Lecture #11
Why are Employee Relations So
Important?
Employee Relations
 Employees once trusted their organizations and
superiors, however, today they are more reluctant to
trust and respect them.
 When organizations lay off workers they are often
rewarded by the stock market for becoming more
productive and efficient.
 Employees used to go on strike when they were
unhappy, today, they go to the internet, which can be
even more damaging.
Employee Relations
 Companies have found that if they communicate
effectively with their workers they financially
outperform their competitors that do not.
 Business managers have learned that their most
important assets are their employees.
 Employee communication is the key to nurture and
sustain intellectual capital.
 For years, employee relations was considered less
important than the functions of media, government,
and investor relations.
Dealing With Employees
 The employee public is made up of numerous
subgroups:
 Senior managers
 First line supervisors
 Staff and line employees
 Union laborers
 Per diem employees
 Contract workers
Dealing With Employees
 Management must ask three hard questions to
determine if they are communicating effectively with
their employees.
 Is management able to communicate effectively with
employees?
 Is communication trusted, and does it relay appropriate
information to employees?
 Has management communicated its commitment to its
employees and to fostering a rewarding work
environment?
Communicating During Difficult
Times
 An organization concerned with communicating with
its employees during times of downsizing,
displacement and confusing communication must
reassure its employees
Communicating During Difficult
Times
 There are five principles for this:
 Respect: employees must be respected for their worth as
individuals and workers.
 Honest Feedback: speaking with workers about their
strengths and weaknesses helps employers let
employees know where they stand.
 Recognition: employees feel successful when
management recognizes their contributions to the
organization.
Communicating During Difficult
Times
 Voice: in the era of blogs, radio, cable talk shows, etc.
nearly everyone wants their voice to be heard in
decision making.
 Encouragement: money and benefits motivate
employees up to a certain point, but there is usually a
need for encouragement to produce results.
Maskowitz’ 6 Criteria for
Communicating with Employees
 Willingness to Express Dissent; employees want to be able
to express their voices to management.
 Visibility and Proximity to Upper Management: level rank
distinctions help eliminate status reminders
 Does your organization work from the top-down, or does it
embrace concerns and suggestions from the bottom- up. How
many layers of management does your organization have?
 Priority of Internal and External Communication: the
worst thing for employees is to learn critical information
about the organizations they work for from outside
sources; news, websites, word of mouth, etc.
Maskowitz’ 6 Criteria for
Communicating with Employees
 Attention to Clarity: focus on benefits with an
emphasis on clarity, don’t focus on legalities.
 Friendly Tone: the best companies give a sense of
family. Makes employees feel as though they are a part
of something exclusive.
 Sense of Humor: For many, corporate life is grim. It is
important that employees enjoy themselves and keep
things in perspective by not taking themselves too
seriously.
Credibility
 The issue that management faces with credibility is
that they must convince employees that they want to
communicate with them and want to do so in a
truthful, frank, and direct manner.
Credibility
 Trust in organizations would increase if management:
 Communicated earlier and more frequently.
 Demonstrated trust in employees by sharing bad news
as well as good.
 Involved employees in the process by asking for their
ideas and input.
 Smart organizations realize that well-informed
employees are the their best goodwill ambassadors.
“S.H.O.C”ING Employees
 Earning credibility and trust amongst employees must
be part of your communications objectives.
 Four part method to helping build trust with
employees when morale is low.
 S.H.O.C.
S.H.O.C.
 Strategic- communication must be strategic
 Where is the organization going?
 What is my role in helping us get there?
S.H.O.C
 Honest- Communication must be honest
 Employees may already be less likely to believe what
they are told by management.
 You can’t build relationships and strong
communications through beating around the bush and
sugarcoating.
S.H.O.C.
 Open- all communication must be open.
 There must be feedback- the best communication is
two-way communication.
 Although managers often hold forums and large
feedback session, they rarely take action.
 The key is that when communicating openly, something
must be done.
S.H.O.C.
 Consistent- All communication must be consistent.
 Must keep communicating once you have started
 Can do so through newsletters, employee forums,
leadership meetings, reward celebrations
Internal Communications Audit
 Completing an internal communications audit is the
best way to research employee communications.
 Starts with personal, in-depth interviews with both
top managers and communicators
Internal Communications Audit
 Four critical audit questions:
 How do internal communications support the mission
of the organization?
 Do internal communications have management’s
support?
 Do internal communications justify expense?
 How responsive to employees needs and concerns are
internal communications?
 Audits help determine staff attitudes about their jobs,
the organization, and its mission. Analyzes current
communications techniques.
Online Communication
 Online communication has brought a whole new set of
employee communications options.
