For Your Approval

Who do you trust?

It's an old saw in the internal communications business that front line employees don't trust senior management and the most credible source of information for them is their immediate supervisor. UK site HR Zone recently reported on a self-serving study by HR consultancy BlessingWhite that confirms this workplace truth.  BlessingWhite's study found that, while about three quarters of workers trust their direct supervisors, less than half have the same confidence in senior management.

On top of that, the study revealed that half of middle managers are planning or seriously considering leaving their current thankless jobs this year. HR Zone quotes Tom Barry of BlessingWhite:

"Our research has revealed that many senior managers appear to be issuing strategies from an ivory tower. Their direction can't filter through middle managers that don't trust them....Business leaders must give middle managers the structure and tools they need to help staff establish a strong connection with, and commitment to, their work....But they must also find a genuine, authentic leadership voice themselves - one that inspires trust. The most successful companies make employee engagement an ongoing priority, not a once-a-year event. Without trust, engagement initiatives can seem hollow."

For most employee communicators reading that quote, the response would be "Well, duh." We all know that. We live with it every day. The big question is why a new paradigm isn't emerging in business today that turns this unfortunate reality into regrettable history.

The good news of the study: a much higher percentage (59%) of Millennials -- the folks born in the 80s who are relatively new to the workforce -- trust senior management. This means there's hope, but the window isn't going to be open forever. The story of Generation Y could turn into Generation Sigh: how business leaders missed an opportunity of a lifetime to engage the next wave of workers.

The solution is not rocket surgery. What's required is for corporate leaders to reach out to their employees and connect with them in ways that earn trust. Right now a lot of hopeful effort is being put into social media as a way of using technology to renew that broken connection and close the gap. But positive change won't happen unless CEOs take the problem seriously and devote the right amount of attention to it. And it's up to us to give them the business case, the right advice, and the right strategies to make it happen.

New media channels are indeed gaining traction

Erik Samdahl of the Seattle-based consulting firm, The Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp), saw my recent post listing my predictions for 2008 and responded with a thoughtfully targeted blog pitch.

My thanks to Erik for sending along a useful overview of recent research on the adoption of social media into the workplace, which comes in the form of a recent edition of i4cp's newsletter, Trendwatcher: Download trendwatcher_20071102_social_tools1.pdf

The evidence suggests that use of social media inside big organizations is trending upward, but isn't yet ubiquitous. We all kinda know that, but it's handy to have a roundup of statistical evidence to back up our instincts.

The i4cp was formerly known as Human Resource Institute (HRI). Eric tells me his firm "helps companies improve workforce productivity by providing a combination of research, peer communities, tools and technology to corporate executives and HR professionals." Good call on the name change. Human Resource Institute sounds like it might be run by Nurse Ratchet herself! Thanks again Erik!

More proof that employee communications matter

Yet another study from a big HR consulting firm came out this week. This one, from Watson Wyatt, demonstrates unequivocally that employee communications matter -- that doing it right is a measurable competitive advantage. The firm's annual Communication ROI Study outlines the six communication "secrets" of top employers in the U.S. (My favorite "secret": "Leveraging the talents of internal communicators to manage change effectively.")

A few weeks ago it was a global employee engagement study from Towers Perrin that revealed employee engagement is at an all-time low.

As self-serving as these studies are, I think they're great. Each one seems to hone in a little closer on a fundamental truth in business today: that connecting with employees is worth the trouble.

As I have said in this space before: well, duh. And yet. And yet so many organizations are losing the battle as they struggle to improve their broken relationships with their people. Part of the answer (as the self-serving news releases from the big consulting firms would like us to believe) is for companies to open up their pocketbooks and hire the good folks at WW and TP to develop and help implement big internal engagement programs. Part of it is for CEOs to wake up and take a hard look at whether they're paying enough attention to this critical part of their leadership responsibilities.

And part of the answer is in the hands of internal communicators. We need to stand up on our chairs and speak up about what really matters to us and to the organizations we serve. And, as we're wobbling and clearing our throat, having those self-serving studies in our back pocket ain't a bad thing.