Employee Communications and Engagement

There are some things about communication that are true whether you’re dealing with a Fortune 100 corporation or a sole proprietorship. A message isn’t communicated until it is received and understood. Telling the truth is the right thing to do. People can tell when they’re being fed a line. These truisms are pretty universal.

Having worked with businesses on both ends of the spectrum, however, I must confess that small-business communication is more fun and more fulfilling. Yes, it’s interesting to help corporations make their complex communication processes more efficient. It’s satisfying to see behemoth organizations communicate with people on a personal level.

But there’s something even more satisfying about seeing a business get off the ground and grow primarily because the owner knows how to communicate well. There’s something more organic – for lack of a better word – about the communication that takes place in a small business.

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of spending a few hours with more than 40 entrepreneurs at the Creative Change Center (C3) in Richmond, Va. I led a workshop on how to market a business on a shoestring budget. Anyone who has started a business from scratch knows that one of the greatest challenges is reaching your target market when you have little or no money to spend.

As is usually the case with C3, the room was filled with fascinating people: professional storytellers, artists, graphic designers, photographers, a guy who makes screen-printed T-shirts, a young woman who turns trash into unique usable products, people who pour their energy into non-profits, people who provide groundbreaking therapy to autistic children.

Here is what made me want to embrace every person in the room: each of them was passionate – not just motivated, but passionate – about what they do. It’s not difficult to get passionate people to communicate about what they do. They are eager to talk to anyone who will listen and they are unafraid to take risks and try new things

My experience is that most Fortune 100 corporations have too many people who not only lack the passion for what they do, but also are afraid to try something different.

It’s not surprising, then, that a recent study by the International Association of Business Communicators found that the success of a small organization’s public relations often rests in the communication skills and perseverance of the person at the top. Up until a company grows to about 20 employees, communication is what I call organic – informal, focused on building relationships with people. As companies grow beyond about 20 people, communication becomes more formal and process-driven.

A few large companies manage to hold onto the passion and risk-taking and the organic communication as they grow, but these companies are few and far between. And it takes work, in which many companies are unwilling to invest.

As I said to the entrepreneurs at C3, marketing is really about forming personal relationships with people. It’s knowing all about your customers and potential customers, understanding their problems, figuring out how to help them solve those problems and then telling them about the solutions you offer. It’s being flexible enough to meet your customers where they are rather than waiting for them to come to you.

The big guys could learn a few things about marketing from passionate entrepreneurs.

Robert Holland

Town-hall meetings help close the gap between what business leaders see as problems and what front-line employees experience.

A West Coast financial-services company got some good news recently. A survey on communication, administered by my company and Gill Research of Chicago, indicated that employees feel their supervisors do a very good job communicating about business issues. The company’s senior management has a clear business plan, according to employees, and they feel senior management clearly communicates with them about the plan.

This company is in an enviable position. Employees generally trust the business leaders and enjoy a healthy communication environment. Among the good news, however, there was a warning sign: Employees believe senior management could do a better job of understanding the issues and concerns of people in the lower levels of the company.

Even in the best companies, employees perceive a gap between what they experience every day and what senior management sees as the most pressing problems. One of the responsibilities of a leader is to look at all the available information and to make an informed decision about where the organization must focus its attention.

Business leaders and employees will not always agree on the issues. After all, a business is not a democracy. Senior management is accountable first to shareholders or owners. However, senior management also needs the physical, mental and emotional investment of employees for the business to be successful.

That’s why it behooves business leaders to have an ongoing dialogue with employees. The financial-services company with whom we worked holds regular town-hall meetings where business leaders talk to – and more important, listen to – employees about the problems facing the company. Senior management gets high marks for the town-hall meetings, but the survey indicated employees don’t always feel senior management understands the nitty-gritty realities of front-line jobs.

Having worked for several companies in which town-hall meetings were a centerpiece of the communication program, I realize most business leaders have a hard time knowing when to stop talking and start listening. They want to explain the reasons behind business decisions – and they should. Even if employees don’t agree with business decisions, they usually find the decisions easier to accept if they understand the reasons.

But explaining business decisions is not the greatest value of town-hall meetings. Most companies have multiple vehicles through which leaders explain business issues and decisions. The greatest value of town-hall meetings is in the building of affinity between business leaders and employees. That affinity begins with senior management listening to and internalizing what is on employees’ minds.

My hometown of Richmond, Va., has a wonderful example of an executive who understands the power of listening. Mayor Doug Wilder – who once was Virginia’s governor and recently was elected mayor, or the city’s CEO – has participated in numerous town-hall meetings with citizens. The fact that he is accountable to the citizens is a bit different from the relationship between a company CEO and employees. Still, he is an example of a strong leader who does not allow his strength to overpower his ability to listen. As Wilder engages in more listening, citizens feel empowered to get involved in solving the problems facing the city.

I believe any CEO of any company would welcome that kind of self-motivated involvement by employees.

Robert Holland

“Americans are growing increasingly unhappy with their jobs” is the opening sentence of a recent Conference Board survey of job satisfaction. This indicator has been falling for the last 10 years, yet in the past few years, many people may have been reluctant to try to do anything but make the best of things. But that “stickiness” appears to be changing.

If recent surveys are correct, many of your co-workers – maybe even you – are considering a change. Recruiting firms, busy last year, are even busier in the first half of this year. A recent Execunet survey shows 61% of employees are not satisfied with their jobs; a Society of Human Resource Management/Career Journal survey shows a whopping 81% actively searching or passively receptive to offers.

Why the movement now? One theory says employees have reached the tipping point: they are tired of being expected to do ever more with less. Another possibility, more people are looking for a better fit between who they are and what they do. And yet another possibility, people want to work in an environment that really engages and uses the knowledge and energy they bring with them.  The problem is real: organizations whose employees are less satisfied are at risk of losing of key human capital and increasing their cost of doing business in an ever more globally competitive world. The Conference Board is taking this issue seriously and as of March 1, 2005 launched a Working Group on Employee Engagement and Commitment.

A couple of thoughts from a “hard fun” perspective for the Working Group to consider:

• Find out how many dissatisfied employees feel that they are not respected in their place of employment. Ask for stories that give specific examples of this. Respect has been shown to be an important aspect of high performance work environments. In one global study of knowledge workers respect meant that they were able to use the knowledge and experience they had on their jobs.
• Look at the relationship between satisfaction and scale.  How close can one feel to 150,000 co-workers?  Effective groups have optimal sizes and organizations may need to rethink how they are structured to provide the environment where employees can feel genuinely engaged and see that their contribution matters. An example of this is Semco.
• Lastly, consider the way in which communication happens in organizations where employees are satisfied versus where there is high dissatisfaction. Issues of timeliness, trustworthiness, relevance and completeness are important. One possibly overlooked issue is that of emotional connection. Emotions are part of the workplace and have an impact on the degree to which individuals are motivated. When employees make a genuine emotional connection to what is being communicated – seeing clearly how they relate to it and how their actions contribute to organizational accomplishments – they may be much more likely to be satisfied with their jobs and their employer.

