For Your Approval

The Penelope Trunk interview

I recently blogged about syndicated columnist Penelope Trunk, whose new book, Brazen Careerist: The New Rules for Success, just came out. Penelope has lots of insights into the dynamics of today's workplace, particularly with respect to Generation Y. Ms. Trunk kindly granted me an interview.

For Your Approval: With some notable exceptions, it seems as if the quality of life at work today has been declining and that the gulf between employees and their employers is widening. What do you see as the biggest issues facing leaders in today's workplace?

Penelope Trunk: I think the quality of life at work is actually improving because employees have so much power. If they don't like work they can leave. There are plenty of jobs to be had. The unemployment rate among college grads is less than 2%. Anyone who is staying in a job they hate because they can't get a better job should see a career coach for repositioning. With good coaching and and an open mind for taking in feedback, most people can get a job that does not decrease their quality of life. Employeers are desperate. That said, a lot of people mix up not liking their life and not liking their job. Your job cannot make you happy. I write about this a lot. Here's a link. If you are not happy, instead of blaming your job, blame yourself, and fix your life.

FYA: I agree with you that the generation coming into the workplace is very powerful, but have employers done very much to improve working conditions to accommodate the values and preferences of these employees? The latest studies on employee engagement, including one recent one by Towers Perrin, seem to document a growing gap between employees and their employers. Employers will be forced to change, but have they changed much yet?

PT: I think some employers have changed and some have not. The important thing might be individual managers, though. One's work experience, especially in terms of personal growth, is so dependent on one's direct manager really caring about providing a stimulating work environment. A boss can make things good in a bad company and bad in a good company.

FYA: You've written about "Generation Y" and how this new infusion of younger employees creates challenges for employers. How would you characterize this generation in terms of what they expect from their employers?

PT: Generation Y wants personal growth, every day, good mentoring, co-workers they like, and, after all that, they want to be paid well. It's actually what everyone wants in a job, just no generation has been so bold, or so well positioned, to demand it at the entry-level. Here's a column I wrote in Time magazine about what Gen Y wants.

FYA: What's different about how companies should communicate with this generation? Do you think employers should be involving them more in a two-way conversation? Many companies are starting internal blogs or launching company-specific Facebook-like internal social networks. Do you think these things are important and meaningful, or is there something else companies should be doing to connect with employees?

PT: Young employees want to have personalized connections. Their parents have been overseeing their personal growth for two decades. And when parents were out of their league, they hired SAT coaches, soccer tutors, and personal stylists. This generation is used to having adults very available and very enthusiastic to help. So that's what they expect at work. It needs to be one-to-one, personalized attention. And not just from a boss, but from many angles in an organization. High maintenance, yes: But this is an extremely educated, motivated and well-equipped group of workers who will outperform everyone who came before them in terms of productivity. It's worth the investment.

FYA: If you were an employee communications specialist, what advice would you be giving senior leaders?

PT: Learn about what generation Y wants from work. It's entirely reasonable, and they are incredibly motivated, optimistic employees. Stop thinking about how hard you worked to get to the top and start thinking about how to make the ladder less important than what each person brings to the table on a given day. The biggest shift needs to come in the egos that are perched at the top of the company.

FYA: What will the workplace be like 10 years from now? And who will be the winners and the losers in attracting and keeping the best people?

PT: In ten years, only the winners will be around. the losers will be eaten up by the winners, I think. The winners will be companies that were not afraid to show humility in the recruiting process. It's an employee driven market for the foreseeable future, which turns the recruiting model on it's head. If companies cannot make that change, they won't attract enough talent to keep things going.

Readers, what do you think of Ms. Trunk's observations? Is your organization changing to meet the expectations of this new generation? And are you changing the way you communicate to connect with Gen Y?

Print still rules

My old pal Bill Sweetland over at Ragan.com reports on a new study that compares print and online communications. Not surprisingly, print comes out on top. What's surprising is how many organizations abandoned this powerful medium many years ago.

An interesting study from Towers Perrin

Although I'm among those who cringe at the overuse of the term "employee engagement," I also think it's useful shorthand for what companies should be doing to earn the trust and commitment of their people.

The engagement trend has got to be a huge cash cow for big consulting firms like Towers Perrin, who help companies measure their own levels of engagement and then recommend changes to practices and policies aimed at improving it.

And so today, in that shamelessly selve-serving way we've come to know and love, TP released highlights of a big engagement study. And, guess what? Engagement levels are crappy all over the world, with only 21% of employees engaged in their work, and 38% partly or fully disengaged. The study also found that companies with higher levels of engagement deliver much better financial performance.

Here's an interesting excerpt:

The Towers Perrin study ... debunks a widely held view that engagement is an innate trait. Rather, it is the organization itself - and most particularly, its senior leadership - that has the biggest impact on engagement levels.

