There is very little academic research into the area of employee communication and Chen et al (2006) argue ‘a review of the research on organizational communication practices has been ignored.’
Before undertaking the research consider your end goal; are you looking to measure the effectiveness, reach, impact or awareness? Many fall into the pitfall of assessing the channels used or volume of information generated (the transmission)– rather than the content of the communication itself, how well it is provided or understanding.
Think about your objectives for the original communication; what was the outcome you were looking to achieve or the behaviours you were looking to modify? Create bullet points of your objectives and then ensure you measure against them.
By far the most predominant measurement tool utilised by organisations are surveys but other forms of staff research such as focus groups, interviews with the executive team and short polls are also popular. Few organisations currently look to use internal social media as a … read more »
Gaining trust in any relationship is always difficult. But, forgive me if I sound a little trite, surely the key to building trust with your staff is simple, once you have the basics right, you need to put your trust in your staff.
“All the world is made of faith, and trust, and pixie dust.”
― J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan
I know that this isn’t easy (and a lot will depend on your personality type) but if I put an alternative spin on the topic you may feel differently:
How about if I had titled this blog: Less than half of employees trust senior management or High trust organisations are nearly 300% more profitable than low trust organisations? There is much research out there showing the impact that trust can have on the bottom line – and if you think about it the equation TRUST = SPEED = PROFIT makes all sorts of economic sense.
“The best way to find out if you can trust … read more »
Believe it or not, employee surveys can generate excitement in organisations! And so they should – it is after all an opportunity to improve your work life and have your say. I was inspired to write this post after receiving some feedback by an employee taking part in a survey.
It’s not uncommon for us to receive a ‘thank you’ or an ‘I’ve completed the survey’ email reply to invitations or reminders. Sometimes people even discuss the employee opinion survey in their free comments such as – ‘can we do more frequent surveys?’ ‘Thank you for commissioning this survey’. But one employee was so happy with the survey he received; he went out of his way to give me his opinion. Here’s just a snippet:
‘One of the best surveys I have ever completed!’
Why be positive about employee surveys?
This is great to hear, but why is it surprising? What was so special about their survey? The feedback just shows that with a little … read more »
DHL have made big news in the past few weeks with their not insignificant investment of €100 million into an employee engagement programme.
Clearly not small potatoes and it comes at an interesting time in DHL’s life – with considerable loses being made within the business – clearly Ken Allen (CEO) sees engagement as a very direct way of moving the business back into the black.
We are incredibly strong advocates of employee engagement and the benefits to both an organisation and its workforce of having high levels of engagement.
In DHL’s case however, it begs the question, why now and why such a huge sum?
There’s a word of warning here for organisations. You don’t need to invest huge sums of money in expensive and expansive employee engagement programmes – but this could well be what you end up doing if you leave it so late and at a dire stage in … read more »
Back at work all refreshed and full of energy after a bank holiday break (well the energy might be down to the sugar buzz from all those Easter chocolates!) I find myself wondering how to maintain this new found enthusiasm and energy.
So rather than citing the latest numbers on staff engagement, I thought I would share some of the more fun and slightly crazy ideas we have come across for sparking engagement within organisations.
Make a movie
Give teams the equipment they need to make a ten-minute movie of their working day. Ask them to focus on what goes well and what doesn’t go so well. Collect all the films together and make a show reel. Show the single film at local events – along with popcorn and hot dogs!
This exercise can be used to hold a mirror up to the organisation and encourage dialogue on those things that go well and not so well within the organisations, … read more »