What do you think? Is job satisfaction possible or is it an outmoded concept? Post your thoughts in Q&A.

 

It amazes me how often business leaders miss the point: the secret to business success is an informed, empowered workforce.

I’ve worked with many companies of various sizes, some of which pour huge amounts of time and money into employee communication and some of which do as little as possible to keep workers engaged.

Some companies have all the bells and whistles – an intranet, a publication, television monitors throughout their buildings, quarterly dialogues with executives and other communication vehicles. However, in many cases employees in these companies know less about what’s going on than the organizations that have bare-bones communication.

Given the choice between a fully loaded employee communication program that fails to engage people and a limited program that reaches people with relevant information, I would of course choose the latter. But it amazes me how often business leaders miss the point: the secret to business success is an informed, empowered workforce.

A recent story in the United Kingdom’s Shropshire Star newspaper tells how employees at the Epson printer manufacturing facility in Telford reinvented the business when it looked like the end was near. Rather than give in to a soft market for their printers, employees learned the advanced technology necessary to make ink cartridges instead.

It would have been easy for workers to throw their hands up in despair. The workforce had been cut by more than half. Employees had to be retrained in every way – from the engineering and manufacturing to the technical and customer support for a different product. Their efforts are paying off. This year, three years after the change, the facility received a £5 million investment in six state-of-the-art automated ink cartridge production lines. More investment is coming in 2005. Eventually, more than 50 percent of Epson’s printer ink cartridges will be made in Telford.

Ray Prior, operations support manager for Epson, credits the company’s adherence to the Japanese improvement system called kaizen – the innovation, cost control and quality improvements that are necessary to meet market demands. And one method for achieving those improvements is employee engagement.

“The secret lies in the empowerment of the workforce,” Prior told the Shropshire Star. “You actually give people ownership and responsibility and you get employee-led improvements.”

That’s not just talk. Prior says the Epson factory significantly changed the shift system earlier this year. The elimination of double shifts might not have happened if not for employee involvement. “This meant changes which affected pay packets,” he told the newspaper, “as those on double shifts were getting special allowances. We discussed a range of proposals around which we had no idea what the outcome would look like. But there was real partnership between the management and staff and we came up with a proposal that suited both the company and the employees.”

Communication is nothing new to Epson. Employees in groups of 50 to 100 attend quarterly briefings by the managing director and local unit manager. The dialogues focus on company issues ranging from marketing to product changes. Most impressive is how the communication obviously has led to improvements. Epson credits employee involvement for an increased emphasis on training and education, a safety record 10 times the national average, lower energy costs and a more than four-fold increase in implemented employee suggestions.

Employees in most companies are ready and willing to work for the good of their enterprises, if only business leaders are willing to unleash them.

Q&A: What does your company do to engage employees in the business? 

Robert Holland

Distilled wisdom: The more knowledgeable, convinced and supportive the workforce is, the faster you can implement change. Strongly accepted change is sustainable, and that saves both time and money.

Everyone knows what a brand is, and everyone knows what advertising is. Some of us may be confused about promotion and merchandising but most have a basic idea, at least, of what they are.
Lately, a lot of people have been asking me about internal branding. What exactly is internal branding? It’s definitely a hot topic, on which seminars and workshops are offered all around the country. By my count, seven major internal branding conferences were held this past year. I have attended many of these and have heard some outstanding presenters address the topic.

It’s hot, but what is it? Very little is written that defines internal branding; so as one of the pioneers of this new branding phenomenon, I decided to pound a stake into the ground with my definition.
Before I explain what internal branding is, let me clear up some misconceptions. It is NOT letting your employees know about your new advertising campaign. It does not consist of handing out t-shirts and baseball caps to announce a new strategic initiative, name change or company vision statement. Really, it is not anything remotely like these things.

So what it IS internal branding? Why is it important? When should I do it?

Here is my definition: Internal branding is a cultural shift within an organization, where the employees become more customer focused and more business focused. You achieve this by an organized, communications and behavior driven process, which leads to a desired end state. Meanwhile, at all levels in the company, one big question is answered – “What’s in it for me?” After they hear and learn about the internal brand initiative, every single employee should understand what job behavior you expect from them, and how they contribute to the company’s success. You need to reinforce the behavior you want, and bring it into line with HR policies, internal communications and corporate marketing efforts and strategy.

Effective internal branding brings huge benefits. Companies whose workforces understand how they operate and make money perform better. Committed employees provide stronger performance and higher customer satisfaction.
Important data that supports this connection between understanding and internal change was released recently.

A recent McKinsey study concludes that change-management programs succeed only when employees at all levels-senior managers, middle managers, and the front line-share the will and the skills to change. They studied change programs at forty organizations, and found a strong correlation between good skills for managing change and the value an organization carries away from these programs. These skills, I would add, are the product of effective change communications and internal branding programming. The more knowledgeable, convinced and supportive the workforce is, the faster you can implement change. Strongly accepted change is sustainable, and that saves both time and money.
When all is said and done, successful internal branding lifts brand equity, customer focus and ultimately shareholder value. One of our high tech presenters at the recent conference shared startling numbers that demonstrated a powerful correlation between internal branding efforts, external branding efforts and shareholder equity. It’s all about the facts, the data, the metrics and accountabilities.

So the question becomes, “How should a company do internal branding or Inward Marketing™?” Here are some of key elements/best practices we’ve gathered from studying this topic for the past seven years.

• A brand is a process driven, long-term proposition. Not a deliverable! And so is internal branding.
• Internal branding follows a sequential process; through which employees achieve internal brand success. There is a difference between communicating a message, getting it understood, and changing behavior.
• You must have senior leadership participation and involvement throughout the process of internal branding. You can’t delegate this or let the managers drive it.
• Start with a clear company vision and purpose. If you don’t have one, work with the senior team to establish one and communicate throughout the company by both words and action.
• Set clear objectives and well-defined roles at the outset, and revisit them throughout the process.
• Consider assigning dedicated people to internal change communication and internal branding. Let them create a sense of such urgency that staff see no alternative to change.
• Conduct an audit of the enterprise understanding of the business objectives and strategy so you can address areas where people don’t “get it”.
• Internal branding, done well, allows employees to transition from being “Informed,” to “Understanding” the information, to becoming “Committed”, so that they “Change Their Behavior’ in support of the company goals. As a result they should “Receive Recognition & Rewards” and positive reinforcement for changing their behavior.
• Recognize the importance of the customer and all their points of contact with your company: call and service centers, sales associates, statements/invoices, advertising and more.
• Align your brand externally & internally. Let your inside be like your outside: what you say externally should be the same thing you say/do internally.
• Go for participation, consensus and employee dialogue. These work better than edicts and policies that travel down the hierarchy.
• Having “Employee Brand Ambassadors” is critical–involve a cross section of employees from all levels, who will promote the brand internally through experiential communication.
• Obtain metrics and measures before, during and after program implementation. Research your employees regularly and track their progress over time.
• Hard, Simple, Easy – Work hard to make complex concepts and ideas simple, so they are understood and communicated easily.
• Seek outside help from experts and consultants in the field – this is hard work, but with help in methodology and process, it can be done effectively.

