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What Employees Really Want to Hear

by Harry Dennis    

Study after study has shown that what employees want the most is to be kept informed.  Informed about what? Believe it or not, the most frequently mentioned subject is the future direction of the company and how they fit into the firm's "manifest destiny," if you will.

The second most frequently mentioned subject is news about how the firm is faring competitively in terms of competitive strengths, weaknesses and threats. You might say this is an indirect measure of job security, and that is clearly a parallel concern. Job security is one of the first topics to get on the rumor mill.Naturally, it starts to buzz when there are impending layoffs.

Sticking with the theme of keeping employees informed, let's address the issue of good versus bad news, and, strategically, how either end of this information spectrum should be handled. Many TEC members use the technique referred to as "information inoculation," much like a vaccine is used to prevent the spread ofdisease.

Here's how it works. Let's say that due to the slowing economy, you know you are going to be faced with a layoff decision. Before the decision, you communicate early retirement opportunities and incentives to take advantage of them. If you're a manufacturer, you also pre-announce an impending temporary plant shutdown.You offer extended vacation time without pay. And you flatly state that depending upon business conditions, layoffs will be considered using measures of fairness and business practicality. Labor contracts may, of course, dictate other considerations.

In short, you are informing your employees in advance that difficult decisions are on the horizon. When those difficult decisions are made, they won't be in a state of shock!  They have been "inoculated."

So far, we have been talking about communication possibilities that are top-down. What about those that are the other way around, from the bottom up?  In the old days, techniques such as suggestion systems and "bulletin board parking lots," among others, were used to encourage so-called "upward communications."

Today, it is paramount that supervisors elicit communication input from employees on no less than a monthly basis. Here's a protocol that many of our TEC members use:

Are you getting the information you need to do your job?

Is the company keeping you well enough informed about its future?

Do you have concerns about your job or your future?

Do you have input on how you can do your job more effectively?

Are you satisfied as an employee of this company? If not, what can we do?

People like to be heard. But being heard is obviously the first step. Management must respond by communicating to those being heard that they are, in fact, truly heard. This is where many management lets go of the short end of the stick. Employees don't let go-they just stop "telling it like it is." And now, the damageis done, and it takes a lot of work to rebuild trust, openness and candor.

Believe me. I once worked for GM and experienced the short end of the stick. There is absolutely no excuse for this to happen in a small or medium-sized business.

Let's talk briefly about the third opportunity that can fill our communication grocery cart. It is referred to as "lateral" or peer-to-peer communication. The academics have some fancy terms to describe this opportunity, but the basic idea is that employees working in one area of your firm get a chance to interact on thejob with employees from another area of your firm.

For example, production employees meet with IT or accounting employees and talk about commonalities and respective job issues. Sales people talk to shipping personnel.  Engineers meet with administrative types. And guess who sits in and encourages dialogue? You, the "buck-stops-here" person. And what emerges fromall of this? A better understanding of the problems and issues faced by one's colleagues, and maybe some original thought and input on how those problems and issues might be resolved.

Let me summarize these wanderings by saying this. You have three major communication vehicles in your firm's communication grocery cart: downward, upward and lateral. In each case, an underlying human principle is at work. No matter who we are or where we are in the company, we wish to feel recognized and important tothe success of the enterprise. Communication is the MAJOR means to fulfill this enormous human need. 

Have you seen "Cast Away" with Tom Hanks? Do you know about Wilson?  If not, find out about the connection. Even on a deserted island, the same principles apply.  


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Harry S. Dennis III is the president of TEC (The Executive Committee) in Wisconsin and Michigan. TEC is a professional development group for CEOs, presidents and business owners. He can be reached at 262-821-3340 or at hiduke@aol.com.