For Your Approval

The sound of employee ideas

Tim Mantyla, who contributes to TECHWR-L, a blog for technical communicators and hosts the new Communication-Creativity-Innovation blog, recently shared a thoughtful comment under an old post on this blog. It's such a good comment that it stands on its own, so I'm sharing it with FYA readers. Call it our first guest post. Thanks Tim!

I really enjoyed [the] post, [More proof that employee communications matter] and the one referring to Barry Nelson's "Who Speaks for Employees..." on the trend toward a corporate, sometimes antihuman orientation of business.

What's clearly needed (though not so clearly to many corporate execs, apparently) is the sense of community in a business: The feeling that "we're all in this together--what can we give to each other? How can we support each other as just folks, and get business done?"

People are social for a reason: it's part of how we survived without claws, fangs and fur, along with our bigger brains. When businesses realize they have much more to gain by treating employees like valued family members and friends--while still expecting and supporting valuable skills, creativity and other contributions--then they'll get much more loyal workers.

Too often managers seem to believe that strict, bottom-line business needs of a business must overwhelm the human needs of the people who compose the organization. That's when people leave in droves.

How can we serve both needs? How can business thrive while providing an atmosphere like that of an extended family and friends at work? How the organization provide needed prestige to employees, to show everyone the truly value the workers? And how can they get the most out of an employee?

I find that one thing I need most is to be recognized for contributions that I can make to improve my job or some other area of the company, but are not requested, seen or valued by the employer. It's frustrating. And it results in a net loss for the employer and me.

Sometimes just a listening ear, an open door with a never-ending invitation to talk, can make a difference in engagement. It does for me.

My advice to company execs and managers: Ask more questions, and be open to honest answers. Ask your workers about how they would improve things for the company, and ask what would make things better for them personally. Then work to deliver it.

Don't forget to deliver the employees' messages to upper management. Smart management will listen and thank their workers for the ideas, and keep asking for more.

By the way, isn't this kind of thing, called "kaizen" or improvement, in Japan, part of what keeps Toyota and Honda at the top of the auto world in quality?  

Thanks again, Tim. Wise words worth sharing.

 

Critical mass

I keep an eye on Intrascope, an interesting blog about internal communications coming out of India. A recent post documents a visit to Bangalore  by Mike Green, who heads up internal communications at high tech giant Intel. It reminded me that employee communications is often practiced at its highest level at big multinational companies. Why? Because they have big needs. And because they have the critical mass to be able to have more than one employee communicator -- in Intel's case it's probably in the dozens. This allows for things like mentorship, career development and meaningful collaboration. Thank goodness for outfits like IABC, which fill the gap by creating a supportive community for internal communications professionals who would otherwise live in relative isolation, suffering the abuse of those who don't understand or care about what they do. Yesterday's Dilbert strip illustrates this nicely.

Faith, doubt and aesthetics

I just read an article in the New Yorker -- a remembrance by a writer of an experience in a church that would change his friend's life. It's a great read, but it also has insights that are relevant to our role as communicators. Tell me what it means to you.

Stupid, stupid, stupid!

Every month a couple of editor friends and I get together at a favorite diner in downtown Vancouver and trade stories of our family and working lives.

This morning one of my friends reported on what she's doing lately for a longtime client. She helps out with employee communications, and I was heartened to hear that she's working with the company to revamp its communication vehicles, including starting up a new quarterly employee publication.

"Wow. That's great!" I said. "It's so good to hear someone's paying attention to improving employee communications. So is it a magazine? A maga-paper?"

"No, it's being put out as a .pdf so they can tell managers to print and distribute it at the different work sites," she said, cringing.

"AAAARGH! WHAT A LOAD OF HORSE SHIT! I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS! YOU MEAN TO TELL ME THEY'RE GOING THROUGH ALL THE TROUBLE OF DEVELOPING A NEW PUBLICATION AND THEY'RE NOT GOING TO BOTHER TO HAVE IT PROPERLY PRINTED AND DISTRIBUTED?" My rant went on for at least a couple of minutes along these lines. I have no objection to online tools. But they are part of a balanced mix -- a mix that still should include print -- at least in companies who have front line workers who don't have computers or who are over 25 years old.

"I know, I know. It's crazy," she replied, with more than a touch of resignation in her voice. "I'm just the contractor and I can't do anything about it. That's what they want to do."

This company has several different industrial work sites, and most employees don't have access to computers. Senior leaders think using online tools is modern and progressive. Plus they don't want to deal with the cost of printing and the trouble of distributing. So they leave it up to the line managers who, of course, care deeply about distributing information that comes from head office. Not!

My goodness, when will this madness end? I honestly can't believe how stupid big companies can be -- how they can consciously disenfranchise their own employees by not doing the simple, time-honoured task of printing an attractive, readable publication and putting it in everyone's hands.

I wish a pox on these companies. I hope they have the low morale, high attrition rates, nasty labour relations and poor productivity they deserve.

A career-making opportunity

Great senior employee communications jobs don't come up very often. But there's an excellent opportunity in Alberta right now -- a career-making position with one of Canada's leading energy companies.