Internal Branding should be embraced by companies and by marketing and human resource management in particular. They should work together to engage their employees to understand and behave in support of the company’s strategic initiatives.

I look forward to having an ongoing dialogue in this forum and to hear your ideas and opinions as we continue this blog. Welcome.

Allan Steinmetz – Inward Strategic Consulting

Arunis Chesonis is a CEO who gets the power of communication as a necessary ingredient for success. If only other CEOs followed his recipe.

My radar is always up for examples of CEOs who understand that communication is necessary for business success. It’s difficult finding business leaders who do more than pay lip service to the idea of frequent, honest communication with stakeholders – especially employees.

Arunis Chesonis is a rare find. He is CEO of PAETEC, one of the few startups that survived the great telecom boom of the late 1990s. I first read about him in Fast Company magazine in February 2004. The article caught my eye because Chesonis has created a company culture where information flows freely, knowledge passes from one person to another and the dignity of people comes first. It’s a philosophy that works, too – last year’s article cited a 250 percent growth rate in the previous three years and it’s still growing at a rate of 120 percent.

Chesonis impressed me so much that I suggested him as a keynote speaker for the annual Corporate Communicators Conference presented by Ragan Communications in Las Vegas last week. The conference organizers like to find a CEO who can charge up the corporate-communication professionals in attendance – it can be demoralizing to work for some companies that believe the less communication the better.

My friend and fellow communication consultant Charles Pizzo wrote a blog from the conference and gushed about Chesonis’s address. Believe me when I say it takes a lot for Charles to gush about anything, so I knew the CEO’s remarks were powerful.

“This is a CEO who gets it,” Charles wrote, “who lives, breathes and exudes communication. “Speaking from the heart with no script, he is a communicator’s dream.”

That observation alone tells you how easy it is for a CEO to score points with customers, employees, or whomever, just by being real. So many business leaders are attached at the hip to a script filled with jargon and clichés, it’s no wonder nobody believes a word they say.

Charles summarized Chesonis’s remarks, which focused on his philosophy as a leader. “You cannot over-appreciate your employees. Give employees ownership. Show fairness in wages, perks and parking. Keep balance: work is not the most important thing in people’s lives. Flexibility counts: people have family and friends, birthdays and Little League. The culture is the company: create a sense of family. Support the community: encourage employees to develop pride while chasing their passions.”

What does this have to do with communication? Everything. So many business leaders fail to understand that actions – their individual actions, the company’s actions – communicate strong messages to people all the time. I have a friend who is close to burning out personally and professionally in his job for one of Richmond’s top employers. His boss doesn’t understand how her constant demands and unreasonable expectations communicate that he is a commodity to be used and tossed aside.

“Arunis makes so much sense, and is so refreshing, that we should bottle his essence and pour it over salads in corporate boardrooms all across the land,” Charles wrote. “His message is absolutely palatable.”

And yet, it’s on the menus of so few companies these days.

Robert Holland

Throwing chairs, tossing zingers and misusing the English language are probably not the best tactics to ensure your message is heard

If you want people to hear what you have to say, give them something worth listening to.

Sounds simple, right? If that’s the case, why does effectively communicating a viewpoint seem to be such a lost art these days?

We are living in the age of Jerry Springer, the TV talk-show host who delights in chair-throwing, bleep-inducing confrontations between people who need serious sedation and anger-management training. Not surprisingly, this kind of in-your-face entertainment has spilled over to more “serious” news programs on formerly respectable networks.

Look at what’s happening. There’s the weird rant of Tom Cruise in a “Today” show interview (which really wasn’t news except that Cruise apparently invented a new meaning for the word “glib”). There’s the printed gripe session in my hometown newspaper in which the same five people seem to be bickering endlessly. There are town-hall meetings – both in the public arena and in company auditoriums all over America – in which the greatest applause is reserved for the person who tosses the best zinger. And now there are blogs, online journals where freedom of expression is pushed to the extreme (I can’t wait for the inevitable tests of this freedom in future court cases).

As someone who makes a living out of trying to help people communicate effectively, all of this is frequently disheartening. As the volume increases, it is more difficult to hear what people are really trying to say.

Listening to different viewpoints is fun. I learn a lot from hearing people talk about what is important to them. Businesses can learn and grow, too, by listening to employees, customers, suppliers and other important groups. But good information gets lost when it’s wrapped in anything that detracts from the message.

Here are some ways to make sure your message isn’t lost:

Know how to use the language. For some people, all the rules of grammar and spelling are enough to cause hyperventilation. (I feel the same way about math.) But let’s face it: communication depends on knowing how to use the tools correctly. If you’re writing a letter to the editor, committing a grammatical error like “your an idiot” will detract from your message. There is little excuse for poor grammar and misspelling in these days of dictionaries and computerized spell-check.

Don’t let pure emotion take over. It is OK to be emotional when speaking on a subject about which you feel strongly. But when emotion is so strong that it overpowers the message, your audience will remember the outburst and forget what brought it on.

Keep your message simple. Whether you are speaking or writing, the person on the other end will remember only so much. (Think about how much information overload you have in your own life.) Rather than drift off into a half-dozen tangents, stick to the central message you want your audience to remember.

Keep your sense of humor. Humor is a wonderful weapon for defusing tense situations. Use it carefully, however, and aim it mostly toward yourself. Be willing to recognize when someone else is attempting to use humor and don’t take yourself so seriously.

Kill them with kindness. You can attract more bees with honey than you can with vinegar. My career has included a fair amount of communicating strong opinions, but I learned long ago that you can be opinionated and kind at the same time.

Robert Holland

Have you ever wondered if your organization’s efforts to increase employee engagement are worthwhile? Research carried out in conjunction with Aon Hewitt’s Best Employers in Canada study shows a link between highly engaged employees and improved health and overall well-being.

To analyze the data, organizations were grouped as high-, medium- or low-engagement employers based on their scores in the Best Employers study. Employees at these organizations were surveyed to determine correlation between engagement levels and various measures of health.

Those working at high-engagement organizations reported better physical health—56%, versus 47% for employees at organizations with moderate engagement and 41% at low-engagement organizations. Job stress levels were lower, too: 28% of employees at high-engagement locations reported high job stress, versus 33% at moderate-engagement firms and 39% of those at low-engagement workplaces.

Better health and lower job stress translate into tangible benefits for employers. While higher engagement doesn’t guarantee better health, a strategic focus on increasing employee engagement may support health and thus reduce levels of absenteeism.

Those at high-engagement workplaces reported an average of two days off annually due to emotional, physical or mental fatigue. That number was 2.7 for those at moderate-engagement organizations and 4.3 for employees at low-engagement companies. In addition, high-engagement organizations experienced fewer long-term disability claims and lower workers’ compensation premiums. The cost savings in workers’ compensation alone are significant: an average of $246,000 per year for a 1,000-employee organization.

