From Monologue to Dialogue: Employee Engagement, Social Media

and the Bottom Line

Carolyn Ray

Vice President, Employee Engagement

IABC Employee Communications

Conference, October 2009

“If we choose to be bound by

the past, we will never move

forward”

- U.S. President Barack Obama, The Cairo Speech

What is dialogue?

Conversation between two or more people

WITH INTENT

Talk Listen

Respond

Trends in Internal Communications

Evolution

Has your communications strategy

evolved to market dynamics?

©

Effective communications = Better business

performance

Firms that communicate more effectively are four times as likely to report high levels of employee engagement versus firms that communicate less effectively.

• Companies that have highly

effective communicators are 20%

more likely to report lower turnover

rates than their peers.

• Companies with the most effective

employee communication

programs provided a 91% total

return to shareholders (TRS) from

2002 to 2006, compared with 62%

for less effective firms.

Internal Communications has a measurable impact

on business performance

Tangible Measures of

Engaged Employees

• Shrinkage (retail)

• Absenteeism

• Turnover

• Customer satisfaction, loyalty

• Safety

• Productivity

• Profitability/Performance

• Quality

• Loyalty

• Referrals/Recruitment ©

The soft stuff is the hard stuff

Information

Awareness

NEW

Inspiration

Engagement

OLD

INT

EN

T

“Intangible” Measures of

Engaged Employees

•Commitment

•Integrity

•Trust

•Inclusiveness

•High energy

•Passion

•Respect

•Innovation

•Creativity

Communication drives trust

Why this matters:Canada is not reaching its true potential

• Only 20% of the Canadian workforce is engaged; 80% is not

engaged or is actively disengaged

• Managers rank internal communications problems as the second

highest barrier to productivity around the globe, after staffing and

labour shortages

• 54% of employees still feel confused about how social and

environmental impacts are addressed in their company or feel they

are treated in silos

• Only 23% of employees think their firm is highly effective in

communicating initiatives to business leaders or employees

Sources: Gallup, Proudfoot Consulting, Watson Wyatt, Fresh Marketing

Start the Dialogue:

Employee Engagement in Tough Times™

www.national.ca/startthedialogue

Research

Findings

Start the Dialogue

Research Goals

• Understand key trends, challenges and opportunities for

internal communications in the economic context

• Examine the role of dialogue: how two-way conversation can

stimulate participation, exchange ideas, solve problems,

promote action and ultimately improve trust

• Help leaders and managers embrace dialogue to inspire and

engage employees in the midst of a challenging economy

• Understand perceptions and value of internal communications

• How we did it: Qualitative telephone and in-person interviews

with communications and human resources professionals at

organizations across Canada

™

Key findings

Context: Economic environment

Top trends in internal communications

Role of leaders and managers

Measuring the value of internal

communications

Implications

1

2

3

4

5

Business challenges: A time of

tremendous change

1

Challenges for Internal

Communications

1

Top trends in Internal

Communications

• 88% identified social media as the primary trend

influencing internal communications

• Social media describes tools that facilitate

ongoing online interactions and conversations

• Organizations use social media to facilitate

dialogue to support executive visibility, customer

experience, vision, branding, sustainability,

recruitment, etc.

#1 Social media

2

• FACT: Companies that use social media achieved year-over-year

improvement in employee engagement of 18% compared to 1% in those who

don’t (Aberdeen, 2008)

Communications modernity:

76% have fairly modern tools

• Some organizations using more

‘traditional’ tools said they lack

resources to implement new ideas

• Fairly modern: HTML newsletter,

podcast, voice messaging,

texting, video conferencing,

intranet, webcasting, email

2

“If we had internal social media tools, we

would definitely use them. Our CEO thinks

there is a general appetite for it.”

Communications: Then & Now

One-way communications

Controlled

Two or more way communications

Facilitated and integrated

Dialogue and information

spreads faster and easier

©

“Everyone at our organization agrees

that social media is changing the way

we work.”

“It would provide our employees who

don’t have access to technology at

work access to the senior team.”

“Employees are starting to ask us why

we aren’t doing more social media.”

Internal use of social media is

gaining momentum…

Source: iABC Research Foundation and Buck Consultants, 2009

Top trends in internal

communications

45% said that changing demographics in

the workplace are a major trend impacting

internal communications

#2 Demographics

FACT: By 2011, Millennials will outnumber baby boomers in the workplace (Don Tapscott, Growing Up Digital)

2

“The demographics of the workplace are

forcing us to constantly re-evaluate how

we’re communicating and whether or not

we’re reaching all employees, from the

recent college grads to the 30-year

employees.”

“We need to engage an aging workforce,

a new younger workforce with new, more

digital communication tactics.”

Top trends in Internal

Communications

30% cited an increased need

for timely and relevant

communications

#3 Timeliness and relevance

FACT: Only 23% of employees think their firm is highly effective in

communicating initiatives to business leaders or employees (Proudfoot Consulting, 2008)

3

“We need more consistency of

messaging and alignment…

connecting everything to the bigger

picture.”

“The amount of time you have

available to engage employees

seems to be diminishing.”

Role of Leaders:Leaders excel, managers lag

• 38% indicated that their CEO communicated very

effectively with employees

• 56% ranked other senior leaders significantly lower in

terms of communications effectiveness

• The CEO was ranked at ‘4’ or above by 82% of

respondents, versus 50% for other team members

CEO Communication Effectiveness

82%Manager Communication Effectiveness

50%

3

Leaders have more dialogue,

but it’s too formal

• 48% said senior leadership is more visible now than 3

months ago; 31% said it was unchanged

• 61% said there is more dialogue with senior

management as a result of acquisitions, economy,

restructuring, crises

• Majority of dialogue occurs for ‘formal’ announcements

Benefits of

dialogue:

Reinforces confidence in leadership

Builds trust

Facilitates two-way communication

Prevents rumour mill

Positively impacts morale

Helps with message retention

3

Demonstrating business impact

is critical

• Despite wide array of metrics available,

44% lack formal vehicles for measurement

• Most respondents use online surveys to evaluate

events or issues or do pulse surveys on specific

issues

• Some use annual communication surveys to

evaluate effectiveness

• Minority leverage Gallup, Balanced Scorecard to

measure business impact

4

Discussion

Implications

Starting the dialogue

with social media

©

Thank you!

cray@national.ca

Twitter: dialoguedivaray

national.ca/startthedialogue