How - and why -
to communicate with your employees
Once you get beyond the number of employees you can casually keep track of in your own brain — and maybe before that — it's wise to consider your own workforce as an audience needing and deserving special attention.
Obviously, you need to communicate basic company-wide information such as changes to the health care plan or 401(k), and maybe a poster on the corkboard in the lunchroom or locker room is adequate for that. But if your goal of communicating with employees is to foster a more stable, loyal and long-term workforce, one that respects your corporate values and reflects them in their work, you're going to have to stretch a little.
For example, how do you celebrate big news like a merger or winning a significant new contract or client?
The answer is going to vary by how large, widespread — and creative — your organization is from a standard email notice or cheese and crackers in the conference room to company-wide newsletters (one company we know put out a special edition designed to look like a copy of USA Today), graphic posters, banners, press releases, or items like themed caps and T-shirts mailed to employees' home addresses.
Some of the same techniques may be usefully employed in communicating corporate values — such as those you portray in your advertising. If your ads are all about speed, reliability or customer service, it's important that employees match those values in the performance of their jobs.
One thing you can do to help insure that is to make it a point to share
with your employees the communications you plan for the outside world. If
you're publishing a new corporate brochure, make sure your employees get
a copy. Why not? They deserve to know what you're saying about them. The
same is true of your advertising or PR. It costs relatively little to pre-print
ads or extra press releases so that your employees see them before your
customers do, and it gives them a sense of being an insider and a pride
of belonging.
This month's columnist is Phil Soreide. Mr. Soreide is a 30-year business-to-business
advertising veteran and an associate of Wise Women Communications.
©2005 Wise Women Communications