What’s in a name? So begins the cover of corporate brochure of the Certified General Accountants of Ontario.  It was the first piece rolled out following our year-long exercise to “capture” the brand of our membership and relate it to employers, clients, peers, the profession and public.

But how did the brand connect with a key “touch point,” the employees of this professional association of accountants? Or in the more likely words of our staff, prior to our efforts at employee engagement and brand championing, “What’s in it for me?”

 

A Collective Definition of “Brand” (Wikipedia, captured May 2005) A brand represents the holistic sum of all information about a product, group of products or organization. This symbolic construct typically consists of a name, identifying mark, logo, visual images or symbols or mental concepts, which distinguishes the product or service. It is useful for the marketer to think of this as a set of aligned expectations in the mind of its stakeholders—from its consumers, to its distribution channels, to the people and companies who supply the products and services that make up the brand experience. A brand often carries connotations of a product’s “promise,” the product or service’s point of difference among its competitors that makes it special and unique. Marketers attempt, through a brand, to give a product a “personality” or an “image.” Thus, they hope to “brand,” or burn, the image into the consumer’s mind; that is, associate the image with the product’s quality.

Our “explicit” brand relates to perceptions of employers, clients and the public towards certified general accountants (CGAs). The “implicit” brand includes areas like simplifying education and business processes and procedures, thereby improving “customer” satisfaction in service and retention.

It’s remarkable the reach and influence our staff of 70 can have on an internal membership of more than 25,000, not to mention thousands of potential students, employers, the public, government, community groups and so on. If identification is muddy, contact with staff difficult, processes and procedures aren’t intuitive and proactive…the negative effects are substantial. Our end “product” is certificating members that are “broadly and deeply competent,” dedicated to “meeting needs by exceeding expectations,” etc., but a significant driver for the brand’s promise includes staff’s day-to-day delivery of customer service.

Capturing the CGA Brand

For 10 months, public affairs, marketing and communication staff worked intensely with our branding agency, first capturing the CGA brand’s values and attributes, then determining a campaign focus. The extensive training in the CGA program of professional studies, plus our members’ relationships with various publics, resulted in identification of these “honest and credible” brand characteristics and values:

• skilled
• knowledgeable
• confident
• adaptable
• approachable
• trustworthy

Next, we updated the CGA brand’s look, feel and communication: new corporate colours (including a “high energy” orange); a revamped corporate identity (logo excepted); and key messages that encapsulated the brand character. A vital component to CGA branding was evolving our focus from “awareness” of the designation to its “relevancy” to the end-users.

The end result was an array of evolved marketing tools, aimed at various publics.

Lunch and Learn about the CGA Brand

An identified challenge was staff having limited knowledge about branding efforts, including historic achievements and recent initiatives. Wanting all employees to embrace and champion the brand as much as the working group, we invited staff to “lunch and learn sessions.” Our goal was for employees to understand the CGA brand, and appreciate the significant role they played in its delivery.

An offsite location, catered lunch and branding paraphernalia—trade show booth, PowerPoint presentation, Flash video—helped transform the 10-year retrospective of our advertising/branding campaigns into an “event.”

First up was our tremendous historical success in profile building, primarily through our innovative advertising campaign, “We’re the name brand for business in Canada.” As one of three Canadian professional accounting designations, we operate in an incredibly competitive environment to attract students to our CGA program of professional studies.

More than 10 years ago we set out to raise public awareness of the CGA designation. Impediments to the communication challenge included a general lack of interest in the accounting profession, as well as a common misconception that the “product leader” was synonymous with the product category. Our opportunity was to establish CGAs as the accountants with the accounting and financial skills that businesses need, by using a creative execution that was unique to the Certified General Accountants of Ontario: its members and their names. At the beginning of our new advertising campaign, unaided awareness of the CGA designation in Ontario was just 27 per cent.

In September 1995, the “name brand” campaign hit television and radio, supported by print inserts in newspapers and magazines. It was tremendously well-received by members, the public and media. The commercials were eye-catching and quirky. We used the surnames of real CGAs to create short storylines, whenever possible using the actual members as “stars.” (If a CGA was uncomfortable in the limelight, staff filled in.) Although “actors” in our TV ads might have appeared a little stiff and awkward, they had huge smiles and appeared friendly and approachable, undercutting the traditional image of stuffy accountants. New TV and radio commercials were introduced every two years. Additionally, in 1999 we took the campaign outside with billboards…just like the TV ads, the first professional accounting association to do so.

Public Embracing of the CGA Brand

Post-campaign launch, awareness of the CGA designation and association rose substantially. Meeting people at industry functions, I’d indicate, “I work at the Certified General Accountants of Ontario.” The usual response, “I love your ads—they’re brilliant!”

Already we’d branded a “personality” for our CGAs: the friendly accountants. Media attention included Strategy magazine, CBC Radio, PR Canada, Marketing Daily, Ad-news Daily and The Lawyer’s Weekly. The director of public affairs was invited to present about our campaign at a Conference Board of Canada symposium. Perhaps the most thrilling recognition was our commercial being “spoofed” on CBC TV’s Air Farce; when comedians parody ads, they’ve made an impact!

The CGA Brand Evolves, to Broaden Its Reach and Influence

In 2001, we transitioned our expensive, full-fledged TV ads to the more cost-effective “closed captioning” option. Interestingly, the Ontario public continues to believe we produce TV commercials: earlier ads embedded the CGA brand in people’s consciousness. By 2004, research results indicated that unaided awareness of the CGA designation had risen to 75 per cent. Aided awareness exceeded 90 per cent.

We played the archived TV commercials at our sessions. Staff laughed appreciatively, called out the names of employees and CGAs, noted changing hair styles and fashions and indicated favourite ads. Seeing the commercials run consecutively emphasized their effectiveness. It was sinking in to employees their role in helping to raise awareness.

Mid-session, we began detailing the more recently identified challenge: employers said they recognized who CGAs were, and those who did know our “brand” liked it a lot…but many didn’t know enough about our members. Hence the reasons for our recent branding exercise: moving the CGA designation from awareness to relevance, from “name brand” to “name your need.”

The CGA brand character defines how our positioning comes to life. The values are those expressed by members and employees in behaviour, character, style, tone and manner. Attributes define the look and feel of all of our communications and culture. In addition to our advertising, the marketing department promotes the brand at career fairs and trade shows, in magazines and through career website banners. We also sponsor relevant events and engage in research. Our CGA brand is “out there,” in as many innovative ways as deemed feasible.

Extending the Explicit Brand into the Workplace

So how did employees fit in as champions of the brand? We indicated they should be proud of their part in “producing” CGAs with such an exemplary brand character. If CGAs were perceived as friendly and approachable, so were staff representatives of the association. Employees worked hard and diligently, fulfilling the needs of CGAs, students, prospective students and the public.

