Good Company Home

It sure does. Yes, thanking someone in person is the best way if that’s what makes sense. But it’s not so black and white in today’s business world.

What if your choice is thanking someone in person two weeks from now or sending a note via the intranet or emailing seconds after an employee does something great? Oh, just pick up the phone and call, you say? What if the person is simply unreachable? Is a voice mail better than an email? I don’t know for sure, but I know that I’m not alone in intensely disliking long voice mails. I feel like I have to listen just because I don’t want to miss something important, even though it’s pretty rare for people to leave big news on a voice mail.

Of course, I’m not saying that online recognition should completely replace all other forms of recognition forever. Online recognition has the best results when it’s part of a comprehensive recognition program that includes all sorts of interactions – from formal memos to live town hall meetings and informal discussions.

Here are three reasons to expand your recognition program online:
1 – If you operate on a global level, your employee relations program has to operate on that same level, and technology is a big part of that. The bottom line is that employees appreciate recognition, and when they feel appreciated, they’re more likely to leave your customers with the same feeling.
2 – Online communications are preferred by younger generations and by some older ones. I’ve been with many clients who keep checking their emails while saying something like, “I’m sorry. I have to check. I’m waiting for my boss to tell me how the launch went.” When the email comes through, they say, “Oh, she said it went great. That’s a relief. Now I can move on and focus on what I’m doing now.” Another lesson: Sometimes any communication is seen as recognition.
3 – The world operates on immediate gratification these days. Just as your customer wants whatever it is they want immediately, employees crave almost immediate gratitude for getting the job done well.

What qualifies as online recognition? Tribe works with a number of big global brands to launch micro-sites for giving global “shout-outs” up and down the ranks to sharing stories that make heroes out of employees who don’t usually win the spotlight and providing training for managers on how to make the most of online recognition.

Do you have someone who pushes back on recognition programs?
We hear a lot of, “Managers just need to say thank you. We don’t need a program for that.” Actually, not all managers are created equal. Some have a natural talent for recognizing people, and some don’t. Having multiple methods for making sure someone gets the recognition they deserve is a good way to hedge your bets and make sure everyone wins.

There are tons of books on recognition, but an interesting read is The Carrot Principle about a ten-year study of 200,000 managers and employees. This research says that companies in the top quartile for employee recognition, as determined by the surveyed workers, “earned a significantly higher return on equity, return on assets, and operating margin.” (You can read all about the study in The Carrot Principle, out in 2007, a New York Times best seller. The second version came out last year.)

Leave a Comment (0)

A lot of companies we work with are using their intranets to leverage their corporate brand and communicate their culture. After a couple years of being numbers focused, leadership is recognizing that engagement plays a key role in future success.

So, if you’re giving your intranet a tune-up to align it – and employees – with the company’s vision, then consider the following:

- What content will be on the site?
- You don’t want to bog employees down with another task.
- Your first shot has got to be your best shot.
- Recognition should be a part of it.
- It’s all about engagement/teamwork.

What content will be on the site?
People sometimes like to separate engagement and tools from HR materials. A separate HR portal may be a more inviting resource for a spouse to find answers to family-related HR questions

You don’t want to bog employees down with another task.
The price of entry for a successful intranet is that the site must be easy to navigate and user friendly. If it’s not, then it will become another part of the communications clutter that employees often have to weed through to get the information they need to do their jobs. A common barrier for communicators looking to leverage this channel in their organization is that people don’t want to add another task to their already busy day unless it benefits them.

Your first shot has got to be your best shot.
Your first shot is your best shot at getting employees to interact with employees – and leadership – on your intranet. When employees check out a website for the first time, it’s like they’re visitors to a foreign country. They’re seeing everything fresh and new for the first time. If the experience is not good, they won’t travel to that destination again without a lot of hand-holding and convincing. We’ve even worked with some companies who walk away from or shelve a technology indefinitely to get rid of bad juju.

Recognition should be a part of it.
Employees crave recognition and visibility, and social media can be a great tool for promoting both. Don’t be afraid to call out achievements and success stories from across the business. Nothing will make employees jump on board faster than seeing leadership actively supporting the new channel.

