Change Communications

A recent study conducted by ISR has identified four key drivers of employee engagement that apply across the 10 countries surveyed (Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, the Netherlands, Singapore, the UK and the USA). These drivers are summarized as:

Career development: Career development influences engagement for employees in each of the 10 countries studied, with two specific elements most commonly cited: retaining the most talented employees and providing opportunities for personal development. For a few countries other concerns come into play, but the key message is that organizations with high levels of engagement provide employees with opportunities to develop their abilities, learn new skills, acquire new knowledge and realize their potential. When companies invest in their people in this way, their people invest in them.

Leadership: The degree to which senior leaders communicate the organization’s core values and maintain high ethical standards are two elements of leadership which influence engagement in almost all of the countries studied (Hong Kong being the one exception). Employees need to feel that the core values for which their companies stand are unambiguous and clear. What matters most to them is that the values and ethical standards espoused by leaders match the actions that they take – the degree to which those values and standards affect rewards and guide decision-making and behaviors. This is a top-level issue
that would typically be addressed by senior management.

The respect leaders exhibit towards their staff members was another element of leadership common to the majority of countries ISR studied. Successful organizations show respect for each employee’s qualities and contribution – regardless of their job level. In Australia, Germany and the US, the respect issue was also affected by the degree to which managers trust their employees’ judgment.

Image: How much employees are prepared to endorse the products and services which their company provides its customers depends largely on their perceptions of the quality of those goods and services. High levels of employee engagement are inextricably linked with high levels of customer engagement.

Empowerment: Employees want to be involved in decisions that affect their work. The leaders of high-engagement workplaces do not create fear or blame cultures, where employees are reluctant to express their ideas or exercise their initiative. They create a trust and “challenge” environment, in which employees are encouraged to dissent from the prevailing orthodoxy and to input and innovate to move the organization forward.

Source: This information comes from a global study of employee engagement produced by international employee research and consulting firm, ISR. For more information visit: www.isrinsight.com

Source: The Empowerment Group (TEG) – Inform, Involve, Empower

Consulting Process

TEG’s core approach is co-development – that is, change only happens when it is owned and developed by those it affects. They use a variety of interactive tools to facilitate a process that puts the change in context and provides the resources to help people influence the proposed changes.

To accomplish this they use a variety of approaches depending on each situation. Key skills are:

• Identifying problems, obstacles, opportunities
• Fresh approaches and perspectives
• External objectivity
• Professionally trained and adept listening
• Focus on actions and deliverables

Values and Beliefs

• You own what you help develop
• People learn best from their own experience
• The most effective communication is short, simple and engaging
• The manager is the key communicator – given the support to accomplish the task
• Digital communication is transforming organisational communication

Co-development

Source: Melcrum Publishing – The Source for Communicators

According to Melcrum’s latest research report, Internal Communication Measurement, the employee opinion survey is the most commonly-used internal measurement tool, followed by communication channel audits and employee engagement surveys.

This was determined by the responses of 903 communication professionals in 31 countries, who completed a quantitative survey as part of the research. Asked whether they conducted any of six major communication measurement models, respondents answered as follows:

Employee opinion survey……………93%
Communication channel audit…….80%
Employee engagement survey………………….77%
Communication content audit……………72%
Cost-benefit analysis on communication………………36%
External benchmarking…………………..63%

But despite the dominance of employee opinion surveys, Melcrum’s qualitative research, based on 32 interviews with communication professionals across the globe, suggests this may not be the most effective measurement tool. In many cases, the opinion survey was seen as a generalist and non-action-oriented pulse of workforce feeling.

This would probably explain the popularity of the employee engagement survey (77%), which many practitioners viewed as being a more action-oriented tool. While the opinion survey was seen as useful for measuring channel preferences and usefulness of content, the engagement survey was seen as a more effective way of measuring commitment to the organization, buy-in to messages, and action taken as a result of communication.

This study was conducted by Melcrum’s Strategic Communication Research Forum. In addition to quantitative and qualitative research findings, the report contains 65 in-depth case studies, advisory articles, top tips and best practices.

Source: Melcrum Publishing – The Source for Communicators

Brian Humphreys, former director general of communication and public affairs for the Australian Department of Defense, suggests that communicators should focus on five key areas:

1. Understand and respond to business priorities

Organizations communicate to meet business goals. It’s vital you understand the goals of your organization and its leadership. When you understand organization priorities you are more likely to provide useful advice and to deliver products that contribute to core business priorities. Read the minutes of board meetings, annual reports and the corporate plan so you understand the organization’s goals. Or better still, ask for a role in planning meetings.