Today’s usual practice is to shorten organizational names into acronyms and initialisms. Although staff were used to saying “CGA” and “CGA Ontario,” we asked them to try to always say the association’s name in full. We emphasized consistency in identification and uniformity in presentation (using our in-house style guide). We shared samples of key messaging, for use in customer relations. Templates were provided for voicemail messages and e-mail signatures, incorporating all of these elements. Finally, we “requested” that staff consider including our new branding tagline at the end of e-mail signature blocks: Certified General Accountants. Name Your Need.

“Make-or-Break” Session Dynamics

The dynamics of the two sessions proved interesting. Despite session one being only two-thirds full, some staff “influencers” quickly voiced their approval of the exercise, signifying other ways to extend the brand, internally or publicly; for example, developing additional templates regarding vacation messages. Quieter staff began offering feedback, too. Enthusiasm was high!

Staff left with a branded-orange trade show bag, containing the corporate brochure; “champion” toolkit on CD-ROM; and a visual identification guide. (The PowerPoint presentation was in the portal for downloading.) We recommended staff use their association bag in public, to help extend the brand. They were invited to come to us for more, for family and friends or when their original bag wore out.

The second session was packed to capacity—with just enough food and seats—substantially larger numbers than had registered. Afterwards, we learned employees from the first group returned to the office and raved about how great was the session…so some staff actually “crashed” number two, which proved equally popular.

Mission Accomplished: Engaged Champions of the CGA Brand

Post-event, presenters received many visits and messages from employees regarding our efforts to “communicate” the brand; the majority updated their voicemail and e-mail signature blocks that day, including incorporating the tagline.

Our multimedia developer sent the favourite e-mail:

“I wanted to thank you for the marcomm presentation yesterday. It was very informative, and I especially enjoyed learning about the history of the brand and what the rational is for the way the brand is being promoted today. I have some marketing background, so understanding how the marketing/communications plan was conceptualized really helps me form a vision for my own work. It will also help in identifying myself as an employee of the Certified General Accountants of Ontario. I used to say, ‘I work for CGA Ontario, but I’m not an accountant.’ Now I can say, ‘I work for the Certified General Accountants of Ontario in the information services department.’

As part of the information services team, we can better serve the needs of all of our ‘clients,’ with this clearer understanding of what the brand really stands for. I must say that the direct mail piece is brilliant; if you have any extra copies I’d love to have one. Thanks again, and the food was great, too!”

Postscript : At the request of the chief executive officer of the Certified General Accountants of Ontario, our multimedia developer demonstrated her personal dedication and vision as a CGA brand champion (thereby serving the needs of her internal clients) by developing templates of HTML signature blocks, which make use of two distinct palettes drawn from our new corporate colours. Each staff member was invited to ask the information services team to download a personalized signature block onto his or her system, one that includes name, position and co-ordinates, plus our logo and tagline, Certified General Accountants: Name Your Need. With each message, staff are delighted to play a further champion role in extending the reach and influence of the CGA brand.

Judy Gombita is manager of communications for the Certified General Accountants of Ontario (http://www.cga-ontario.org) and has been happily involved in all aspects of the association’s recent branding efforts.

The original publication of a shorter version of this article was commissioned for the May/June 2006 issue of the Journal of Employee Communication Management (JECM) magazine, published by Lawrence Ragan Communications, Inc. (http://www.ragan.com). It is shared with members of the Communitelligence portal with the kind permission of JECM’s editor, David R. Murray.

Credit is extended to the following organizations and individuals for their role in the hugely successful advertising and branding efforts of the Certified General Accountants of Ontario. Branding agency: Cundari SFP (formerly Spencer Francey Peters). Brand strategist: Jeannette Hanna; project manager: Kristina Hayes. Advertising agency: Clique Communications. Creative director: Richard Clewes. Media buyer: Media Dimensions. Principal: Diane Webb. 

Guest Article By Judy Gombita 

Forced ranking – the process of assessing, identifying and potentially eliminating a percentage of the lowest performing employees each year – is on the rise. Promoted by many – most notably GE’s Jack Welch as a way to increase organizational performance over time, the practice has come under scrutiny recently. Two studies cast doubt on the long term benefits of the practice.

In the first study of 200 seasoned HR professionals, released last summer¹, researchers gathered “…some startling findings around the perceived negative repercussions from forced ranking systems, such as reduced productivity, inequity and skepticism, negative effect on retention, and a detrimental impact to the bottom-line.”

The second study, done by researchers at Drake University² used a computer model to simulate the performance improvement gained over a 30 year horizon by organizations using forced ranking systems. While they found an initial “bump” of a respectable 16% in the first two years, this quickly tailed off to a negligible 1% by the 10^th year.

In the short-term forced ranking appears to create a high performance culture; focusing on staffing with the best of the best. However, this occurs at the cost of reducing other behaviors that contribute to innovation and risk taking; communication and collaboration. “Hard fun” needs to be located in the content of the work, not the politics of survival to benefit both the individual and the organization.

What do you think? Post your thoughts in Q&A.

¹ to read the press release about the study go to http://www.novations.com/novations/go/rainbow/4045/en/DesktopDefault.aspx You can also request a copy of the complete study there.

² to read a brief article about the study go to

http://www.workindex.com/editorial/hre/hre0505-03.asp

In this paper, the author refers to current trends and essentials that organizations must consider to actively engage their workforce. Consistent communication, employee involvement, building trust and supporting real-time recognition are key elements to successfully engagement. Positive outcomes of engagement include increased productivity, loyalty and better alignment to company’s goals.  A list of recommendations and a case study from Sapient distills best practices from within the organization.

Jack Welch, ex-CEO of General Electric once famously said – “without everybody embracing what we want to do, we haven’t got a prayer” summing up the importance of engaging employees to align to the organization’s goals. Organizations today face innumerable challenges including overcoming economic and business changes and managing varied workforce demands. That apart engaging employees is more complex with an explosion in social media tools and usage, increasing information overload, waning attention spans and a war for talent.

Engagement Takes Center stage

Employee engagement has taken center stage in the recent past with a host of consulting firms claiming to have cracked the code with well researched concepts and artifacts. For example, Hewitt sums up their understanding with the Stay-Say-Strive model and defines engagement as the ‘state of emotional and intellectual involvement in a group or organization – the extent to which an organization has captured the hearts and minds of its people’.  Organizations also commit a lot of time and resources to participating in best places to work studies in order to reflect high levels of engagement that improve their chances of attracting the best people.

What does Engagement Mean?

The Gallup organization describes employee engagement as the ‘the involvement with and enthusiasm for work’. According to Development Dimensions International, ‘engagement is the extent to which people enjoy and believe in what they do, and feel valued for doing it.’ Watson Wyatt explains it as ‘the combination of commitment and line of sight’. The Corporate Leadership Council defines engagement as ‘the extent to which employees commit to something or someone in their organization and how hard they work and how long they stay as a result of that commitment’. Four focal points of commitment – day to day, team, manager and organization emerge from two broad types of commitment – rational and emotional. The outcomes of engagement are discretionary effort and an intention to stay.

