Employee Relations

Employee Relations Lecture #11

Why are Employee Relations So Important?

Employee Relations • Employees once trusted their organizations and superiors, however, today they are more reluctant to trust and respect them. • When organizations lay off workers they are often rewarded by the stock market for becoming more productive and efficient. • Employees used to go on strike when they were unhappy, today, they go to the internet, which can be even more damaging.

Employee Relations • Companies have found that if they communicate effectively with their workers they financially outperform their competitors that do not. • Business managers have learned that their most important assets are their employees. • Employee communication is the key to nurture and sustain intellectual capital. • For years, employee relations was considered less important than the functions of media, government, and investor relations.

Dealing With Employees • The employee public is made up of numerous subgroups: • Senior managers • First line supervisors • Staff and line employees • Union laborers • Per diem employees • Contract workers

Dealing With Employees • Management must ask three hard questions to determine if they are communicating effectively with their employees. • Is management able to communicate effectively with employees? • Is communication trusted, and does it relay appropriate information to employees? • Has management communicated its commitment to its employees and to fostering a rewarding work environment?

Communicating During Difficult Times • An organization concerned with communicating with its employees during times of downsizing, displacement and confusing communication must reassure its employees

Communicating During Difficult Times • There are five principles for this: • Respect: employees must be respected for their worth as individuals and workers. • Honest Feedback: speaking with workers about their strengths and weaknesses helps employers let employees know where they stand. • Recognition: employees feel successful when management recognizes their contributions to the organization.

Communicating During Difficult Times • Voice: in the era of blogs, radio, cable talk shows, etc. nearly everyone wants their voice to be heard in decision making. • Encouragement: money and benefits motivate employees up to a certain point, but there is usually a need for encouragement to produce results.

Maskowitz’ 6 Criteria for Communicating with Employees • Willingness to Express Dissent; employees want to be able to express their voices to management. • Visibility and Proximity to Upper Management: level rank distinctions help eliminate status reminders • Does your organization work from the top-down, or does it embrace concerns and suggestions from the bottom- up. How many layers of management does your organization have? • Priority of Internal and External Communication: the worst thing for employees is to learn critical information about the organizations they work for from outside sources; news, websites, word of mouth, etc.

Maskowitz’ 6 Criteria for Communicating with Employees • Attention to Clarity: focus on benefits with an emphasis on clarity, don’t focus on legalities. • Friendly Tone: the best companies give a sense of family. Makes employees feel as though they are a part of something exclusive. • Sense of Humor: For many, corporate life is grim. It is important that employees enjoy themselves and keep things in perspective by not taking themselves too seriously.

Credibility • The issue that management faces with credibility is that they must convince employees that they want to communicate with them and want to do so in a truthful, frank, and direct manner.

Credibility • Trust in organizations would increase if management: • Communicated earlier and more frequently. • Demonstrated trust in employees by sharing bad news as well as good. • Involved employees in the process by asking for their ideas and input. • Smart organizations realize that well-informed employees are the their best goodwill ambassadors.

“S.H.O.C”ING Employees • Earning credibility and trust amongst employees must be part of your communications objectives. • Four part method to helping build trust with employees when morale is low. • S.H.O.C.

S.H.O.C. • Strategic- communication must be strategic • Where is the organization going? • What is my role in helping us get there?

S.H.O.C • Honest- Communication must be honest • Employees may already be less likely to believe what they are told by management. • You can’t build relationships and strong communications through beating around the bush and sugarcoating.

S.H.O.C. • Open- all communication must be open. • There must be feedback- the best communication is two-way communication. • Although managers often hold forums and large feedback session, they rarely take action. • The key is that when communicating openly, something must be done.

S.H.O.C. • Consistent- All communication must be consistent. • Must keep communicating once you have started • Can do so through newsletters, employee forums, leadership meetings, reward celebrations

Internal Communications Audit • Completing an internal communications audit is the best way to research employee communications. • Starts with personal, in-depth interviews with both top managers and communicators

Internal Communications Audit • Four critical audit questions: • How do internal communications support the mission of the organization? • Do internal communications have management’s support? • Do internal communications justify expense? • How responsive to employees needs and concerns are internal communications? • Audits help determine staff attitudes about their jobs, the organization, and its mission. Analyzes current communications techniques.