My former employer and current client Suncor Energy needs a manager of employee communications for its biggest business unit, its Oil Sands division in Fort McMurray with about 3,000 employees. A colleague at Suncor has asked me to help identify potential candidates.

It's a dream job in many ways:

• There's lots of growth and change - Suncor is doubling its production in the next three years, which means all kinds of growth projects with plenty of great stories to tell.

• Many employees are nearing retirement at the same time as there are hundreds of new positions to fill, so there's a big push to engage, retain and recruit, which means a big need to communicate with employees -- and lots of support from management.

• Suncor has a great communications team. I know them, and I can say this from personal experience.

• There's an opportunity to lead -- the position has three direct reports and there's room to innovate.

• The company is financially healthy and there's competitive pay, stock options and an annual bonus.

• Benefits are excellent, including personal time off days in addition to vacations and stat holidays.

For someone who's been working in employee communications for ten or more years who wants to take his or her career to a whole new level, this truly is a dream job.

The only sticking point: it's based in Fort McMurray, a booming city of 79,000 in Northern Alberta. That's about a four-hour drive north of Edmonton, which means it's fairly remote and has long, cold winters. The city is struggling as it copes with all the growth that's come with the booming energy economy, but it's got lots of pluses - it's a great place to raise a family with a huge new rec centre and lots of outdoor activities.

From my point of view, the remoteness only adds to the opportunity. Fort McMurray is a place with enormous potential. I have a cousin who moved there many years ago as a young lawyer and became a crown prosecutor and now he's a judge. His wife worked part time at the community college and is now a full-time professor. Neither of them would have achieved as much in their careers if they had settled in a big city. And there are many more stories like that, of folks who have come from everywhere to make great lives for themselves and their families.

But it's got to be the right person. You need to be able to move, so it might not work if you have teenage kids, ailing parents or a spouse who isn't mobile. The thing is, if your spouse has any marketable skills there would be plenty of opportunities for him or her, too.

[Edit - Plus, as an FYA reader quickly pointed out in the comments to this post, there are big environmental issues associated with oil sands development that add complexity to any communication role in the energy industry. Suncor is known as a responsible operator and has built a reputation as an environmental leader. But there's no question that its operations have an impact on the environment, and the industry has plenty of critics. For an employee communicator, this adds to the challenge -- and to the opportunity to make a difference.]

So, if you are interested, or know anyone who is interested in this opportunity, call me at 604-694-6037 and I'll tell you more. Here's a link to the detailed position description: Download manager_oil_sands_communications.doc.

 

The power of print

Had to share this great observation about print as a technology, by Walter Isaacson, President and CEO of the Aspen Institute and former CEO of CNN and managing editor of Time. It's from an interesting book called "What Are You Optimistic About? Today's Leading Thinkers on Why Things Are Good and Getting Better," edited by John Brockman:

"I am very optimistic about print as a technology. Words on paper are a wonderful information-storage, retrieval, distribution, and consumer product . . . Imagine if we had been getting our information delivered digitally to our screens for the past 550 years. Then some modern Gutenberg had come up with a technology that was able to transfer these words and pictures onto pages that could be delivered to our doorstep, and we could take them to the backyard, the bath, the bus. We would be thrilled with this technological leap forward, and we would predict that someday it might replace the Internet."

Ha! I love it.

A business leader's take on the communicator's role

We employee communicators are constantly trying to bridge the gap between ourselves and our CEOs. But we tend to drink our own bathwater, mainly looking at the problem from the communicator’s point of view. So it’s wonderful to get a fresh perspective on the subject, especially from a respected business leader.

I’m lucky to know Roger Martin, former management consultant, current Dean of Toronto’s Rottman School of Business, author and frequent contributor to the Harvard Business Review. I sent him a copy of my recent JECM article, which is an entreaty of sorts to CEOs to change the way they think about internal communication.

Roger has kindly agreed to let me share our short e-mail conversation about the article with FYA readers:

_________________________________________________________________________________

Ron:

Good article. I like the advice.  There is one thing that I would encourage further thinking about.

It is the following:  All of the functions want the CEO to involve them earlier in whatever process you are talking about – IT, legal, marketing, design, HR, etc., etc.  So you may think your call for earlier involvement is unique but it is not.  And if you told that to the CEO, he/she would probably roll his/her eyes.  The key is how can the communications team earn the right to have a voice earlier in the process. The answer?  By making the CEO’s job easier not harder; and that means solving the CEO’s toughest problem with respect to the task at hand, not telling him/her that what he/she is about to do is problematic for this, that or the other reason. If they do that, guess what, they will always be at the table. If they don’t, they will find out later and be asked to do the best they can to minimize whatever downsides there are.

Cheers.

R.

_________________________________________________________________________________

Roger,

You make an important point, and it’s a longstanding belief in the field of communications that the only way to earn that seat a the strategic table is to provide advice and deliver communications that directly support the business goals of the organization.