It’s all about engagement/teamwork.
Start by interviewing employees and leadership about what they want from the new tool. Then, deliver content and tools that align what employees need with the organization’s business goals. When you strike that balance, employees want to use the site, and, when they do use the site, they’ll be working toward fulfilling the purpose of the company. You’ll really start to see results when employees are having conversations and solving problems that otherwise would have gone unanswered.

Leave a Comment (3)

The New York Times just ran an article called, “Antisocial Networking?” in the Sunday Styles section. The cut line reads: Experts wonder if technology keeps children connected or diminishes their ability to read social cues and interact the old-fashioned way.

My take-away
The idea I took away from it is that people are worrying that friendship the way we know it is a dying breed due to social networking. I think that’s probably true, but I’m not sure how important that is.

Some of the parents in the NYT article agreed, saying their introverted and shy children were finding the courage to connect online or their busy teen was using it to schedule time with friends. Elizabeth Hartley-Brewer, author of “Making Friends: A guide to Understanding and Nurturing Your Child’s Friendships,” says: I think it’s possible to say that the electronic media is helping kids to be in touch much more and for longer. And the kids themselves are head over heels in love with technology.

I think that’s true. Tribe’s own research has revealed that half of kids in Gen Z prefer a technological gift over something “unplugged.” If businesses capitalize on this idea, then that’s something they can take to the bank.

Old ways of doing things get old for a reason
It’s true kids text about play dates instead of knocking on doors, but letter writing used to be the main form of communication, too. And we’ve moved past that pretty well. I’m not defiling letter writing for those of you that think it’s a lost art. I agree there is an art to it, but I also like to think that each generation improves on the ideas from the last one. This feels like a natural progression to me.

And, companies that facilitate this natural progression are sure to win on many fronts regarding:
1. Innovation. Social media helps people around the world, in a different building or in the same office to share ideas in a free flow form. Thinking up great ideas is as simple as getting smart people together in a room, but now you don’t need the room. You just need smart people.
2. Engagement. Technology is how younger generations connect with each other inside and outside of work, so they’ll expect to use these tools at work. PowerPoints will become obsolete in the near future. So will long meetings, as they become more focused and productive. In fact, most of our clients are adding interactivity to their portals to facilitate that engagement.
3. Recognition. Social media is a great outlet for peer-to-peer recognition and for recognizing people who aren’t all in the same building. It’s an opportunity to say thanks and to say what you’re thanking them for, so they know what they did right.
4. Development. Social media can make development tools available in a fun, simple style that engages people. And when employees see a clear path for themselves within the company, they’re that much more likely to become engaged.
5. Community. People want to be a part of a community, and in a sense, that’s the whole reason social media has been so successful. People will continue to find new ways to connect with one another, and successful companies will provide the tools for employees to do so. Relationships are formed differently, with more and more friendships being formed between people who have never met.

Gen Y and Gen Z connect by sharing
My colleague’s child just thought up an idea to stop the oil spill in the Gulf. He wrote it up and sent it off to BP. He’s 10, but I heard his idea and thought it was pretty darn good. I bet he gets some sort of response. And, as he grows up, he’s going to continue to use the Internet as a channel for sharing ideas. Someday he could help solve world hunger or help protect the earth by solving a problem, like the oil spill of the future – whatever that is.

A true sign of success is when something “just is”
Despite all the times I just said social media, at Tribe, we don’t use the phrase “social media” much anymore. Well, at least not as much as we used to. And, trust me, we’re into it, but we’ve adjusted our language to focus more on the channel’s value and benefits than the channel itself.

We’ve found that talking about “social media” distracts people from why they should use it in the first place. It’s too new. It’s too 2009. It’s too fast. It’s too raw. It’s too time intensive. Also, people tend to immediately think “Facebook” or “Twitter” when those sites are just the tip of the iceberg.

When talking with clients, I’ve taken to using social media and online communications interchangeably. To us, social media is simply online communications, but dished up in a two-way format rather than more traditional static one-way communications. The spirit of interchange and idea sharing are what takes “online” to the next level of socialness.

