Today’s most forward-thinking companies have made communicating with employees a number one priority. This is always critical, but takes on additional urgency during challenging economic times.

Employees play a key role in shaping public perception of your organization — who is more credible and has better access to the “inside scoop”? They can make or break your organization — their productivity levels, service attitudes toward customers, willingness to work as a team — the list goes on.

Perhaps most importantly, they serve as ambassadors for your organization. Your ability to keep them engaged and informed can make the difference between showing a positive face and a negative one.

Continue reading " Employee Communications During Difficult Economic Times "

Before we can build an effective communication system inside our organization, we have to start with research to identify the communication problems and potential opportunities for improvement.  This requires a thorough look at the history, the leadership, the politics, the personality and the communication channels of an organization.  We need to truly understand our audience(s) – and what they see as the real or perceived barriers to One Clear Voice communication. 

What Methodology Is Best For Your Audience?
The methodology is critical, and often a variety of evaluation tools is needed to reach different audience.  For example:

• Are you sending email surveys that don’t reach 30% of your employee audience, because they’re out in the field and not able to get to a kiosk?  
• Have you gone beyond asking about intranet visits to probe likely behaviors around the use of podcasts, blogs and other emerging social media? 

The key is in asking the right questions through the right channels … and then acting on what is learned.
Is Your Organization “Walking The Talk?”
We begin with a hard look at the organization’s mission, vision & values.

• Do employees know them?  
• Do employees believe them?  
• Are the key messages reflected in communication tools like newsletters, brochures and the intranet?  

A look at an organization’s policy and benefits statements, employee orientation program and turnover statistics will often speak volumes about the degree to which an organization is “walking the talk”.�

Continue reading " How A Culture Audit Can Help You Position Your Organization For Success "

Yearly planning sessions are a “triggering event” for public relations practitioners to step back and examine the impact of what has been done with various stakeholder groups and to ask, “What were our goals?” and “Have we been successful?”

Jackson Jackson & Wagner’s philosophy is that we should be asking ourselves these questions all year. The focus should be on getting behavioral results. We should be asking what behaviors we are seeking from stakeholders and what triggering events – we can create or piggyback on to jumpstart these behaviors. Knowing humans don’t always choose the ultimate desired behaviors, we should also ask what are some “intermediate behaviors” we can encourage that would pave the way for behavior change?

Continue reading " Behavioral Public Relations: In the End, It’s All About Behavior & Relationships "