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July 31, 2006
Making personnel announcements count
In many companies, there is no job more dreaded than that of writing and then managing the approval of personnel announcements. These unlucky souls frequently get caught in the middle of political battles over wording, how promotions are positioned and who saw what version when (I can speak from experience!).
Once the carefully worded pages of text describing the hirerings, firings and promotions that make up corporate life are finally blessed, outdated and unsophisticated distribution lists carry the message to employees who disregard it, complain because it doesn’t apply to their area, or – worst of all – point to it sarcastically as proof that the wrong people continue to get ahead.
Despite their bad reputation in many companies, personnel announcements are actually a golden opportunity to reinforce key aspects of your culture and provide information about your company’s business priorities.
Tips on content
The characteristics of an effective personnel announcement may differ among companies, but most accomplish at least the following things in one page or less:
1. Review accomplishments, not just positions. Highlight what employees have contributed to the company rather than recount the list of the positions they’ve held. This applies for retiring employees as well as ones being promoted. It is appropriate, however, to include the most recent position held and the very first position at the company with the year the person started.
2. Provide business detail. Include information on the size of the person’s business or division, how it’s performing, what its goals are, what challenges it faces and how it fits into your company’s overall business strategy and mission. Be sure to include key messages from your company’s main message platform when feasible. (If you don’t have one, this is a perfect excuse to create it.)
3. Make details and quotes count. Quotes should add a personal dimension to the announcement and be more than the standard “I’m very pleased…” or “Please join us in wishing Joe much success.” lines. Use quotes to reinforce your company’s story and add texture and color to your leaders.
4. Don’t leave the reader guessing. Address potential questions upfront to avoid misinterpretation and fueling of the rumor mill. For example, if a successor is not named as part of a retirement announcement, at least provide a timeframe for when one will be named or details on the search process.
Tips on distribution
For announcements to retain their effectiveness as a tool to drive your company’s culture and business, don’t take the easy way out by simply e-mailing them to every employee. Set guidelines on what level announcements should be sent to which employee groups. Some companies specify that changes within a business group or division (other than the head of it) be communicated only within that group or division to reduce unnecessary e-mails.
But here’s where it gets tricky: don’t let your rules rule you. Distribution guidelines are just that; if you can tell a compelling story by breaking the rules, do it. For example, if one of your company’s priorities is to change the way it sells its products, you might want to give wider distribution to announcements that detail changes in the sales organization and provide examples of the kinds of salespeople that are being promoted.
Don’t forget about your employees in manufacturing facilities who may not have regular access to e-mail. They’re often the last to hear things, but since they’re the ones making your products day in and day out, they need to know about the direction of the company and how they fit in just as much as office-bound managers do. Work with plant management to ensure prompt posting of key announcements or work with the local communications manager to get the information included in pre-existing communications like daily briefing sheets or plant newsletters.
Above all, make sure you do what you can to ensure your employees hear major personnel news from the company before they read it on the internet or in the newspaper. With today’s strict rules governing disclosure of material events (such as key personnel changes), the best you can do is release information to employees at the same time as to analysts and the media. The speed at which this news travels requires that internal distribution channels be accurate and complete so the company has a chance to at least match the outside world. If you don’t interpret and explain major personnel news to your employees, the world will do it for them. Using these tips on content and distribution will help you do just that – and will create effective personnel announcements that can create a surprising amount of change in a very short time.
Posted by Christopher at 10:13 AM
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| TrackBackJuly 13, 2006
The story behind the yellow smiley face
Over the past year, I've worked with several companies to help them manage the announcement of sometimes controversial transactions to employees. Our challenge is always to be as honest as we can while admitting we don't have too much to say. It was against these recent experiences that I smiled (no pun intended) when I came across a reference a few days ago about the origin of the yellow smiley face character, now well-known around much of the world.
While today many people know it as a marketing symbol used by Wal-Mart or as a :-) inserted into an email or text message, the most widely credited claim goes to Harvey R. Ball. He created buttons with the smiley face image in 1963 to cheer employees during a rocky merger between the State Mutual Life Assurance Company and an out-of-town company. Interesting to see that only does the smiley face go back over 40 years, but that it's initial purpose was to calm employee nerves during M&A activity. I have no idea if it worked back then, but I continue looking for a present-day opportunity where the solution is so simple!
Posted by Christopher at 7:47 AM
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I wonder if that is the same Harvey as in Harvey Balls which we used to use many years ago in quality management tools such as the selection grid - using harvey balls 1-5 told you level of alignment on a topic, etc.
Posted by: regina at July 14, 2006 3:07 AM
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| TrackBackJuly 3, 2006
Reducing the "Ivory Tower" syndrome in today's companies
One of our biggest challenges as employee communicators has been to keep senior management in touch with the front line and vice versa. For those of you blessed with an articulate and charismatic CEO who "gets it," you may have few worries. For the rest of you, you know how challenging this can be. Now a new trend threatens to make our jobs in this area more difficult -- yet more important than ever -- that's the trend of companies locating a small headquarters office in New York City, far away from the majority of other headquarters function employees.
Companies such as Alcoa, Federated Department Stores and CIT Group have all set up "satellite" headquarters facilities, usually with the CEO and a small staff of 50-75 senior executives. These CEOs say they need to be in New York to be close to deal makers and other activity, which may be true, although other surveys have ranked CEOs' personal preference for being in New York among the top reasons for such moves.
Regardless of motive, these and other companies need to double their efforts to ensure their senior executives don't become so isolated that they lose touch with the business and the true concerns of the front-line workers whose engagement is critical to the enterprise. More frequent and informal town hall meetings at plants and with employees of headquarter functions not in the New York headquarters are essential for starters. Employees are always suspicious of what goes on in the "Ivory Tower" and this kind of physical separation only tends to heighten it.
Posted by Christopher at 9:49 AM