11. Employee Relations

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11. Employee Relations
AL AKHAWAYN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF HUMANITIES AND
SOCIAL SCIENCES COMMUNICATIONS STUDIES

• Lecture by Dr. Mohammed Ibahrine
• based on Seitels The Practice of Public Relations

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Structure of the Lecture

• 1 Strong Employee Relations Solid Companies
• 2 dealing with the employee Public
• 3 Communicating Effectively in a Sea of Doubt
• 4 Credibility
• 5 Employee Communication Strategies
• 6 Employee Communication Tactics

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Structure of the Lecture

• 6 Employee Communication Tactics
• 6.1 Internal Communications Audits
• 6.2 Online Communications
• 6.3 The Intranet
• 6.4 Print Publication
• 6.5 Desktop Publishing
• 6.6 Employee Annual Reports
• 6.7 Bulletin Boards
• 6.8 Suggestion Box/Town Hall Meetings
• 6.9 Internal Video
• 6.10 Face-to-face Supervisory Communications
• 7 Dealing with the Grapevine

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1 Employee Relations

• According to Fortune magazine, the top 200 most
  admired corporations in America spent a
  significantly larger share of their
  communications budgets more than 50 percent -
  on employee relations

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1 Employee Relations

• For a variety of reason communicating with
  employees has become increasingly important for
  organizations in the new millennium
• 1. The wave of downsizings and layoffs that
  dominated business and industry worldwide after
  the high-tech-bubble burst in the early years of
  the 21st century
• 2. The widening gulf between the pay of senior
  officers and common workers is another reason why
  organizations must be sensitive to employee
  communications

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1 Employee Relations

• 3. There is no such thing as lifetime
  employment
• The notion of job stability has disappeared
• Most employees no longer expect cradle-to-grave
  employment
• The name of the game today is job mobility
• Consequently, employee trust was at an all-time
  low
• 4. The merger of geographically dispersed
  organizations is another reason why for increased
  focus on internal communication

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1 Employee Relations

• Business managers have realized that the assets
  of their companies exist very much in the heads
  of their employees
• Employee communication, then, has become a key
  way and transfer that intellectual capital among
  workers
• Internal communication has become a hot ticket
  in public relations

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2 Dealing with Employee Publics

• Just as there is no such thing as the general
  public, there is also no single employee
  public
• The employee public is made up of numerous
  subgroups
• Senior managers
• First-line supervisors
• Staff and line employees
• Women
• Minority
• Union laborers
• Per diem employees
• Contract workers

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2 Dealing with Employee Publics

• A smart organization will try to differentiate
  messages and communications to reach these
  segments
• Today, the staff is
• Younger
• Increasingly female
• More ambitious
• Career oriented
• Less complacent
• Less loyal to the company

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2 Dealing with Employee Publics

• Internal communications, like external messages,
  must be targeted to reach specific subgroups of
  the employee public
• Organizing effective, believable and persuasive
  internal communication in the midst of
  organizational change is a core critical public
  relations responsibility in the 21st century

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3 Communicating Effectively in a sea of Doubt

• An organization truly concerned about getting
  through to its employees in an era of downsizing
  and displacement, must reinforce five specific
  principles
• 1. Respect
• 2. Honest feedback
• 3. Recognition
• 4. A voice
• 5. Encouragement

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3 Communicating Effectively in a sea of Doubt

• 1. Respect Employees must be respected for
  their worth as individuals and their value as
  workers

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3 Communicating Effectively in a sea of Doubt

• 2. Honest feedback By talking to workers about
  their strengths and weakness, employees know
  where they stand

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3 Communicating Effectively in a sea of Doubt

• 3. Recognition Employees feel successful when
  management recognizes their contributions
• It is the duty of the public relations
  professional to suggest mechanisms by which
  deserving employees will be honored

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3 Communicating Effectively in a sea of Doubt

• 4. A voice employees want their ideas to be
  heard and to have a voice in decision making

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3 Communicating Effectively in a sea of Doubt

• 5. Encouragement benefits and money motivate
  employees up to point, but that something else
  is generally necessary
• This something else is encouragement

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3 Communicating Effectively in a sea of Doubt

• According to Milton Moskowitz, coauthor of The
  100 Best Companies to Work for in America, six
  criteria are important
• 1. Willingness to express dissent. Employees want
  to be able to feed back to management their
  opinions and even dissent
• 2. Visibility and proximity of upper management.
  Enlightened companies try to level rank
  distinctions, eliminating such status reminders
  as executives cafeterias
• They act against hierarchical separation