Leave a Comment (1)

Before you can effectively communicate change to employees, you need to understand their point of view. And although employee surveys are the most common way to collect data, they don’t necessarily get at the heart of what employees feel about the brand. At Tribe, we take all of our clients through the Discovery phase to get a better understanding of the people behind the brand. Here are three suggestions for developing more engaging questions for employees:

• Employee interviews. Interviews with a dozen employees in a variety of functions is a great starting point. From these interviews, we ask questions that will reveal what employees want most in terms of content and how willing they are to share their voice. From there, we develop strategies to close that gap. Qualitative interviews tend to reveal much more valuable information than a bunch of numbers from a poll. And by asking questions in a different way, you can often get a more “real” response, not just someone repeating back to you what they think they’re supposed to say.

• Leadership interviews. How well does leadership see their vision being communicated to employees? When it comes to a new project or initiative, ask questions that will help foster a greater understanding of what motivates management to not only becomes engaged with a project, but become ambassadors for it. The most important group to interview may be the fulcrum group, that critical group of managers just under the leadership team who lead the general employee population. If the fulcrum group jumps on-board with your project, it’s much more likely to be a success. The findings in this phase will help guide future communications around the project.

• Communications audit. Once you’ve finished with interviews, it’s time to develop your communications strategy. Take a look at your existing channels and determine the best way to communicate your message. This often involves using multiple channels to reach different internal audiences.

Once the Discovery phase is complete, it’s time to develop tactics and content from the information you gleaned during interviews. Communicating change is more likely to be successfully if you anticipate and explain any hurdles that employees expect to face along the way.

Leave a Comment (1)

The 2009 Inspire Awards for Internal and Employee Communications winners were just announced. According to their website, the competition drew one of the largest number of submissions ever. It’s encouraging to see so many companies make an effort to engage employees. Submissions came from all over the globe, so it’s a great snapshot of what’s happening in the world of internal communications.

The winners are facing the same issues that many companies deal with. For instance, American Express was recognized for engagement around an experiential promotion to “rebuild organizational trust at American Express.” Many top companies are facing this very same issue as they come out of the recession. Tribe’s research has revealed that there is often a gap between leadership’s vision and employee understanding of how that vision plays out on a day-to-day (or project by project) basis.

Qualcomm, Inc. won an award for most inspirational piece for their 2008 Annual Report about People. This is a separate piece from their corporate annual report and centers on celebrating and connecting employees. It’s one more step towards giving employees the recognition they crave, and employees who feel unappreciated are likely to be disengaged from their work.

Unfortunately, the site itself doesn’t give in-depth information on many of the pieces described. But you are able to browse images of many of the award winners, so it’s definitely worth a look.

We’re hearing from many companies that attracting top talent will be a huge issue as the recession comes to an end. One manager for a global brand said that when recruiting became an issue, leadership realized that they had to invest time and energy into improving their culture. While many people right now are just happy to have a job, that won’t last forever. Some companies are starting to worry that employees that have just been waiting it out will leave once more companies are hiring again. If so, companies like the Inspire Awards winners are probably positioned to capture that top talent down the road.

Leave a Comment (1)

At Tribe, we’re interested in how different generations interact in the workforce. We’re currently conducting follow-up research on how the recession has affected the different generations, so look for that to be released soon. Additionally, we’re conducting research on Gen Z, the generation born roughly between 1995 and 2009. As their future employers, we have a head start knowing some of the drivers that have shaped their lives into the people and workers they will become. Gen Z is just now starting to enter the workforce, primarily in the retail and restaurant industries. Here are a few key traits to look for in this group:

• They’ve grown up with technology. Perhaps the most important thing to point out about this generation is that they are truly the first generation to not know what life is like without technology. They were born into the age of the Internet, cell phones, Facebook and TiVo, so technology provides the background for a lot of their predominant characteristics. Expect this group to adapt very quickly to new tools and technologies at work, although they may prove to be overly dependent on these tools.

• They show signs of becoming fantastic multi-taskers. Because they are used to handling so many forms of technology in their daily lives, they are fantastic multi-taskers. This might present a problem once they are working since the challenge will be to keep the Gen Zs motivated and focused on the task at hand.

