Why Managers and Supervisors ARE NOT the Best Communicators During Times of Change

Marcia Xenitelis — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 07:40:22 -0400

Everywhere you look these days the focus in Human Resources and Employee Communication is managing change within organizations. But most of these programs fail to achieve their objectives. During bad economic times the focus is usually on providing coaching on understanding the emotions people go through during change, helping employees deal with the complex emotions of watching colleagues leave, communication strategies that utilise management hierarchies to communicate face to face with their teams on what is happening next in organizational restructures and so on.

How To Cascade Messages via Managers To Employees

Marcia Xenitelis — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 07:38:58 -0400

One of the common mistakes people make when designing a change program is assuming that if a person is a team leader, supervisor or senior manager they should naturally know how to communicate face to face with their teams. However communication skills are rarely one of the key competencies that is taught or measured by organizations. There is however a very easy way to ensure that there is structure and content that make it very easy for managers at all levels to follow.

How To Engage Employees With Technology Based Change

Marcia Xenitelis — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 07:33:51 -0400

When you think about the millions of dollars organizations spend each year on IT programs of work, wouldn't it be prudent knowing that employees actually understand and most importantly embrace the reason behind the changes? There is one way of ensuring that employees and their managers have got the message and truly understand the reasons for the new system implementation. And that is the means that you communicate change.

Change Management and Employee Communication Strategies

Marcia Xenitelis — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 17:09:49 -0400

If your employee communication strategy to communicate change focuses on stakeholder communication plans, an intranet site, CEO forums and Staff Information Bulletins via email stop right there. Your efforts are focused on information, not communication and the likelihood of engaging employees in change is remote.

The Value of Employee Engagement Surveys as Part of a Change Management Strategy

Marcia Xenitelis — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 17:06:30 -0400

One of the things that continues to surprise me is that when times are bad organizations still spend money on employee engagement surveys. A general look around the office or factory and tea room discussions would make it obvious to all that wanted to see it that employees are not so much engaged as they are worried about their jobs. This leads us to two major issues to consider during tough times, the first is how we inspire confidence and innovation in an organization that appears to be in freeze mode. The second is what you should measure as an indicator of employee engagement.