Online Communication • Online communication has brought a whole new set of employee communications options. • Instant messaging • Email • Voicemail • intranets • Online communication reaches employees at their desks and makes it more likely for them to listen, read, and watch messages, and will most likely act on these.

Online Communication Vehicles • Blogs- an easy way for employees to post opinions and views of the company on the internet. • Podcasts- audio or video monologue, interview or on-location content is broadcast online to employees. • Wikis- a website which any user can add pages, modify content, and comment on existing content, less widespread than blogs

Online Communication • In order for social media to be effective in an organizational environment it must do three things. • Must have a business purpose • Must be entertaining as well as informative • Be composed of riveting content

Intranet • The intranet has overtaken print communications. • Must take into consideration several important concepts. • Consider the culture: if the organization is collaborative, it should have no problem with people contributing ideas. • Set clear objectives and then let it evolve: intranets must be designed with clear goals in mind. • Treat it as a journalistic enterprise: company news gets read by company workers.

Intranet • Market, Market, Market: Intranet needs to be sold within the company. Publicize new features or changes in content. If employees don’t know about it, they can’t use it. • Link to outside lives: Employees have outside lives, so link the intranet to classified ads, movie and restaurant reviews, or even coupon sites. • Senior management must commit: If the top management is neither interested nor supportive, the idea will fail.

Print Publications • Online internal communications have made it hard on print publications. • The trend for internal organizational communicating has been to move from print to internet-oriented options. • Whether the publication is online or in print, the editor must consider several tasks.

Editing Tasks • Assigning Stories: article assignments must focus on organizational strategies and management objectives. • Enforcing Deadlines: employees prefer a newsletter that comes out at a specific time, must assign rigid copy deadlines. • Assigning Photos: People like photos, make them exciting!

Editing Tasks • Editing Copy: they must correct sloppy writing, critique writing, and motivate to improve copy style. • Formatting Copy: making the final decision on the format of the newsletter or piece of literature given to employees. • Ensuring On-Time Publication: ensure that no last minute glitches interfere with publication. • Critiquing: makes sure the next edition will be even better.

Bulletin Boards • Although they are somewhat outdate, they still serve use in many organizations today. • Often used in fashion and retail. • Allows the organization to reach large numbers of individuals, and inform them of organizational messages while also informing employees about issues specific to the store they work in.

Bulletin Boards • They help improve productivity, cut waste, and reduce accidents on the job. • They inform employees of legal regulations. • Today’s use is more visually pleasing by including graphics, pictures, and charts. • It is important to keep bulletin boards current, one person in the PR department should be assigned to this weekly task.

Suggestion Box • Suggestion Box: a box that is mounted to the wall or floor that allows employees to anonymously deposit their thoughts about the organization. • The purpose of this is to ensure that there is feedback from employees. • Management must acknowledge this feedback and make organizational changes when needed.

Town Hall Meetings • Large gatherings of employees with top managers where nearly no subject is off limits. • The more open the format the greater management and the organization will be trusted. • When management says they will look into something or change something, they need to carry through with their actions to remain credible.

Internal Videos • Internal video communication can be very effective. • You can show the same video with the same message to hundreds, or even thousands of individuals working for you. • Videos can be used to be shown at one time, or at employees convenience. • These are used regularly in retail/fashion to show employees new products, seasonal items, loss prevention tips, and changes to policies and procedures.

Face-to-Face Communication • F2F is the best communication tool. • Most organizations are inconsistent with relaying important information to employees. • A good manager will learn from rumors. • Some departments even formalize the meeting process by mixing management and staff in a variety of formats, from complaining sessions, to marketing, and planning meetings.

The Grapevine • A.K.A. the rumor mill! • Identifying the source of rumors is difficult, and usually not worth the time. • Organizations make difficult decisions once alternatives have been weighed. • Final decision is often a compromise reflecting the needs of the workforce. • When explaining final decisions, management often forgets to tell employees how they reached their decisions. • The grapevine can be as much of a communications mechanism as a meeting, publication, or online tool.

Final Thoughts • Social Media is important for organizations to embrace when trying to connect with employees. • Management must commit and support employee communication. • There are numerous electronic and print methods of connecting with employees. • Management must not only embrace feedback, but also use that feedback to correct what is wrong.

References • Seitel, F.P. (2011). The Practice of Public Relations. Prentice Hall: Boston.

Employee Relations