• Gen Z is highly educated. This will be the most educated generation to date. With this prestige comes strong opinions on everything and they might not do so well at taking suggestions. Even though they are well educated, they may not be drawn to the same types of jobs. What we think of as prestigious professions, like doctors and scientists, might not hold much value for this group.

• They process information quickly. Thanks to the internet, Generation Z is used to instant results – and can be very impatient when they don’t get them. With instant results also comes the ability to process information very quickly, which can be an extremely valuable trait in the workforce.

• They prefer informal communications. Gen Z is typically self-directed, individualistic and private. But when it comes to sharing their lives on the internet, they are much less restricted than other generations. They interact primarily through the digital world and as a result they might lack in interpersonal skills, verbal communication and expression—which can come across as a lack of confidence. This contrasts with Gen Y, who are typically seen as people pleasers and team players.

Gen Z is just now getting their first jobs. And in the coming years as Boomers begin to retire, Gen Z will get a chance to show the working world how their skill set will drive business forward.

Leave a Comment (1)

If a picture is worth a thousand words, imagine how powerful a video of your CEO passionately explaining the company mission can be for employees.

As blogging becomes more popular, so does video blogging (also know as v-blogging or vlogging). In internal communications, video blogs can give a face to top leadership in a more casual and friendly forum. A good example of this comes from eBay’s CEO John Donahoe. In a recent guest blog for the Wall Street Journal, Donahoe—flip cam in hand—interviews one of eBay’s merchants.

Donahoe’s video is a success because it comes across so genuinely. And rather than being a video about eBay’s CEO, it’s a video he made while interviewing a vendor. In fact, Donahoe only appears for a brief moment when he turns the camera on himself. You can also tell that there weren’t layers of approval behind the video—it’s just Donahoe behind the camera, interviewing this merchant about his business and his inventory. It’s much more interesting to see him make a star out of someone else than insist the focus be on him. Had this been a “big budget” film, it probably would have seemed very “put on” and much less sincere than what we see here.

While this video is very effective, it can be risky to approach video so casually. Simple things like using a tripod and choosing good lighting can go a long way towards making a video look more professional (and less shaky). For Donahoe, it works well in this context, but a different video with different messaging may lend itself to a more polished video.

Video can be a great tool for engaging employees because it truly gives leadership a face both quickly and candidly, and you can’t always get that through picture or text alone. If a CEO sets the example, it could even open the door to more active participation and encourage employees to use video more often in communications. And while we’ve heard employees voice before that they may feel uncomfortable watching video at work, the fact that the CEO is the one speaking can raise that comfort level.

For more on this topic, visit the “Professional vs. off-the-cuff videos for internal communications” discussion on our LinkedIn discussion group.

Leave a Comment (1)

More and more companies are seeing the advantages of integrating all of their data and processes into a single, unified system. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems are the method of choice, and the most popular provider is SAP.

According to a survey conducted by Forrester Research, only six percent of 500 companies surveyed considered their ERP systems effective, while 79 percent said they were not effective or only somewhat effective. And five of the top ten Corporate Information Technology Failures cited by Computerworld involve ERP projects.

Here are five tips for successfully launching ERP at your company:

• Don’t try and implement it during your busy season. People need time and training to successfully implement ERP. It’s best to launch the program during your slow season so people can get a feel for it. Hershey learned this the hard way when they tried to launch SAP during Halloween. The new system was implemented so poorly that huge customers like Walmart simply ordered from Hershey’s competitors because they weren’t getting their orders. This resulted in a 19% drop in that quarter’s earnings.

• Put your best people on the job. Make sure that your implementation partner is giving you their best people. Request to see resumes, to make sure their consultants aren’t there for on-the-job training. ERP implementation requires a highly competent (and experienced) team on both ends, so you’ll need to be teaming your best people with theirs.

• Top management has to be involved with the project throughout. Top leadership has to communicate their vision for the project. Another company can’t just guess at your business objectives and implement changes. The project needs full support from leadership, and sustaining communications on the business reasons and benefits that the change will bring. Getting employees to embrace the project is critical to its success.

• Mistakes are costly. Customer orders aren’t processed, bills aren’t paid and bankruptcies sometimes follow failed implementations. This is one of those projects that you can’t afford to get wrong.

