The Inside Voice

Bosses Go “Undercover” to Learn, Engage Employees

After last night’s Super Bowl, a new show caught my eye: “Undercover Boss.” The premise of the show is that for one week, a head of a large company hides their identity and goes undercover to work within the organization at entry-level positions.

Last night’s premier episode focused on Larry O’Donnell, Waste Management (WM) president and COO. Larry ditched his suit, avoided the razor, adopted an alias (“Randy”) and reported to duty for a week of manual labor. He was given menial tasks: cleaning toilets, riding the garbage truck route, working the recycling plant line, picking up litter in gusting winds, and working in a landfill office. "Randy’s" memorable highlights ranged from being fired from one job (picking up litter) to being asked to dinner at a coworker’s home. His weeklong experience gave him a new appreciation for each person he worked with during the week.

What does this TV show have to do with internal communications? Lots. Here are some great internal communication tactics that Larry used:

• Start the conversation. Larry O’Donnell left the comfort of his office and had a conversation with employees in the field. He asked questions. He got answers. His coworkers shared good attitudes and things they liked about their jobs, things that frustrated them, and barbs about “corporate office” policies. Larry saw firsthand how his decisions had affected these people's jobs. Are you talking to your employees to understand what they love about their jobs, and what frustrates them?

• Give feedback. Back at the office the following week, "Randy" revealed who he really was to the five employees he shadowed. He met with each and gave them feedback - about his perception of their performance and their attitude, and what he had learned from working with them. His feedback included insight that would help guide his decisions in his role of president and COO. Are you giving feedback to your employees on their job performance more than in an annual review?

• Reward stellar performance. Larry admired the people he met and solved a key problem for each. But some stood out from the crowd. One young woman had several health issues, was covering multiple positions in the landfill office and didn’t missing a beat. At the end of the day, she invited “Randy” to dinner. At home, her father and her sister’s family were living with her. The family had to put their “dream home” on the market because of finances. Larry asked her manager to consider realigning her role to allow her a more manageable workload, and to see if WM could restructure her compensation to make it feasible for her to keep her dream home. She was moved to a salaried position and made bonus-eligible. She hired two employees to fill the open positions she had been covering – a well-deserved promotion. Are you rewarding employees who are going above and beyond the job without fail and complaint?

• Make people part of the solution. While riding the garbage truck route, Larry was appalled to learn that women had to use a coffee can as their restroom to keep route productivity high. The following week, this woman was asked to be a part of a task force to address women’s concerns in the WM workforce. A diabetic was only able to work a certain schedule so he could go to dialysis three days a week, yet he was a highly productive employee. He was given a role that allowed him to help motivate others with health issues at WM. WM also instituted paid time off for certain medical issues. How can you engage employees in solutions for the challenges that touch them?

• Announce the changes. After meeting with the employees individually, Larry held a small company meeting to announce what he had learned and the resulting changes the company was going to implement. He let people know what to expect from him and the company. After you get feedback from employees, are you communicating the results back to them?

Does it make sense for the rest of us to go undercover inside the company to get employee feedback? Probably not. But Larry sets an example of internal communications tactics that can help your company build a stronger relationship with your employees.

Do you have an ongoing conversation with your employees? Do you have tips that have proven to be successful for you? Click on the comment box below and add your thoughts. We’d love to hear from you.

Company Success News Can Help Fuel Employee Engagement

We're experiencing more cautious optimism about the economy these days. Positive indicators continue to surface, the market is on the upswing and the number of first-time unemployment claims dropped to the lowest level since January. I'll bet your company is experiencing some positive indicators as well. Have you shared the good news with your employees?

To better engage your employees, make sure they know of the company successes. Employees always appreciate getting the "inside scoop," and it makes them feel more a part of the company team. 

