Archive for March, 2009
Internal Communications Strategies for Web-Savvy Employees
Posted by: | CommentsCEOs don’t always walk the talk when they claim that employees are the company’s most important asset. If that were the case, employees wouldn’t be using social communities on the web to find what’s going on in the company. So here are several strategies to focus employees on the company’s goals through the company’s own communications network.
1. Build a world-class, global employee communications function aligned with business strategies and goals to oversee the development of a culture of communication. Make the director part of the management team.
2. Create a Champion Program to ensure that the CEO is the visible leader of communications with employees and to ensure that senior management embraces and lives employee communications through appropriate rewards and incentives.
3. Create communications processes that ensure two-way communications and that embed culture changes throughout the company.
4. Provide training, tools and support for managers, who are the key influencers and drivers of success (or failure) of the company’s plan. Nothing is more important than consistent communications between managers and their direct reports.
5. Put in place measurement systems that track employee satisfaction with internal communications. And see what employees are saying about the company on social networks so that you can adjust your communications strategy and messages.
Above all, speed is of the essence. Nothing moves news faster than the internal grapevine. So keep information flowing regularly and get news out quickly, feeding the grapevine with the company’s own version of events.
Employees as Company Change Agents
Posted by: | CommentsNo question, companies are struggling to control their brand essence and key messages during this economic slump. Communicating positive news is more important than ever in the 24/7 news cycle and with an Internet that can circulate good – and, let’s face it, mostly bad – news around the globe in a matter of seconds. But companies are overlooking their most important advocates to the outside world – their own employees — because of a lack of internal communications. And this can torpedo a company’s reputation.
It is employees who are most often the primary interface between the company and its customers. But the media is an increasingly intrusive “partner” as reporters pounce on every bad piece of company news – often coming from the mouths of unhappy employees who are left out of the loop about important new company developments. Online chat rooms and networking sites like Twitter and Facebook provide a public platform for employees to vent their grievances and the media and customers are tuning in.
New technologies are transforming the way companies do business. But employees are underutilized as advocates of change. They are not being motivated to rally around the company’s mission and goals. It’s not an overstatement to say that business transformation will only be accomplished by gaining the commitment of employees at all levels to drive growth and performance. The key to ensuring success is consistency of communications to the right people at the right time with the right messages.
Internal communication efforts often fall short because:
• Behaviors don’t match the message, especially senior executive behaviors
• Communicating is not viewed as an important process
• Communication is blocked at many levels – up, down and across
• Complicated and lengthy approval processes prevent timely distribution of information
• Employees don’t hear things first, thus a loss of faith develops
• Too much is communicated and more important messages are lost in the clutter
• Employees are turning to their external message boards for news about their own company
Companies that find their employees turning to the Internet as their primary source of information about the company they work for have lost their most important change agents.
Why CEOs Think Differently Than We Do
Posted by: | CommentsMarketing and communications executives are being challenged by their CEOs to help chart the future of their organizations. It is their skills as conceptual thinkers that enable these communicators to envision the possibilities for supporting the organization’s goals. If this is the case, then why do so many chief executives resist the recommendations of the very people they have selected to help drive change throughout the organization?
Of course, there can be many reasons, from ill-conceived ideas to lack of budget, to the indifference of line managers. But another reason may be the real culprit. While communicators may be conceptual thinkers, their CEOs are more likely ruled by logic and hard facts. They tend to approach problem solving in a linear fashion.
Sound recommendations may fail because they aren’t organized the way CEOs think. That is why it’s so important to structure recommendations for marketing and communications programs that immediately demonstrate how they will benefit the organization because that’s the chief executive’s bottom line, especially during these tough economic times.
Here are some tips for delivering a winning presentation to get approval for important recommendations:
- Opening: outline the broad subject of the presentation
- Presentation objective: this is the overall statement of how your ideas will benefit the organization. This is where a lot of presentations go wrong because the presenter leads with what he or she wants. Rather, the statement should answer top management’s question: why should I listen to this presentation; what’s in it for the company?
