Every year, most large organizations conduct their annual Employee Engagement Survey. They spend time and money promoting the upcoming launch of the survey. As the ‘Go-Date’ comes closer, they talk to all managers and talk about the importance of the information they will glean from the input of the team at large. They talk about the participation rate target they have set. Then the survey is launched. Feedback comes in about participation rates. Another update goes out to everyone urging them to go online and complete the survey.
Finally, the results come in. And… surprise, surprise the team at large feels that:
Lucky for me the results I mentioned above are almost universal in business around the world. I say lucky because as a turn-around guy, I make my living consulting to organizations with results like these.
All the above is easy to fix. Sadly though, leaders do little to actually change the results despite calling for meetings and action plans.
When I say, “Easy to fix,” what am I talking about?
Quite simply, communication is not a once a year thing. It needs to be done as often as we brush our teeth. Meaning every day. Communication affects employee engagement, and anything that important should be top of your list.
Communication is a continual process of listening, understanding and then working to be understood. It is not only verbal. Communication these days must come in multiple different formats… Verbal, email, social media, text message, intranet, video, written, etc. With multiple different generations in the workplace that consume information differently, we need to broadcast messages in different mediums.
Communications must always (every day) start with the ‘Purpose.’ What is the reason or intention for the communication? Next, the message must have a ‘what’ that you want the receiver to get, followed by an outline of the plan and… most importantly, what role each person has in the plan.
I call this model quite simply the 4 P’s of Communication:
If you can get in the habit of communicating often, in multiple different ways and follow the simple ‘4P’ approach, you will see how communication affects employee engagement and virtually all Employee Engagement scores will change for the positive.
Robert Murray is a Vancouver, BC based Business Strategy Consultant, partner at Incrementa Consulting Inc., #1 Best Selling Author, and International Keynote Speaker. For further advice, insight and inspiration on how to unlock your inner leader, follow Robert on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook.
The audio version of Bob’s #1 best seller It’s Already Inside is now available on Audible.
Tags: Business, Business Culture, Communication, Employee Engagement, It's Already Inside, Leadership, Robert Murray, Robert S. Murray
