Posts Tagged ‘external communications’

 Employee communications will undoubtedly be the hot topic of the next few years, especially in the reputation space. As leaders come to terms with the fact that employees can be their best advocates and worst badvocates, internal communications will rise to a new level. That’s a good thing because I think leader-to-employee communications is more immature than the art and science of external communications.  With all the technology we have, you’d think that employee communications would be more advanced. But it is not.  Research by Dov Seidman and the Boston Research Group surveyed thousands of employees at all levels. One of the more startling  findings was that 27% of bosses think that employees are inspired by their firm, when in fact only 4% of employees agree.  And 41% of bosses say their firms award people based on values rather than financial performance.  Only 14% of employees agree. Bosses have  much to do to get employees inspired and willing to go the distance to make their firms successful and a place others want to work at. Talent, leadership and culture are drivers of reputation. Time to inspire before it is too late.

I was glad to read an article in the Financial Times by Richard Milne about leaders balancing their internal and external communications now that we are moving beyond the downturn. If you are a regular reader of this blog, you know that I have noted that CEOs are just starting to take steps back into the sunlight (ever so lightly). Many CEOs worked hard at boosting their internal communications over the past year but now is the time to begin planning a more visible external role. See a quote from the article below:

“After bunkering down for most of the past year, leaders need to start to peer out of the parapet as a possible recovery beckons. It is a time to stop being introspective and look outside to see what is happening.”

The choice of words is right — peering! CEOs should be taking a look out the window and taking small steps towards engaging external constituencies through a wide variety of channels now that a recovery is on the horizon.