Gathering The News

Where do you start? First, identify the type of news you have to share. Here are some ideas to get you started:

• Sales. Does your company have a new noteworthy or significant client, or maybe one you've been pitching for a long time? Have your sales numbers started to climb? Are you making progress toward closing a new client, such as being included in the finals of your company's ideal client? 
• New lines of business. Are you introducing a new line of business or changing an existing one that is noteworthy?
• Significant cost savings. Are you implementing a new process or program that will reduce costs and help the company's bottom line? 
• PR and awards. Has your company been in the news? Have you received an industry or civic award?

There will also be other success areas that are specific to your business that are important to your employees. Include those on your success news list as well.

Communicating The News

Once you have determined the type of news you want to share with employees, what is the right vehicle to use to tell the story? Some guidelines:

• Intranet. This should be the go-to place for all of your company's internal communications and news. If your senior management has a regular column on the intranet, include the news in that column or article. If it's a really big deal, do an additional article to trumpet the news.
• Internal blog. For companies with a blog, this is a great place to tell the news, and then listen to employee feedback. This is a great way to get employees to join the conversation and feel more a part of the company. It also allows you to monitor the level of employee excitement.
• Twitter or Yammer. If your company is already using social media for internal communications, Twitter or Yammer is a great way to blast a big news announcement. Be sure to include a link to your blog or intranet article as well so they can get the whole story.
• Staff meetings. For departments that have regular staff meetings, pointing out successes from other departments can be very effective. It allows one department to discuss what steps they need to implement to support this change. Are more staffing or realigned resources required? Getting more departments engaged in the success can help the positive progress continue.
• Email. Email is a great way to communicate, but it is often overused. To effectively use email for success announcements, don't do an email for each success, unless it's a really big success. Instead, consider doing a weekly or monthly email with several updates in it. This will help employees realize the value of each email, increasing your open rate.

As you continue to tout the success the company is having to your employees, you are engaging them in being a part of the success. And don't be surprised employees begin to provide you with new suggestions to include in your success news. 

What success news do you communicate to engage your employees in a recovering economy? Have you already implemented a renewed approach to engaging your employees now that the economy is returning? Click on the comment box below and add your thoughts. We’d love to hear from you.

Engage Your Employees Using Your Annual Benefits Enrollment Communications

One of the most visible employee communications within a company tends to be its annual benefits enrollment. This program takes many hours of your time mired in endless detail. Once you get the contracts are in place, more work hits: developing and delivering the communications, sending out the information, answering questions, employee follow-up, answering even more questions, and so on. Because this is such a large project focused on the end results of finding the right benefits and getting employees enrolled, companies sometimes miss the opportunity to use this as an effective employee engagement tool.

Here are a few tips to help you use your annual benefits communications to better engage your employees:

• Tell Your Corporate Message. This is a great opportunity to reinforce your corporate message - briefly highlighting the company beliefs and the employees' roles in it. Include this message in your various benefits communications: the information packets you send, the reminder communications, as well as any other tools you use as a part of your campaign.
• Appreciate Your Employees. Let the employees know how much you appreciate them and the work they do. Studies consistently show that employees want to feel appreciated in their jobs. Your benefits package is one way the company shows its appreciation. Remind employees of this "thank you present" with heartfelt message of appreciation.
• Add the WIIFM. To boost your enrollment response, remind employees of the WIIFM: "What's In It For Me." Although benefits are something that your company offers the employees, letting them know the reasons they should enroll may help boost your response.

As with all effective HR communications, be sure to incorporate the fundamentals:

• Know Your Audience. If there are different benefits for full- and part-time employees, can you send them only the information that is appropriate to them?
• Select the Right Tools. Use the tools that your audience prefers. Are they more adept at online communications or print? Providing the tools in a format they are comfortable using will be more effective in getting across your message.
• Tell Them, Then Tell Them Again. Use more than one communication channel to help ensure that your employees received the message. Even if you send them a printed packet, is the information also available online? Briefly discussed in a staff meeting?
• Be Clear. Make sure that your message is crystal clear. The benefits selection affects employees as well as their families. They really need to understand the details.
• Call to Action. Let employees know the actions they need to take and by what date. Highlight it, repeat it, whatever it takes. But make sure it's clear when they must respond.

