1/2/2009

Technology is making it easier for executives to communicate with employees.

Executives can now access real-time data on their company’s performance rather than having to wait for a quarterly report. But, while managers can use performance information to make rapid decisions, getting those decisions communicated to employees so they can put them into action remains an area that has been stuck in the Stone Age.

The latest web tools go a long way to bringing corporate communication up to the speed of the rest of the organization.

"It no longer takes three months to put together an elaborate communication scheme, get it approved, written up, proofread, typeset and into employee hands," says Bill Sweetland, a staff writer at Lawrence Ragan Communications Inc. in Chicago who conducts writing and publication critiques for the company’s corporate clients. "Now you can move almost instantly."

Most large corporations already own the software and infrastructure to implement such communication. Smaller outfits can even choose free or low-cost online tools. Setting up the procedures and creating a culture that aids the uninhibited flow of communication remains the bigger challenge. Correctly implemented, however, the results of having such systems can be striking.

"A technology-enabled communication and employee collaboration strategy plays a vital role in managing and retaining our global workforce," says Ajoy Mukherjee, vice president and head of global HR for Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) in Mumbai, India. The firm has 120,000 staff members at more than 150 locations in 50 countries. "From communicating key organizational policies and initiatives to establishing a direct connection between the CEO, senior management and the employees, technology can help dissolve geographic and hierarchical barriers."

Why Messages Matter

Effective communication is vital to business success. This was reinforced last year when global consultancy Watson Wyatt released Communication ROI Study 2007/8. Researchers surveyed 264 relatively large companies worldwide, finding that "firms that communicate effectively are four times as likely to report high levels of employee engagement as firms that communicate less effectively."

That engagement translated into measurable financial results: Companies with the most effective employee communication programs showed a 91 percent total return to shareholders (TRS) during a five-year period, compared with a 62 percent TRS for companies that communicated least effectively.

And, it wasn’t simply a matter of successful companies communicating well: improving communication led to better financial results—the study associated communication skill with a 15.7 percent increase in market value.

Experts say many executives communicate too little and that in today’s volatile economy, it is becoming even more critical for leaders to disseminate timely and relevant policy and business information.

Fortunately, businesses are using a variety of web-based tools to foster executive-to-employee communication—from CEO blogs to electronic town hall meetings to online employee forums that engage members of the executive team.

Low-Cost Tools

Setting up online communication tools doesn’t have to be an expensive proposition. Content management systems such as Microsoft’s SharePoint or Lotus Notes include tools for creating wikis, blogs, discussion groups and workspaces.

If you have an intranet based on hand-built HTML, it will take some work to build the features, explains Mark Rudnick, global practice leader of intranet portals and collaboration for Watson Wyatt. "But most large-sized companies, and even some mid-sized ones, have intranets built on platforms such as SharePoint or IBM Notes, which have a lot of this capability built in."

Online retailer Zappos takes advantage of its robust technology platform to facilitate communication between executives and employees. In November, when the tough economy forced the company to cut staff by 8 percent, Chief Executive Officer Tony Hsieh reassured employees and outlined the steps the company planned to take in his popular blog.

Marriott CEO Bill Marriott sometimes complements his blog, "Marriott on the Move," with video clips. Many businesses are finding that better software and greater network bandwidth make video presentations far simpler than they used to be. "Flash and video capability are now standard on most corporate desktops," adds Joe Loya, a Mercer Worldwide partner.

For the most part, these are not the polished, high-end videos used for major corporate announcements. They are shorter, low-quality clips like those seen on YouTube, with file sizes small enough to be easily managed by content management systems and transmitted without slowing the network.

In addition, it is easier to create video content. Rudnick says some companies are providing senior executives with Flip video cameras—wallet-sized cameras with Flash memory and a USB plug that sell for less than $200. Managers just shoot short videos and plug the cameras into their desktop computers to upload clips.

What about small companies that don’t have sophisticated platforms? They can take advantage of the latest communication technologies by using free or low-cost online tools. Companies can set up a private area in YouTube for their corporate videos, for example.

Closing the Loop

Today, tools that enhance two-way communication between executives and staff are widely accepted. When executives issue a message, employees expect to have a way to respond. These tools are particularly important to younger employees who have grown up using the Internet.

To engage its staff, TCS has established a team under its chief technology officer to tailor Web 2.0 tools for internal use. Senior managers extensively use the intranet portal to communicate initiatives. TCS has set up an internal instant messaging system used by more than 100,000 employees every day. A social Q&A platform called Just Ask, modeled on Yahoo! Answers, is accessed by 15,000 to 20,000 employees daily. Some 10,000 questions were posted to Just Ask in the first three weeks after its May 2008 launch. The first post to the chief technology officer’s blog attracted 330 user comments, and the blog receives more than 1,000 daily hits on average. In 2007, TCS launched a five-day collective online brainstorming session that resulted in more than 12,000 ideas being submitted by employees.

"It was one of the first uses of collective intelligence to filter ideas in a democratic way," says Mukherjee.

The platform was designed so that employees could rate, comment on and enhance the concepts before they were seen by senior associates responsible for picking the hottest ideas. The top 10 were taken up, and several of those have already been implemented.

"HR needs to leverage the combined power of the static intranet and the dynamic Web 2.0 technology to enhance employee engagement and build more empowered organizations," says Mukherjee.

Spicing Up the Mix

Kraft Foods Inc. of Northfield, Ill., offers executives and employees many tools to communicate with each other. The quarterly podcast KraftCast features an interview with a newsmaker or company executive. On Ask the KET, short for Kraft executive team, employees have asked CEO Irene Rosenfeld and her direct reports about changes to recipes, inquired as to how the turmoil on Wall Street is affecting the company and suggested ideas for advertising campaigns.

"Employees really submit some interesting questions," says Donna Sitkiewicz, director of corporate communications. "It shows they are on top of what’s happening in the world and what it has to do with Kraft."

Kraft is now in the middle of expanding the communication options available to employees with a new section on its intranet—Kraft Online Network for Employees, or Kraft ONE—called The Mix.

The project came about as a result of upgrading from Microsoft SharePoint 2003 to SharePoint 2007. The latter came with an array of social media tools. The Mix is divided into five sections: Share It, discussion boards; Blog It, blogs; Wik It, wikis; Ask It, Ask the KET; and an upcoming one, Watch It, featuring short videos. The blogs, wikis and discussion boards can be made available either to a particular workgroup or to all employees.

In creating The Mix, Kraft’s Information Services group tailored SharePoint to match the company’s image and added features that make it easier to set up a blog or ask a question of the KET.

"It seems like it should be pretty easy, but there was more customization than I thought," warns Sitkiewicz.

Although any employee can add content, to get the site rolling, Kraft seeded the site with new blogs from the chief marketing officer, the head of Kraft’s sustainability effort and the person in charge of community involvement. Several discussion groups were added, and a notice board was created where employees can congratulate others or thank them for their help.

It took seven months of concentrated effort for the initial rollout of The Mix, and work is still ongoing. As expected, office workers gradually are increasing their participation. What was unexpected, however, was that production employees would start to access the site through kiosks set up in the plants.

"This is exciting; it is not just a corporate effort, but people around the company are starting to pay attention and see that there is value to these tools," says Sitkiewicz.

Drew Robb is a freelance writer based in Los Angeles.