2. Build credibility through business acumen

Is your communication unit’s bottom line healthy? A mistake many communicators make is that they fail to effectively manage their unit’s resources. Your advice to business leaders will lack
credibility if your unit’s budget is in the red. Conversely, your credibility will grow if you manage your finances and people professionally. You are more likely to be free to deliver programs without undue restraints if you can be relied upon to do so within budget. It’s surprising the amount of credibility you build by delivering on a well-constructed business plan.

3. Understand management trends

Leaders rely upon their networks and business publications to follow the latest management thinking – and so should you. As a communication adviser you need to keep pace with emerging management trends so you can provide advice on their communication aspects. Concepts such as knowledge, risk, reputation and crisis management – to name just a few – all rely heavily upon communication. Understanding how communication helps such organizational initiatives
is another way of increasing your value to leadership.

4. Be a reliable problem solver

The key to reliability is structural capital. Investing in structural capital is as simple as building systems and processes. When you do something well, write it down, so you can do it again. Being a problem solver is all about how you handle challenges. It’s easy to see why something won’t work but it’s more valuable to suggest what will. This doesn’t mean becoming a “yes” man or woman, rather, you should be the one proposing solutions or alternatives. If those recommendations are sensible, before long you will have the aura of someone who can be counted on.

5. Get your communication priorities right

Remember the Pereto principle. Pereto was an 18th century Italian scholar who said that a minority of causes or efforts account for a majority of results. In other words, a small number of actions will mean the difference between success and failure. For example, the best crisis communication plan will fail if you don’t get media management right. The challenge is to identify those things you must do well – typically they’re the things that mean the most to
leadership – and concentrate on them first. Once those are covered you can concentrate on delivering the less tangible, but often no less important, things.

This article was originally published in Strategic Communication Management, Vol. 8, Iss. 5 (August/September 2004). To find out more about SCM visit: http://www.melcrum.com/link/scm

Source: Melcrum Publishing, with thanks to Margaret Helsabeck, Lockheed Martin

Follow this checklist of questions to help you assess the potential impact of organizational change.

Do I have support from the top?

This is a “must have” if the change is to affect the entire organization. Without it, even the most passionate cause will fail. You also need more than a verbal commitment: you need active demonstration from the responsible executive that this is an important change.

How will the change impact people?

Try to determine how the change will make people feel. There is usually resistance to any change. For a successful change project you need to understand the likely level of resistance so you can plan how to deal with it.

How will resistance look?

Your aim as an agent of change is to get support and acceptance of the change. The biggest obstacle to successful change is resistance. If people are negative, don’t want to listen and seem to want to attack you, then you need to spend some time understanding their position and responding to their feelings before you bombard them with more information.

What actions can I take to manage resistance?

Resistance occurs on different levels. Your response needs to be appropriate for the level of resistance encountered. Information overload may strengthen the resistance, not resolve it. If resistance is high, you will need to rely on good listening skills to better understand the issues associated with the change.

How do I gain support from colleagues?

Spend time with people who have influence to explain the proposed change and your plans for communicating it. Get your employee involved and actively helping you in the communications. Face-to-face communication between managers and employees is highly appreciated and should not be underestimated. Try to get as much of the management team as possible repeating the key messages of the change and talking to employees about it.

Source: Melcrum CommsNetwork: Mark Bishop, Allianz Cornhill:

Communication Objectives:

The objectives of all communications activities are:
1. To enhance and protect the image of the Group and the individual companies belonging to the Group.
2. To motivate key internal and external stakeholders to beliefs, actions or behaviours which help make the goals of the Group and its individual companies a reality.
3. To be consistent in terms of core messages and style worldwide by following the standards and guidelines established in this document.

Communication Principles:

1. Be credible (always honest and, when possible, the first source of information about your company)
2. Be service oriented (accessible, reliable, fast, easy to understand, friendly)
3. Keep all stakeholders in mind when communicating (know your primary and secondary audience)
4. Evaluate audiences¹ EMMA (expectations, mentality, motivation, assessment) and convey messages accordingly
5. Think in and act on key messages that you want to communicate
6. Be consistent with the core issues of the Group (one voice strategy)
7. Have a sustainable, long-term approach for all communications activities
8. Both internal and external communications deserve the same attention (uniform messages and timing).
9. Check information. Don’t assume or take for granted
10. Allow for, evaluate and act on feedback

Internal Communications – Ground Rules:

