Remember to Talk to Them Nov 12, 2008

San Francisco, CA – Jennifer Benz, founder and chief strategist of Benz Communications, reminds employers that during difficult times they need to remember to communicate with their employees.

According to Ms. Benz, employees are anxious, and there’s a lot for them to be anxious about: the economy, announcements of new layoffs virtually daily, high jobless rates, higher food and fuel prices, the financial crisis impacting their retirement savings – and whatever may be going on in their particular workplace. “Given the current state of our United States, the absolute worst thing employers can do is remain quiet,” stated Ms. Benz. “Uncertain times are just when you should be communicating with employees more openly and frequently – both to retain them and maintain their productivity so that your company doesn’t end up another casualty of this tough time we’re experiencing.” Ms. Benz suggests the following five essentials for communicating with employees during tough times:

Communicate Early & Often
Act as quickly as possible and communicate with employees, even when you don’t have all the answers; especially when external events are having an impact on your company. Too often management – not yet confident they know all there is to know—is too slow to respond. Employees know when external factors are having a direct impact on the company and, you can bet, they have at least an inkling of knowledge about any internal changes and are already in reaction mode. It is always better to communicate something — and openly acknowledge what you don’t know — than to remain mum.

Make Leaders Visible and Give Employees an Opportunity to Respond
This is when executive leaders should visibly demonstrate their leadership. Of course, they need to adhere to SEC guidelines for what can and cannot be publicly announced, but that should not prevent them from talking with and responding to employees. This is an opportunity to build trust with frequent and authentic communication, and test drive social media tools—such as blogs, podcasts, and videocasts. Social media is a great tool for quickly and easily disseminating information that simultaneously provides those on the receiving end with an opportunity to respond.

Communicate In-Person
The most powerful forms of communication during difficult times are in-person and one-on-one. While it is typically too difficult or expensive to orchestrate all-employee meetings (even virtually), you can keep your communications with employees upfront and personal by communicating via managers who have the proximity and ability to speak with your employees as frequently as needed.

Give managers a preview – ahead of distribution to employees—of any/all communications and request their in-person engagement. Empowering your managers in this way makes them more connected to the company and goes a long way to keeping employees engaged too.

Coordinate with Existing Communication Efforts
Always keep the end goal of your company-wide communications top of mind. It can be especially difficult to coordinate communications activities when you’re acting quickly, but disconnected communication efforts can add to, rather than decrease, employee stress. Every employee communication effort – in whatever form it takes—needs to be carefully reviewed in its relationship to the whole of your company’s communications strategy and within the context of the current “situation” or conditions. A “routine” performance review can seem insensitive following a notice that all salary increases are on hold. “Normal” benefits changes can seem like a mixed message in the midst of major internal adjustments. Neglecting to connect and integrate all communication messages and channels, could result in the unintentional discrediting of your message and/or your messenger.

Prepare
When times are tough – whether for an extended period or in a crisis – it’s difficult to thoroughly think things through and act strategically. Yet, many of these types of events may be planned for from a hypothetical perspective, which means you can prepare a plan of attack, which you’ll then have in place for when something triggers an urgent need to communicate with and calm anxious employees.

In addition to being more effective, planned communications will also save time and energy. Consider the following:

• Six months from now, how do you want employees to remember this period?
• What’s the fundamental goal of your company’s communication efforts? (Being open, quick to respond, focused on the customer?)
• What are the most effective means of reaching employees? (in order of effectiveness)
• Who needs to participate in the review process? Who bears responsibility for final sign off?
• How will employee questions, feedback, and response be handled?