Anyone who wants to work on the corporate culture cannot do so without communication. Access to information is important, because the greater the access to information, the greater the transparency and trust. If companies increase transparency, employees become more involved and are willing to go the extra mile for the company. And this also applies to tasks that are not directly included in the job description.
The best way to inform employees is to use different channels and different formats, for example in person at a team meeting, through a blog post on the intranet or at a company meeting. Nevertheless, when it comes to informing employees, a lot of questions quickly arise: How often should information be provided? How do you ensure that all employees have been reached? How do you ensure that there is a constant flow of information?
Getting the hang of it
At SAP Switzerland, "Swiss-Spin" was introduced: an entertaining news format in the style of a radio show that provides employees with the most important updates every two weeks for 15-20 minutes. If you want to listen, you can dial in like in a telephone conference - no matter where they are working from. If employees want a particular topic for an issue, they can send it directly to the Employee Communication Team, which prepares the news format.
Success is the bell to the bell
If employees from the SAS Institute had a sense of achievement, they ring a trychel in the office to share the story. For example, the bell was often used by sellers to announce a successful sale. And whoever sat out of earshot received a "Ring the Bell" email summarizing the success story.
Give me five!
Janssen-Cilag pursues a holistic approach with a total of five both formal and informal discussions. The first meeting takes place in January or February, where the goals are set, the commitment of managers is recorded and individual further development is defined. Around the middle of the year, the performance development is examined in the second interview and possible course corrections are made, whereupon the feedback interview is held between May and November. The fourth and fifth interviews will take place between November and January and will include stakeholder feedback, self and leadership assessment and performance measurement.
Checklist
- How transparent are you in your communication and how do you ensure that managers and executives regularly deliver news personally?
- Do you communicate regularly to all employees through team meetings or company events?
- Do you use different communication channels to ensure that you reach all employees?
- Does your message have a clear and concise message?
- Do you share internal information (corporate strategy, financial metrics) with your employees before communicating it externally?
- Do you also post important information on all accessible platforms, such as the intranet?
- Do you regularly ask your employees whether they get the information they need in the level of detail and form they need most?
