SUMMARIZING EMPLOYEE INPUTS FROM THE FRONT LINES OF BUSINESS
When it comes to communication: What makes your employees tick?

• “They don’t take the time to listen to me anymore.” With staffs cut to the bone in many organizations, the reality is managers have less time for personalized one-to-one communications. Employees clearly notice the decrease in two-way communication opportunities and we hear a lot of comments these days that “management doesn’t care” and “they are not interested in my ideas."
  
  How communicators can help: As hard as it may be to find the time, keep encouraging managers to plan face time with their employees through management-by-wandering-around and team meetings. Stress that providing employees with regular performance feedback – and that should be delivered through conversation – is crucial in achieving competitive productivity and efficiency levels.

  To facilitate teamwork and effective communication, more and more businesses operations are utilizing 5-10 minute daily “huddles” to set the day through brief discussion of issues, priorities and work. Beyond that, arrange for execs to participate in “chat and chew” exchanges over breakfast, lunch or coffee. I recently visited one location where the plant manager devoted every third “all hands” meeting to an open Q&A session. Good stuff.
   
  “Skip level” meetings are another great tool for higher level managers to effectively use time to meet with small groups of individual contributors or supervisors for an hour to answer questions and listen to concerns. The positive impact of these listening activities expands when summaries of these sessions are shared with other employees.

“They don’t tell us ‘why’ they do what they do; they don’t explain the reasons behind the actions they take and what it means to us.” Employees say, sure, a lot of information gets put into the communication pipeline today, especially on the intranet. But workers want management to do a better job of putting information in context – explaining the rationale for change and describing how actions impact jobs.

How communicators can help: Add more background information in company news on the reasons for changes, including direct quotes from subject experts and factual data that supports the argument. Report how initiatives link to strategic goals and how actions will protect jobs and make the business more competitive over the long-term. Most important, make sure your managers receive important information first, providing them with clear direction in how to share it with employees.   

“They don't tell us enough about how we're doing or about the future direction of the organization.” During the recent economic downturn, employees saw many of their colleagues go out the door due to manpower cutbacks. Those who remain are still in somewhat of a state of shock, uneasy about their own job security, and often handling a bigger workload as a result of cutbacks.

Due to ever increasing worker anxiety, the average employee’s thirst for real and timely business information has never been greater. When their information needs aren’t met, the grapevine becomes a communication force, and that’s not a healthy situation for any business.

How communicators can help: Ramp up communication about future business plans. Regularly report progress against goals, and communicate accomplishments, or setbacks, as they occur. When initiatives roll out, explain to employees how they can help support them. Consider distribution of one-page bulleted updates that briefly summarize what’s going on and what’s planned. Encourage managers to build “line of sight,” explaining the relationship between what employees do in their job and how their efforts tie in with overall organization goals.

• “They never say thank you for a job well done.” Employee recognition doesn’t occur frequently enough. Survey data support that contention. Management is under a lot pressure for performance and most feedback is negative, not constructive. Don’t underestimate how important recognition is in shaping employee commitment, satisfaction and retention.
  
  Believe it or not, employees are people, too! Workers want positive reinforcement on the job, just like they do in other areas of their lives. Recognition builds momentum for accomplishment and winning. And a “thank you” or a “good job” comment doesn’t cost a cent in these budget-conscious times.

  “Don’t underestimate how important recognition is in shaping employee commitment, satisfaction and retention… Workers want positive reinforcement on the job, just like they do in other areas of their lives. Recognition builds momentum for accomplishment and winning.”

  How communicators can help: Encourage managers to recognize good performance and balance negative feedback with the positive. Write more stories about recipients of suggestion program awards or publicize teams that are recognized for special accomplishment. Arrange for teams that produced heroic result to share their story with executives or with other employees in business information meetings. If you don’t have idea recognition programs, join forces with HR and continuous improvement and create one. Schedule Idea Fairs where good ideas and the people behind them can be showcased. Get senior management involved. Hold employee recognition days at operating sites.

• “They aren't honest with us and send mixed messages.” There are a lot of skeptical and cynical employees in today’s workforce. Whenever employees hear a vague or incomplete answer, or a manager fails to follow up on a question they ask, they interpret it as “management holding back” information about what is going on. Lack of trust in management is often the outcome, leading to lower satisfaction and productivity and detachment from the organization’s agenda.

  How communicators can help: Level with people to the extent possible. Completeness and honesty in communications pays off in the long run and builds credibility with employees. Instruct managers to be as thorough as possible in answering questions and if they don’t know the answer, tell them to seek out the answer and promptly respond to the individual. Don’t have an answer yet? Tell managers to say to employees: “I don’t know the answer at this time and I’ll get back to you as soon as I hear something.” It really is OK to say “I don’t know.” That’s often good enough for employees.

.....................................................................................................