy conflicting, but complementary ideas of fragmentation and increased connectivity with the idea of "The Lexus and the Olive Tree." Any large structure, be it a social group, a country or a business is going to have to deal with this inevitable movement.

Thanks for the great thoughts,
Jeffrey

[Ron Shewchuk]

More fragmented, and more connected, than ever.

More global, and more local, at the same time.

It will be interesting to see how the new generation of communicators will cope with this emerging reality, this infinite matrix of intersecting communities.

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