A pilot for Southwest Airlines placing a quick, toll-free call to an employee hotline in recent weeks probably learned about the company's "very satisfactory" third-quarter
earnings; a favorable inspection by the Federal Aviation Administration; a notice about conserving fuel in light of recent price hikes; and a caution about fog season being
"around the corner" - with an appeal from management to review the procedures for flying in fog.
At most companies, pressing internal news is shared via corporate-wide emails, employee newsletters or Intranets. But these options aren't necessarily optimal for staffers who
spend most of their time above 30,000 feet. Southwest is one of many companies that relies on inventive means to communicate with a highly mobile and far-flung workforce that does
not always have immediate access to a computer.
While the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that 8% of the U.S. population (about 10 million people) now telecommute, "mobile" workers are hardly a new breed. The air
transportation industry supports 240,000 pilots and flight attendants, and the trucking industry employs some 850,000 truck drivers.
"It's so easy to become disconnected when you're traveling a lot," says John Churchill, an employee communications manager at Southwest. The Dallas-based airline's employee
hotline is wrapping up its first year of usage and appears to be a success, although Churchill says cost and usage figures are still being calculated.
In Miami, the commercial trucking firm Ryder Systems keeps in touch with its 7,000 drivers by distributing quarterly audiotapes. The tapes, which cost roughly $150,000 per
year to produce, feature straight news about benefits and safety tips, but also are spiced up with music and interviews with drivers. Content is developed inhouse, but the
recording and dubbing is outsourced.
"It's not a cheap program," said Scott Mall, Ryder's VP of communications. "On the other hand, it's a very effective way to reach the audience. We can get so much more out in a
truly cost-effective manner." In fact, response to the tapes - in the form of returned questionnaire surveys - has been so positive that Ryder may soon increase the tapes'
frequency to six times a year, Mall says.
Rewired Communication
Even some high-tech companies, whose employees are plugged in by rote, are beginning to experiment with "alternative" (read: offline) communication channels to make sure their
messages are registering. Traditional messaging systems are not only quaint, they're also more personal and tend to stand out from the steady barrage of bland email
communiqués.
For example, Sun Microsystems' chairman and CEO Scott McNealy hosts a monthly radio broadcast (OK, it's still accessible online via the company's Intranet) for Sun's 40,000
employees worldwide. He interviews guests from inside and outside the company and recently began a solo segment.
"We think it shows that Scott walks the talk," says Pam Southworth, group manager of Sun's employee communications. "It tells people that he stands behind the business
direction that senior leadership has put forward and he does so in a much more committed way than in just some sterile document."
Sun's broadcasts typically cost about $10,000 a pop to produce, mostly for engineering and editing expenses. Anywhere from half to three-quarters of Sun's workforce listens in
each month.
Worldwide TV
Of course, one of the greatest "mobile" workforce challenges facing companies today is communicating with staffers in multiple locations around the globe. From its Dallas
headquarters, Texas Instruments beams a 75-minute live satellite broadcast around the world each quarter. Most of the company's 40,000 employees can watch the broadcast at about
70 sites, although, because of time differences, European and Asian staffs see a taped version.
During each broadcast, TI president/CEO Thomas Engibous and other execs answer questions from employee viewers, but they decline to peek at the queries ahead of time, according
to Lisa Byrd, manager of worldwide internal communications. Engibous feels the impromptu nature of the show "helps TI-ers relate to the officers who are talking," Byrd says.
Each broadcast also features a segment on one TI team, from anywhere in the world, that has innovated within the company. A winner is chosen each quarter and a TV crew is sent
out to produce the story. A recent show highlighted a team from the company's wireless division that developed a creative quality control program.
Each broadcast costs about $25,000, but the company is careful to explain that this figure excludes infrastructure and management costs.
Granted, internal communications departments that have neglected to embrace email as a significant employee relations tool are still in the dark ages. But the renaissance in
old school media channels indicates that the best companies are seeking out multiple ways to deliver their messages to busy workers in remote sites. As Southwest's Churchill says,
"To use one tool to hit all of them is virtually impossible."
(Byrd, 214/480-1618; Churchill, 214/792-7699; Mall, 305/500-3888; Southworth,
650/960-1300)
-Jeff Goldfarb