While consultants and academicians spar on a worthy definition, the implications for communicators and organizations are barely understood. Gallup distinguished employees based on their engagement levels ranging from ‘engaged’ to ‘actively disengaged’. Some research firms coin creative ways to represent the profile of engaged employees based on their contribution and satisfaction – core contributors, lost believers, aligned skeptics, loose cannons, silent listeners, hamsters, crash and burners. It is important to revisit the reasons for declining engagement scores and relook at drivers that can change the way organizations keep employees connected.

Why Should Organizations Bother?

Global research reports such as the Edelman Trust Barometer highlight falling engagement levels within organization which face newer challenges such as globalization of business, new age technology, an increasingly diverse workforce and greater market pressures. There is a power shift in information sharing and credibility. According to the Trust Barometer, opinion leaders also consider rank-and-file employees more credible spokespeople than corporate CEOs (42% versus 28% in the US). Trust in “regular employees” and “colleagues” is growing, and is already significantly higher than information conveyed by a CEO. This may mean that the way internal communication is perceived may dictate how committed employees are within an organization.

To stay ahead, organizations need to tap their employees’ talents and market trends such as changes in the social media landscape. Organizational programs and policies that address employees’ needs and concerns and demonstrate caring and supportive environment are likely to motivate employees to reciprocate with higher levels of engagement. Development Dimensions International believes that organizations understand that people are a key asset and they have an overwhelming impact on the company’s growth. The right work environment usually translates into improved motivation and enhanced or discretionary effort; which in turn leads to business success. There are however ways to build engagement and Hewitt’s survey on ‘Cost Reduction and Engagement’ mentions that executives need to focus on planning, communicating better, measuring engagement impact and retaining talent. Those companies that communicate proactively are much surer of measuring engagement and better equipped to handle any downturns.

Five Strategies to Engage Your People

1. Involve Employees in Decision Making

The Egage Group in the UK recently discovered through their study that ‘including’ rather than ‘talking at’ people was the most effective way of engaging employees to improve business performance. The findings confirm a direct relationship between an organization’s financial performance and employees’ commitment to contribute effort. The essence of the study is that people are more committed when they are involved in change.

Similarly, a study by Gallup in 2009 among 1,003 U.S. employees arrived at the conclusion that if supervisors focus on their peoples’ strengths and actively engages rather than overlooks, the greater the chances of employees rallying for the organization’s cause. ‘What’s Working’ – Mercer study on worker insights highlights that employee engagement is no more about just the employee’s intent to leave. The employee’s commitment to the organization and motivation to contribute to the organization’s success plays a significant role. Among the key drivers are trust in senior management, organizational perception for customer service and fair pay. Not surprisingly, among the least valued factors in the continuum were benefits, compensation and performance management.

2. Effective Communication Key to Success

Watson Wyatt’s ‘Global Work Attitudes Report’ indicates that if engagement is high, so is financial performance. It highlights that the main drivers of employee engagement are similar around the world: effective communication, a clear customer focus and confidence in the strategic direction and leadership of the organization. It is therefore recommended that senior leaders proactively communicate, explain their thinking behind key decisions and organizational changes. It is also expected that managers and leaders personalize communication to improve trust and credibility. By regularly seeking feedback and employee inputs in the decision making process helps engage them better. Frequent recognition is known to be a relevant engagement lubricant and Towers Perrin underscores the influence of managers in inclusive communication and building trust through the power of recognitions.

3. Managers as Communication Ambassadors

 

The manager’s role in positively impacting engagement is widely accepted. A study by the Society of Human Resources Management found that managers or the immediate supervisors have a mission to build and sustain a workplace environment that fosters engagement and also attracts potential employees. Employees’ emotional commitment to the job, organization, team and manager has been found to determine stronger performance.  Also managerial style has a significant impact on trust, respect and leadership and is one of the factors that influence engagement. A study by Development Dimensions International highlights that among the top key components of engagement are communication and accountability. This emphasizes the highlighting the managers’ responsibility in engaging employees. Having a competent manager community and a comprehensive communication strategy are vital to an organization’s engagement initiatives.

A well crafted reward and recognition program that is fair, clear, outcome driven and real-time supports a manager in improving commitment and productivity. That said, the manager is also expected to be attentive (listen intently), receptive (be open to suggestions and acknowledge value of what is heard) and responsive (demonstrate interest to take action). It is know that people show increased levels of respect and trust for managers who regularly ‘uplift’ their employees with informal and formal confidence building measures.

4. Demonstrate your commitment to corporate social responsibility

A research by Kenexa suggests that an organization’s active participation in corporate social responsibility efforts has a significant influence on employees’ engagement levels and how they perceive senior management. The research bases itself on the premise that those companies that win the hearts and minds of their top talent will be able to deliver value over both the short and long terms’. Bhattacharya, C. B., Sen, Sankar & Korschun (2008) in their study emphasized that employees like to work for social responsible companies because it gives them the opportunity for personal growth. CEOs who were polled ranked ‘CSR’  2^nd in importance only to ‘reputation and brand’. Those who identify strongly with the company, view its success as their own. Employees who noted their organization’s commitment to social responsible behavior were motivated to work harder and be more productive. The benefits for the organization included high levels of employee commitment and dedication to excellence at work.

5. Embrace social media to engage employees

In their book ‘First, Break All The Rules: What The World’s Greatest Managers Do Differently’ the authors Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman articulate how communication is a vital element in energizing a flagging workforce. Overcoming information overload and getting employees to manage their work and by providing necessary tools helps to motivate and engage.

The research proposes a model – Develop-Deploy-Connect taking into account alignment, capability, performance and commitment. According to Aon Consulting, employers are unable to keep pace with the way employees communicate and hence do not know how to engage them. With growing social media interest it no more about what we communicate with employees but how we do so. There are lessons for leadership to absorb newer trends in social networking and mobile telephony to appeal to their younger generation at the workplace. Recommendations to involve and create a culture of sharing and peer to peer communication include instant messaging, podcasts, virtual training, blogs, internal social networks, wikis and social sites.

Deloitte’s 2008 talent report  quotes a couple of relevant surveys – a Conference Board study which highlights open and two way communication as one of the top three expectations of employers. Another study from MIT which reinforces the social engagement aspect – ‘people are five times more likely to consult a co-worker for information than a corporate system’. ‘Who you know’ matters more than just ‘what you know’, a shift from our earlier understanding of knowledge and importance within an organization.

These pointers are crucial for organization to remodel the way communication needs to get created, shared and viewed. Social media tools will play a defining role in building trust and transparency, drive engagement and help measure the impact of how employees view their employers. There are very few organizations who take employee feedback and actively drive recommendations from consultants. Look up a case study of Sapient to know of how the organization involves and integrates its people to win loyalty.

Helping employees understand their role in the organization’s growth, channelizing their creative energies and allowing freedom at work can deliver results for organizations who want to win the engagement battle.

