What do the findings of the 2012 Edelman Trust Barometer mean for internal comms?

by Luke Dodd, Features Editor, Melcrum

Arriving at Edelman's head offices on Victoria Street, central London this Tuesday morning at 8am, I was greeted by a waiter offering me a freshly brewed coffee and a bacon roll – not a bad start to the day, I'm sure you'll agree.

I had been invited to the launch of the 2012 Edelman Trust Barometer, an annual global study that questioned 30,000 people in 25 different countries, the results of which reveal the state of trust in business and institutions.

Before the launch itself took place, I met up with Nick Howard, director of employee engagement at Edelman and quickly asked him a bit more about the Trust Barometer and the importance of trust in the current business climate:

Following the morning's refreshments and networking, we took our seats ready for the unveiling of the results. These were delivered jointly by Richard Edelman, president and CEO, Edelman and Ed Williams, Edelman's UK chief executive. There was also a stellar panel on hand to discuss the findings including Anne McElvoy, The Economist; Camila Batmanghelidijh, Kids Company; Caroline Daniel, FT Weekend; Amanda Platell, Daily Mail and the Rt Hon Tessa Jowell.

Globally, blame for the financial and political chaos of 2011 landed at the doorstep of government, as trust in that institution fell nine points to 43 percent. In seventeen of the 25 countries surveyed, government is now trusted by less than half to do what is right. In twelve, it trails business, media and non-governmental organizations as the least trusted institution.

"Business is now better placed than government to lead the way out of the trust crisis," said Edelman. "But the balance must change so that business is seen both as a force for good and an engine for profit."

Although globally business experienced fewer and generally less severe declines in trust, it has its own hurdles to clear. Overall, trust in business fell from 56 percent to 53 percent, with countries like France and Germany, in the heart of the Eurozone economic crisis, experiencing double-digit decreases.

Meanwhile, CEO credibility declined from 50 percent to 38 percent, its biggest drop in nine years. In South Korea and Japan, it dropped by 34 and 43 percent, respectively:

In Japan, the site of last March’s earthquake and subsequent nuclear disaster, trust fell severely in three of the four institutions including government (down 26 percent), media (12 percent) and NGOs (21 percent).

Areas for internal communication to address

It was reported during proceedings that the most trusted resource within an organization is the average employee (60 percent). This undoubtedly underlines the importance of peer-to-peer communication as well as employee "champions".

We also heard how the average person needs to hear a story three to five times from different sources before they believe it. An indication that using a variety of channels to deliver a comms message across your company is a smart move!

Trust in social media and the internet has increased. Maybe consider this fact when looking at company transparency – employees can discover news about your organization from external web-based sources, and will believe it.

It was discussed that working in a low-trust environment may be something we need to permanently adjust to. Look at your organization – in a distrustful society, how can you create a comms strategy that recognizes and adjusts to this state?

To view the various tweets from the day, type in #edeltrust2012 on Twitter.

 

Until next time,

Luke

 

PS. For further information on issues of trust in internal communication, click the links below:

How to help leaders rebuild credibility and trust

OPINION: Communicating and rebuilding trust in the finance industry

Promoting trust and change to a hard-to-reach, unionized workforce

 

A resolution we can help you keep

By Tanya Batra, Melcrum

Refreshing our skills, acquiring new ones and keeping up to-date with best practice are all items that commonly feature on our professional agendas. However another common pattern is the fact that they rarely make it to the "completed" pile as you find yourself distracted by more "urgent" matters that demand your immediate attention.  

But before you let your professional development slip to the bottom of the pile, here’s a solid reason why it really should be your priority…

The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) yesterday revealed that UK unemployment is set to keep rising in 2012, hitting 8.8 percent (2.85 million) by the end of the year and making it the highest number of people unemployed since 1994 and the highest unemployment rate since 1995. What’s more, this trend is predicted to continue into 2013 with unemployment forecast to rise even further, to a peak of 2.9 million in the first half of 2013.*

In response, organisations will continue to focus on streamlining, while simultaneously striving for productivity and innovation. It’s the talent of their people that’s key to achieving these goals and ensuring competitor differentiation.

Now more than ever before is the time to raise your game, prove your worth and reinforce your value-adding ability to ensure you stand out from the crowd. How? One way is by future-proofing your skill-set.

