Communicate openly and often, even if the news is bad
By Mila Stahl
The economy is continuing to head downward and many organizations have recently faced difficult business decisions in an effort to cut expenses and try to position the company for a recovery, or worse, a restructuring or closure. They may have cut their advertising budgets, required all purchase orders to be signed off by the accountant/CFO, frozen wage increases, and/or the managers and directors have started to argue with each other and avoid everyone else. Regular and open communications and shared information with employees becomes reduced or stops.
Since management isn’t sure about what to communicate in tough times, it is best to wait for positive news to share before regularly communicating with employees, right? Wrong. When times are tough for a company, management must communicate even more with other employees. Remember, they are your most valuable resource.
Employee communication is the lifeblood of any organization. It enriches and empowers everyone in the company. Reducing your employee communication during hard economic times can be a disastrous management action, whether it is a deliberate decision or not. Chances are your employees are already nervous.
Have your employees shown a change in personality or routine? That change can indicate they are experiencing increased stress, financial or otherwise, and it is spilling into the workplace. An employee’s financial problems become the employer’s bottom-line problem when that employee misses work, spends time on the phone with creditors or attorneys, takes a second job or grows more distracted and less productive.
Has the rumor mill become more active during these depressing economic times? Remember, if your workers aren’t hearing anything from you, they are sure to imagine the worst. By delivering information simply, clearly, frequently and honestly, you help employees cope with the uncertainty they may be feeling about the future.
Have a plan for communicating potentially bad news. In tough times, it is difficult to predict in what direction the company will head. Even if the organization is holding its own now, give some thought as to how to break difficult news to employees, should it be necessary.
For your employee communication initiative to be effective, you will need to formulate a strategy. Before you begin, ask yourself the following questions:
1. What is the situation that is driving the need to communicate with our workers?
2. What external and/or internal events have changed since our last communication?
3. What internal and external resources are available to provide assistance to employees?
4. What are key messages and how will we deliver them?
5. To what degree will middle management and first-line supervisors be involved?
6. When should the various communication efforts take place?
7. How can we use the feedback we collect to improve the organization?
In tough times, it is more important than ever to keep people up to date about what is going on, but many organizations avoid the unpleasant duty of disclosing bad news to employees. When people start to worry about the economic health of their company, they inevitably begin to talk to one another about their fears. Frequent, honest, interactive communication with your employees is the best way to be aware of and address employees’ concerns. Keeping people informed and emphasizing the need for them to remain focused on productivity reduces the risk that workers will add to the organization’s pressures.