The Sapient Way – A Case Study

At Sapient, a global services company founded in 1990, the commitment to help clients transform their businesses for today’s digitally centric world is top priority. The organization believes in aligning its people to the company’s goals and understands the importance of keeping everyone on the same page when it comes to meeting it objectives. From its unique 3 day integration workshop and strategy called Sapient Start to its performance linked assessment program, from its ‘localized’ rewards and recognition initiative to its wide reaching alumni connection – the organization ensures that every person imbibes the Sapient culture.  By keeping its internal programs consistent across all levels and all geographies it retains its unique identity and the clients’ experience of Sapient.

Sapient’s culture hinges on Strategic Context, a framework of common purpose, vision and set of values that connect every Sapient person to the company’s future. This aligns its people to a common and shared goal and their efforts are contributing to a bigger cause. The key differentiators of Sapient are its focus on internal communication, involving people in key decision making, extensive leadership-people connection, open and transparent work environment, its corporate social responsibility commitment, sharing ownership with the manager community and its consistent measurement of engagement.

Due to its focus on engagement, it ranks globally amongst the most engaged companies in the BT Mercer ‘Best Companies to Work’ as well as the ‘Great Places to Work’ surveys. Its reputation as a great place to work is also significantly enhanced by being featured amongst NASSCOM’s Top 100 innovators.

Below is a snapshot of a few internal initiatives that drive engagement at Sapient.

Strategic Internal Communication Approach: Effective internal communications drives Sapient people to change behaviors. It shares relevant and compelling communication to get people to move from awareness to understanding and action.  Specifically, for change management initiatives that affect a large portion of Sapient people, a toolkit is shared that outlines communication practices at Sapient. A strong partnership between Public Relations, Internal Communications and the leadership ensures that Sapient people receive significant information about big changes, such as acquisitions and leadership transitions real time. Through telephonic debriefs, Town Halls and e-mails Sapient’s leadership effectively cascade the information with the help of managers to everyone in the company within a matter of hours.

 

Consistent Leadership Connect Town Halls: Every quarter the senior leadership and Office Leads commit time to engage with its people, share company updates, take feedback and answer questions face to face. The management believes it is vital to have everyone on the same page. The Town Hall conversations cover the company strategy, the impact of people practices, the company’s progress against goals, recognitions and office level updates.

 

People Forums: People from different career levels meet up on a recurring basis to interact, engage, drive initiatives and connection with peers and the organization. The forums such as the manager, director and technology sessions strive to align to the company’s charter and the Leadership Team’s goals. These are also opportunities to groom future leaders by allowing people to take accountability and initiative. Apart from this gathering, the Leadership Team frontends an initiative called the ‘Lessons in Leadership’ which allows people to interact with leaders, get advice on growing leadership skills and connect on a personal level with leaders.

 

Consistent communication through plasma TVs: Across offices plasma TVs play a roll-up of key company updates in a timely and consistent format. Every week the information is refreshed with a dedicated team monitoring and releasing content on company branded templates. The plasma screens are placed at vantage locations near the reception areas to ensure the information is relayed effectively. Also the slides are pictorial and timed to give people sufficient opportunity to absorb key messages.

 

 

The People Portal : The Sapient People Portal, represents a key step in the company’s commitment to keep its people better connected and informed, and provide an intuitive, easy-to-use experience. A major benefit is its ability to communicate important messages from management in a timely and efficient manner. The People Portal is unique in the manner the company involved the entire company in its conception and development. Over 40 teams made up of over 100 Sapient people submitted design entries, which were voted on by the entire company. Many of the designs provided key functional ideas and specifications that have been incorporated into the winning design.  

 

Sapient’s company newsletter, the Sapient Connection: The weekly internal newsletter, emailed to every Sapient person and posted on the landing page of the People Portal, highlights new messages from leadership, as well as corporate news and success stories from offices worldwide. The newsletter received than three times the number of articles submitted and much wider readership than its predecessor. The Sapient Connection is now more accessible with a pdf format that is e-mailed to those who are at client locations and are unable to view the People Portal from a remote site.

 

People Portal Communities: Sapient believes in frequent and open feedback. It encourages people to leverage the current trend in social networking to help foster a sense of community between people and leadership.   The People Portal includes online Sapient Communities, which have become a valuable tool for sharing information and insights in real time and fostering a sense of community across teams, practices, offices worldwide. Leaders can now connect with their people through postings, articles, and discussion threads.

 

Social Media Usage: Sapient creats CEO ‘You-Tube’ style videos to share company updates and progress against objectives set. The video medium is an ideal communication tool that allows the company to share information in a consistent and timely manner.  Feedback on this new format has been extremely positive; people feel the video format helps them connect more easily (than an e-mail bulletin, for example) to leaders’ new ideas. Similarly, leadership blogs written by a pool of leaders share experiences and personal learning from the workplace. The blogs capitalizes on their ‘personality’ within the organization, provides an opportunity for leaders to be heard and allows open interaction. It is measured through the number of direct comments from readers, fruitful conversations and increased engagement. The posts range from the leaders’ business interactions to the team’s charter, from recent industry trends to the company’s people volunteering initiatives. The leadership accesses and manages the blogs in a DIY (do it yourself) model with e-mail communication templates to share updates after they post their entries.  The company recently launched a Sapient India Facebook group (http://www.facebook.com/sapientindia) to build on the success of its social media strategy, which already includes Sapient Interactive groups on Facebook and LinkedIn.  The Sapient India Facebook group is designed to help the company create brand awareness, showcase its culture and provide a community forum where Sapient people can share important company milestones and engage others in relevant discussion. The page reached 861 fans in a short span of 5 months.

‘Non-Business’ Distribution Lists: The company allows people to operate subscriber led distribution lists which appeal to special interest groups. The leadership monitors and observes posts and responds to comments and feedback which impact the organization. The lists are self-moderated and the moderators proposes guidelines so that only relevant communication is shared. Close to 1/3 of the company use the lists and many claim that it increases their chances of getting good deals as compared to the traditional route of newspaper advertisements. Through peer reviews people are able to get quick feedback on courses, real estate, banking needs among others.

 

Engagement Measurement: The company conducts a company-wide ‘pulse’ designed to assess the quality of how its people experience Sapient.  The Engagement Survey using qualitative and quantitative questions assesses the company’s performance against a set of unchanging key measures.  It measures various aspects of Sapient and gives Company, Support Teams, as well as Account, Project and Practice Leadership insight into what we are doing well today and what we need to change and improve.  Apart from that Sapient conducts periodic Focus Group sessions designed to gather qualitative and anecdotal information from Sapient people about their thoughts on Sapient’s culture. Culture Champions approach people directly to participate in these in order to ensure a representative mix of domains, career stages, tenures and roles in each office are covered. Regular periodic ‘pulse’ checks are also conducted to get a sense of people and preempt attrition. The focus covers key themes: leadership, recognition and fun, connect to company, nature of work and growth. Using a proven discussion grid the inputs are captured for developing an action plan and shared directly with leaders.

