Employee communication: from nice to necessity

Historical, economic and technological changes transforming the nature of work also are elevating the role and significance of the employee communication function.

At one time, employee communication was considered a backwater in the communication world. Typically the function was directed by an older, easy-going editor who could be counted on to snap a few pictures at the employee picnic as well as write up the occasion for the monthly newsletter. Its role was often an adjunct of employee relations: to make employees feel good. In short, employee communication was nice, but not necessary.

But today's rapidly changing business environment is compelling organizations to take a new look at communicating with employees. As a result, organizations are beginning to realize that employee communication is no longer "nice to do"; it is critical to success.

This transformation is not being driven by new communication techniques or new ways of delivering information to employees, although exciting developments are occurring in both areas. Nor is it being driven by new philosophies of the relationship between employees and the organization, though such philosophies are emerging. Instead, it is being driven by a series of historical, economic and technological changes that are transforming organizations as inexorably as the forces of erosion reshape the earth. This transformation is the work shift.

The shifting nature of work

The first force driving the work shift is technological. For most of human history, work consisted of mechanical labor, either directly or with the assistance of machinery. But around 1800, J.M. Jacquard, a Frenchman, invented a self-regulating knitting machine. Jacquard's machine could automatically knit intricate patterns using instructions somewhat like those in a player piano. As a result, mill owners began to employ fewer people to do the knitting (mechanical labor), but more people to design new patterns.

This new type of labor has been called "knowledge work" - the generation of intellectual rather than physical output. Today a significant percentage of the work force in more developed countries is engaged in such efforts. How significant is this shift? Companies who are leaders in knowledge work have become more valuable than those still producing physical output. For example, at this writing the stock market places a greater value on the shares of Microsoft than those of General Motors, despite the huge disparity in the size of the two corporations.

The more employees shift from physical to intellectual output, the higher the level of education and the more training they require. As employee education and training increase, the value of the employee also increases, and with increased value comes higher labor costs. The cost of labor has grown so much that today employee compensation represents the largest single outlay for most organizations. This trend - the seemingly inexorable increase in the cost of labor - is the second force behind the work shift.

As the cost of employing knowledge workers rises, managers must increase the value of the work employees do. Humans have become far too expensive to employ in low-value-added roles, particularly roles that could be performed by automated machinery or information systems.

Moreover, corporations are not limiting work-force reductions to lower level jobs. As employees get smarter, they don't require as much direction, so middle management layers also are being reduced. One outcome is that decision making is being pushed down in the organization. The growing emphasis on teamwork reflects this trend, with corporations encouraging employee teams to make more of the decisions that affect their work. Innovative organizations now strive to take full advantage of their employees' increased knowledge and training by asking them to come up with their own solutions to accomplish their objectives.

Thus the work shift is changing the way corporations staff, organize and manage their employees. Organizations that fail to respond to the work shift will find themselves increasingly at a competitive disadvantage.

Employee communication's new role

The new challenge to management is to ensure that all employees - down to the lowest level in the organization - are able to maximize their contribution. To meet this challenge, the one absolutely essential requirement for this new breed of employee is information.

Thus, employee communication, the one-time backwater, suddenly has a new and critical role: to increase employees' effectiveness by providing the information they need to help them achieve their objectives. The function's objective is no longer just to make employees feel good; communicators can no longer permit bowling leagues, birthdays and babies to dominate the pages of the company newsletter. Instead, employee communication must deliver business information critical to the organization's success.

The most critical information employees need is about the organization's objectives. If employees are to maximize effectiveness, management must strive for alignment between the organization's goals and the individual objectives of the employees. In the past, management seldom revealed its plans to employees, because "they didn't have the necessary need to know." The challenge to employee communicators is to convince management that employees do need to know today, and to help management communicate those goals effectively.

Communicating effectively means more than simply announcing objectives once in lofty phrases and vague generalities. Employee communication must prompt management to provide employees with details, background and context. Employees need to know what the objectives mean for their areas of operation. Likewise, communicators must help management report progress toward those objectives. And, as changing circumstances cause objectives to be revised, management must communicate both the changes and the reasons behind the changes.

Without such information, an employee is unlikely to be able to align his or her efforts with corporate objectives. On an individual scale, this means lost time and energy. But the cumulative inefficiency of many employees working at cross-purposes can mean cost-overruns, lost customers and corporate disaster.

The traditional medium of employee communication has been the newsletter, and it still remains a valuable tool. But the most effective way to communicate an organization's plans and progress is for management to do so directly. Only management understands its goals and the reasoning behind them; thus senior managers are better able to present those goals and to answer employee questions.

Getting management to do so, however, is no easy task. Not only are such communications time consuming, but also senior management has not been used to sharing such information down through the ranks. Overcoming this reluctance is a major challenge for employee communicators. Even when executives agree, they often fail to communicate clearly to the intended audience, lapsing into jargon unfamiliar to many employees. Thus the role of employee communicators is not only to promote this communication process, but also to assist executives in preparing their communication. Then, newsletters and other media can be used to repeat and reinforce the message.

From nice to necessity

In summary, the role of the employee communication function is changing. Instead of trying to improve employee morale, the new mission of employee communication is to help make employees - and therefore the entire organization - more effective in achieving individual and organizational objectives. As the work shift continues, this new mission becomes increasingly urgent. In the old days, communicating to employees was a nice thing to do; in this new era, providing employees with the right information in time for them to use it is an absolute necessity. With the work shift, employee communication has gone from optional to essential.

Michael C. Brandon is director of internal communication, Northern Telecom, Nashville, Tenn.

COPYRIGHT 1995 International Association of Business Communicators
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group