- Key message points: think of your message as newspaper headlines supporting the benefits outlined in your presentation objective. How will the recommendations increase sales, save money, build a brand?
- Supporting evidence: use facts, sales projections, statistics, etc., to back up your key messages.
- Recommendations: summarize your key points and then propose a course of action for approval. Know the decision you want in advance.
- Discussion: This is the most important part of your presentation. As you lead the discussion, you will build commitment for your recommendations, address any objections, and refine your proposal based on the discussion so that you get a favorable decision.
- Summary: summarize the agreed-upon desired action. Even if all your recommendations aren’t accepted, don’t leave the meeting without a commitment to some sort of action. For example, if you can’t get your entire program approved, try to come away with a pilot project.
Remember, your overall goal is to link your programs to the company’s goals. Appreciate your incremental wins and then prepare for your next presentation.
Juicing Up the Annual Report
Posted by: | CommentsSpring is coming and so is the avalanche of annual reports that public companies send to their shareholders. And, as usual, most of them will be as dull as dishwater. Think about it. When was the last time someone told you he had curled up in bed with a good annual report to read? Not likely, unless sleep was the primary motivation. Annual reports can be real dullards.
In an effort to avoid offending any of the organization’s constituents, not step on the toes of regulators or in the rush to get the darn thing out, the people who produce them for a living often take the easy way out. Change the wording a little of last year’s CEO’s letter, revise the financial charts, drop in photos of the new trustees, add a dollop here and there of new initiatives, and that’s it.
It’s time for a new take on these angst-producing documents that so often lie dormant in the storeroom after the initial distribution. Years later, musty copies are still taking up space.
We need to look at the annual report more strategically. How can it advance the goals of the organization? How can it support the sales team or development director? Who should be involved in the process of defining the content? Who will most benefit from an annual report that demonstrates the dynamic nature of the organization, its vision, and its role in society?
Make it sell
The report should very strategically position the organization as the leader in its space, developing new paradigms of products and services.
In creating the annual report for a nonprofit in the healthcare field, I worked closely with the director of development to understand his needs so we could present the financial results and new strategic initiatives in such a way that it would be easy for him in personal meetings to walk potential donors through the report, hitting the high spots to pique their interest and open their wallets.
Use Testimonials
Use testimonials from the company’s customers and employees to bring the vision statement to life. Let them tell the reader what a great company this is.
So, if you’re assigned to create this year’s annual report, how do you ensure it accurately represents the organization and has a long, active life after it’s been printed and distributed? Here are my suggestions:
• The CEO needs to be involved from the get-go. Do not even think of hiring a writer or design firm until you have met with the CEO to understand how s/he wishes the organization to be positioned in the document. S/he cannot delegate this discussion to someone else.
• Armed with this information, write a creative platform that describes the overall theme and tone of the annual report, its content and “look.” Get the CEO to sign off on it.
• Meet with key people in the company or organization who would most likely use the annual report throughout the year such as the head of sales, director of development, director of public and community affairs, and so on. Get their ideas of what they would like to see emphasized in the report. Find out what would make them use it during the year to help them achieve their goals.
• Make a mock-up of the report, page by page. It doesn’t need to be fancy. Take some legal paper and fold the sheets in half. It’s essential to know the content of every page and ideas for photos, charts, etc.
• Now you can meet with your design firm and writer, if that’s not you. Everyone should be working from the approved creative platform and mock-up. Believe me, they will love you for it.
• Show two to three designs to the CEO with the mock-up. If you’ve done your job right, s/he will have a tough time picking out the winner, because s/he will love them all.
Be true to the creative platform as you go through the process of developing the report. Be excited as it begins to unfold as a living, breathing document that will take on a life of its own for a year. Don’t be afraid to be a little gutsy with the copy and design. You’re not creating the next Bible, after all.
While your readers may not take your annual report to bed, at least you can be confident they won’t fall asleep at their desks as they read it.