Whether you need a comprehensive overview of the IC function, want to discover how to maximise the role of video in your IC strategy,  succeed with SharePoint, or advance your writing skills – our extensive portfolio of executive education will keep you at the cutting edge of your function.

Not only that, but our courses also give you the chance to benchmark with like-minded communicators and build up your professional network to ensure you remain up-to-date with industry best-practice. 

However, if time out of the office just isn’t an option for you at the moment, kickstart your new year with this article by Sue Dewhurst on eight resolutions that can help you make a bigger difference in 2012 and beyond.

Happy New Year!

* Source: HR Magazine, Employment figures could drop by 120,000 this year, CIPD's chief economic adviser predicts, David Woods, 3 Jan 2012. Accessed 4 January, 2012.

The death of a visionary leader - how can communication cope?

by Luke Dodd, Features Editor, Melcrum

Steve Jobs, founder and former-CEO of Apple, died this week at the age of 56 after a long battle with cancer.

When such an influential figurehead and leader dies, what is the correct protocol for the organization to follow? How can we, as communicators, support the needs of a company that has lost its leader?

In the case of Apple, the important first step was to ensure employees were notified in a respectful and straightforward manner.

Tim Cook, who took over from Jobs as CEO in August, sent an email to employees announcing that Jobs had passed away and invited staff to send in their reflections on his influence in the company. Here's what he wrote:

“Team,

I have some very sad news to share with all of you. Steve passed away earlier today.

Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being. Those of us who have been fortunate enough to know and work with Steve have lost a dear friend and an inspiring mentor. Steve leaves behind a company that only he could have built, and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple.

We are planning a celebration of Steve's extraordinary life for Apple employees that will take place soon. If you would like to share your thoughts, memories and condolences in the interim, you can simply email rememberingsteve@apple.com.

No words can adequately express our sadness at Steve's death or our gratitude for the opportunity to work with him. We will honor his memory by dedicating ourselves to continuing the work he loved so much.

Tim”

It is evident from this message that Apple wanted to assure employees that the company culture would not change following Jobs' death and that ensuring the company remained at the top of its game would be a fitting tribute to his memory.

What people are saying

However, analysts and tech industry watchers have said his absence will undoubtedly be felt at the company he co-founded.

Michael Yoshikami, founder of YCMNET Advisors, told US television company CNBC: "I don't think it's a stretch to say that many people did buy Apple products because of the faith in the vision that Steve Jobs has put out…. and when that visionary falls away, then the company is judged more harshly. It's just inevitable."

According to brand specialist Mike Amour, CEO of Project: WorldWide Asia Pacific: "If the Apple culture, vision and product remain consistent, then Jobs' extraordinary legacy will live on and the company will climb to even greater heights of creativity and innovation."

Gene Munster, senior research analyst at Piper Jaffray's, who has been covering Apple for years, told CNBC that while Jobs’ death does not change his view of the company, one thing is clear: Jobs was very important to the culture at Apple.

In this kind of situation, it is important for internal communication to ensure that the business is kept moving forward, but to also acknowledge the influence of the past. Apple's plans for an up-coming employee celebration of Jobs' life should lift morale, which will be essential with the company growing and moving forward into different areas – such as television.

On a parting note, we can see that Steve Jobs' premature death has been unique in the effect it's had on the public and the way it's shown leadership can transform a company into a cultural phenomenon.

Recent articles on the Internal Comms Hub that focus on leadership include:

Driving communication his way at Volvo, a look at the career of Charlie Nordblom, vice president, strategic internal communications at Volvo Group, Sweden;

What do we look for in a leader?, an article on how to adapt to a leader's communication style and turning it to your advantage;

How to help leaders avoid communication sins, looking at how to help our leaders avoid common pitfalls when it comes to communicating to employees.

Until next time,

Luke

Switching off the communication autopilot in preparation for the challenges of 2011

By Tanya Batra, Melcrum

Economic uncertainty is far from over - not least for the public sector who are entering a period of significant change as a result of budget cuts in 2011.

A report from the CIPD and KPMG* last week warned of the rise in redundancies set to take place over the coming months. Nearly eight in ten local government employers plan to slash staff numbers this year, and one in three companies intend to employ fewer people thanks to the comprehensive spending review.

