Communications executives who strive to affect public policy/opinion - as well as continually rally the legislators who govern their industries - know how tenuous PR can be.
But for one Midwestern electric utility company, it has been employee communications mixed with public affairs that has emerged as a PR insurance policy during this pell-mell time of deregulation.
For Chicago's ComEd, enduring deregulation has been a lesson in mastering the art of employee education and appreciation. More than two years ago, while a task force appointed by the Illinois General Assembly began studying how deregulation would transpire in Illinois, ComEd decided to become a partner in the process and lobby for its views.
Targeting Employees
ComEd, however, added another layer to that call: it mobilized its 17,000-plus workforce, making them a part of the legislative and corporate process which would usher in the new deregulation laws that began to take effect at the start of 1998.
Even though deregulation is a lengthy process and it will be a while before ComEd knows how it will fare in the era of new competition, the company realized that when employees are empowered with information and feel like they have a stake in the corporation, that's a good morale booster. And when your employees operate in an environment that brings them face-to-face with customers on a regular basis, spirit counts for a lot.
Also, using communications as a tool to motivate employees is a wise call when a company is in the throes of transition or controversy. The corporation, which already has six of its nuclear reactors on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's "Watch List," isn't naive about the challenges it faces to remain financially solvent. And bringing its employees into the process also meant bringing shareholders in (many of the company's employees are shareholders), so part of its internal initiatives included creating a Shareholders Action Alliance.
For ComEd, the logic was crystalized: build customer loyalty (and retention) by using its employees as front-line advocates. To motivate employees, ComEd used a treasure chest of promotional tools: everything from its intranet and its in-house TV network, CE-TV, to townhall meetings with employees.
It also gave informational "tool kits" (containing handout materials, talking points and presentation slides) to managers, and scheduled interactive broadcasts during which unfiltered queries from employees were addressed by those in the upper echelons of the company. The subject of these materials and events varied from how employees could lobby their legislators to what the company forecast as new competition surfaced.
Execs knew: If ComEd supported deregulation (which will initially cut rates by 15 percent and another 5 percent by 2002) and empowered its employees by providing them with information, it might increase the chance customers would stick with ComEd once they had the choice to select another energy provider.
From the Bottom Up
More than three years ago, through internal surveys, the company learned that only 11 percent of ComEd's employees believed that deregulation would happen and - as ComEd's head of PR Sandra Allen says - ComEd knew then "its work was cut out for them." Conversely, recent surveys concluded that 90 percent of employees knew deregulation would become a reality. Still, ComEd execs realized that it wasn't enough that high-profile execs - and the approximately 20 PR pros (both internally and externally) who worked on the "Energized to Compete" employee plan - rely on managerial rhetoric to keep employees in the loop. To give its initiatives an extra spark, ComEd turned to those in the trenches.
One of those was Dean Zimmerman, a maintenance technician who works at ComEd's Byron Station nuclear plant in Byron, Ill., where 800 workers are based. Zimmerman was among a core of volunteer leaders ComEd called upon to spread word about what deregulation meant for the company and how workers could be involved. "For the most part, we were getting a lot of questions [about deregulation] and employees who otherwise wouldn't have gotten involved did," Zimmerman says.
"ComEd knew that when it came to its business, most consumers think about the people [the employees] they associate with the company," says Marge Ferrolli, managing director of Burson-Marsteller's Chicago office and one of the consultants who helped guide ComEd during its employee communications change-initiative program. "When it comes to electricity providers, customers generally think about the lineman who's out there during a storm or the person who is on the phone helping them when they have a problem with their bill."
And at ComEd, a lineman may end up being an important spokesperson when you take into account that the company's been on somewhat of a personnel and operational roller-coaster ride. It's losing, or has lost, some key execs:
- President of Unicom (the utility's holding company) and ComEd President Sam Skinner has announced his plans to leave;
- Chairman and CEO James J. O'Connor announced in October that he would be retiring; and
- Last year, its vice chairman was lured away by Delta Air Lines, and Leo Mullin became Delta's new CEO.
And the company, after deciding that its Zion nuclear plant was no longer economically viable, announced that the site will be closed. (ComEd, 312/394-3000; BM, 312/329-7607; Dean Zimmerman, 815/234-5441; NRC, 301/415-7000)
Tips ComEd Gave to Employees Writing Legislators
- State that you are writing in support of the electric deregulation Senate bill 55;
- Identify who you are - a ComEd employee/a resident of the legislator's district for how long?
- Describe why you support the proposal;
- Thank the legislator for his/her time; and
- Mail your letter from home: It's important that your letter comes from your residence and not a ComEd office.
Source: ComEd