Just last year, Gallup research showed that only 13% of employees felt their leaders were effectively communicating with their organizations.
That’s it. Thirteen percent.
Would that number go up if executives realized the positive impact of employee communications in areas other than the bottom line?
In other words, how do employee communications influence external communications?
BRAND AMBASSADORS
Every employee has his or her own network outside the company and. With social media and general connectivity continuing to grow more prominent every day, these networks can mean millions of touchpoints with prospective customers, partners and talent. But your employees need to know what’s going on in the company if they are going to act as brand ambassadors and share, promote or recruit on its behalf.
Employees need to feel like they’re part of something bigger in order to be willing to support the brand through their personal time and relationships—and no, this doesn’t only apply to millennials.
COHESIVE MESSAGING & BRAND IDENTITY
While crucial for every business, this is particularly important for companies in transition—with evolving objectives, strategies, or go-to-market plans. Keeping employees in the loop on how the company is trying to position itself, where its priorities lie, and what its goals for the future may be, will ensure that no matter who gets the question, the answer will accurately reflect the company’s current brand.
TRUST, INTEGRITY & LOYALTY
With open dialogue across departments and levels, you guarantee employees can trust that the company they work for has integrity and that they will bring forward anything that seems like trouble. This could even prevent a crisis from happening before it’s too late.
When employees feel as though they are part of the company—they believe they have truly played an integral part in the company being what it is today—they are much less likely to say something publicly that would get the company in trouble, and much more likely to stand by if/when something goes wrong.
CULTURE & COLLABORATION
Particularly if you have teams and offices that span different locations, you may have already realized you may be duplicating efforts with a lack of communications and collaboration—but that doesn’t just mean operationally. You may have people from different teams or offices unintentionally competing for share of voice when they could be amplifying it instead.
More effective employee communications leads to more collaboration, a stronger brand identity and, in the end, make your company a more competitive player.
– Alaina Shulman