Let’s face it, the last few years have not been fun ones for executives in charge of employee relations.
An early 2009 Society for Human Resource Management report stated the following: “Due to the disappearance of so many jobs, the number of ‘underemployed’ workers will grow, leading to increased underutilization of talent and morale problems in the workplace.”
However, according to a September 2009 Deloitte study of executives and their workforce management plans, the majority of respondents felt the worst of the economic woes were over. As head count reductions slide down the management agenda and layoffs abate, companies planned to ramp up retention initiatives to keep key leaders and high-potential employees on board—and to prevent competitors from stealing them away, said the report.
With that in mind, PR News asked PR executives with top employee development programs (including two organizations, Cisco and Discovery Communications, that made our 2009 Top Places to Work in PR list) to reveal their best practices for developing talent from within.
GET WITH THE PROGRAMS
Successfully developing and retaining the best employees combines the art of relationships with the science of structured training programs, says Bryan Scanlon, president of Waltham, Mass.-based Schwartz Communications. “It boils down to constant training, engaging the employees and offering them opportunities to grow,” he says.
The following are the most effective strategies and tactics used in top PR training programs.
â–¶ Mentoring: A common theme during discussions with employee resource heads was the effectiveness of mentoring programs. It’s a practice that works within communications at Cisco, according to John Earnhardt, senior manager of media relations.
New communications hires at Cisco are actively mentored by senior staff, says Earnhardt, and are schooled in multiple disciplines through the program. Earnhardt even noted some “reverse mentoring” at Cisco, one instance involving social media. “One of our new Gen-Yers took our CTO under his wing and showed her how to use Twitter,” says Earnhardt. “She now has 1.4 million Twitter followers as a result.”
Mentoring is also crucial to Discovery Communications’ PR employee development efforts, though it’s done in a more informal manner than Cisco’s, says Michelle Russo, Discovery’s senior VP of corporate affairs and communications. “Junior people work alongside senior staff, but it’s done more on a project-by-project basis,” says Russo. “It’s an openness—from the very top of our organization—that really drives our employee development.”
Group vs. Individual: Scanlon says the most effective training is one-on-one with managers. “Group training is important, but nothing replaces personalized coaching and feedback,” he says. Combining the two effectively gets the best results, he says, citing a recent Social Media Olympics event as an example. Employees broke up into teams and competed in more the 10 hands-on challenges (including writing a blog and creating videos).
Discovery, says Russo, combines group and individual training during its two-day Global Communications Summit at its Silver Spring, Md. headquarters, where most of the 100 PR employees from around the world learn from executives.
â–¶ Job Rotation: The opportunity to rotate positions is a key component in PR team development at Cisco, says Earnhardt. Rotating came about thanks to the merging of the tech PR team (which used to be within marketing) with corporate PR three years ago. “That presented more opportunities for employees to move within different disciplines, including investor relations, internal communications and crisis communications,” says Earnhardt.
MOTIVATIONAL TOOLS
Rewarding performance while keeping it light is a key part of employee initiatives, says Earnhardt. Besides a corporate-wide rewards initiative, the Cisco PR team has its own quarterly awards program called the “Johnnies,” in honor of Cisco CEO John Chambers.
At Schwartz, employees are encouraged to attend informal technology review sessions—dubbed “Stump the Chump,” where senior managers, try to answer questions about technology terms and trends.
According to Russo, the key to communications talent development and retention is, well, communications. “It’s communicating goals and expectations,” she says. “And valuing all voices. I’ve worked in places where that wasn’t the case, and it’s demoralizing.” PRN
CONTACT:
Bryan Scanlon, [email protected]; John Earnhardt, [email protected]; Michelle Russo, [email protected].