The Importance of Employee Communications
Many organizations are good at working with the media and making sure
the general public, their investors, stakeholders, etc. receive information
about the company. However, many of these organizations frequently overlook
the most importance audience of all — their employees.
In general, companies are good at informing their employees about their
benefits, savings plans, human resource policies and even when the company
picnic is, but they forget to tell employees the truly "big" news — new
products and clients the company has, mergers and acquisitions, downsizing,
etc., etc. A recent article by John Guiniven, Ph.D., APR, Fellow PRSA,
in Public Relations Tactics, stated that a study found that 77
percent of 800 employees at five companies learned of plans to downsize
their own firms from the news media rather than from internal sources.
Many employees also learn good news about their companies from external
sources. This is bad...very bad.
Employers state various reasons for not keeping their employees informed
about company news. These range from "legal reasons" to "didn't think
they would care" to "simply don't trust them." There are certainly circumstances
when there are valid legal reasons for not disclosing information to employees,
especially in the case of mergers and acquisitions. However, there are
ways to keep employees informed without telling the entire story.
If an employer thinks the employees don't care about big news — the
employer has a big problem. Whether good or bad news, the majority of employees do want
to know what's going on where they work. If they truly don't care, then
there are bigger issues that may exist, primarily morale, job satisfaction,
work quality and the list goes on.
As for trust, if the employer trusts the employees not to steal supplies,
equipment, money, work the correct amount of time and so on, then why shouldn't
they trust them with important news?
What most employers don't realize is what happens if they don't share
news: just as nature abhors a vacuum, employees abhor a vacuum created
by lack of information. So, to compensate, they speculate, generate rumors
and simply make things up. And let's face it, the tendency is to generate
bad info rather than good. In the long run, wouldn't it be better to provide
them with the accurate information in a timely manner?
Your employees — no matter what level, job function or department — are
your best ambassadors. Provide them with the information they need and
desire. Trust them to use their discretion if the matter is sensitive.
Don't just share new product and client information with your sales and
marketing staff — shout it from the rooftops to all employees! Every
piece of material you send out, whether it's a brochure, press release
— or any marketing material — should also be distributed to
every employee. You should also consider making sure employees' families
receive this information. Think of them as an "extra arm" in your marketing
and sales force. It's the ultimate in networking.
When developing your internal communication efforts, making sure you have
a plan and consistent messaging is crucial. If you'd like help planning
your employee communications program, we'd be pleased to arrange a no-obligation
meeting at your convenience.