How To Revamp Corporate Communications in the New Year Keeping your distributed workforce connected across time and distance means reevaluating your communications tools and strategies By Jack LeMenager

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The modern day workplace is one of immense change, evolving at a pace never before seen or anticipated. The arrival and rapid adoption of multiple new technologies and the parallel expansion of an increasingly global economy have put demands on corporate workforces that can be difficult for many to contemplate. In this environment, engaged and connected employees, and the building of a collaborative corporate culture are more critical than ever before to a business’ long-term success and prosperity. Yet, achieving those ideals in the context of rapid change and an increasingly distributed workforce has become a significant hurdle to competitive businesses. Fortunately, the rapid development of technologies that are helping create new businesses while expanding companies’ product offerings and abilities to create and produce them are, at the same time, creating new, more effective and more accessible tools for keeping employees connected and committed to their company’s mission. These tools can also help build and sustain a more collaborative team, regardless of its members’ location and language. The global economy and changes at home The increasing wealth and sophistication of formerly third world countries like the so-called BRIC nations (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) in the latter half of the 20th century created an increasing global economy. Eager to exploit these emerging consumer cultures, western businesses expanded with new foreign operations to achieve increased sales. But that also meant

an expansion of their workforces around the world, complicating the way they ran their businesses. Chief among these complications was the imperative to sustain a company’s brand and reputation everywhere it operated. This was uppermost in management’s priority list. Assuring consistency and continuity of corporate quality standards, and allegiance to the corporate culture and values systems across national boundaries is the surest path to success wherever an organization may operate. Meanwhile another set of changes was also occurring in the developed world around the corporate workplace. Technology advanced, particularly the Internet, to the point where many people could accomplish their work from virtually anywhere. Gradually, the notion of all employees working under one roof from 9 to 5, five days a week, became archaic. Professional women, especially, who wanted to raise families and tend to young children at home while maintaining their incomes and career tracks helped build greater tolerance for and acceptance of new definitions of employment. Companies began to experiment with home offices, telecommuting, flextime, and job-sharing. The path that these pioneering women blazed has also opened to men. The results are with us now. Workers who formerly commuted back and forth to the office every day now often work from home at least one day every week, if not more often. And some people, including contract workers and freelancers as well as some full-time employees, maintain remote offices in their homes all the time, never going to a central office per se, other than for periodic team meetings. These two trends – expansion of companies’ businesses and operations to a larger global footprint combined with an increasingly dispersed home workforce – have had a number of effects, some good and some challenging. Perhaps the biggest challenge

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that organizations face is that an increasingly distributed workforce physically disconnected from the company and its managers can also become emotionally disconnected. Engaging the workforce However, these radical changes in the workplace do not diminish the need to keep employees engaged in the business. In fact, it makes it more imperative. By “engaged employees,” we mean people with a full awareness, understanding and comprehension of their companies’ vision, mission, and values, and their respective role in fulfilling them. In other words, fully engaged employees can readily align what they do every day with where their company is going. In a conventional business environment, it was always a fairly straightforward affair to keep employees engaged, relying heavily on consistent messages through reliable communications channels that employees used. Where things began to fall apart was when a company took it for granted that its core messages were getting through; that the channels they chose were the ones employees trusted. But keeping a distributed workforce engaged in and connected to the business presents a much greater challenge than an ineffective communications strategy. Physical distance combined with language and cultural differences can erect significant barriers to communications of important messages and themes from the home offices. In most organizations, the notion of communicating with remote employees consists of providing them with limited “need to know” types of information, as well as news from human resources about benefits and policy updates. Fortunately, there is growing recognition among corporate leaders that it’s important and valuable to keep all employees fully informed and engaged in the business, regardless of their role, responsibilities, or physical location. Consequently, many

companies now put as much emphasis on communicating the “Why” and “How” as they do the “What.” In other words, communications efforts now often include allowing employees to understand the rationale for strategic decisions, and sometimes even participate in and contribute to those decisions. As a result, they are more aware of and understand the external forces that may be imposing change on the organization. Adept and perceptive leaders are also helping employees draw the links between their strategies and their companies’ values, vision and mission – and do so regularly in all that they communicate. Collaborative Culture At the same time, there is growing appreciation of the value of building and sustaining a collaborative culture, where engaged employees work together toward a common purpose. True collaboration happens when people bring their unique skills and backgrounds together as a team or unit and contribute collectively toward a greater outcome, to fulfill the organization’s larger vision. Conversely, where the notion of collaboration is foreign, employees compete with one another, resulting in dysfunction and redundancies. In a collaborative culture, the organization realizes multiple benefits, including:

→ Greater clarity about what is needed for the organization to succeed

→ Inclusive decision-making → Fresh thinking and innovative

solutions → Efficient, concerted actions in the

service of shared, measurable goals → Effective time management → Greater trust, and broader

engagement1

A collaborative culture starts with leadership modeling the right behaviors, building a collaborative and open relationship among the senior ranks. In

