Transcript The PUBLIC

The PUBLIC
EMPLOYEE
COMMUNICATIONS
Signet
“the greatest continuing area of weakness in
management practice is the human dimension. In
good times or bad, there seems to be little real
understanding of the relationships between
managers, among employees, and interactions
between the two. When there are problems,
everyone acknowledges that the cause often is
‘communications’. So now what?”
- Jim Lukaszewski
Preview
• Effective employee communication results in more
satisfied and productive employees, improved
organizational goals, improved customer, community and
investor relations
• Employee comes from specific culture
• Organization should have clear communication policies
• Successful employee communication is not an easy task
for the PR man; but it must be done
• Employees should not be seen as COGS but as
POTENTIAL RESOURCE
Definition
• Employee communication is a specialization
of PR concerned with how PR professionals
in corporation and organizations help promote
effective communication among employees
and between line employees and top
management
• It is also called internal communications or
employee relations
The Role
• It begins before the employee is hired and carried
on past when the employee has departed the
organization.
• It creates and maintains internal systems of
communication with organizations
• It helps nullify the pre-boom misconception that
‘the company knows best’
• It enables employees participate freely in a twoway exchange of information
To enhance employee communications, there is the
need to look at organizational culture
The concept of organizational
culture
• Organizational culture refers to the character of an
organization such as its history, its approach to
decision making, its way of treating employees and
its way of dealing with the world outside
• It is the sum total of the shared values, symbols,
meaning, beliefs, assumptions, and expectations that
organize and integrate a group of people who work
together
• Primary responsibility of OrgCul belongs to
management
Two types of organizational culture
Types of organizational culture
1. Authoritarian Culture
• Features centralized decision making with CEO
and a few high level managers
• Employees follow orders and not innovation
• Makes employees think that their supervisors are
interested in them just as workers
• Authoritarian OrgCul is closed and resistant to
change from outside the organization
Types of organizational culture
2. Participative Culture
• Feature common value for teamwork
• Employees feel empowered to make decisions rather than
to wait for orders
• Department goals match overall organizational goals
• Workers feel valued as people, not just as employees
• Participative OrgCul is open to ideas from inside and
outside the organization
What is the role of PR professional in creating OrgCul?
Role of PR professional in OrgCul
• Strive to establish organizational
communication policy based on goaloriented approach
• Help in designing and implementing
organizational change programs
• Provide expertise as employee
communicators
Establishing Communication Policy
• Recognize the need for a sincere two-way
communication as breakdown in the
communication process is often at the first
line supervisor
• Have established stated policies because
unstated policies leave dangerous vacuums
that rumor, confusion and misinformation
can rapidly fill up
Goals of communication policy
Goals of communication policies
1. Keep employees informed of organizational
goals, objectives and plans
2. Inform employees of organizational activities,
problems or accomplishments
3. Encourage employees to provide inputs and
feedback to management based on their
experiences, insights, feelings
4. Level with employees about negative, sensitive
or controversial issues
Next
Goals of communication policies
5. Encourage frequent, honest, job-related, two-way
communication among mangers and their
subordinates
6. Communicate important events as quickly as
possible to all employees before they learn it from
the media
7. Establish a culture where innovation and creativity
are encouraged
8. Urge every manager and supervisor to discuss with
each subordinate the latter’s progress and position
in the firm
Worker’s preferred information sources
1.
2.
3.
4.
Immediate supervisor
Small group meeting
Top executive
Annual report to
employees
5. Employee handbook/
other booklets
6. Orientation program
7. Regular local employee
publication
8. Bulletin board
9. Upward communication
program
10. Mass meetings
11. Audiovisual programs
12. Unions
13. Grapevine
14. Mass media
15. Regular general
employee publication
Importance of employee communication
1. Employee want information about their
organization from their leaders
2. There is a link between open communication and
manager satisfaction with their roles
3. Effective two-way communication is key to
addressing new business challenges because
employees are more confident they can help move
the business forward
4. Employee communication can be critical to
maintaining good customer experiences because
they convey the brand
Why do communication program fail?
• Ineffective employee communication results in
inefficiency, waste, higher costs, low morale,
absenteeism, strikes, turnovers, accidents, poor
image, low productivity
• Reasons include
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Unclear corporate image
Negative organization culture
Lack of employee communication policy
Lack of mutual trust between employees and management
Undue interest in selling just management idea to the
employee
Special employee communication situations
• Unions in the workforce environment
• PR in collective bargaining
Collective bargaining is an institutional relationship
between employer and employee on wages, salaries,
work conditions
• Communicating employee benefits
Employee benefits are services as organization provides
as part of employee compensation, insurance, retirement
benefit
Media of employee
communication
• Internal media, video and computers are
means for reaching out to employees
• These serve certain objectives:
1. Helps employee understand their roles in the
organization
2. Clarification of management policies
3. Employee well being and safety
4. Help recognition of employee achievements
What type of media does your organization need?
Determinants of media for
employee communication
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Frequency of publication
Method of distribution
Cost of production
Quality of information to be shared
Access by employees to the source of
information
The content
• First determine what is news worthy
• Determine if the topic is timely enough to
interest the employees
• Does it affect enough people directly or
indirectly?
• Is it noteworthy or has prominence?
• Determine the human interest aspect of it
• Ensure objectivity and tolerance
Occasional and Special media
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Leaflets, inserts and enclosures
Booklets and manuals
Printed speeches and reprints
Message displays
Bulletin boards
Posters and billboards
Information racks
Exhibit and displays
Electronic media – email, homepage, internal video,
social media
Tasks
• See task on page 219 – 222 in chapter 10