Communication at Work
It amazes me that after 20 years of working in corporate communications, I still run across business people – usually leaders or middle managers – who believe employee communication is a luxury and not a fundamental piece of company infrastructure. These people believe there is no need to ensure workers have any more information than what is minimally required for them to do their jobs.
As a result of this attitude, some companies lack a strategic approach to communication. Instead, communication is an afterthought and employees resent being kept in the dark about what's going on in the company.
The non-strategic view of communication persists despite numerous studies that show companies with excellent communication programs outperform those without. In addition, anecdotal evidence builds a case for common sense and conventional wisdom that keeping employees informed and giving them information-management tools is just good business.
The latest evidence comes from a recent list of the "10 Best Intranets of 2008." Each year, Web usability expert Jakob Nielsen of the Nielsen-Norman Group compiles a report based on his list and analyzes the trends among corporate intranets.
This year I was struck by a hopeful theme: companies seem to finally understand that it pays to give workers access to lots of information. Among the examples cited by Nielsen:
"Companies seem to be taking news much more seriously," he says. "Most winning intranets give it major homepage real estate and many invest significant resources in editing and maintaining their news areas."
Nielsen cites Campbell Soup Co. , which gives employees the ability to browse the news of multiple business units and corporate functions. Barnes & Noble also places heavy emphasis on news, including daily "Store Alerts" that contain practical information such as when a new bestseller will be in stock.
Employee directories are getting better. This is all about helping workers find each other so they can share information and knowledge. Real estate broker Coldwell Banker 's intranet provides an employee search based on geography and also enables its agents to find colleagues for referral purposes.
"The directory's structure of tabs and labels emerged from usability research that revealed how company users think about seeking out their colleagues," Nielsen says.
The best intranets favor giving employees access to knowledge rather than trying to manage knowledge. This year's winners "recognized that knowledge resides with people," according to Nielsen. "As a result, many designs focused on improving access to the people who have the needed knowledge."
The best intranets are indispensable tools for employees rather than luxuries. British Airways set a goal of increasing employees' online training days by 75 percent and eventually having all workers book their travel online. These, along with other improvements to the airline's redesigned intranet, resulted in a cost saving of 55 million pounds.
The corporate intranet is not the only tool in a strategic communication arsenal, but it is rapidly becoming among the most important. It's important to remember, however, that other methods of employee communication – e-mail, face-to-face dialogues, printed publications and even some of the new social networking media – can be put to equally strategic use. All it takes is the proper mindset and the commitment of resources to create and implement a plan.
Robert J. Holland owns Holland Communication Solutions LLC in Mechanicsville. He works with Fortune 500 companies and small businesses to help them develop communication programs that support business goals. He is also available to speak to business groups about workplace communication. You can reach him at robert@hollandcomm.com, at www.hollandcomm.com, or by calling 804-368-0312.
w LAST TIME OUT: Another tragedy, another reminder .
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