Happy Employees Create Happy Customers
I am unhappy. The printer is broken again and some people here are just not pulling their weight. Everything is falling apart. I went for a drink with a colleague last night and no one is happy here.
My manager is nice but doesn’t have a clue about what’s going on. The only thing that keeps me informed about what’s going on in the company is the gossip mill. Sometimes I don’t know why I bother turning up.
And so on.
If, as the saying goes, employees are the lifeblood of your organisation and the human face for your brand, would you want an unhappy employee to interact with your important clients? Would you want them to be the first person a prospective client deals with? Absolutely not.
The bottom line
This chain is basic and should be familiar to most of us: h
appy and valued employee equals higher client satisfaction score and higher levels of engagement, equals better client service and retention, equals higher profits.
In short, a happy workforce produces a profitable company.
If you need a more compelling argument for getting more engaged with your employees, an ISR study published last year showed that companies with low levels of employee engagement saw net profit fall by 1.38 per cent and operating margin fall by 2.01 per cent over a 36-month period. Whereas in companies with high levels of employee engagement, profits and operating margin rose by 2.06 per cent and 3.74 per cent respectively, over the same period of time.
The research indicates engaged employees are more loyal, and the more loyal employees you have, the lower the costs of recruitment, hiring, and training, not to mention the positive effects on productivity. Engaged employees are also more willing to give extra when the company needs it. Engaged employees are more likely to treat clients in ways that positively influence client satisfaction.
Also, don’t forget clients are more loyal to people rather than to a particular company or brand, so it is crucial to keep your employees happy. If your employee leaves, it is possible that your clients might go with them.
Two of our core values are valuing people and caring deeply. We have a strong focus on rewarding, developing our employees and communicating with them to help them feel that they are an important part of the organisation.
Effective communications
Having a successful team goes beyond recruiting the right people – it is about how you motivate, empower, recognise, inspire your employees and keep them happy. It is about communications. Something that’s easy to forget when you’re busy trying to generate business.
All intermediaries with employees should think about how they could use internal communications to improve employee engagement and performance. Your employees are the primary stakeholder and are equally as important as your external stakeholders.
So what are effective internal communications?
Although there may often be a need to provide information about certain initiatives, internal communications is most effective when it’s a two-way process. Effective, two-way communication between managers and employees improves employee satisfaction and performance and reduces the opportunity for confusion and misinterpretation of information.
The timing of internal communications activity is crucial, just like external communications. It is essential that internal and external announcements be tied-in together. Your employees should pick up information from the organisation first, before they see or hear about it in external media. Sounds simple, but I bet many of you have called one of our competitors about a new rate and the person at the other end didn’t know what you were talking about. There may be times when this may not be possible, but the overriding principle should be to provide employees with whatever information is available, as soon as you can, with the promise of further updates when available.
Mix ‘n’ match
So how do you actually go about communicating within your organisation? Well, in the same as way as external communications, there are many different ways in which you can do this, with the best choice of method depending on the objectives, on what you wish to say, to whom and when. No matter how good, using only one medium to communicate with employees will not do the job, a good mix of methods is required.
It is also essential that you constantly review the channels you use. Find out what works for your employees and change or update them if necessary.
Let’s take a brief look at some of the main channels that we can use:.
The Intranet
There is little point having an intranet just for the sake of it or because you’ve heard a competitor has one. It has to be right for your business. Decide on what you want the intranet to achieve, how will your employees access it (important if you have many employees on the road) and what you want it to look like. Content is the key – think about how much text and imagery should go on, who will add content and monitor usage. Once you have an intranet you need to keep it fresh.
Remember to incorporate a good search function and a sitemap as employees need to be able to find the information they need quickly, without having to trawl the entire site.
Employee magazines and newsletters
After years of companies appearing to believe that online communication was the cure for all communication problems, internal magazines and newsletters have recently made something of a comeback.
Again content is key. The success of our newsletter is down to the fact it draws the attention of employees with a mix of human interest stories, humour, shows them what colleagues in other departments are up to and includes some ‘must reads’, e.g. the chairman’s vision for the company or changes to company policies.
E-mails and e-news
E-mail is an effective form of communication if used properly. At GMAC-RFC for example, all internal business-related e-mails are sent from one source. This seems to work well.
We also use e-mails for sending out a weekly news roundup. These e-mails contain links that point people to various websites or our intranet for more information. While effective, you should avoid the dangers of over-relying on e-mails and neglecting the value of face to face discussions.
Team briefings
A team briefing is a face-to-face briefing of employees by their managers. Messages are co-ordinated from the centre and briefings work best when employees are given the opportunity to ask questions and give feedback. Employees hear messages from someone they know and trust, and can make the information relevant to their department or team. If the messages are delivered from a central source it is important that feedback is relayed back to that source, to ensure the briefing sessions are kept real and relevant.
Like any good communication tool these team briefing sessions can create an emotional bond, spurring employees to act in the company’s best interest. It is important to have senior management support for these briefings, to demonstrate the absolute importance of internal communications.
Noticeboards, display stands and plasma screens
Noticeboards can be a great way of delivering consistent and timely messages around your organisation. These need to grab attention in the same way an advert does, so you will need to think about the layout quite carefully. Display stands can be produced for reception and common areas. Electronic screens meanwhile are also a useful means of keeping employees up to date with current news or delivering specific messages, as well as providing external visitors with an insight into your organisation and its activities.
It is important to bear in mind there is nothing more powerful than face-to-face communications. In a recent internal communications survey we conducted, we found employees currently received most of their information via e-mails, their manager and colleagues – in that order. They would, however, prefer to receive information via their manager, followed by e-mails and group/departmental meetings.
If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it
Finally, don’t forget to listen and obtain feedback. You probably spend time and money on researching your client base. It is important to find out what your employees want and need. Keep up-to-date with the most effective ways to reach your audiences by asking them what they want. Then make sure you do something with the results and tell them what is going to happen as a result of their input.
We have an annual company-wide survey to measure employees’ thoughts on internal communications.