This huge annual communication is a great tool to engage your employees and reinforce your company message. Use it wisely.  

Have you had success in using your annual benefits communications to better engage your employees? We'd love to hear your story. Click on "comments" below and share your successes.

Next week, we'll feature an article on Tips to Help Your Employees Make Smart Medical Plan Decisions by guest blogger Elizabeth Borton of Write On Target. 

With the Economy Rebounding, Are You Engaging Your Employees So They’ll Stay?

Many articles over the past few weeks are citing indicators that the economy is on the upswing. Positive news at last!

When the economy begins to recover and the job market shows signs of improvement, what will your employees do? Many employees have been hunkering down for many months trying to avoid being downsized. But with a renewed economy and job prospects appearing, employees may begin to feel comfortable looking for a new job.

Have you engaged your employees enough to make them want to stay?

You’ve spent your time the past few months cutting costs, focusing on doing more with less money and resources. And that can lead HR departments to spend less time building employee engagement. In a down economy, these “left behind” employees weren’t going to leave. But if they’re not engaged once the market starts to open new jobs, will they continue to stay at your company?

Here are some tools you could consider to engage your employees now before they start to look for new opportunities:

• Appreciate your employees. Studies through the years have shown that the top “perk” employees want most is to be appreciated for what they do.
• Let them know their worth. Make sure your employees know what they are making – not just in salary but in perks and benefits as well.
  
• Make sure they feel like part of the team. Communicate company progress – and the employees’ role in helping with the progress. 
  

These are just a short list of communications that may help engage your employees in a changing economy. 

What tools have you used to effectively communicate and engage your employees through the down economy? Have you taken a renewed approach to engaging your employees now that the economy is returning? Click on the comment box below and add your thoughts. We’d love to hear from you.

 

Should Employees Access Social Media at the Office?

According to new data from ScanSafe, a web filtering company, companies are cracking down even more on employee use of social media sites in the workplace. They indicate that 76% of companies now block social media sites, a 20% increase over the past six months, making social media sites the most blocked type of site within companies. ScanSafe says employers are linking the negative impact of productivity to the use of social networking, online banking and Webmail. 

Before blocking these sites, are companies thinking through how they could use social media to benefit the company? Using social media appropriately can be used to increase customer service, and can help boost employee engagement.

Other sources, such as Watson Wyatt Worldwide, suggest social media is the new frontier for companies to communicate, especially internally. They compare companies' productivity fear to the 1990s productivity fear, which was based on allowing the internet into the workplace. They recommend taking the same steps as in the 90s - establish clear acceptable usage guidelines while also adopting social media for internal purposes.

On the sales and marketing side of the business, companies are rapidly embracing Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other social media sites to promote the company, build traffic to their website and retail locations, as well as buzz about their products and services. Effective HR communicators know that employees need to understand the role they play in your company marketing. Do your employees understand the company? Its products and services? Its goals? How you market your business - including on social media sites?

Of course, there may be some employees who abuse the privilege of having access to social media sites. But the other benefits to allowing employees to access these sites - higher employee engagement, better customer service, etc - can far exceed the downside. 

Establish some rules around usage - appropriate sites to visit on company time vs. over the lunch hour, limit the amount of time allowed on social media, posting to company sites, etc. Once your policy is in place, be sure to send your employees links to the company marketing social media sites, so they can understand what the company is doing, and become a more engaged part of the team.

How is your company handling social media with its employees? Have you blocked access to social media, or do you encourage employees to learn the technology? How have you used social media effectively for your employees? We'd love to hear your thoughts and ideas - click on the comments section below and let us know what's worked for you.

