Archive for internal communications
Building Online Communities Around the Wired Water Cooler
Posted by: | Comments
With so many employees working virtually and scattered around the globe, is the water cooler extinct as a place to exchange ideas? Well, maybe in person, but the wired water cooler is emerging as a force in employee engagement.
Companies are creating online communities where employees can pull in the information they need when they want it and engage in conversations with other employees.
How empowering – employees expecting their companies to serve up information that is interesting, entertaining, useful and, most of all, authentic. If it doesn’t smell right, they will know and vent online with each other. Welcome to the new world of the wired water cooler!
Pfizer, American Express and Tiffany Are Doing it Right
At a recent panel discussion, Pfizer communications executive Robert Libbey said his company’s communication funnel is “almost too successful and it’s not always easy to control the fire hose of information” inundating employees. That is the challenge faced by many companies in a wired world.
Sponsored by the New York Chapter, International Association of Business Communicators (NYIABC), the panel also included Audrey Gray, vice president, executive communications for American Express Company, and Bill Carr, director, internal communications, Tiffany & Co., who discussed how their companies are using their intranets to connect and interact with employees.
Pfizer’s Transformation
Robert Libbey
When Mr. Libbey, who is senior director, global colleague communications for Pfizer, took a comprehensive look at the company’s various internal outlets in 2008, he found 400-plus news and information intranet sites that weren’t connected and almost impossible to manage.
Fast forward to 2011. Pfizer scrapped the old system (in 2009) and now manages a corporate news channel, with underlying SharePoint 2007 technology that is easy to manipulate. “We went from bricks to play dough,” he said, explaining the malleability of the new technology.
The corporate news bureau pushes out nine to 10 stories a week. He said there is no “spin” on stories – with the company informing employees about the good and the bad and encouraging comments. The content sometimes is repurposed and posted on Pfizer’s external company website. “We assume that anything we send to employees is likely to be seen by outsiders.”
In 2010, with more than 30 editions tailored for business units, functions, markets and locations, the new Pfizer site had 162,000 unique users, 5.2 million article views and nearly 60 million page views, with savings in the millions in development and maintenance costs.
Community Building
In response to the fire hose of information Pfizer colleagues face each day with all that they can access externally and internally, Mr. Libbey said that part of his company’s solution is to let employees create their own intranet home page and choose the information they want to receive.
To this end, Pfizer has embraced internal social media – paralleling the company’s active participation in external social media – and created its own Facebook-like community called “MyWorld.” Any employee can join – all have a profile – and use the 250-character micro blog feature to connect with others and follow the micro blogging of others.
Employees can also start conversations on the company message board about almost any topic. The comments are not vetted first. “People are going to have these conversations anyway,” said Mr. Libbey, and rarely does a post have to be removed because it didn’t conform to guidelines.
The World of Tiffany
Bill Carr
With 9,000 employees around the world, Tiffany is using its intranet and other interactive communications to help connect employees and share best practices. Bill Carr, director of internal communications, said Tiffany recently consolidated its corporate headquarters in a new location with the latest high-tech equipment.
The company just launched “BlueTube,” a digital signage tool that will provide a rich, interactive experience for employees to connect with the company and each other.
With stores in far-flung locations, it isn’t possible for employees to gather around the water cooler to exchange ideas. He said that a very popular Tiffany tradition is the annual holiday video. Employees look forward to it every year with great anticipation.
In the most recent video, Tiffany sales professionals share tips that have worked for them in building relationships with customers. One described how she sends personal, hand-written notes to her customers, inviting them to visit and see the new collections. These are greatly appreciated and help to build customer loyalty.
“We still have a long way to go,” said Mr. Carr, “but we’re excited about new opportunities to use interactive tools to inform, educate and inspire our employees, while building engaged communities that can interact and learn from each other.”
It Isn’t Boring at American Express
Audrey Gray
Audrey Gray, vice president, executive communications, began with a quote from Henry James: “The only rule is never be boring.” You’ve got to keep employees engaged with information that is informative, interesting and authentic. She stressed that authenticity in marketing is actually respect for one’s audience.
Amex’s intranet “The Square” hosts 10 different blogs, company news, tools for accessing company information, and a news story every day, delivered to 63,000 employees globally. She reiterated what the other speakers said – use “hot headlines,” short quotes, and liberal use of bullet points and subheads. “We’ve changed our writing style so that we don’t use any corporate speak. It needs to be real.”