But I see how you might think my article is aimed at making CEOs’ lives harder by throwing a bunch of requirements and considerations in his or her path. But here’s the problem: too often corporate executives fall prey to short-term thinking that puts expediency ahead of investing in their relationship with employees. The challenge for communicators (and, as you note, IT, legal, design, HR, etc. etc.) is to find ways to elbow our way into the conversation before the decision takes place, and give the kind of advice that delivers results. From my point of view, that means having a conversation with CEOs during peacetime that sets the stage for better decision making, which in turn leads to the kind of positive outcomes that build trust and inclusion.

I’m optimistic that more of those kinds of conversations are going to take place in the coming years as corporate leaders come to the realization that if they don’t engage their employees, the best ones will go somewhere else.

Ron

_________________________________________________________________________________

Ron:

Agreed.  I think both have to bend toward the middle.  CEOs have to understand the importance of communications folks getting involved earlier AND communications folks have to be better integrative problem solvers.  Then it will all work.

Cheers.

R.

Why can't you get a Masters in employee comms?

This morning I got a query from an FYA reader in Spain asking me if I know of any Masters programs in employee communications. A quick note to veteran IABC-ers Les Potter and Wilma Matthews turned up nearly nada. Les doesn't know of any, and Wilma pointed to the only one she knows of, the Hugh Downs School of Human Communication's Masters program, but it's pretty broad.  Current areas of study include "intercultural communication and cultural studies, interpersonal communication, performance studies, organizational communication, and rhetorical studies and public communication." That doesn't really sound like the kind of specialization my Spanish colleague was looking for.

Dear blog readers, do you know of any Masters-level programs in employee/organizational communications?

And, if not, which is probably the case, the question is, why not? The answer, of course, is that employee communications is not generally recognized as a distinct profession, but rather as an offshoot or subset of human resources or public relations.

I think over the next 10 years this is bound to change. I've talked about this a lot: employee comms is on the rise, because of many economic, societal and technological changes that are putting huge pressure on big organizations to smarten up and treat their employees as if they are extremely important, and, in fact, a competitive advantage, to their businesses. We now know that companies who do employee communications well also deliver better business results. This knowledge is going to seep into the corporate world and it will eventually raise the game of internal communications.

This trend will also reach the highest levels of academia, and maybe now is a good time for that to happen.

From my super-powerful position as an obscure blogger about employee communications, I officially call upon the business community - specifically, one of the big consulting firms like Mercer, Towers Perrin or Watson Wyatt -- to fund a new chair in employee communications at a North American university. Maybe IABC and Southwest Airlines could chip in.

Wouldn't that be cool?

Dear CEO

It’s time for corporate leaders to change the way they communicate with employees.

In an article in the current edition of the Journal of Employee Communication Management, I outline nine ways today’s CEOs can improve their vital connection with the people who make their businesses run. I’ve structured the piece as an open letter to CEOs.

When I first got this assignment, I invited readers of this blog to weigh in with their thoughts, which I incorporated into the article. Thanks, Mark, Steve, Robin and Kristen! Thanks also to my wise colleagues at Longview for their insights.

Here’s a link to the entire article, in .pdf format. Download ron_jecm_article_feb_08.pdf  

And here’s a blog-friendly summary of my advice to corporate leaders:

1. Think about communication as you’re making business decisions – not after the fact. Good business decisions can go bad in a hurry because communication implications aren’t considered as part of the decision-making process.

2. Involve your communications team much earlier than you do now. Your communicators can act as a proxy for employees who do not otherwise have a voice.

3. Recognize that today’s employees don’t necessarily share your values. Baby boomer CEOs have a different work ethic, a different set of priorities, a different idea of what a successful career looks like, and a different way of communicating. If you communicate as if all employees think just like you, you risk alienating and further disengaging your workforce.

4. Understand what your employees are thinking. Quickie employee polls, readership surveys and small focus groups can give you timely and useful information. Be sure to show that you’ve listened, and that you’re responding to employee concerns, and you’ll earn their trust.

5. Start a real conversation with your employees.  One of the easiest ways to increase engagement is to have a conversation with employees about the future of your company. Get ahead of the curve now and start experimenting with social media like blogs and podcasts. In the meantime, get out there and talk with people face to face.

6. For goodness’ sake, stop blocking the Internet! There are security and productivity issues, but they can be resolved. Severely limiting internet access is not the answer because it inhibits employee engagement. Open access to information invites involvement, breeds innovation and inspires commitment.

7. Improve day-to-day communication with your direct reports. The way to make the biggest impact is to model the right behavior with your own immediate team.

8. Don’t be reluctant to tell the whole truth. If you don’t talk frankly and openly about what everyone knows already, you lose credibility – and the next time you have really positive news to talk about, employees won’t buy that, either.

9. And, finally, and perhaps most importantly, speak plain English with employees. The language you may speak in the boardroom, or with your bankers and lawyers, may be truthful but it’s incomprehensible to most employees.

To communicators, all this stuff is as obvious as the nose on our faces. But many corporate execs don’t think in these terms, and their leadership suffers as a result. Part of our job should be to give them this kind of advice, and I don't think we do it often enough.

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!