Private organisations are also fighting their own battles; with squeezed communication teams facing the aftermath of lay-offs, morale of employees left behind and generally having to “do more with less”.

But whether public or private sector - in the face of financial challenges - the internal comms function is often one of the first to be dealt a blow through a lack of resources, when in fact, relaying difficult messages to staff, keeping them informed and maintaining engagement is more important than ever.  

Creating a “line of sight”

When faced with such difficult times, employees need their line managers to turn to for reassurance, answers and vision. It’s easy to forget the importance of face-to-face communication and the powerful line of sight managers can establish for their team members to connect them to the overall business strategy, especially during tough times.

But with line managers being hired for their own specialism’s rather than their explicit communication abilities - what remains a worry and issue is that the second you step away from owning the communication space - the risk of managers not conveying messages correctly and not performing the role as well as you becomes all the more real.

This fear was brought to life for internal communicators at BBVA Compass, a top 15 U.S. bank, when managerial communication was highlighted by employees as being inadequate. However, rather than simply attributing the low ratings as a result of the communication shortcomings of managers, they instead considered the position of managers at a time of large-scale organisational restructuring.

In their response to dealing with line manager communication issues, BBVA acknowledged that the task of making their managers highly effective communicators needed to go beyond team briefings, emails, slick PowerPoint presentations, "selling the company-line" and putting a "positive-spin" on things. They revisited the concept of the cascade, reinvigorated it through technology and pushed managers to embrace it.

Switching off the autopilot

Managers need to be guided by communicators to switch off the communication autopilot and remove the corporate mask when it comes to communicating with and engaging their team members, as well as be given access to tools, techniques and resources that allow them to find and embrace an authentic communication style that works to their individual strengths - allowing them to communicate effectively, whatever the message may be. 

To get your free copy of the compelling BBVA Compass case study, and read about how they tackled issues surrounding line manager communication delivery, visit the website for our upcoming event, Bridging the gap: Making managers better communicators, which takes place on 29 March. 

*Labour Market Outlook, http://www.cipd.co.uk/research/_labour-market-outlook/current-report.htm

 

Tough times ahead for public sector communicators

By Mike Berry, Head of Content, Melcrum

The escalating row between Birmingham City Council and its trade union is a prime example of the challenges facing public sector communications professionals in the months and years ahead.

The local authority is reviewing the terms and conditions of employment of its entire non-school workforce – about 26,000 people – as it needs to reduce costs by roughly £330m over the next three years.

Council bosses sent letters to staff earlier this month consulting them about new flexible working contracts that would allow employees with similar skills to be redeployed between departments.

Public sector union Unison immediately hit back saying staff had been threatened with redundancy if they didn’t agree to the new contracts – something which Birmingham City Council strongly denies.

It says the move will actually reduce the threat of redundancies by allowing them to keep more staff employed in the future, and is being proactive in its communications with employees. A dedicated page is being created on the council’s intranet, run in parallel with regular updates by bulletins.

But it was the union response to the council’s move that gained all the headlines; with talk of “going to war” and “bully bosses”. It just goes to show how easily an internal organizational decision can escalate into controversy and a war or words played out in the public domain, potentially distorting the facts.

Employees will be receiving a multitude of mixed messages from their employer, their trade union, as well as reading stories in the press. It will be difficult for them to decipher what the truth is and what is spin.

The challenge for internal comms professionals is to make sure the organization’s message to the workforce is not diluted or distorted by external influences. This will only be intensified in the years ahead as public sector spending cuts begin to bite and more organizations have to communicate difficult messages on jobs, pay and benefits to their workforce.

If you are a public sector comms professionals then we’d love to hear about the challenges you currently face and the innovative solutions being put in place to tackle them.

Are your employees suffering in silence?

By Sona Hathi, Online Editor, Melcrum

Some people would rather die than confide in their bosses. Literally.

Recent research from Aviva UK Health found that only 4% of employees would speak to their managers about health concerns. It's hard to believe at first, but if you imagine yourself in a similar situation, can you honestly say that you wouldn't hesitate before opening up?  

In today's business climate, competition within the workplace is tough. There's a worry that even the slightest suggestion you might be anything less than superhero-like at work can put your job in jeopardy. According to Aviva's study, 21 percent of employees think that admitting to health concerns could affect their work prospects and 11% simply don't trust their bosses with personal information.

