Until watered-down employee communication is replaced with direct, honest messages, the prize of a passionate and engaged workforce that is focused on a company’s vision will remain elusive
Do you talk to your employees in the same way you talk to the media? Has your corporate communication become so politicized — so spun — it is actually a detriment to building a loyal workforce?
For the last 10 years, business leaders have faced myriad bottom-line pressures including fluctuating markets, a greater focus on profits and more active shareholders. To help manage external audiences such as the media and shareholders, companies have hired spin doctors — communications and public-relations experts.
Unfortunately in the process, their own employees have become victims of the spin.
Here are some of my favourite spun phrases:
•Employees are number one: you really matter.
•We all have to tighten our belts. We’re all in this together.
•Build a great career with us.
You are number one, and are really important to the company. Well, that’s a nice sentiment, but I don’t believe you. That’s how most employees react when you communicate with them using the same language you would use in your annual report or media kit.
Employees are aware that while they are one contributing asset to their organization’s overall success, it’s really the customers and shareholders who hold a company’s primary attention.
This is demonstrated by the fact that many companies don’t have an employee communications group, or a person primarily responsible for internal communications. It also comes through in the budgets. HR usually has one of the smallest budgets in the company.
And regardless of whether the times are good or bad, employee jobs are almost always sacrificed for higher profits. Messages need to be more relevant to employees’ day-to-day roles and the way in which they contribute to achieving the company’s objectives.
We all have to tighten our belts. No one will argue the question of sound financial management, or that belt tightening needs to be done. But at the same time, employees expect to see the words backed up by the people who stand to benefit most from these cost-cutting measures — the executive team.
How about: “Since we’re a team, we’re freezing executive salaries, taking no options and eliminating this year’s leadership conference in the Caribbean.” If you’re all in this together, and it’s essential to the company, then you’ll not only say it, but you’ll reinforce it with your actions.
Build a great career with us. Well, that depends on how you look at it. Today, job security is based on performance — no one has a job for life. Yet companies continue to struggle when it comes to delivering that message to their people in a straightforward way, even though I’d wager that most apply it by deciding who stays and who goes. Employees know this.
Companies are not loyal — at least not in the traditional way a previous generation remembers; they can’t afford to be. And frankly neither is the employee, who will stay only until it’s no longer in his or her best interests. Why not use a more direct approach in communication from the start?
Until watered-down employee communication is replaced with direct, honest messages, the prize of a passionate and engaged workforce that is focused on a company’s vision will remain elusive.
Sandy French, president of Northern Lights, a Toronto-based marketing and communication company, is a regular contributor to Canadian HR Reporter’s Insight Section. He can be reached at (416) 593-6104, ext. 222 or [email protected].
For the last 10 years, business leaders have faced myriad bottom-line pressures including fluctuating markets, a greater focus on profits and more active shareholders. To help manage external audiences such as the media and shareholders, companies have hired spin doctors — communications and public-relations experts.
Unfortunately in the process, their own employees have become victims of the spin.
Here are some of my favourite spun phrases:
•Employees are number one: you really matter.
•We all have to tighten our belts. We’re all in this together.
•Build a great career with us.
You are number one, and are really important to the company. Well, that’s a nice sentiment, but I don’t believe you. That’s how most employees react when you communicate with them using the same language you would use in your annual report or media kit.
Employees are aware that while they are one contributing asset to their organization’s overall success, it’s really the customers and shareholders who hold a company’s primary attention.
This is demonstrated by the fact that many companies don’t have an employee communications group, or a person primarily responsible for internal communications. It also comes through in the budgets. HR usually has one of the smallest budgets in the company.
And regardless of whether the times are good or bad, employee jobs are almost always sacrificed for higher profits. Messages need to be more relevant to employees’ day-to-day roles and the way in which they contribute to achieving the company’s objectives.
We all have to tighten our belts. No one will argue the question of sound financial management, or that belt tightening needs to be done. But at the same time, employees expect to see the words backed up by the people who stand to benefit most from these cost-cutting measures — the executive team.
How about: “Since we’re a team, we’re freezing executive salaries, taking no options and eliminating this year’s leadership conference in the Caribbean.” If you’re all in this together, and it’s essential to the company, then you’ll not only say it, but you’ll reinforce it with your actions.
Build a great career with us. Well, that depends on how you look at it. Today, job security is based on performance — no one has a job for life. Yet companies continue to struggle when it comes to delivering that message to their people in a straightforward way, even though I’d wager that most apply it by deciding who stays and who goes. Employees know this.
Companies are not loyal — at least not in the traditional way a previous generation remembers; they can’t afford to be. And frankly neither is the employee, who will stay only until it’s no longer in his or her best interests. Why not use a more direct approach in communication from the start?
Until watered-down employee communication is replaced with direct, honest messages, the prize of a passionate and engaged workforce that is focused on a company’s vision will remain elusive.
Sandy French, president of Northern Lights, a Toronto-based marketing and communication company, is a regular contributor to Canadian HR Reporter’s Insight Section. He can be reached at (416) 593-6104, ext. 222 or [email protected].
