In this age of participative management and employee empowerment surely a situation like this merely highlights one last dinosaur in the executive suite. Well, not necessarily because it’s not just the responsibility of management to ensure staff are informed of new developments and organisational changes.
Employees need to attend briefings, read emails and newsletters and contribute to focus groups to really be up to date with the issues. I’ve seen managers mount comprehensive communications campaigns and still face the accusation that their staff are kept in the dark. So how much responsibility lies with each individual to stay well informed? And what can managers do to encourage staff to keep up with the latest issues?
Smart managers recognise that staff most value what they hear directly from team leaders and front line managers. Anything that looks too ‘head office’-ish is likely to be dismissed as not really relevant to their particular work environment. In other words, most people want information that is directly mapped to their immediate needs and their particular part of the world.
This is not really an astonishing insight into the behaviour of employees – just think of the last time you heard about a disaster on the news and then consider what your reaction would’ve been if your street was affected! We are more likely to listen if it directly relates to our world.
Here are some hints to create effective communication between staff and management:
1. Decode all head office communications
You need to help your staff make the connection between general information on a company level and the specific impact it will have on their work.
Remember the high tech/high touch connection: the more high tech we become, the more we crave being with other people. Technology has made it easier to disseminate information – just think of how the emails accumulate when you’re out of the office for a day or so – but many people still prefer to get their information from a colleague.
Team briefings can be an effective way of spreading important information. I know of one state manager who regularly briefed the top level team every week when she returned from Canberra. She didn’t make a fancy visual presentation, she just talked to them about the information she’d gathered and more importantly shared how she felt about the latest turn of events.
She made sure that her team were not only getting the official message, they were also getting the critical sub-text. They were in tune with her assessment of the situation and were encouraged to analyse the new information themselves and share their thoughts with the group. I have never seen a team quite so future-proof as this one proved to be when they faced a massive restructure that year.
2. Add value to the information you gather
Turn boring statistics and meaningless graphs into stories and anecdotes that people can understand and build on. We are all bombarded with information every day – be it advertising or company-specific news – so why not borrow a strategy from the marketers and aim for ‘cut through’ with your key messages to staff? Highlight the key words and phrases, and think about what will strike a chord with them. Just like an advertiser, you are trying to get their attention amidst all the other input.
3. Foster responsibility and accountability
Each individual needs to realise that it’s in their interests to be well informed. In order to cope well with any changes in the work environment people need to have contact with the issues. That means they can help themselves by reading the information that comes their way and asking questions in team meetings if they need clarification. Remind your staff of this and emphasise the importance of being a contributor.
4. If all else fails.
If someone still insists that they didn’t know about an important issue because management didn’t tell them, you may need to tactfully reject this. After all, if you can point to a raft of different communications that have been sent out then their complaint will be baseless. Passive observers and those who opt out completely can only expect their issues to be overlooked.
These strategies will help ensure that your staff have the critical information they need to know what’s going on in the organisation. Having done your bit to foster an informed, thinking staff you will eventually be rewarded. In fact, you may find you’re the one apologising for not being up with your reading as they in turn provide you with information they’ve researched.