Nonprofits Engage Employees in the Conversation

Recently, I visited with two nonprofit organizations that shared their disturbing news with me – their funding was being cut. Substantially. These funding cuts meant reviewing already strapped budgets to see what other expenses they would have to eliminate. Services to its clients? Employees? Freeze or cut wages, or the few employee benefits they’ve been able to offer?

We discussed potential options. I was pleased to hear that the approach both organizations turned to first was communicating the news with their employees – appropriately, and at a high level. They talked WITH the employees (as opposed to talking “at” them) about funding issues and the economy. They brainstormed for ways to reduce expenses that were nice-to-have, but not necessary. In one organization, they held discussions with managers about ways to grow some of the services that could bring revenue into the organization.

Will these organizations still need to cut expenses, and maybe cut headcount? Sadly, they will most likely have to take these steps in the short-term. But by adding the conversations with the employees, they’ve taken some positive steps:

• Sent the message. The organizations let the employees know that costs had to be cut significantly. This isn't fun news to share. But when the cuts do happen, they will be less of a surprise to the employees.
• Engaged in a common goal. Conversations engaged their employees in working to be a part of the solution, which encourages positive conversations throughout the organization.
  
• Set the tone. The employees understand that the employers are actively doing their best to cut costs and save jobs. And ultimately, work more efficiently toward their established mission and purpose.
  

What other steps could an organization take to get the employees focused on helping be a part of the solution? Do you think that these were the appropriate steps for the nonprofit to take? What else would you suggest to organizations in this situation? 

Share your comments below by clicking on "comments." We'd love your feedback.

How WIIFM Can Boost Your Employee Response

The most important part of any communication is making sure that you have a clearly written message that includes the WIIFM targeted directly to your audience. What’s "WIIFM"? It’s the core message that you need to send to employees – it's simply what we're all looking for: “What’s In It For Me.”

Many internal communicators are focused on getting out their message and as a result, they focus primarily on the basics:

• Who needs to receive the message
• What you want to tell them
• When they need to respond
• Where they can find information
• Why they need to take action
• How to take the next step

But the other “W” – WIIFM – is the most important “W” you can use to help you get a response from your employees.  The WIIFM helps your employees understand the value of each message you send. The value that you, as an employer, place on having them as an employee. The value that you, the employer, want to add to their lives or their – through the benefit, service or whatever you are discussing in this communication.

By consistently adding the WIIFM in your employee communications and speaking to what’s important to them, you will encourage your employees to:

• Open more of your communications - you're talking to them, not at them.
• Understand your true message - they'll understand why this is important to them.
• Respond and take action - why wouldn't they? You've told them why they should care.

What are some examples of the WIIFM you've added to your employee communications? How was your response? We’d love to hear how this has worked for you. Click on the comment link below and tell us what's worked for you.

Getting Employees to Participate in the Conversation

In Marketing 101, every marketer learns the four “Ps”:  Product, Price, Place and Promotion. And they learn how putting together the right combination of these can yield optimum sales results. Recently, I read an article about how marketers can better engage customers using a fifth “P”:  Participation. The idea is that customers who participate in dialog with a company have more trust, better engagement, preference, word of mouth and brand loyalty to that company.

Can this same principle be applied to HR communications? Absolutely! This is about getting your employees engaged and interacting with the company to benefit BOTH the employee and the company.

Companies that get their employees to participate in “corporate conversations” are going to be more likely to have happier, more engaged and more productive employees than those who are not. There is a wide range of vehicles that allow for two-way conversation, including social media, meetings, events and other two-way communications.

Consider the possibilities:

• A benefits manager is frustrated by low response to a new healthcare alternative that the company thought would be popular. When the manager is researching options for the following year’s benefits, he brings together a small, inter-departmental focus group to help him understand why the employees didn’t enroll for the new benefit. With their input, the benefit is changed. The employees in the focus group spread the word on how this new addition will benefit employees. As a result, the enrollment for the newly-changed benefit is widely embraced and used by employees.