 Instant messaging
 Email
 Voicemail
 intranets
 Online communication reaches employees at their
desks and makes it more likely for them to listen, read,
and watch messages, and will most likely act on these.
Online Communication Vehicles
 Blogs- an easy way for employees to post opinions and
views of the company on the internet.
 Podcasts- audio or video monologue, interview or onlocation content is broadcast online to employees.
 Wikis- a website which any user can add pages, modify
content, and comment on existing content, less
widespread than blogs
Online Communication
 In order for social media to be effective in an
organizational environment it must do three things.
 Must have a business purpose
 Must be entertaining as well as informative
 Be composed of riveting content
Intranet
 The intranet has overtaken print communications.
 Must take into consideration several important
concepts.
 Consider the culture: if the organization is collaborative,
it should have no problem with people contributing
ideas.
 Set clear objectives and then let it evolve: intranets must
be designed with clear goals in mind.
 Treat it as a journalistic enterprise: company news gets
read by company workers.
Intranet
 Market, Market, Market: Intranet needs to be sold
within the company. Publicize new features or changes
in content. If employees don’t know about it, they can’t
use it.
 Link to outside lives: Employees have outside lives, so
link the intranet to classified ads, movie and
restaurant reviews, or even coupon sites.
 Senior management must commit: If the top
management is neither interested nor supportive, the
idea will fail.
Print Publications
 Online internal communications have made it hard on
print publications.
 The trend for internal organizational communicating
has been to move from print to internet-oriented
options.
 Whether the publication is online or in print, the
editor must consider several tasks.
Editing Tasks
 Assigning Stories: article assignments must focus on
organizational strategies and management objectives.
 Enforcing Deadlines: employees prefer a newsletter
that comes out at a specific time, must assign rigid
copy deadlines.
 Assigning Photos: People like photos, make them
exciting!
Editing Tasks
 Editing Copy: they must correct sloppy writing, critique
writing, and motivate to improve copy style.
 Formatting Copy: making the final decision on the format
of the newsletter or piece of literature given to employees.
 Ensuring On-Time Publication: ensure that no last minute
glitches interfere with publication.
 Critiquing: makes sure the next edition will be even better.
Bulletin Boards
 Although they are somewhat outdate, they still serve
use in many organizations today.
 Often used in fashion and retail.
 Allows the organization to reach large numbers of
individuals, and inform them of organizational
messages while also informing employees about issues
specific to the store they work in.
Bulletin Boards
 They help improve productivity, cut waste, and reduce
accidents on the job.
 They inform employees of legal regulations.
 Today’s use is more visually pleasing by including graphics,
pictures, and charts.
 It is important to keep bulletin boards current, one person
in the PR department should be assigned to this weekly
task.
Suggestion Box
 Suggestion Box: a box that is mounted to the wall or
floor that allows employees to anonymously deposit
their thoughts about the organization.
 The purpose of this is to ensure that there is feedback
from employees.
 Management must acknowledge this feedback and
make organizational changes when needed.
Town Hall Meetings
 Large gatherings of employees with top managers
where nearly no subject is off limits.
 The more open the format the greater management
and the organization will be trusted.
 When management says they will look into something
or change something, they need to carry through with
their actions to remain credible.
Internal Videos
 Internal video communication can be very effective.
 You can show the same video with the same message
to hundreds, or even thousands of individuals working
for you.
 Videos can be used to be shown at one time, or at
employees convenience.
 These are used regularly in retail/fashion to show
employees new products, seasonal items, loss
prevention tips, and changes to policies and
procedures.
Face-to-Face Communication
 F2F is the best communication tool.
 Most organizations are inconsistent with relaying
important information to employees.
 A good manager will learn from rumors.
 Some departments even formalize the meeting process
by mixing management and staff in a variety of
formats, from complaining sessions, to marketing,
and planning meetings.
The Grapevine
 A.K.A. the rumor mill!
 Identifying the source of rumors is difficult, and usually
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not worth the time.
Organizations make difficult decisions once alternatives
have been weighed.
Final decision is often a compromise reflecting the needs of
the workforce.
When explaining final decisions, management often
forgets to tell employees how they reached their decisions.
The grapevine can be as much of a communications
mechanism as a meeting, publication, or online tool.
Final Thoughts
 Social Media is important for organizations to embrace
when trying to connect with employees.
 Management must commit and support employee
communication.
 There are numerous electronic and print methods of
connecting with employees.
 Management must not only embrace feedback, but
also use that feedback to correct what is wrong.
References
 Seitel, F.P. (2011). The Practice of Public Relations.
Prentice Hall: Boston.