Melina Murray

When you have terminations, how do you generally tell the remaining employees?  Is it kept quiet, letting people “figure it out”?  Do you gather immediate co-workers/subordinates and share the information immediately?  Do you hold impromptu staff meetings to disseminate the information?Recently, I heard the story of a termination at a large company.  A well respected, long term Vice President went into a meeting with the new head of the organization and never came back.  Staff were called into a meeting in groups of seniority to be told “X is no longer with us.”  That is it. No other information, no questions were allowed.  But the time the third wave of people were ready to go in, everyone knew and the rumor mill was full of confusion and panic.  Since then, bitterness has continued to stew.  Communication from the top is non-existent and the staff is still in a state of shock, months later. While, in general, it is not appropriate or wise to disclose the reasons for a termination, not allowing any questions or following up with staff after such a major change is a sure-fire way to breed discontent and lower productivity.  The first reaction to news like this is typically, “Why?” and “What does this mean for me?”.  As mentioned above, the “why” is something to be handled carefully. But the “What does this mean for me?” can be handled as simply as saying “You position will remain the same, no other changes are planned.  Thank you for all your patience and your continued contributions during this transition period.”.   

Someone I know has a close, but not direct, family member who was recently and surprisingly diagnosed with terminal cancer and has perhaps months to live. She was devastated, yet committed to helping out and supporting the rest of her family in any way possible through the initial emergency, surgery and diagnosis. Consequently, she showed up late to work a few times, and took some personal calls during “work time”. Her supervisor (large company) pulled her aside one day, fully aware of the circumstances, and told her the infractions were not acceptable and that her personal problems had no place at work.

My response was “want help finding a new job?”. She has since left the company.

Was she getting her work done? Yes. Was someone else burdened with picking up her work? No. Was her quality slipping? No, she was receiving positive feedback consistently. There was no reason to chastise this woman other than the fact she was not strictly working from 8 to 5.

What this did do was to deflate her morale and make her feel like the company didn’t care. And, like I said, she is no longer with this company.

Blogging is a prevalent form of communication today. There are so many different people, topics and ideas out in cyberspace. When the topic of a company or corporate blog comes up, the question I most often hear is “why”? “What is the value”? “What do we get out of it”?

My answer is that it depends on what you want.

Some companies use blogs to promote build a reputation of thought leadership. In these cases the contributors most often post about topics directly related to the industry, current issues, and the company’s products/mission.

Some companies use the blog as a way to stay in contact with their community, inviting customers, employees, and guests to write posts and/or comment on ideas and products.

Other companies use their corporate blog as a way to announce new products, ideas, welcome clients, etc. Like a personal, but public, bulletin board.

And, of course, a blog can be used as a recruiting tool. Whether positioning your company as a thought leader, talking about cool new products, and/or posting job openings. All these ideas help expand not only your company brand, but reach out to potential hires. Think of that talented, passive candidate who may be attracted by a post to learn more about your company.

I read an excellent description of corporate blogging via the Liz Ryan Digest from Graco’s lead blogger. (posted here with the author’s permission)

I am actually the lead corporate blogger for Graco Children’s Products and we’ve had a lot of success with it so far. How you define success truly depends on what you are trying to accomplish. At the heart of corporate blogging, it’s really about the conversation you want to engage in with your audience. Blogs aren’t publishing mediums and they also aren’t the only/most important part of a social media strategy. For us, it’s about having a relationship with our target audience (parents) who are actively participating in the online space- we are just a part of that now. It’s about going to your audience where they already are instead of expecting them to come to you. Engage and participate - authentically, and your success will come from that. I recently spoke at the BlogHer Business conference in NYC presenting the Graco case study on successful blogger outreach. You can check out the panel here http://blip.tv/file/813495/ and here http://blip.tv/file/813680/. Social media has been the most fun I’ve had since starting my marketing career over 8 years ago. Good luck and
have fun with it!

Lindsay Lebresco

http://blog.gracobaby.com
Public Relations and Social Media Manager, Graco Children’s Products-a Newell Rubbermaid company

There are various considerations prior to setting up a company blog. From purpose/intent, to guidelines (including legal protections), to deciding who writes, and more.

For other articles, information and guidelines on Corporate Blogging, feel free to visit the links below:

• Corporate Blogging- How the Pros Do It
• How To Create the Perfect Company Blog
• Should You Start a Business Blog?
• The Process of Starting a Corporate Blog

I am a wee bit behind in my blog reading and just came across a link on HR World for an NY Times article that made my day. Using the Human Touch to Solve Workplace Problems

It is worth 5 minutes of your time to click the link and read the article. Showing some concern and care can reap lasting benefits.

This quote is what the article is really about:

“What it really comes down to,” he said, “is we’re trying to create the ultimate workplace. We believe you can do the right thing and be profitable.”

So, what little (or large) impact can you make in the life of an employee?

I spent last week in San Francisco at the annual RSA Conference, a huge conference for the Information Security industry. Having worked in with a network security company for a number of years, I am still in contact with many former colleagues and others in the industry. As an HR professional and a person continually interested in learning, I find the people in the IS community to be exceptionally talented and passionate about what they do.

Throughout the week I talked to many, many people, and the one thing that struck me more than anything was how unhappy most were with their companies. Not their jobs, but their leadership and company as a whole. Granted, there were a few, maybe 20%, who loved both their current career and company. However, the vast majority were just biding time awaiting a new opportunity.

The most common frustrations revolved around 2 issues: Human Resources and Company Communications. Below is a sampling of the complaints.

• I have no trust in our HR leader. He/She doesn’t talk to anyone other that the executive team. When I ask questions or voice concerns, I am told not to worry, there are no problems. I never get a response to my actual question.
• Our company changes direction all the time. I never know what will happen tomorrow, and I don’t even know what is happening now.
• When our company makes a big change or announcement, we hear about it with the rest of the world, in a press release.
• My manager is completely uninvolved in what I do. He/She has no idea what my actual job entails and when I ask for a growth path, I am always told to wait.
• I would never talk to our HR leader about about anything important. HR is a joke at our company.

Yikes! The main theme= Communication. From HR, from managers, and from the executive team.

Mind you, most of the people I talked to are from small/mid-sized companies (50-3000). These are not big corporations mired down in decades of processes and many layers of management. There is really no reason for this level of frustration and discontent.

I am always appalled when there is a distrust of HR. As an HR professional myself, I have always made it a point (very important one) to talk to as many employees as possible, to let them know they can talk to me anytime, to not gossip about what I am told, and to work to alleviate frustrations while keeping in mind the overall needs/goals/directions of the company.

As for overall company communication, it is simple. If you don’t trust your employees, they will not trust you. Something as important as company direction should be conveyed prior to a press release. Talk to your employees! Help them feel connected, respected and valued.