• A company lost a major account. Rumors are circulating. Employees are worried that layoffs are eminent. Productivity declines. Employees are spending increasing amounts of time speculating what could happen to their jobs and the company. To counteract this, the management team takes two steps: Senior management attends department meetings and apprises them of the situation – a need for increased productivity and cost cutting measures, and asks employees to submit ideas. The company starts an internal blog, giving updates on key successes and progress against goals. Suggestions are submitted and the company adopts the ones that make sense. Productivity returns. Hallway conversations are now generating new ideas.

Introducing a "conversation" with your employees can bring some welcome results. What have you tried to get your employees to participate in the conversation? What were your results? Share some ideas that have worked for you.

Engaging Employees in a Slow Economy

Most companies have been hit by the economy, causing employee downsizing, making many employees worry about job security. Morale sinks as a result. Companies need to keep employees focused on their day jobs instead of the effect on the economy on workforce. Workforce.com did an insightful article recently dedicated to ways that companies can help keep morale during these times.

Here are suggested communication tips and tools to help boost morale during these times:

-          Manage the message. Employees will be asking questions, so let them know what’s going on with the company. Address the questions.

o   Be clear. Be straightforward and clear in what you say.

o   Tell both sides of the story. Communicate good news with the not-so-good news. Make announcements when sales, launches and customer retention are going better than expected in addition to when things aren’t going as well.

o   Provide opportunities to help. Every communication should tell employees how they can do their part, whether it is cutting expenses, increased attention to quality control, talking up the product, etc. Let them be a part of the solution.

-          Be visible. This is not the time to have your leadership team tied up in long, closed-door meetings. They should walk the halls, interact with the employees and attend as many of the usual meetings as possible.

-          Choose the right tools. Tool selection is key  for communicating with your employees during these times:

o   Email. This is a great communication vehicle, but don’t overuse it. This is good for periodic updates from your CEO, but too many of these will dilute the message you are trying to send.

o   Online tools. A blog or intranet posting on a regular basis is a good way to let people know what’s happening. And if it’s updated on a regular basis, employees will know it’s a good source of information, and will look for the news.

o   Meetings. Having conversations with your employees is crucial. Depending on your situation, occasional hands-on all-staff meetings may be appropriate. Or for larger companies, attending department meetings or holding brown bag lunches may be more feasible.

Communication with your employees is crucial during these times. Make sure your message and tools are the most effective they can be to help boost your employees’ morale.

What tools have you tried to boost morale recently? Which ones have worked best for you?

 

Using Social Media to Improve Employee Engagement

Last week, The Inside Voice focused on how to introduce social media to your employees. A few years ago, using social media to communicate with employees was new and unproven. Even today, in my conversations with HR teams, many still feel that social media is something that is used for consumers, and rarely for internal communications.

Recently, Talent Management did an article that disputes this mindset. It shows that social media is becoming an increasingly important tool that HR departments use to keep employees engaged. This is based on a recent Employee Engagement Survey completed by the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) and Buck Consultants.

The results surprised me. The number one communication method that companies in the survey used to engage employees and increase productivity was social media, with 79% of the respondents using this tactic. Other, more traditional internal communications were less popular on the survey rankings: email (75%), intranet (72%), face-to-face meetings (50%), website (36%), and employee newsletters (28%).

Blogs are the social media of choice for companies, with 47% of companies currently using blogs. Which social media are companies planning to use in the future? Discussion boards (33%), Wikis (31%), Yammer (29%) and podcasts (28%) top the list.

What are some ways your company can leverage social media to communicate with employees? Here are some ideas to get you started:

-          Internal blogs. A regular blog posting from the president or management team providing insight into new product launches, sales trends, and new market opportunities can help employees feel more a part of the company, and help them understand how their role affects  the company. This communication is not a PR piece, but provides an appropriate level of information can be especially valuable in times when sales are down, or when there may be bad news on the forefront.