To overcome this, communicators are doing more than ever before to equip managers with the skills to effectively communicate business messages to their teams. But do they need to shift the focus towards helping managers be more approachable?

The employee-manager relationship is a delicate one, and two-way communication is central to strengthening it. If health is a concern for employees, they need to be confident that their manager will offer them support and respect their privacy, not strike them off as being incapable of doing their jobs.

So what's stopping managers from communicating well? Here are some common barriers to effective dialogue between line managers and their staff:

• Leader has "no time".
• Communication is a "check-the-box"activity.
• Leader's not engaged and doesn't value communication.
• The leader has a "closed" personality.

Have you come across any of these barriers at your organization? How did you combat them? Are there any others?  

Make mine a double standard

By Nishwa Ashraf, Editorial Assistant, Melcrum

It’s 6.45am. The alarm is beeping, and your head is pounding. As you steady yourself to your feet, the symptoms bombard you. Nausea. Fatigue. Body ache. And if you’ve had a particularly eventful night, a host of cringe-inducing memories.

But despite that one drink too many, it’s a Friday, and you have a whole working day ahead of you. Calling in sick? It’s not even an option. But since your drinking companions happened to be your colleagues, at least you won’t be suffering alone.

Excessive drinking on a school night by employees has become all too de rigueur, costing businesses and industries worldwide billions of dollars each year in absenteeism and lost productivity. But how many of these hangovers are induced by team “bonding” sessions, organized by employers themselves?

According to Aviva’s fourth annual, Health of the Workplace report, the answer is 51 percent. That’s right. Over half of employee social events involve trips to the pub.

And while 45 percent of business leaders say there’s no obligation to drink at their social events, just seven percent would actively discourage their employees from doing so.

The research also reveals that, out of the companies surveyed, only 23 percent of business leaders run team-building days and just one in ten (13%) participate in sporting pursuits.

It’s baffling then, that despite more than half leading their workforce into the pub, 26 percent are more concerned about the impact of alcohol on their business than their employees’ health. And over a quarter (27%) have no sympathy for those trying to pull “sickies” the next day.

That’s not to say employers should double up as parents, but perhaps there should be some ownership and responsibility in choosing the right setting for team bonding? Especially when considering that no one seems to want to be there in the first place!

A third of employers admitted that attending socials can be “a bit of a drag”, with one in 10 feeling obliged to attend socials to keep staff happy. In the same vein, 52 percent of employees aren’t particularly enthusiastic about going out with their wider team either, and one in five (21 percent) openly admitted that they don’t like socializing with work colleagues.

I can see that employers are trying to make the lives of their employees more “fun”, but perhaps their over reliance on alcohol is a little misguided. In the short term, this strategy can be a great way to relax and help colleagues let off steam. However, in the longer term, employers need to look for other ways to build team spirit to ensure everyone is involved and that unhealthy habits are not sanctioned in the workplace.

How does your organization build team morale? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

BA strike proves importance of continued employee engagement

by Henry James, Intern, Melcrum

Willie Walsh, and the rest of the BA board are being made to suffer after losing the loyalty of their staff.

The news reported in yesterday’s Financial Times, that Willie Walsh, chief executive of British Airways, along with the rest of the board were “jeered, heckled and booed” at BA’s annual meeting by shareholders, comes as no surprise. For months now this debacle has continued with neither board members, shareholders nor cabin crew, offering any realistic alternative to the conflict.

However, with so much on the line for all groups, it’s no surprise that once the debate began it would become drawn out. What is surprising, however is the initial reaction of the cabin crew after the cuts were first presented last November.

At a time when the economy was saturated with insecurity and instability as a consequence of the recession, and with thousands of employers also cutting costs and making redundancies, the board of BA must have made some major internal communication blunders to have warranted such a dramatic backlash.

The very fact that in December 2008, 92% of cabin crew voted in favor of strike action, with an 80% turnout, clearly illustrated mistakes had been made. Had the board, led by Walsh, managed their employees differently, then perhaps the same cost cutting measures may have received a markedly different reception and saved the organization the £148 million the two waves of strikes since March, are alleged to have cost.

