Putting Employees First Enhances Communications Execution

Guest Column by Warren Egnal

Engagement Strategies

PR practitioners speak to the value of communications activities as business drivers that enhance reputation and build positive brand identity. Ad gurus talk about brand as a promise and advocate advertising to reach customers. Marketing is constantly seeking that special promotion to connect the company with the target audience on a one-to-one basis. All are effective tools in a disciplined, integrated strategic communications and marketing program.

Yet companies often miss a key opportunity to consolidate and leverage these results in a regular, consistent and natural activity—employees interacting with the target audience. When customers and other stakeholders directly engage with a company, they most often do so through an employee touch point.

All outbound communications set expectations with an audience as to what their experience and expectations should and will be—best product, fastest service, superior customer care, etc. Communication professionals, be they internal or agency, spend the lion’s share of resources focused externally ensuring the story gets told and that it resonates. However, when we fail to adequately communicate the story to employees, ensuring they are fully aware of the promises that have been made and what the consequent customer expectations are, then the company has set up an inherent disconnect that may be costly to a carefully crafted and maintained reputation.

Significant aggravation (not to mention cost) in customer support and managerial involvement to resolve issues that arise from this disconnect could be saved if we simply explain to employees in advance what we intend to communicate to customers and other stakeholders, what the story is, how it ties to corporate strategy and what employees can do to live the brand in every interaction they have with customers and other external groups.

Too often, employees hear about changes to corporate strategy, new products, and even major financial news after the fact, and at the same time as the general public through an article in a newspaper or TV broadcast. Google Alerts now ensure that employees will see company news as soon as it hits the Web, and in the worst cases before they are told by their managers.

As a rule, communicating to employees via the news media is not effective and will undoubtedly breed resentment among the rank and file that “management doesn’t care about its people.” The unfortunate byproduct of excluding employees from previews of outbound communication is a lack of engagement. Employee engagement is a recognized and proven indicator of efficiency, productivity and competitive advantage. A key factor in improving engagement is regular, open and consistent communication.

           Finally, any competent journalist who covers your industry probably has sources inside your company already from whom they hear off the record comments and deep background information. If news is coming out of the company and your staff doesn’t know the timing or the context, just imagine the fallout if the response is, “I don’t know about that, but let me tell you what’s really going on.” 

The bottom line is: Don’t forget about employees. They can make or break your communications strategy and program outcomes based on how engaged they are in the process.

About the Author:

Warren Egnal is the founder and principal consultant at Engagement Strategies, a consulting group that supports executives in accelerating the achievement of corporate goals. The company’s expertise is in change management and communication programs that drive stakeholder engagement, from customers that buy more products to employees that are inspired to better performance.