 

Recognition Program: Sapient not only has a dedicated resource to oversee its recognition program it also makes improvements to the way award recipients are selected and celebrated. It applauds extraordinary effort and success across the organization consistently. All recognition programs are localized to ensure easier connection, faster distribution and smoother processes. The program is linked to the organization’s objectives and recognizes high performance. There are awards ranging from a spot recognition to a company wide honor for business development and living the core values.

Career Framework: Sapient invests in career tools to build readiness among its people for rapid growth and expansion into new markets. With an updated, integrated, holistic and standardized set of tools for talent management that better reflect its current and future business requirements, the company is well positioned to meet the needs of both the business and the inspirational needs its people. Online tools support peoples’ understanding of their competencies, areas of improvement and career levels they can move to.

 

People Led Office-Level Programs: Celebrations assume different dimensions at the local Sapient office level and are a blend of social, leadership-based and even, family-oriented celebratory gatherings, to recognize the value and impact that our people have on the organization. Sharing successes at the workplace with people’s families make celebrations even more meaningful. Through office-level social meets, leadership-people interactions and family gatherings we place a strong emphasis on recognizing the value and successes that our people bring across the organization in varying degrees. Budgets are allocated via the Office Leads who involve people for the office level programs.

Emphasis on CSR: We believe that corporate social responsibility (CSR) relates to the way organizations integrate social, environmental, and economic concerns into their values, culture, decision making, strategy and operations, thereby establishing better practices within the organization, creating wealth, and improving society. Sapient is interested in CSR as a way to ‘give back’ to the communities that we operate within while improving morale and engagement within our organization. We actively support the programs which fundamentally help improve lives. The programs are unique since it is people led and the organization plays the role of enabler with resources and support. The ‘enactors’ are the employees who choose, design and implement initiatives that impact society.  

______________________________________________________________________

References:

1. British Association of Communicators in Business (2008). Engagement: Results of Engage Group Survey. Retrieved: http://cib.uk.com/content/knowledge-bank/1457-engagement-yougov-survey-results.html

2. Vance, Robert J., Ph.D. (2006). Employee Engagement and Commitment. Retrieved: http://www.shrm.org/about/foundation/research/Documents/1006EmployeeEngagementOnlineReport.pdf

3. Baker, Brian (2009). Engagement 2.0 Beyond the Firewall. Aon Consulting

4. Wellins, Richard S., Bernthal, Paul & Phelps, Mark (2004). Employee Engagement: the key to realizing competitive advantage, Development Dimensions International, Inc.,

Retrieved: http://www.ddiworld.com/pdf/ddi_employeeengagement_mg.pdf

5. Mercer (2008). What’s Working Study. Retrieved: http://www.mercer.com/whatsworking

6. Watson Wyatt (2008). Increasing Employee Engagement: Strategies for Enhancing Business and Individual Performance. Work Asia Survey

Retrieved: http://www.watsonwyatt.com/asia-pacific/research/docs/WorkAsia_SurveyReport_2007-2008.pdf

7. Bhattacharya, C. B., Sen, Sankar & Korschun, Daniel (2008). Using Corporate Social Responsibility to win the War of Talent, MIT Sloan Management Review. Winter 2008. Vol 49 No: 2.

8. Kenexa  (2007). Corporate Social Responsibility Efforts  Are Recognised By Employees

Retrieved: http://www.kenexa.com/getattachment/76533599-b86f-4391-8d50-3b8e35286d3f/Corporate-Social-Responsibility-Efforts-Are-Recogn.aspx

9. Buckingham, Marcus., & Coffman, Curt. (1999). First, Break All The Rules : What The World’s Greatest Managers Do Differently.

10. Deloitte (2008). It’s 2008: Do You Know Where Your Talent Is?. A Deloitte Research Study

11. Lockwood, Nancy R. (2007).  Leveraging Employee Engagement for Competitive Advantage: HR’s Strategic Role. SHRM Research 2007 SHRM® Research Quarterly

12. Driving Performance and Retention Through Employee Engagement. Corporate Leadership Council 2004 Employee Engagement Survey.

13. Hewitt (2009). Cost Reduction and Engagement Survey. Retrieved: http://www.hewittassociates.com/MetaBasicCMAssetCache/Assets/Articles/2009/Hewitt_Survey_Highlights_Cost_Reduction_and_Engagement_042009.pdf

14. Towers Perrin (2009). White Paper – ‘Turbo charging’ Employee Engagement: The Power of Recognition from Managers.

 

Aniisu K Verghese is the India Internal Communication Lead at Sapient Corporation. Aniisu is passionate about engaging fellow communication practitioners through workshops and presentations. Visit Aniisu’s blog at http://www.intraskope.wordpress.com

How we talk to our sweetheart often transfers to the workplace

Maybe it’s because Valentine’s Day is upon us, but lately I’m thinking a lot about communication that has nothing to do with the workplace. I’m thinking about the kind that is ultimately more important than communication at work. Let’s call it communication in love.

We guys usually get pretty low scores from our significant others on our communication skills. Most women’s complaints usually have to do with our unwillingness to talk about our feelings. We opt instead for the universal grunt, which can be interpreted in a variety of ways. We do this so women will think we’re strong and mysterious. Revealing too much about what we think about something – whether it’s our political opinions, our existential questions or our innermost feelings – might ruin the mystery or make us appear weak.

Men give women low scores on communication because women do so much of it. For most women, a relationship is all about two people sharing information with each other. Besides asking us guys to tell them what we’re thinking, women also are all too willing to tell us guys what they think. Men generally have no problem with sharing information, as long as the information can be shared in less verbal (i.e., more physical) ways.

As a guy who has been through a few failed relationships and as a professional communicator, I can tell you that there is usually a direct link between the success of a relationship and the ability of the two people to communicate with one another. I admit this is not earth-shattering news.

But have you ever wondered how communication in love translates into communication at work?

Many of us have two faces – the one we wear at home and the one we wear to work. (In fact, this is one reason so many extramarital affairs happen with co-workers; they see the charming, intelligent side of us rather than the side that lies on the sofa in our underwear, watching WWF and belching out loud). This might be true, but I believe there is no hiding our true communication styles.

A man who withholds his feelings, who refuses to be vulnerable with the woman he loves, probably withholds information from his co-workers. A woman who prides herself on telling her husband exactly what she’s thinking without regard to his bruised ego probably annoys her co-workers with her brash character assassinations in the break room. A guy who believes the universal grunt should suffice as an acceptable response to a sincere question from his girlfriend probably thinks the people who work for him should be able to interpret his gutturals. A woman who resents the fact that her boyfriend can’t read her mind about what she’d like to do this weekend probably doesn’t understand why her subordinates can’t read her mind about how she likes the work to be done.

Just as those barriers to open communication keep couples from experiencing the joy of a loving relationship, similar obstacles prevent us from being as productive and as fulfilled as we can be in our jobs. Improve the way you talk to your sweetie and you just might find you’re improving the way you talk to your associates.

Love is work. And our communication in love is our communication at work.

Do you see a correlation between your communication in love and your communication at work? Talk about it in Q&A.

Robert Holland