Retention nightmares may be keeping executives up at night, but "employee satisfaction" is no longer the metric used in gauging the effectiveness of internal communications.
Today's internal surveys are more often designed to gauge employees' "business literacy" - as in how well each person understands the corporate mission and his or her role in
driving the organization to meet its objectives.
"I'm not sure the employee satisfaction model is all it's cracked up to be," says Kerry Miller, director of M&A communications and worldwide internal communications for
Texas Instruments (TI). "You can have a tremendously satisfied workforce and still be a run-of-the-mill player in your industry. We focus on a commitment model, not a
satisfaction model."
No doubt, securing employee commitment is critical in an era of unprecedented organizational change due to mergers, acquisitions, structural redesigns, executive churn and
technology overhauls. TI has made 20 acquisitions in the past three years, and Miller's responsibility is largely one of cultural integration. The company uses its intranet site
and a monthly publication called Connected to keep staff informed about how the latest news (such as a merger or quarterly earnings report) will affect them.
TI's internal communications team monitors the value of Connected by issuing a monthly online survey via email to 1,000 randomly selected employees. The survey, which
generally pulls a 30% response rate, is designed to gauge three things:
- Penetration. Is the publication reaching its intended audience? Are they reading it?
- Understanding. Is the information presented in such a way that employees can understand it?
- Credibility. Do employees believe the message they are receiving from TI?
"We do vehicle-based measurement vs. a broad approach," Miller says. The danger of organization-wide surveys is they tend to cast a Big-Brotherish tone on the work
environment. "They can be great measurement tools, but if one business unit [chooses not to take ownership of the measurement process], the follow-up falls through. This tears
down trust and we don't want that."
The Ultimate Survey
Hallmark is another player that has sought to engage its employees more deeply in competitive business initiatives. And it has seemingly found a way to make a mega-survey fly.
Last year, the company's senior managers conducted "learning map" training sessions to better educate employees about the company's finances and market positioning. At the same
time, it invested $100,000 in an organization-wide communications audit.
"We wanted to understand what people knew about the competition, how much they understood about the company's business strategies, how they felt about the future of the company
and how they viewed their role in contributing to the future growth of the company," says Dean Rodenbough, corporate communications director at Hallmark. "What we found is that
people wanted to understand more about business performance, goals and progress. They wanted to feel like they were part of that."
Working with the Rogers Group, a Chicago-based consulting firm, Hallmark first conducted face-to-face interviews with staff in public affairs, HR and senior management to
assess the company's overall workplace dynamics. The team then developed a survey instrument, which it tested in employee focus groups before launching it company-wide.
Once the comprehensive audit findings were presented to senior management, the internal communications staff helped each division pinpoint its weak spots and conducted "action
planning" sessions to set goals for improvement. Managers across the company also received communication packets to guide them in "cascading" information about business
objectives to their direct reports.
A year later, Hallmark is conducting online mini-surveys inside its various divisions to benchmark progress off the baseline audit. The mini-surveys are conducted two or three
times per year and contain only 10-15 questions each (requiring a five- to 10-minute time commitment from participating employees).
"We're sensitive about not over-surveying," Rodenbough says. The purpose of internal communication is defeated when it begins to interfere with employees' ability to get their
jobs done.
Humanize It
While Web-based surveys have undoubtedly emerged as a preferred internal measurement tactic (given their expedience, anonymity and cost efficiency) experts stress that face
time is equally critical to solid employee communication. Southwest Airlines is envied for the way its employees embrace the company promise of low fares and on-time
performance. And yet, the airline conducts few quantitative measurement tactics to chart employee commitment. Instead, its 10-member internal communications team includes five
regional specialists who are routinely dispatched to airports, provisioning offices and other satellite locations to meet with employees and garner qualitative feedback.
"At headquarters there are only 2,000 people, but the company has 30,000 employees. It's important to get out there and talk to them," says John Churchill, manager of employee
communications.
Like TI and Hallmark, Southwest has its share of house pubs (the main one is called LuvLines),which it distributes via Web, fax and print. It's conducted surveys in
the past, but the airline's internal PR team prefers to take a hands-on approach whenever possible. For example, when LuvLines editors considered bumping the publication
from two-color to four-color, the team assembled an employee focus group to view several mock-ups and discuss options.
"They liked the look of the four-color piece, but ultimately recommended that the company not go that route because of the cost implications," says Ginger Hardage, Southwest's
VP of PR and corporate communications. "Our employees understand our mission. If we're going to be the low fare carrier, we have to have low costs." (The fact that Southwest
offers employee profit-sharing probably had something to do with the focus group's decision about where to allocate dollars, too.)
There are a million ways to measure the extent to which employees internalize a corporation's business goals. The hard part is fostering an environment in which staff are
deeply committed to those goals. Southwest must be doing something right. It's ranked sixth on Fortune's coveted "Most Admired" list, and has made two appearances in the
magazine's "Best Companies to Work For" list - moving from fourth place in 1998 to the number two slot in 1999.
(Miller, TI, 214/480-2010; Rodenbough, Hallmark, 816/274-5923; Churchill and Hardage, Southwest, 214/792-4000)