In the midst of all the other news, you might have missed the report from the global public relations consortium, Worldcom, releasing the results of its confidence index. The major finding? Renewed attention by organizations on finding new talent and inspiring and enlisting the people within their walls.
Based on a survey among 585 CMOs and CEOs from North America, Asia and EMEA, people are increasingly seen as important to attaining business objectives, a welcome change given a recent tendency to see employees as a necessary evil. The collapse in institutional trust, well-documented in the Edelman Trust Barometer, no doubt has something to do with the disconnect between what businesses say and do regarding employees. Are they our most important asset, or easily replaced parts?
According to the research, companies are renewing this effort because of an increasingly urgent war for talent. In the recovery from the great recession, unemployment in many western countries is low, and demand for talent is rising. Holding on to workers and attracting new ones has a sudden spike in importance.
So what will this mean for brands?
- Consider whether your managers are ready to compete for talent. Most leaders ascend the management ranks through technical expertise, not managerial skill. How prepared are your leaders to engage employees whose expectations are high? Do they know how to draw people into dialogue and discussion? Generate ideas and innovation?
- Is your communication strategy ready to tell your employer story to a skeptical audience? Some organizations develop a separate brand – the employer brand – to summarize appeal to workers. Our view is that while tempting, this is an unnecessary complication in developing a communication strategy. Your organization should speak with one voice to its varied constituencies, and must respect differences in objectives by audience in executing its communication strategy. It need not forge an entirely separate brand.
- Recognize that you cannot force employees to be ambassadors. You have to make your institution a great place to work, and support employees in the effort to embrace customers. If you do that, both customers and employees will become advocates for you. What is preventing that from happening at your organization?
How Can True Digital Help?
Recommendation / Solution
Help managers improve employee engagement
Why not train your managers and supervisors to create discussion? Arm your team with the tools they need to know what and how to communicate, and how to listen more effectively. Learn more in our ebook.
Create a stronger communication strategy for your organization
AMMO Planning: Our proprietary AMMO process brings alignment across your organization and a common framework for all kinds of communication planning.
Make your organization a great place to work
Employee skills assessment and developmental dialogues: We offer a three-way skills assessment to your employees covering confidence, interest and importance to your organization, and use that comparison for inform discussion between you and your teams. The developmental dialogues that follow foster alignment between employees and leadership and set the stage for enhanced perception of value between the two.
