Baton Rouge, La.
Kenderlynn Christophe, SPHR
Director of HR & Labor Relations
Capital Area Transit System
Internal communication has got to be one of the most underrated, underutilized, underappreciated, untapped yet critical resources in any organization. Whether public or private, large or small, start-up or established blue chip, lean or highly-matrixed, how we get information to our employees and how we receive information from our employees can mean the difference between developing a raging fandom on par with that of say, British uber boy band, One Direction or reinforcing a fossilized and stoic structure of top-down mandates popular before a certain politician “invented” the internet.
Establishing and maintaining a healthy and highly functioning environment of communication depends heavily on the organization’s ability to understand that public relations is not purely an external function. It is very complex and it’s relationship-based. As with our external customers and other stakeholders, we are on a continuous and hopefully evolving perennial campaign trail. You see our ability to create those fandoms I referred to, is absolutely and directly intertwined with how effective we are with developing raving fans out of our employees. After nearly two decades of personally being at one time or another a student, a fan, a campaigner, a candidate, a cabinet member, a pollster, a voter, a reporter, a pundit, an editor, advisor, debater and campaign organizer, I’ve learned a few basic things about this internal communications conundrum that seems to, even after all this time, give many a well-intentioned leader a bit of a fit and a lot of uncertainty
Do we have to keep talking about our mission/values/vision/company message?
Yes. As our businesses evolve, so should our approach and commitments to our customers and employees. Consistent and regular reinforcement of where we stand, what people can expect, our absolutes, our service guarantees and our own accountabilities help us to maintain a culture of transparency and allows us to set expectations of the kind of organization we claim to be. It’s our internal brand identity. It’s what distinguishes us from our competitors: you know them - -those crafty folks who will zero in on our employees who we either didn’t communicate with effectively or at all — sell their own exciting and attractive message — and then turn them into their own little superfans. And more often than not, it is those employees we can most ill-afford to lose.
Our employees don’t really care about all that techno-stuff. We’re a traditional crowd and those paper postings everywhere around the building work for us.
Although this may sound weird or old fashioned to some, this type of communication is absolutely still in full swing throughout many organizations. While this mode of messaging can be cost-effective and easy to implement, imagine how impressed and valuable employees would feel, if you went not just an extra mile but many extra miles to make sure they have constant, consistent, and just really cool ways to access information. For instance, in our own organization we have made a multi-faceted, multi-phased commitment to re-establish some intra-organization cultural norms, which will include transformational changes in how we communicate. Out with top-down dictates and mandates and in with technology-driven reciprocal, re-energized and innovative communications. On tap is a re-imagined onboarding experience instead of new hire orientation, desktop/laptop/tablet/mobile smart app access to benefit, health and wellness information instead of single-use paper bulletins, and semantic evolutions that will help us evolve from an “employee” base to a “team member” environment. Most critical to this exciting transition is a recognition that it is absolutely ok to adopt and benchmark highly effective, innovative and gutsy ideas so commonplace and well-accepted as best practices in private sector, technology-driven companies and incorporate them into what has been a historically slow-to evolve quasi-political public entity; in a way that makes sense of course.
We are always telling our employees what to do
Consistent, timely messaging and walking examples of policies, procedures, mission, vision, and values are fair and square at the center of any organization’s credibility with it’s internal customers and stakeholders. It’s so important that it has got to be everyone’s responsibility. It maintains an environment of inclusion and transparency. When we implement actionable standards and apply them consistently at all levels throughout the organization, it reinforces our employees’ faith and belief that we have nothing to hide. Whether it’s the internal job application process, access to training and development opportunities, disclosure of critical information which may impact people’s abilities to do their jobs effectively or information about salary grades, people need information. And they need to be confident that the same level of expectation regarding performance and behavior standards will be consistently applied to everyone. When we employ this time tested strategy, we actually do empower people to operate as teams which reinforce personal accountabilities and groupthink, thereby reinforcing the organization’s culture commitments in the buildings and on the street. We develop internal fans (employees) who work with us as leaders to develop external fans (customers).