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3 Communicating Effectively in a sea of Doubt

• 3. Priority of internal o external communication.
  Employees want to be able to feed back to
  management their opinions and even dissent
• 4. Attention to clarity. Good companies will
  write benefits booklets with clarity to be
  readable for a general audience rather than for
  human resources specialist
• 5. Friendly tone. Best companies give a sense of
  family in all that they communicate

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3 Communicating Effectively in a sea of Doubt

• 6. Sense of humor. People are principally worried
  about keeping their jobs

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4 Credibility

• The task for management is to convince employees
  that it communicates with them in a truthful,
  frank and direct manner
• This is the overriding challenge that confronts
  todays internal communicators
• What internal communications comes down to is
  credibility

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4 Credibility

• The employee public is a savvy one
• The management must be truthful
• The employees want management
• Research indicates that trust in organizations
  would increase if management
• Communicated earlier and more frequently

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5 Employee Communication Strategies

• Enhancing credibility, being candid, and winning
  trust must be the primary employee communications
  objectives in the new century
• Five elements are key in any strategic program
• 1. Survey employees attitudes regularly.
  Internal communications audits and attitudes
  surveys can identify problems before they become
  crises
• 2. Be consistent. Management that promises open
  and honest communications must practice it
• An open door must remain open not just partly
  open part of the time

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5 Employee Communication Strategies

• 3. Personalize communication. Workers want
  personal attention from those for whom they work,
  particularly their immediate supervisor. The best
  internal communications are those are personal
  and face-to-face
• 4. Be candid. Employee today are younger, less
  well educated, less loyal
• 5. Be innovative. New employees in the workforce
  and increase skepticism in the workplace demand
  new communications technology solutions (voice,
  video, data transmission on PCs and so on)

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6 Employee Communications Tactics

• Once objectives are set, a variety of techniques
  can be adopted to reach the staff
• The initial tool again is research
• Before any communications program can be
  implemented, communicators must have a good sense
  of staff attitudes

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6 Employee Communications Tactics

• 6.1 Internal Communications Audits
• The internal communications audit is the most
  beneficial form of research on which to lay the
  groundwork for effective employee communications
• This starts with personal, in-depth interviews
  with both top management and communicators
• It is important to find out what communicators
  think management wants

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6 Employee Communications Tactics

• 6.1 Internal Communications Audits
• The three critical audit questions are
• 1. How do internal communications support the
  mission of the organization?
• 2. Do internal communications have managements
  support?
• 3. How responsive to employee needs and concerns
  are internal?

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6 Employee Communications Tactics

• 6.2 Online Communications
• The age of online communications has ushered in a
  whole new set of employee communications
  vehicles
• E-mail
• Voice
• Tailored organizational intranets
• Tailored online newsletters

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6 Employee Communications Tactics

• 6.4 The Intranet
• The Intranet has overtaken print communication
• Intranet creators should keep in mind several
  important considerations
• Consider the culture
• Set clear objectives and then let it evolve
• Treat it as a journalistic enterprise
• Market, market and market
• Senior management must commit

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6 Employee Communications Tactics

• 6.5 Print Publications
• The advent of online internal communication has
  been hard on print publications
• Employee newsletters should appear regularly on
  time and with consistent format
• In the 21st century, such newsletters provide two
  way communications, expressing not only
  management wishes but staff concerns as well

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6 Employee Communications Tactics

• 6.6 Desktop Publishing
• Desktop publishing enables a public relations
  professional to produce a newsletter at his or
  her own desk
• Introduced in 1985, desktop publishing allows an
  editor to write , lay out, and typeset a piece of
  copy
• A typical newsletter editor must consider the
  following steps in approaching the task

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6 Employee Communications Tactics

• 6.6 Desktop Publishing
• 1. Assigning stories. Articles assignments must
  focus on organizational strategies and management
  objectives
• Job information
• Organizational changes
• Mergers, reasons behind decisions
• 2. Enforcing deadlines Employees respect a
  newsletter that comes out at a specific time
• An editor must assign and enforce rigid copy
  deadlines
• Deadline slippage can not be tolerated

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6 Employee Communications Tactics