1 Source: Gilburg Leadership Inc. (gilburgleadership.com)

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turn, these ideal behaviors are passed along through the organization’s various functions and operations. Group expectations are set, while collaborative behavior is defined, communicated and fully understood by all. And finally, collaborative behavior is sustained through accountability and feedback from their supervisor and peers. Achieving a collaborative way of life within an organization where everyone is under the same roof is one thing. It’s an altogether different matter when people are scattered around the globe or across the country in multiple locations. The lack of physical proximity and time zone differences can create barriers to convenient, conventional communications like one-on-one telephone conversations and teleconference calls involving people at several locations. Of course, periodic team meetings such as annual get-togethers among, for instance, national or international sales forces are an old standby. But those can be logistically cumbersome, as well as costly both in travel expenses and in lost productivity, taking people off the job for days at a time. Nevertheless, in-person meetings are invaluable for certain circumstances and should not always be subservient to technology, no matter how modern and advanced the technology; which is why the best way to create an engaged distributed workforce, one that collaborates effectively, is through a combination of means. Applying technological solutions The initial establishment of broad-based relationships that will form the foundation of their work together in the future happens most effectively in a face-to-face setting, such as the annual team meeting at a central site. But once these relationships are established, organizations can begin to rely on some of the modern tools to keep employees engaged and their collaboration active. These can involve a selection of online collaboration tools that enable people to

stay in touch while keeping abreast of news and evolving circumstances and developments. They also alert people to the many sudden and radical external changes that can impact what they do every day and how best to work together in a timely fashion. These tools continue to expand and evolve. Right now, the most commonly used include the following. → Web and video conferencing enables

real-time face-to-face web conferences for groups of up to 25 people. Web conferencing enables spontaneous online meetings and brings the additional advantage of seeing people’s faces while we talk with them, enabling everyone to catch the subtleties of facial inflections, like smiles and frowns, that add meaning to one’s words. It also enables the group simultaneously to examine documents under discussion. Companies these days are using web conferencing for a variety of purposes, including the on-boarding process. Web conferencing enables HR managers to talk to one or several new employees face-to-face from anywhere no matter their respective locations. It saves on travel costs but also provides a more personal touch not possible with conventional teleconference calls and FedEx packages. It’s also useful for team meetings and new hire introductions when the team is divided across locations. It enables people working remotely or traveling on client business to tie in via computer and not miss important developments and discussions about clients, the company, and opportunities and challenges. The session leader can use PowerPoint type slides or other documents on the screen to guide the discussion. Members of corporate leadership teams each have disparate responsibilities. Many need to “show the flag” at far-flung operations across the country or around the world. They can’t always be on site at corporate headquarters for the very necessary regular meetings of the

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senior team. Web conferencing enables them figuratively and literally to gather, secure that their discussions remain private. They are able to talk about and decide on the pressing issues of the moment. The CEO can share documents in real time online, and component team members can bring their relevant knowledge and experience to bear, regardless of where they are, as though they were all sitting in a private conference room. The process is as simple as coordinating participants’ calendars, and providing them with the necessary web link and password for the appointed meeting time, as though they were just walking down the hall to the boardroom. If the bulk of the team is, in fact, in that boardroom, remote members are visible on a projected screen. In turn, they see the respective team members on their computer screens and hear their voices simultaneously. When the meeting concludes, a simple log-off ends it, as though everyone left the conference room.

→ Similar to web conferencing, webinars

facilitate online collaboration for larger groups and company-wide meetings such as leadership town halls and All Hands meetings. Webinars can accommodate thousands of participants. Webinar leaders, be it the CEO, a division head or an external expert, can present new initiatives, new products, new ideas or approaches. Or the CEO can just keep the global organization informed of the company’s situation and strategies. Some webinar solutions offer recording and archiving functions that enable employees who want a second viewing or who may have missed the initial meeting the opportunity to view the recording at their leisure. These days, companies are using webinars to instruct employees on new procedures and to introduce new technologies. Compared to previous

means of presenting new technology, it has been found to be far more efficient, especially for companies with a distributed workforce. For example, the IT team can create an online presentation for a one-time demonstration of software upgrades, and then archive the recording for employees who may have missed it or want to review the session a second time to enhance their understanding. Webinars can be used on a regular basis for follow-up Q&A sessions about the material discussed in the presentation. Using webinars for large group and company-wide communications is an interactive, affordable and effective way to keep a workforce informed and engaged. Like web conferencing, the webinar occurs at a discrete time, accessible to people regardless of their location. Invitees are given a link and password, logging on at the appointed hour. Because of their large audience capacity, webinar interaction is limited compared to web conferencing. The webinar is mostly a one-way presentation, though there are opportunities for participants to post questions and comments that the moderator may respond to. Just like web conferencing, webinars can be recorded and archived for later viewing.

