Change Communications

Did you know that 60 percent of workers who are kept in the dark by their bosses plan to leave within the next two years?

Communications consultancy CHA, which carried out over 1,000 interviews with UK workers, found that 60 percent of workers who are kept in the dark by their bosses plan to leave in the next two years.

That figure drops to just 23 percent among those who don’t feel they’re kept in the dark. But when workers receive clear communication, their motivation increases dramatically with 80 percent motivated to add value, dropping to less than 36 percent in organizations where the communication is confusing.

Workers who know what the company plan is are five times more likely to be motivated, while 65 percent say too much of the information they receive isn’t relevant to their job and 39 percent say they are told too late about major changes in their place of work.

Source: CHA PR report, A little more conversation. For more information visit: www.chapr.co.uk

Stakeholders will need different levels of communication and they will need it at different times. They will need information about the change which directly affects them, but they may also need to establish a sense of relationship to the project if their involvement is key.

Communication planning should therefore include elements of both information and relationship building, and there is a role for the whole project team in fulfilling the full spectrum of stakeholder needs. This is indicated in the communications escalator illustrated below:

• Awareness - achieved through the transmitting of information about the project through newsletters, e-mail and other communications channels.
• Understanding – the transmitting of information in a more intimate and focused way, for example, road shows, video conferencing and presentations.
• Support – the level of communications where employees seek clarification and the project team provide help or support. Two-way focused communication is integral to the support approach, including Seminars and training courses.
• Involvement – the level of communication where employees are actively involved in the development of the project, which can be achieved through team meetings, workshops and feedback forums.
• Commitment - the highest level of the communications escalator and is achieved through the building and development of quality relationships, joint problem solving sessions etc.

Replies to a debate posted to Melcrum’s CommsNetwork:
What is the role of strategy in internal communication? Should we leave strategy to the business managers and concentrate on doing what we know how to do, the craft of communicating, well?

Chris Smithers Internal Communications BT Global Services

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Chris,

I think there’s a balance. Don’t expect to contribute to thestrategy if you can’t do the day job, and you can mess up communication pretty thoroughly if you can’t write or speak

• People’s expectations of involvement at work are rising
• ‘Knowledge workers’ need to understand much more, take more decisions themselves (so ’strategy’ is the purpose and direction, not the detailed plans)
• There’s a need to bring larger, more disparate organisations together
• We need to react more quickly to changes
• Businesses are cutting costs by devolving more and more activities to managers
• One of the key drivers of this is the growing importance of service within the mix of what companies deliver, as well as globalisation, consolidation and other trends.

All this makes communication, particularly two-way communication, key.

Keith Hardie
Head of Communication, Premier Travel Inn

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Chris and brethren,

Fair enough. I’ll bite. Ask yourself a couple of basic questions:
What is the purpose of all thoseinternal newsletters and web sites? Why do companies devote scarce resourcesto them?It is not to make people feel good. It is not to win Quill awards. It is notto keep “communicators” employed. None of that is fundamentally important.

Rather, it is to enable the company to succeed in ways it has never succeeded before. Just as you do not buy gasoline for the sake of owning it, but rather because it can take you places, so a company doesn’t publishvnewsletters for the sake of having them, but rather because they can takevthe company places it wants to go.

But the newsletters and web sites are irrelevant by themselves because theydo not operate in a vacuum. They cannot enable the company to succeed unlesstheir messages are consistent with other messages, far more powerful, beingsent by leadership behaviors, programs, policies, day-to-day decisions, anineffable passion for the enterprise, and so much more. That’s the stuffthat employees pay attention to.If we don’t speak up about inconsistent messages, no one will. Theinformation and messages in our publications and web sites must absolutelybe consistent with the reality experienced by employees. If it isn’t, the company cannot change and it cannot succeed.

Thomas J. LeeFounder and CEO, Arceil Leadership Ltd.
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