• You can’t just do things the same way. Many companies run into a lot of problems when they want to customize ERP. If you’re going to make the switch to ERP, be prepared to start looking at processes through the ERP lens. ERP is not a vehicle to run your current system that way it’s always been run.

This isn’t an IT project—you have to involve people from across the business for it to be a success, and the launch date is just the start. If done well, ERP can be hugely efficient and valuable to a company. If done poorly, it can be an extremely costly mistake that extends far beyond the cost of the project.

Leave a Comment (0)

Finally getting your company’s social media plan off the ground can be very rewarding. You put in a lot of time and energy and are excited to see things really start to take off. It starts off slow at first, but you eventually start to see some action. You continue with what you’re doing, but it seems like things just start to stall. So what are the next steps? Here are three ways to refresh your social media presence:

• Respond to comments. Many of the most successful blogs are driven by user comments. The reason for this is that the articles spark conversation among readers. That’s why a blog shouldn’t be about just you or your company. People generally will not take the time to participate in a conversation that you started about how great you are. Instead, engage readers by shifting the conversation to their needs. Whatever you do, don’t be afraid to jump into the conversation. Otherwise, all you have is a media site without the social part.

• Listen to feedback. First the bad news: You’re probably not going to get your blog right on the first try. For any number of reasons, your content is getting the readership that you would. But that’s also the good news. Many people just throw in the towel thinking, “Social media is just a waste of time.” You have to take the time to listen to feedback, but that’s only the first step. Then, you need to make changes to create a more positive user experience. Readers will feel much more engaged if you respond to their comment and make changes based on their suggestions.

• Be prepared to evolve. Quicken Loans’ WHAT’S THE DIFF blog is written by employees for employees and clients, so what you read is what you get if you’re a potential client trying to get a feel for the company. The blog was started about three years ago as a tool for HR recruiting, to reach out to potential employees and show them what it’s like to work at Quicken Loans. “That has become less of a focus, said Kelly LaVaute, Quicken Loans’ social media manager and one of the blog’s editors, “but a lot of people who come into interview have read THE DIFF.” (For more on Quicken Loans’ WHAT’S THE DIFF blog, read “Employees are a powerful voice in social media.”)

Now that you’ve launched your social media plan, you have to follow through and keep posting new content. Social media has to be timely, so if you’re not updating your content, it won’t be long before people stop coming back.

Leave a Comment (0)

Some people just don’t know how to send an email. FROM TYPING IN ALL CAPS to an unnecessary ‘reply all,’ it can be frustrating to have a conversation with someone through email who doesn’t know the proper etiquette. But like all things, most employees with poor email etiquette don’t do so intentionally. They simply don’t know that they’re doing anything wrong at all. If email etiquette and professionalism are becoming a problem, don’t let things go unnoticed. Give employees the training they need to be successful, and then you can deal with any issues on a case-by-case basis. As many companies are putting together their social media guidelines for the first time, this can be a great opportunity to refresh employees on email etiquette.

Among younger generations, email is not always the preferred method of communication. The problems arise when people use text-messaging shorthand in professional business communications. As social media tools become more common in the workplace, we can expect to see email being used less and less.

So what does a professional email look like?
A professional email isn’t complicated. It should be very clear and to the point. If someone asks you questions in an email, answer every one that you can and acknowledge any that you can’t. When you expect someone to take action based on your email, it’s important to make it absolutely clear what you expect of that person. And don’t forget about the subject line. When you are writing an email, you spend most of your time looking at the body—not the subject. But when someone receives an email, the subject and sender will be the first thing they see. The person receiving the email should instantly know what the email is about after reading the subject.

Once you’ve crafted a clear and concise email, do not hit send. Take a deep breath and read back through the email. Did you spell the person’s name correctly? If there are any squiggly red lines under any of your words, find out why. Spell check isn’t always right, but don’t just ignore it. If the email is being sent to a client or customer, spelling and punctuation mistakes come across as unprofessional.

Don’t get creative
Whatever you do, don’t try and jazz up an email with a cool font or hip background image. Just keep it simple. Leave the design to the designers, and focus on sending an average looking email with above average clarity.

Leave a Comment (0)