As companies enter into more acquisitions and mergers and start new divisions, employee programs need to be created that are fresh and as diversified as the companies that head them.
Gone are the days of standardized employee communications tactics that are implemented company-wide. To reach employees, corporations are relying on a myriad of routes: intranets; the Internet; hotlines; precedent-setting lifestyle policies; in-house publications; corporate-run training institutions; and encouraging workers, via satellite or through teleconferencing, to be a part of new company ventures. Cases in point: AT&T [T] decided last year to give its 127,000 employees a paid day off every year to pursue volunteer work; and the merger of the Boeing Co. and McDonnell Douglas Corp. [BA] has been played out in front of its new work force through rallies and satellite news conferences.
| Findings of H&K Survey |
| What is the Most Important Corp. Comm. Issue Facing Your Corp. Today? |
| 1. Employee Comm. |
| 2. Addressing Co. Changes |
| 3. Creating Awareness of Co. |
| 4. Investor Relations |
| 5. Understanding Company's Strategy Among Key Audiences |
| 6. Addressing Industry Changes |
| 7. Enhancing Corp. Image |
| 8. Keeping Abreast of Technology |
| What Do You Think Will be the Most Important Corp. Comm. Issue Facing Your Corp. in 5 Yrs.? |
| 1. Addressing Co. Changes |
| 2. Employee Comm. |
| 3. Keeping Abreast of Technology |
| 4. Globalization Issues |
| 5. Understanding Company's Strategy Among Key Audiences |
| 6. Increasing Competition |
| 7. Enhancing Corp. Image |
| 8. Communicating in a Timely Fashion |
But none of those routes can be a substitution for two-way communication, a resurfacing art that seemed lost when downsizing was common in the 1980s.
"We have 12 main businesses [from medical and transportation systems to plastics and information services] and our employee communications approaches are distinctly diverse," says Vance Meyer, manager of PR programs for General Electric. "A cookie-cutter approach to communications would be deadly.Our communications practices are meant to drive candor in this company and we're not about issuing edicts - we're about sharing best practices."
Through its corporate intranet, GE employees can exchange, via its Idea Forum, everything from how they streamlined new product introductions to how they've cut enterprise-solution costs. GE was singled out as one of the three corporations (Microsoft [MSFT] and Coca-Cola [KO] were the others) with the best communications practices, according to a Hill and Knowlton/Yankelovich Partners "Corporate Reputation Watch" survey released Oct. 20.
Using Your Corp. Comm. Team
The challenge in developing top-notch employee communications programs is making them credible: you don't want them to come across as brainwashing or corporate mumbo jumbo.
Because of that, the best way to use your corporate communications team is to have it facilitate the process, not issue mandates. That can be done through:
- Surveying employees at least annually;
- Encouraging the use of hot lines;
- Gauging if the success of quality-assurance programs are trickling down to workers; and
- Using informal conversations to find out if the internal messages that managers are relaying are consistent with the external messages company spokespeople are conveying.
To refine employee communications, corporations are doing everything from overhauling their internal publications (Coca-Cola) to courting potential employees on the Web (Microsoft).
Coca-Cola has received media praise for making its employee magazine, Journey, less of a marketing tool and more of publication that addresses serious issues. In one issue, for example, it analyzed whether its Olympics sponsorship was worth it. And last week, Coca-Cola shut down its worldwide offices in memory of recently deceased Chairman and CEO Robert C. Goizueta.
And even though we're not convinced about Microsoft's overall approach to communications since PR contacts (both in-house and through its PR firm Waggener-Edstrom) declined comment for this story 72 hours after we contacted them, we will admit that the corporation's Web site, http://www.microsoft.com, is as much devoted to employee communications (code: bringing in new employees) as it is to wooing shareholders and the media. Its online jobs section touts its "Don't-work-for-a-living, Work-for-a-reason" motto and the working environment it portrays can sound scintillating: "Here you're encouraged not only to speak what's on your mind, but also do it."
The GE Way
GE, which employs 240,000 employees worldwide and is based in Fairfield, Conn., has made its employee communication efforts something each employee, not just a team, does. That may seem like a tall order but that is what's made its employee communications tactics so diverse:
- Some managers host 11-minute meetings at the beginning or end of a shift to share business news;
- Some divisional newsletters have been scaled back to encourage face-to-face interaction; and
- GE has a global e-mail system to encourage idea sharing.
One of its most effective routes has been its Corporate Leadership Development Institute that's based in Crotonville, N.Y. Anyone, from entry-level workers to upper-level managers, are sent to the school to learn GE's values, which include this zinger: "Have a passion for excellence and hate bureaucracy." (GE, 203/373-2211; AMA, 212/903-8052; H&K, 202/944-5149)