What’s also significant is that it wasn’t the cost cutting and reduction in crew on long-haul flights that brought about such widespread discontent – two other issues were cited. Cabin crew were concerned about the possible deterioration in customer service, and union Unite about the creation of an “apartheid” among staff, which could have resulted from new recruits being offered less favorable contracts than current staff.

Both of these concerns were speculative, and yet were still enough for 92% of the turnout to vote in favor of strike action, and both tell us much about the mindset of the employees!

Only since December, and with confidence in their board dwindling further and with no settlement being finalized, have new points of dissatisfaction been raised – namely, pay freezes and the merger with Iberia Airlines coming under increased scrutiny.

A letter was passed out to shareholders at the annual meeting by Unite members offering suggestions for re-engaging employees. An extract reads: "If management want to restore morale and team spirit at BA, then, whatever the result of our ballot on the offer, it needs to do one thing above all: restore travel concessions in full to all cabin crew. It won't cost a penny. And it would be a gesture worth millions”.

Walsh and the board seem to have lost the confidence their employees once instilled in them, as well as a sense of what their workforce needs, and are now suffering the double blow of declining revenues and reputation. What is needed now is not a huge financial settlement, but the successful re-engagement of their staff.

What are the next steps for BA’s internal communication team? I’d love to know your thoughts.

Lack of jobs for communication graduates

by Harriet Thomlinson, Intern

Since the recession, we’re constantly hearing how internal communication is becoming an increasingly recognized function – with practitioners being called upon for everything from layoffs, pay freezes to restructures. Strange then, that for such a valued profession, 14 percent of last year’s communication graduates are still unemployed.

The research, carried out by the Higher Education Statistics Agency, revealed that the chances of students finding work post-graduation depend on their choice of subject, with zero unemployment rate for medicine and education (5%) to be the lowest, while communication has the second highest unemployment level, trailing not far behind computer science (17%).

There clearly aren’t enough comms jobs out there, but perhaps if businesses took the profession more seriously, communication students wouldn’t be in such a predicament and the future of communications would seem a little more optimistic.

Not only is this research particularly negative for the communication industry, but as a prospective university student it makes one wonder, “If highly skilled communication graduates can only manage to find jobs in places that don’t require their trained skills, eg. bartending, waitressing, working in a factory, then what’s the point of studying communications at university?”

So, what’s the cause for such statistics? Is it a case of supply over demand? Is it due to a decrease in the number of communication teams, or the scrapping of them all together as a result of the recession?

And if communication is a temporary casualty of the credit crunch, will these statistics potentially dissuade students choosing communication as a vocation, resulting in a lack of future communicators?

After all, let’s not forget that even the fields with the lowest unemployment figures require the help of both internal and external communications for many different aspects of their function. Take a look at how the World Café concept helped employees re-engage during the recession.

If you’re struggling to find a job in communications, check out Melcrum’s jobsite.

Do you think there aren't enough communication roles out there? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

BBC internal comms team delivers bad news well

By James Bennett, Head of Content, Melcrum

UK newspaper, The Guardian, has managed to get hold of an email sent out by the BBC's internal communication team to its staff notifying them of it plans to close its final-salary pension scheme to new joiners, and restrict its benefits, in order to stem a £2 billion ($3bn) deficit.

There's never an easy way to announce to your staff that there's a whopping great hole in your company pension fund and that from April 1st 2011 future salary increases for calculating pension benefits will be limited to 1% per year.

They even go on to explain: "In other words, after this date pensionable salary will grow at a maximum of 1% per year, no matter what actual salary increases an employee receives." Brutal but honest and equally inevitable considering many assets within many other pension schemes around the world have also performed poorly due to the global economic downturn. If any of these grand schemes of old are to be successfully phased out and new "sustainable" versions take their place, as appears the case within most large organizations, then this is potentially the only way to go.

Give the BBC internal comms team some credit though, they deliver the news (that many expected) in a very clear and precise way allowing employees to give their feedback via a hotline, email address, and a series of staff seminars hosted by its pensions team from 5th July who will explain the proposed changes in greater detail and give staff the chance to ask questions face-to-face. All existing scheme members will also receive an email from Jeremy Peat, chairman of the BBC Pension Scheme Trustees, with further details of the 2009 interim valuation of the scheme.

So who's next and are you having to deal with a similar change? Let us know.