-          Wikis and Yammer. Both of these are great tools to boost productivity, especially for project teams.  Wikis allow multiple employees to make changes on one master document, so employees don’t spend time looking for the most recent version of a document – they make changes online that go live immediately. Yammer allows project teams to touch base internally in a Twitter-like communication, just to the people that need to receive the updates, or who have the answers to pressing project question.

-          Podcasts. Training and education are the perfect opportunities to use podcasting. Simply record the training program, and employees can listen online, or download longer programs to their MP3 player so they can listen at their convenience. This is a great medium for product training, sales tips, new benefit introductions, and topics that people may want to hear multiple times.

What social media does your company use to boost employee engagement? What successes have you had? We’d love to hear your thoughts.

 

 

Introducing Social Media to Your Employees

A colleague of mine, Elizabeth Borton of Write On Target sent me an article from a recent Employee Benefit News that I wanted to share with you. It raises the hot topic: how much control should a company have over its employees’ social online networking, and the information they post on these sites? For companies that decide to allow and encourage employees to post online as a part of a corporate initiative, how do you introduce this media to them to maximize impact and manage the message?

Deloitte's 2009 Ethics & Workplace Survey results show that employers and employees take different sides on this issue when it comes to employee use of social media tools such as blogs, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc.  Not surprisingly, the majority of business executives (60%) feel that they have the right to know how employees profile themselves and their companies online, while the majority of employees (53%) assert that social networking pages are not their employer’s concern.

It is interesting to see the number of businesses using social networking and why. In the survey, business executives said:

·          Their CEO is on Facebook (31%) or Twitter (14%).

·          The company uses social networking as a part of their business and operations strategy (30%), or to manage and build the brand (29%).

·          The company uses social networking as an internal communication tool (23%), or to engage employees (21%).

These indicators tell us that companies are using social media as a part of their communications mix – to grow business, to recruit employees, and even keep them engaged at the company. Many companies even have employee-created or company-sponsored corporate Facebook profiles.

Once you’ve determined that social media is right for your company, how do you introduce this to the employees, and ingrain social networking into the corporate culture? Here are a few steps to move you forward:

·          Develop your social networking policy. Include key elements such as how to monitor employee use while minimizing risk and exposure to the company. But understand that social media changes frequently, so design your policy to capture the positive aspects of social media and leave room for flexibility as the tools evolve.

·          Announce the social media plan to employees. Include details of how online networking will benefit the company. Is it meant for sales growth? Customer service? Corporate branding? Is this an internal tool only? Let employees know the important part they play in this introduction. The message may differ by role, departments, position/title, etc. Be clear on your expectations, the rules, which media is allowed, preferred.

·          Launch social networking to new hires in their onboarding program. A well-defined introduction sets the stage for proper use and understanding of the tools. Emphasize not just the social media policy, but how you’d like them to engage in social media to further the business needs, especially in their new role.

·          Consider doing some social media training. This is especially important if you have “front line” employees who interact online, maybe monitoring Twitter or other media for customer comments. And cover the dos and don’ts of social media. Many of the unfortunate employer postings today may have been avoided by more of an understanding of what should and should not be posted online.

·          Make it fun. Show employees (especially the technophobes) that social media can be enjoyable and interesting. But while you’re doing that, be sure they know the rules – acceptable use, amount of time allowed, whatever your policy allows to support the business.

·          Reinforce good, social media etiquette regularly. Highlight examples of good online postings and recognize employees for good, appropriate postings. Consider including this on your intranet, employee newsletter or in team meetings.

·          Give periodic employee updates on how the online initiatives are working. Where possible, include how the employee online updates were able to help in any of the measurement areas. Did it help to grow business? Save an account? Bring in new qualified employees? Let employees know what’s working.

Helping your employees understand their role in building your company through the proper use of social media can be made part of a healthy, corporate culture. Once the parameters are set, continue to develop ways that your employees can play a part in growing the company using new technology tools.

Has your company become a part of the social media wave? Which social media tools do you use? What’s worked for you? Share your successes and challenges.