6 SECRETS TO ACHIEVE COMMUNICATION EXCELLENCE.
MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES FOR INVOLVING EMPLOYEES
For this discussion, I am using Finney’s (Watson Wyatt’s) Communication Model – six secrets of top performers
Studies confirm that good communication has an impact on the bottom line/results. Here’s what highly effective organisations are doing to make that happen. There is an old adage that says, “What gets measured gets done.” Today, that phrase has taken on renewed importance, as communicators are expected to quantify the value of what they do and to demonstrate how it advances the organisation/schools and contributes to the bottom line/learner achievement. Since 2000, Watson Wyatt’s Worldwide communication practice has been analysing the correlation between Organisations effectiveness: Organisations that communicates effectively significantly outperform their peers.
These results, however, have prompted two more questions:
Which communication practices add the greatest value?
If an employer has limited time and resources, where should it focus internal communication efforts to get the highest return on investment?
Six years’ worth of data collected by Watson Wyatt from more than 750 organisations around the world is helping to answer these questions. The research shows that the organisations with top scores in employee communication have discovered six “secrets” that enable them to achieve communication excellence:
1. Focusing on the customer.
2. Engaging employees in the organisation.
3. Improving managerial communication.
4. Managing change effectively.
5. Measuring the performance of communication programs.
6. Establishing a strong employer brand.
Secret No. 1: Focusing on the customer/employee.
In Watson Wyatt’s global research, customer focus emerged as a key driver of employee engagement. Highly effective organisations (those in the top third of organisations that scored highest based on their responses to the survey questions) focuses on everyone in the organization – managers, supervisors, technical specialists and frontline employees – on the customer. Seventy-six percent of these organisations report having a formal process for ensuring that employees understand how their actions affect customers, compared with only 5 percent of less effective organisations (those that ranked in the bottom third of surveyed organisations based on their responses).
At a midsize U.S. manufacturing firm, a one-page weekly briefing delivered to employees at shift start-up meetings keeps the customer top of mind. The briefing reports on the key organisation and plant metrics and indicates how departments are tracking for the quarter and year to date. It highlights exemplary performance and explains reasons for negative results. The back page is devoted to customers, providing customer quotes about the quality of products and service as well as new orders, industry news and other items of interest. Employees discuss the information with their immediate supervisors and identify changes they can make to improve results. This program ensures that everyone understands how their efforts shape the customer experience.
Secret No. 2: Engaging employees in running the organisation.
The Work Attitudes research also identified communication as a key driver of employee engagement around the globe. Highly effective organisations promote two-way communication between senior leaders and employees. They are nearly 10 times as likely as less effective organisations to give employees the opportunity to provide input into decisions that affect them; more than twice as likely to ask employees for ideas about how to get work done; and nearly seven times as likely to ask employees to share suggestions on programs and changes.
Highly effective organisations use employee input to make positive changes that help drive success. These organisations are nearly three times as likely to implement policy change as a result of employee opinion surveys as organisations in the less effective group. In addition, they communicate the changes they have made as a result of employee surveys, demonstrating that employee input is valued and helping to build trust and confidence.
Secret No. 3: Improving managerial communication.
In the 2007/2008 study, two-thirds of the organisations said they were going to rely on their managers even more in the coming year to communicate company information to employees. Highly effective organisations work through frontline managers and supervisors to reinforce key messages, gather employee input and establish individual objectives that align with corporate goals. To help managers and supervisors in this important role, they:
Provide training that improves managers’ communication skills.
Package information for easy delivery.
Involve managers early in the communication process to give them time to absorb the material before disseminating it.
Reward managers for being effective and attentive communicators.
To this end, one global technology company has created a website for managers that offer a variety of tools for honing communication skills. The site features articles and videos in which successful managers describe how they tackled tough challenges associated with geographically dispersed audiences, foreign languages, and desperate cultures.
Secret No. 4: Managing change effectively.
Staff reductions, management changes, restructuring, and alterations to pay and benefit programs characterise today’s organisation environment. Highly effective organisations use the talents of internal communicators to navigate these changes. They are nearly twice as likely as less effective organisations to implement a communication initiative to support change. In addition, they are 14 times as likely to help their managers — and, through them, their employees — understand, embrace and deal openly with change.
To meet its transformation goals, Suncor Energy of Fort McMurray, Alberta — winner of a 2007 IABC Gold Quill Award of Excellence — created “Oil Sands: The Next Generation,” a program targeted at the 3,000 employees of Suncor’s oil sands unit. Senior leadership asked the oil sands communication team to put together a series of employee meetings to mark a turning point in the unit’s history and communicate new goals and vision. Planning started nearly a year in advance. During the lead-up to the sessions, communicators published a series of monthly magazine-style inserts for the employee newsletter. These publications, along with a series of teaser ads, helped raise awareness and build excitement for the program. During the sessions, senior leaders celebrated the unit’s history, presented the new vision and goals, and described the changes required to accomplish those goals. Presentations incorporated a variety of media, including a video in which oil sands employees talk about the challenges they face. A live question-and-answer session gave employees an opportunity to express their concerns and get answers from senior leaders.
An eight-question exit survey (using a scale from 1 to 5) helped measure the success of the sessions. The results were gratifying:
76 percent agreed that the company’s strategy and vision were clearly presented.
76 percent believed in an exciting and positive future for Suncor, with almost 50 percent saying they strongly agreed with that statement.
Confidence in the oil sands leadership team received a mean score of 3.63.
Secret No. 5: Measuring communication effectiveness
Measurement is the cornerstone of effective communication. But how do top-performing organisations measure communication effectiveness? Watson Wyatt and the IABC Research Foundation partnered to develop a set of measurement-related questions and incorporate them into the 2007/2008 Communication ROI Study.'” Responses revealed that highly effective organisations were three times more likely to have organisation metrics in place for at least half of their communication initiatives. Forty-five percent of all organisations said measurement was a standard operating procedure, with 16 percent saying they measure to justify their current activities and budget.
One question focused on reasons for not measuring internal communication initiatives. Two-thirds of participants cited resource constraints, one-third said they couldn’t figure out the organisation metric, and 6 percent said they were afraid of being held accountable.
Highly effective organisations are far more likely than other organisations to measure the impact of communication on key organisation indicators. For example, they are: More than two and a half times as likely to measure the effect of communication on workforce productivity and more than four times as likely to measure its effect on retention of critical talent. Furthermore, they are more than five times as likely to measure its effect on organisation performance.
Secret No. 6: Establishing a compelling employer brand
The employer brand is the communication of all elements in the employment deal and links that deal with organisation goals. Like a company’s external brand, the employer brand encompasses language, messages, positioning, graphics, packaging, and media.
Highly effective organisations recognise the value of investing in a compelling employer brand.
I wish you well in the effective planning to execute this strategy – Quinton Pick
Quinton Pick 