"One of the study's key findings is that the organization itself is the most powerful influencer of employee engagement," said [Julie] Gebauer, Towers Perrin HR Services. "Personal values and work experience factors have less of an impact on engagement than what the company does -- particularly the extent to which employees believe senior management is sincerely interested in their well-being. This was the number one element driving engagement on a global basis and also in the U.S.

"People's views about the company are also shaped more by what senior leaders say and do than by what the individuals' direct bosses say or do. This too contradicts conventional wisdom and suggests that companies have a real opportunity to dramatically improve both engagement levels -- starting with listening to what their own employees have to say."

Part of our job as employee communicators is to report on the things our leaders are doing to support employee well-being.  But we also have an opportunity to coach our leaders to be better listeners. Easier said than done, but perhaps a little easier thanks to studies like this.

 

The Brazen Careerist

I'm always on the lookout for social analysis that helps me understand the values of the new "generation Y" that's coming into the workplace to help fill the gaping hole being left by all the departing baby boomers.

So, I was intrigued with an e-mail pitch about a new book, Brazen Careerist: the New Rules for Success by Penelope Trunk, a columnist at the Boston Globe and Yahoo! Finance. Through the pitch letter I linked to Trunk's Brazen Careerist blog and found a treasure trove of sharp, insightful commentary about the changing values of employees. One recent post is particularly intriguing, about how Generation Y is inherently conservative in how they envision their lives. Here's the nutshell:

1. They love their parents, so they're not rebellious.
2. They operate in teams, unlike the mavericks of earlier generations.
3. They're not complainers, and would rather work together to fix things than whine about them.
4. They're not asking for anything crazy -- just stable jobs that are meaningful and challenging.

Trunk's writing is clear and lively, and I love her observations about today's workplace. I'm going to follow her blog from now on for sure.

I wonder what she'd say about how companies should communicate with Gen Y? I think I might ask.

Murray does Dallas

If you're in employee communications, it's hard to avoid hearing about the success story of Southwest Airlines. So many companies today crave that elusive mojo called "employee engagement"; Southwest has it in spades. Ragan Communications recently celebrated that success with a an internal communications conference at Southwest's headquarters in Dallas, giving attendees a deep-dive view of how the airline has created, and maintains, what has to be one of the healthiest, happiest corporate cultures on earth.

My old friend David Murray was there, and wrote about his experience for Ragan's slick new New York Times-style Web portal. This is must reading for employee communicators... and their bosses.

Link to David's article here. And pass it along.

A question for you

Whether we (or they) like it or not, CEOs wield enormous power over the quality of today's workplace. Things they say and do set the tone of their organizations, defining the corporate culture and influencing the day-to-day actions of every employee. I remember a survey years ago showed that 50 per cent of an organization's reputation is directly tied to the CEO, and I believe that holds true externally as well as internally.

That's why sometimes we hate CEOs so much, and sometimes we love them so much.

If you could tell the CEO of a large organization one thing about what he or she should do to improve communication with employees, what would it be?

I'm writing something a little essay on this and I'd appreciate any thoughts you have, whether they be bits of advice, stray observations, pet peeves or festering wounds.

BC wild salmon recipes

Here's something from my life as barbecue guy. I was recently honored with an invitation to contribute to the British Columbia Wild Salmon Marketing Council's latest promotional booklet: Download bc_wild_salmon_recipes.pdf. It has a planked salmon recipe from me, as well as some great salmon recipes from actual BC chefs.

The staying power of text

There's been a lot of talk these days about the decline of print communication, but here's an interesting article by Joe Mandese in Media magazine about the continuing dominance of text vs. visual/multimedia.

Clinical communication

There's a creepy, clinical edge to how many people refer to employee communication. Anyone who has taken a PR diploma, attended an IABC conference or reads the trade publications serving our field knows what I'm talking about. Strategic internal communication is all about "changing behavior," "aligning the interests of employees and the enterprise," "securing buy-in," "increasing mindshare," or "leveraging human capital."

Yuck. Could we be more Orwellian than this? The term "internal propagandist" comes to mind.

And yet the spirit behind these icky terms is not a bad one -- everyone wants to do meaningful work and to make a difference. It so happens that employee communicators are in the business of influencing behavior and changing attitudes, even if it's in relatively benign ways like making sure people understand the latest changes to the benefits program or urging them to try not to waste money.

But I sure don't like the terminology. It doesn't reflect the changing values of our society, which is rebelling against the hierarchy and paternalism that defined the generation that, thank goodness, is on its way out. And it doesn't reflect how most internal communicators think about their role.

So, instead of influencing behavior, we earn trust and support. Instead of aligning interests, we listen and learn. Instead of leveraging human capital, we tell stories that help build strong internal communities. And instead of securing buy-in and increasing mindshare, we support positive change and start meaningful conversations.

This shift in language is not just turning unattractive words into cute ones. It represents a shift in attitude. It rejects a paradigm centered on clinical control, and recognizes the humanity of what we do.