1. Keep in mind the influence of internal communications on your (external) public image
2. Internal communications should seek to improve employee understanding and knowledge of business decisions and strategy
3. Internal communications measures should foster an open communications culture
4. Make internal communications a regular and expected event
5. Make top management accessible to employees and agent
6. Allow for top down and bottom up internal communications channels. Always provide a feedback opportunity when providing top down information. Give employees a platform for providing bottom up information, so that they can do more than just react to top down news
7. Ensure that there are no repercussions for speaking out
8. Regular staff attitude surveys and staff focus groups are important internal communications tools that should not be neglected
9. Internal communications should advise and coach top management on how to act internally especially during change processes

Crisis Management – Ground Rules:

1. Anticipate and prepare for possible crises Identify possible crises. Establish good relationships with all stakeholders that would influence a crisis
2. Have a crisis plan with appropriate internal and external tools and procedures. Train crisis scenarios.
3. Establish your company as the best source of information about the crisis for all stakeholders. Never leave a question unanswered
4. Offer as complete information as possible, as quickly as possible and repeat it (quality, not quantity). Say when you will provide an information update, and give regular information (transparency)
5. Broaden the spectrum of information provided, in order to fit the crisis item into a larger context
6. Evaluate your internal and external actions, their impacts and the process during and after the crisis
7. Show that you are acting, but do not fall into actionism

Media Communications:

1. Follow a one-voice-strategy.
2. Keep all stakeholders in mind when working with the media (clients, employees, shareholders, public)
3. Always try to at least get your company¹s point of view published, especially if a story may be negative (³share of voice²)
4. Be careful in what you comment on in an ³on the record² fashion
5. Build trust in your relationship with journalists
6. Find out as much as possible about the story before answering questions
7. When preparing for a story keep a headline and key messages in mind thatyou would like to read
8. It’s the answer that counts, not the question
9. Keep it short and simple. Stop speaking when you have made your point
10. Complain if you feel you have been treated unfairly by a journalist

Societal Communications (Corporate Citizenship) – Ground Rules:

1. Define a societal communications concept that is based on clearly defined aims
2. Define the issues that are relevant for your stakeholders, while avoiding conflicts of interests among the stakeholders
3. Enlist the consistent support of management and other relevant institutions within the company, while adhering to the one-voice strategy
4. Review and measure your societal communications strategy or project regularly with a focus on the rules above and the aspects of its sustainability (through market research, focus groups, etc.)
5. Walk the talk!

Client Communications – Ground Rules:

Keep in mind who else (third parties) communicates with your clients and consider their messages and actions in your work
1. Ensure good internal communications as a prerequisite for good client communications
2. Integrate client communications into your overall communication and marketing strategy; be consistent with messages that other parts of your company are sending to clients
3. Develop clear guidelines and responsibilities to handle clients complaints. Monitor and evaluate complaints regularly and feed this information into your client related business units and departments.

Source: Melcrum CommsNetwork, Eric Eggertson, Group Medical Services

In terms of competencies, the typical ones are good to excellent written and interpersonal communications, competency with word processing and presentation software (and possibly in design software, if that’s part of the job), and the ability to handle a fast-paced environment. Good organizational skills, proven ability to conduct research, and the ability to connect strategic direction with company activities (with help from the manager!) are also pretty close to mandatory.

Depending on how your HR group is set up, you may have to delineate the degree of decision-making the position makes, (often it’s more “make recommendations” rather than decide). You’ll also have to indicate the degree to which the position has to show judgement (this would probably rank higher than decision-making, since even writing a headline can require a lot of good judgement).

The kind of breakdown of duties that I’ve seen goes something like this:

Manager: liaison with senior management; establish and maintain effective relationships with other departments/divisions; set direction for team; lead strategy development; budget and hiring; decisions that affect the department or organization (mostly “make recommendations” for things that affect whole organization); develop and maintain quality standards for corporate communications; responsible for achieving dept. Goals/objectives; lead media and public relations for senior management and spokespersons; make recommendations re. structure and make decisions re. internal/external resource use.

Coordinator: lead projects; make recommendations; create editorial plans/write/edit/proofread/layout publications; maintain effective relations with key people in other departments; show good judgement and maintain confidentiality; communications plans for projects; make decisions that affect the project; manage resources within established project budget; may also be responsible for speechwriting, briefing notes, Q&As, web site updates, report writing, promotions, event management/coordination, internal and external communications coordination, and much more.

Not comprehensive, but that’s what comes to mind. Hope it helps!