In the age of coronavirus, employee communications is illustrating its value as the company glue. Oftentimes, it seems companies spend so much time, energy and money focusing on their customers through marketing and advertising efforts and not enough time on their most important audience: employees.
Even before remote work was as pervasive as it is during COVID-19, employee communications had the power to serve as the lifeline of a company. It brings people together for the common good of the company and helps employees understand their role in the bigger picture. Effective employee communications has the power to shape a company’s culture, build trust, loyalty, drive brand behavior, support company initiatives and objectives. When employees feel engaged, they have a sense of ownership and their job satisfaction increases. And so does the company bottom line.
Even in remote work situations, employee communications should be two-way. All communication channels should offer a way for employees to provide feedback, ask questions and give suggestions. This also helps companies measure how well they’re communicating and can indicate opportunities to go back and refresh communications when necessary.
With a remote workforce, companies may need to work even harder to create a sense of community through technology to help employees feel connected. Whether it’s through virtual team meetings with a creative twist, one-on-one leader check-ins, intranet activities, Yammer or Slack discussions and video storytelling – it takes grit and creativity. This is a ripe time for leaders to show up and make themselves available to listen and share ideas. Top executives should visit virtual staff meetings – not just to share company updates, but also share what projects they are working on and challenges they’re facing. Leaders can also use this time to ask for feedback or simply just to be personal and say hi.
Tapping into the power of employee communications through technology to keep employees plugged in takes some time, patience and creativity, but it can be done.
