Employee Engagement

I can write communications policies, newsletters, letters and feedback programs for your employee engagement programs.

It’s a simple equation. Internal Branding = External Success.  Employee engagement programs that embody the brand and foster a culture of communication will rally employees around the mission and business goals of the company.

Trust is the core component – all communications must be reliable, truthful and contain the full story. At the heart of trust is:

Openness – there must be an unwavering commitment to and support of a healthy two-way communications environment.

Simplicity - communications must be clear, meaningful and accessible.

Consistency - messages must be strategic and integrated.

Caring – there must be concern for the individual.

Employees are engaging with each other and outsiders on social networks like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.  With the encouragement and trust of senior management, employees can become the company’s most important and loyal brand advocates.

Global companies like IBM have embraced social media.  From its social media policy:  “IBM is increasingly exploring how online discourse through social computing can empower IBMers as global professionals, innovators and citizens. These individual interactions represent a new model:  not mass communications, but masses of communicators.” Smart companies are communicating with employees and their customers through employee blogs and other online conversations. They are leveraging their employees to enhance their brand.

Speed is essential in communicating with employees.  If they are going to serve as brand advocates for the company, employees need to hear news from the company — both good and bad — before they read it in online forums and news programs.

Here is a slide presentation “Inside Out Public Relations” I developed with my colleague Amy Dean on engaging employees as brand advocates.