• 6.6 Desktop Publishing
• 3. Assigning photos. People like photos
• 4. Editing copy. An editor must be just that a
  critic of sloppy writing, a student of forceful
  prose
• 5. Formatting copy. An editor, particularly a
  desktop editor, must also make the final
  decisions on the format of the newsletter how
  long articles should
• 6. Ensuring on-time publication. In publishing,
  timeliness is next to godliness
• It is the editors responsibility to ensure that
  no last-minute glitches interfere with on-time
  publication

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6 Employee Communications Tactics

• 6.6 Desktop Publishing
• 7. Critiquing. The editors job must continue
• Review copy, photos, placement, content,
  philosophy and all the other elements to ensure
  that the next edition will be even better

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6 Employee Communications Tactics

• 6.7 Employee Annual Reports
• Most employees do care about how their
  organization functions and what its management is
  thinking
• The annual report to the staff is a good place to
  discuss such issues informally, yet candidly

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6 Employee Communications Tactics

• 6.7 Employee Annual Reports
• The report can be
• Factual explaining the performance of the
  organization during the year
• Informational reviewing organizational changes
  and significant milestones during the year
• Motivational in its implicit appeal to team
  spirit and pride

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6 Employee Communications Tactics

• 6.7 Employee Annual Reports
• Typical features of the employee annual report
  include the following
• Chief executives letter
• Use-of-funds statement
• Financial condition
• Description of the company
• Social responsibility highlights
• Staff financial highlights
• Organizational policy
• Emphasis on people

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6 Employee Communications Tactics

• 6.8 Bulletin Boards
• Bulletin boards, among the most ancient of
  employee communications vehicles, have made a
  comeback in recent years
• Classical use of bulletin boards was limited to
  policy data for such activities as fire drills
  and emergency procedures
• Most employees rarely consulted them

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6 Employee Communications Tactics

• 6.8 Bulletin Boards
• BB has experienced a renaissance and is now being
  used to improve productivity, cut waste, and
  reduce accidents on the jobs
• Best of all employees are taking notice
• BB has become today's news center
• It has been repacked into a more lively visual
  and graphically arresting medium
• BB has become an important source of employee
  communication

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6 Employee Communications Tactics

• 6.9 Suggestion Box/ Town Hall Meetings
• Two other traditional staples of employee
  communication are the suggestion box and the town
  hall meeting
• In the old times, suggestion boxes were mounted
  on each floor, and employees, often anonymously,
  deposited their thoughts on how to improve the
  company and its processes and products

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6 Employee Communications Tactics

• 6.9 Suggestion Box/ Town Hall Meetings
• Town hall meetings are large gatherings of
  employees with top management, where no subject
  is off limits, and management-staff dialogue is
  the goal
• Town hall meetings must encourage unfettered
  two-way communication
• In the 21st century, with employees increasingly
  suspect of all in charge, only candid, open and
  honest communications work

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6 Employee Communications Tactics

• 6.10 Internal Video
• Video has had an up-and-down history as an
  internal communications medium
• Internal video is a medium that must be
  approached with caution
• Unless video is of broadcast quality, few will
  tolerate it, especially an audience of employees
  weaned on television
• A public relations professionals must raise at
  least a dozen questions before embarking on an
  internal video venture

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6 Employee Communications Tactics

• 6.10 Internal Video
• 1. Why are doing this video?
• 2. Whom we are trying to reach with this video?
• 3. What is the point of the video?
• 4. What do we want viewers to do after seeing the
  video?
• 5. How good is our video script?
• 6. How sophisticated is the quality of our
  broadcast?
• 7. How innovative and creative is the broadcast)
  Does it measure up to regular television?
• 8. How competent is our talent?
• 9. How much money can we spend?

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6 Employee Communications Tactics

• 6.11 Face-to-face Supervisory Communications
  Video
• Employees want information face-to-face from
  their supervisors
• Supervisors are the preferred source of 90
  percent of employees, making them the top choice
  by far
• You report to your supervisor, who awards your
  raise, promotes you and is your primary source of
  corporate information

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7 Dealing with the Grapevine

• In many organizations, it is neither the Internet
  nor cyberspace that dominates communications but
  rather the company grapevine
• The rumor mill can be devastating
• Rumors, once they pick up steam, are difficult to
  stop, if not possible, and it is usually not
  worth the time

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7 Dealing with the Grapevine

• It should not necessarily be treated as the enemy
  of effective communications with employees
• Management might even consider using it as a
  positive force
• It may be even more valuable because it is
  believed
• Everyone seems to tap into it