Technologies to pair with web conferencing for effective internal communications Regular and online communication through web conferencing and webinars from company managers and leaders to the workforce at large is necessary and effective for keeping the workforce up to speed on company goals, strategies and happenings. But after the presentation or online meeting is over, there a few technologies that keep the conversation going and provide a space to check for updates or ask questions before the next meeting or conference. → Internal social networks enable

employees to share ideas, insights and news spontaneously and have secure

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on-going discussions behind the firewall. Employees can also form special interest groups around shared responsibilities or even common outside interests like music and hobbies. Social networks provide a place for employees to share knowledge and make inquiries; learning from peers is not only effective but also a great team building exercise and, thanks to online social networks, now a team member in California can gain insights from a colleague in Chicago easily and regularly.

→ Company intranet websites provide an

assortment of opportunities for distributed workforces to stay connected with the company through general and specialized news databases and archives, and repositories for evergreen company documents. Virtually every large company today has an intranet, but each uses it differently. Some intranets I’ve seen are passive without a lot of new information posted over the course time. They seem to have been set up and populated some time ago, and then forgotten. Consequently, they’re not vital, aren’t used much, and soon go fallow.

Others are highly active sites with a wide array of information and news available and updated around the clock. As with public websites, intranet sites that are kept fresh are visited regularly and help engage their audiences in critical issues of the day. Active intranet sites are particularly valuable for global organizations upon which, to borrow a cliché, the sun never sets. Employees are able to tap into them whenever they want from wherever they are, even at home, and stay abreast of relevant news inside and outside the company: the companies’ industries, competitors, and markets.

Companies are also adopting social workspaces and wikis among other things to keep their workforces informed and engaged.

Knocking down silos People don’t need to be scattered across the globe to challenge the cohesiveness of an organization’s culture. There is a tendency in any organization for people to become isolated within the confines of a given physical space, be it a single floor in an office tower, or a “cubicle farm.” These remarkable Internet tools allow us to break down the artificial walls that people in organizations erect and maintain through force of habit, where localized cultures can take root and soon bear little resemblance to the corporate culture. These tools can help prevent that from happening. As you think about the collaboration tools you already use or the ones you need, remember that the most critical factor is to use them early and often so that they become a habit for the entire organization. That habit must start with the senior leadership team. Again, behaviors modeled by the senior-most people in an organization tend to be noticed and emulated. Web conferencing in small or company-wide groups enables the organization regularly to stay in touch with the individual employee, and vice-versa. Every employee feels always connected to the larger whole. Additionally, these tools help overcome the social isolation that remote workers may feel. These are important and core components of employee engagement: enabling people to stay linked to the company regardless of where they are, or when and why they reach out. Conclusion: What the future holds It is said that nothing is more certain than more change. The occurrence of distributed workforces will continue to increase as companies and the jobs they offer evolve, and as technologies advance. Meanwhile, the global economy will spread. And among the most certain things to change is the software and hardware that help us communicate effectively in real time.

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No doubt, technological advances will continue to improve our abilities to establish and maintain connections and engagement with our most far-flung employees. Aiding that, especially, will be the further distribution of high-speed Internet to ever-more remote corners of the earth, thereby enabling organizations to sustain the connections that will drive their success. Concurrently, there will be more expansion into the global economy by smaller firms – i.e., those that may not now have the critical mass to do so – made possible by the greater reach of the Internet and the continuing improvement and decreasing cost of online tools through economies of scale. But regardless of the technology or the technology tools that a particular organization chooses to use, these are only tools. They are not substitutes for authentic communication, but mere facilitators. Managers and leaders would do well to heed the difference, while bearing in mind another truth: that their company’s need for and accrued benefits of engaged and connected employees in a collaborative culture will only increase. Jack LeMenager, has more than 25 years experience in business communications, including employee communications, post-merger integration, labor relations communications, and business-to-business marketing communications for some of the world’s leading companies in the pharmaceuticals, healthcare, insurance, automotive, paper, energy, aviation, chemicals, and professional services industries. Jack is Director, Corporate & Strategy, at WCG, a leading analytics-based, integrated communications counseling firm providing business solutions in the areas of innovation,

change and growth for the world’s leading companies and brands. The Corporate and Strategy Group works with organizations to achieve competitive advantage through stronger employee engagement, improved organizational clarity, dynamic content, a more adaptable culture, and a socially oriented management model all driven by analytics. The company operates a network of offices in San Francisco, New York, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Austin, Los Angeles, and London. WCG is a unit of W2O Group. In 2011, Jack published Inside The Organization: Perspectives on Internal Communications, a collection of 54 thematically organized essays on communications and human relationships inside and outside the business world (available from Amazon.com). He also is the author of the Inside The Organization blog.  

 

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