The most popular feature on “The Square” thus far has been a “live blog” of the company’s annual senior management meeting. Her team was at the meeting and wrote posts all day long for two days, more than 100 in total. “Employees felt they were let in the door,” she said.
Junking the Old Water Cooler
If you read a blog I wrote a while back about the water cooler you know how important I feel it is to bump shoulders with your colleagues. Connections are critical to learning. But let’s face it, there isn’t time and employees are widely scattered, making the wired water cooler an attractive alternative. Besides, most people are glued to their computers all day – so if they can’t get to the water cooler, why not bring the water cooler to them?
How about it? Is your company turning your intranet into a wired water cooler where employees can hang out in chat rooms and form communities with like interests? Let us know.
White Castle Boss Goes Undercover and Learns Employee Engagement Works
Posted by: | CommentsI was finally persuaded by a friend to watch the new hit show “Undercover Boss.” This reality show confirmed that a CEO can learn a lot about how to make the company better by engaging with employees. For those who haven’t seen the new show on CBS, a CEO goes undercover as an employee in his own company to see for himself how things are working. Dave Rife, owner of the White Castle hamburger chain, was this past Sunday’s undercover snoop.
Praise for a job well done
When he started his adventure, I don’t think he fully understood how stressful the job of a White Castle employee can be, with the fear of losing a job always in the background when you have a disabled child, as one employee did, or another’s fear of simply messing up.
How Do I Do This?
Mr. Big Shot discovered that he couldn’t do simple chores like sliding plastic wrap over a batch of buns in the packaging machine. He ruined several barrels’ worth, prompting a supervisor to say the hogs (who get to enjoy the mangled buns) would be eating well that night.
What he learned best, though, was how important employees are to the success of the company. At a White Castle drive-in a young co-worker explained to him about the importance of greeting each customer and going out of your way to help with little things, like sliding the customer’s credit card in a hard-to-reach slot. In watching this scene, I was almost brought to tears by the young man’s sincerity and dedication. So was Dan Rife.
Another employee showed him a shortcut, but told him not to tell management, because that’s not how they said it was supposed to be done.
After his eye-opening week on the road, working besides his employees, Rife returned to headquarters wiser and more appreciative of what it means to be on the front lines.
Magically, he brought several employees to headquarters to assist with developing training programs – hey, they should. Aren’t they the ones who know what the problems are and how to fix them? He gave a $5,000 scholarship to a budding chef, and another $5,000 to the employee with a disabled child.
The program ended with Rife speaking to a pep rally of employees, beaming with the joy of being acknowledged by the head of the company. Happy with the recognition that they were asked to work as a team to achieve the company’s success.
11 Tips to Improve Employee Motivation, Employee Satisfaction & Employee Retention
Posted by: | CommentsPraise promotes employee motivation
The idea for this article came from a conversation I just had with a friend who works for one of the largest companies and best-known brands in the world. Yet the company sucks at employee motivation. If they haven’t got it figured out, then heaven’s knows many other companies are still in the dark, too, about what kinds of things motivate employees and that lead to employee satisfaction and retention.
He gave me a couple of examples that were almost laughable.The company held an off-site to reward their biggest producers. Yet, the budget didn’t include money for lunch, which had to come out of the pockets of the attendees. Come on. Not even a sandwich and a soda? The advertised “atta-boy” program devolved into here are your numbers for next year, with the implied threat that you won’t be at next year’s pep rally or even the company if you don’t come up big. Not much of a motivator.
I’m not naïve. A salary increase or bonus are great motivators. Yet, most of the tips I’m about to suggest cost little or no money to implement. It all comes down to employee communication: saying what you mean and meaning what you say in clear, concise language. Here goes:
1. Clear job descriptions. This may seem like a surprising first tip. It sure is motivating to know what your job is. If people don’t know what they’re expected to do, how can they achieve exceptional performance?
2. Chain of command. One of the Big Four accounting firms did a survey a number of years ago and 75% of the employees didn’t know who they reported to. Tough to give a pat on the back when you don’t whose backs you have.
3. Ask employees what they need. Duh. Hey, do you have all the tools you need to do your job? What do you need? How can I help?
