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Increasingly, fundamental shifts in business and new media are impacting how companies communicate with their people. What are communicators to do when  entire sectors like financial services/banking, the auto industry and others are being redefined? How do we respond to new communications channels such as Facebook and Twitter? I say it’s time to listen. Listen to your employees, understand your cultural DNA and use change as an opportunity to redefine and strengthen internal communications.
At Insidedge, we often talk about how employee communications needs to be grounded in what we call a “receiver-based model.” Quite simply this means we need to put ourselves in the shoes of the people who are receiving the messages we’re sending. We need to think about other demands on their time and which messages, channels and vehicles will resonate with them. We can’t do that unless we listen to them.
So how do we listen in such a way as to gather what we need to adjust our internal communications programs to connect with our people and fit the times? Ideally it’s a solid mix of quantitative and qualitative research that will help guide us.
Over the past three years we’ve done communications improvement studies with more than a dozen companies and have realized that there are four key steps to take in building a receiver-based communications model:
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Step One: Talk to the right people. It’s important to first talk one-on-one with key leaders in order to understand their vision and where they’re intending to take the organization. From there, you’ll want to conduct focus groups using key segments of your employee audience to make sure you’ve got the right mix of levels, locations and functions to provide a good representation of your total population. Without a doubt your sales force employees are going to have different perspectives than your third-shift manufacturing employees. And generally speaking, those at your HQ location see things a bit differently than those in remote locations and business units. If yours is an organization that appreciates – or even requires – quantitative analysis, this is the point where you could use your qualitative insights to develop a survey for the broader employee population. |
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Step Two: Listen. Really listen. Ensuring participant anonymity is important to getting honest feedback. Use an outside, third party that is trained to listen and probe to get richer, more in-depth information. The real breakthroughs come not just from the answers to our questions, but the ways in which employees talk about their answers. What is the intensity or passion associated with what they are saying? What kind of examples do they share? Are there more positive or negative examples? Is what you’re hearing consistent by location or are you wrestling with geographic issues because of legacy corporate cultures, different management styles or different nationalities? All of what you hear in terms of content and tone must be analyzed and sorted through in order to better understand the “what” and the “why” behind what you’ve heard. |
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Step Three: Build your roadmap. Unless you’re doing a spinoff or a massive rebranding, it’s unrealistic to think that overnight you’ll build an entirely new internal communications program. So in place of revolution, choose evolution (see article below). Focus on the best way to leverage resources to head toward your new goal and build a roadmap to take you – and your internal communications program – from where you are to where you want to be. |
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Step Four: Evaluate. As you start implementing your program, it’s important to continually listen to the feedback from your users and make sure that you’re making further improvements to your channels and messaging. And, roughly every two years or so, you should repeat this larger listening effort to make sure that you’re keeping up with new technologies, changing employee sentiment and the needs of your business and industry. |
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Rarely are you going to do a complete changeover of an entire internal communications program in one fell swoop. More realistically you’re going
to have to implement change over time. It may be daunting, but it can be
done – just follow what we call the Three E’s of Evolution to envision the
stages of changing your internal communications program:
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These are the activities that you can take on now to start affecting change.
Maintaining current communications activities
Preparing key internal clients, communicators and leaders that change is coming
Gaining control over the amount of messages and messengers communicating with employees
Learning about the latest trends and technologies available, including what’s worked and what hasn’t worked for similar companies
Partnering with an organization to conduct your listening effort
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These activities are based on the research findings and focus on the types of “quick wins” that can be used to signal changes to your employee communications program while allowing time to plan for and implement your longer-term changes.
Introducing new features in existing communications channels designed to reinforce a new strategic direction
Creating post-listening communications to recognize employee feedback and highlight planned changes
Increasing executive visibility through new channels, technology or road shows to address gaps in business or communications strategy
Creating employee feedback teams chartered to help shape specific changes/tactics from the communications program
Establishing plans and messages for
6-12-18 months out
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These are the activities that take longer to implement or require traction from the first two steps.
Changing your staff and/or structures and budgets to support new program areas, segments and activities
Launching a new or revised intranet site
Institutionalizing new programs (executive visibility, newsletters) that take time to introduce
Introducing programs/initiatives targeting key audiences (manufacturing employees, field-based sales and marketing teams, managers/ supervisors)
Beginning special training efforts (managers’ communications skills, sessions to foster understanding of strategy- and business plan-related activities)
Unveiling employee recognition programs or internal advertising campaigns featuring successful individuals and teams
Measuring program effectiveness and adjusting accordingly
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