The age of employee disengagement
26th April 2006 by Ron Shewchuk, ABC
With some notable exceptions, employees in today’s large organization are less committed, less engaged, and more cynical than they were 20 years ago, or even 10 years ago, for that matter.
Today’s executives seem more concerned with issues of corporate governance than with improving employee communications. The corporate mafeasance scandals in recent years have led to a new age of caution, in which corporate leaders care most about not screwing up. Reaching out to employees entails certain risks — you give up some power, you expose yourself to criticism, you may not be able to live up to your promises. So it’s easier to just stick with the old ways.
You’d think that today’s CEOs would be turning to their internal communicators and asking, “How can you help us bring our employees back into the fold? What can we do to inspire our people to stay with us and be more committed to our company?”
But it seems the opposite is true. How many internal communicators get pressured by their executives to do a better job — to be more transparent, more engaging, more human? Instead, we end up complaining that they “don’t get it.” Achieving more open communication is a constant struggle, an uphill battle.
Why?
Is this just our lot on life? Or are we simply living through a particularly challenging time? Or am I completely off base?
April 27th, 2006 at 6:03 am
Ron, it seems to me that this is just a variation of a theme that’s been knocking around for as long as I can remember, and that’s 20 years and more.
That theme is: communication doesn’t have a seat at the top table. It still lacks influence within many organizations as a means to shape agendas and be more in senior executives’ minds than about messaging.
So is this just our lot in life? Notwithstanding some greates oases out there in the desert, it certainly looks like it.
April 27th, 2006 at 10:22 am
Could it be that it’s our view that has ossified? I know in my role that I worry about filling my news hole on the intranet. And about improving the intranet. And about the lack of cohesive messaging internally. And… you get the picture. It’s hard NOT to be “internally focused” — that is, focused on matters of more concern to me and my boss than on the deep internal communication problems in my organization… My 90-country, disaggregated organization.
We are so lean that we’ve had to make choices, and there are others closer to the business units than I. And they seem to be much more concerned about external communications than internal.
We at Goodyear have discovered water — we’re not an oasis yet, but at least we’re in a little patch of strategic communication shade. The fact is that I am thinking of myself as a means of solving business issues; for a look at a true oasis, check out FedEX, where the communication team leads cross-functional groups devoted to solving the most insoluable issues.
But it has taken an overhaul of thinking to get even to where we are now, let alone getting into position to be that leadership reasource so critical to the business. We have the seat at excom, and gradually are helping excom see what we can do.
But many of us are still more worried about filling our news hole and the press release bucket than should.
April 28th, 2006 at 9:23 pm
Ossified is right, Neville. There is a sense of inertia, of stagnation in our profession — as Sean suggested, we’re in a period of ‘disaggregation.’
We’ve bottomed out. And I believe we’re on the edge of some major positive changes in the world of internal communiciations, driven by two major societal forces:
1. The emergence of social media (blogs, podcasts, wikis, streaming video), which bring much-needed transparency and dialogue to the modern workplace; and
2. What is often called “the war on talent,” which means there is a growing shortage of skilled professionals in the corporate world, a trend that is forcing companies to care more about how they treat their people (for fear of losing them).
The huge global skills shortage is going to push companies, and the communicators who work within them, into a crisis situation in the next year or two. And, as we thrash about in the midst of this period of desperation, we will reach for the new tools of social media to re-establish our connection with employees.
It will be like rebuilding after an unsuccessful war. In the aftermath of the destruction of traditional internal relationships (which was caused by huge downsizings and clumsy implementation of digital communications), we will be challenged to create new communities and new cultural dynamics… and a new communication paradigm will begin to emerge.
We will finally become less concerned with filling the ‘news hole’ than filling the spiritual void at the heart of our organizations.
The new goal will not be ‘employee engagement’ which implies servitude, but rather it will be to create healthy, sustainable internal communities that naturally support the vision and goals of the business — because, in the end, the employer’s goals will have to be consistent with the values of the people who work for them, and not the other way around.
May 1st, 2006 at 8:37 pm
Ron, I can’t tell you how excited I was to read your comment about filling the spritual void at the heart of our organisations.
I have recently moved from a siloed, disengaged and quite frankly worn out organisation of 3000 employees to a much smaller and courageous 300 employee organisation.
Rather than focus on the more traditional comms channels ie newsletters etc we are using the FISH! philosophy as a way of getting our leadership to start talking to their employees and what’s more start having some fun at work again!
We are also exploring ways - using FISH! - to encourage people to form stronger work relationships (a la the Gallup Q12 research) and to once again feel like a community rather than a disparate group of competitors.
Reading many of the Blogs I realise just how fortunate I am to have Leaders with courage to try something new and who have noted and would like to fill the void.
May 1st, 2006 at 9:20 pm
Thank you for the enthusiastic response, Elizabeth. I assume by FISH!, you mean the business philosophy inspired by the flamboyant fishmongers of Seattle’s Pike Place market. For Commons blog readers’ convenience, here’s an excerpt from the FISH! Web site (http://www.charthouse.com/home2.asp?whoenter=):
“The FISH! Philosophy was developed in 1998 by filmmaker and ChartHouse Learning ChairmanJohn Christensen. FISH! is based on his observations of the inspiring way in which the fishmongers of Seattle’s Pike Place Fish Market approach their work everyday. Christensen translated his observations into four simple principles — Be There, Play, Make Their Day and Choose Your Attitude — and created the film, FISH! Catch The Energy, Release The Potential. The film has been translated into 17 languages in 32 countries to date and is the foundation for six additional FISH! films and the FISH! books.”
June 4th, 2006 at 8:21 pm
I think the reason is that most people see the CEO as a fraud artist ( Northern Telecom ) or somebody that will get a bonus for shipping ones job to India ( Telus ). So yes, your completely off base.
September 4th, 2006 at 11:54 pm
As long as internal communicators concentrate on media-based messaging (however sophisticated)we run the risk of not impacting attitude, behaviour and ultimately performance.
What do your employees believe? What is the dominant logic in your organisation? What behaviours do you see as a result?
The foregoing are not significantly influenced by official media channels, but by the culture, climate, and observable behaviours of their peers; and significantly, the way they are treated by their managers.
We should focus our efforts on conditioning and coaching managers in their role as “engagement officers” to ensure that they have the tools and skills to help employees understand their critical role, their value, and their contribution so that they are aligned with and committed to organisational goals.
Use media to reinforce that and celebrate success.