4. Give immediate feedback. This is one of my favorites. People are desperate to know how they are doing. Forget the annual performance review; it’s a dinosaur. Discuss a specific instance where the employee did well or where he needs to improve.
5. Praise outstanding performance. This couldn’t be simpler and it costs nothing. If an employee exceeds standards, let her know. Send an email to everyone in her group. Make it easy for others to find out without having to navigate the company’s over-stuffed intranet.
6. Enlist employees as brand advocates. If you haven’t already, take the muzzle off your employees and let them represent themselves and their company on social media. (See my post 7 Steps to Making Your Employees Brand Ambassadors)
7. Make employees part of the solution. Somewhere, someone in the company knows how to fix something that’s wrong. Remember, that decisions should be delegated to the people who have the facts – and that’s not always those at the top of the company.
8. Encourage collaboration. It’s a real bummer when divisions are pitted against each other to compete for business. This was almost the downfall of one of the major money center banks. Assemble the best client service team, no matter where the players reside in the company. They will be highly motivated to get the business as collaborators and not competitors.
9. Sponsor friendly competitions. No, this isn’t a contradiction. People do love to compete. So sponsor a competition for new ideas within a profit center and reward the winner with a prize, like dinner for two at a four-star restaurant. Or, have each employee submit a video to compete for best-in-class product demonstration.
10. Hold town hall meetings. Gather individual communities of employees, give them an update on the company and their group, and encourage conversation about how you can all work together to achieve greatness.
11. Get the CEO talking. The CEO (see my post CEO as Chief Communications Officer) can do more for employee engagement than anyone in the company. Communicate often with how the company is doing, your role in contributing to our success, and how you will be rewarded. Golden.
Within companies of any size, there are communities that are defined by the organization chart but many more that form organically. Be sure to communicate the things that will motivate that community like praise for a job well done. It will pay big dividends in employee motivation, satisfaction and retention of your star players.
Why Employee Communication Programs Fail and Hurt Bottom Line Results
Posted by: | CommentsBy Mary Lynn Coyle and Jeannette Paladino
Employee communication is often the poor stepchild of companies that ignore their employees’ overwhelming need and desire for information so they can do their jobs better. Yet research shows that organizations excelling in internal communications also excel in financial performance.
A Watson Wyatt study found that companies with highly effective communication practices have a 19 percent higher market premium and a 47% higher shareholder return. A Towers Perrin study found that four out of five workers are not engaged in doing the things that drive results. That’s why we believe that companies need to instill a total Culture of Communication throughout their organizations that is open, consistent, simple, and caring.
Why Employee Communication Programs Fail:
- Behaviors don’t match the message, especially senior executive behaviors
- Communicating is not viewed as an important process or asset
- 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
If communication with employees is broken, you will never realize your corporate vision. “Broken” can mean something as elementary under-communicating or communicating the wrong messages. Employee satisfaction suffers, which, in turn, hurts customer satisfaction. And, if that happens, the bottom line is bound to suffer as well.
Change programs can fail when management doesn’t see the link between internal and external communications. It is employees who are most often the primary interface between the company and its targets. Customers are the most obvious and important external audience. Without them there is no business.
The global economy and new technologies are transforming the way organizations communicate. To bring their vision of a new, highly competitive company to life, it is essential for management to build and nurture a total culture of communication that includes internal and external audiences.
The Tenets of a Culture of Communication
We believe there are five components to a Culture of Communication. Trust is at the core – all communications must be reliable, truthful and contain the full story.
The other four components are:
- 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
Establishing a Culture of Communication will result in improved communication effectiveness that will help organizations achieve their change plans, growth plans and performance goals. Companies that create best practices in all areas of communications, both internally and externally, will truly transform themselves.
What is your company doing to create a Culture of Communication?
Mary Lynn Coyle is a corporate communications, branding, public relations and marketing communications professional with experience in management consulting, executive search, information and high technology, manufacturing, consumer products and non-profit arenas.
Mary Lynn Coyle is a corporate communications, branding, public relations and marketing communications professional with experience in management consulting, executive search, information and high technology, manufacturing, consumer products and non-profit arenas.Mary Lynn Coyle is a corporate communications, branding, public relations and marketing communications professional with experience in management consulting, executive search, information and high technology, manufacturing, consumer products and non-profit arenas.
