From factories to fields, from traditional offices to shared workstations and mobile units, many business-to-business workforces are spread out across vastly diverse settings around the globe. Along with meeting the challenge of unifying employees separated by physical location, B2B internal communicators also develop solutions for overcoming the boundaries presented by different languages and business cultures.
In a business climate that continues to be marked by uncertainty, a well-organized employee communications program can provide clear direction, instill confidence and foster teamwork, according to the 2011-2012 Towers Watson Change and Communication ROI Study. The research evaluated responses from more than 600 organizations worldwide and found that, among companies demonstrating high effectiveness in communication, 62% have clearly stated promises to employees about what the relationships intend to deliver.
For B2B companies with longer traditions of focusing on measurable outputs, there is a critical need to shift the internal message toward a shared commitment that helps build a nurturing, high-performance work environment.
Front-line managers may be the key to bridging the gap between employees and the greater organization. The Towers Watson study pointed to the growing importance of supervisors in internal communications, with nearly two-thirds of respondents noting managers are accepting more responsibility for communicating with employees about business developments and changes.
Even as B2B communicators establish messages and messengers, they must also carefully select modes of communication that will work best. To fill us in on the ways that internal communications is evolving at B2B organizations, we turned to a group of employee and corporate communications experts in the manufacturing, medical and chemical industries.
JUDI PFANCUFF
Employee Communications Director, Eaton Corporation
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To connect with a global workforce, effective employee communications must provide context. We have found it’s crucial to support local leaders in their efforts to help employees better understand what we’re asking them to do and why they should.
To do that, we’ve established a channel to provide useful content for local communications and, in the process, have improved our mass communications channels, too, by getting closer to our audience and becoming more aware of what employees really need to get engaged.
We put together collections of easily localized materials on monthly topics such as safety, quality and innovation and post them for download on a website designed to deliver brand-building communications assets. We distribute full sets of themed materials on the first of each month that local communicators can count on.
We actively network with communicators, HR leaders and plant managers in our businesses to make sure the short articles, videos, posters and PowerPoint slides meet their needs.
Our research shows that mass internal channels are greatly valued by our employees. But to reach all employees, we’ve found we need to think globally, act locally and network like crazy.
CHRISTINE MILLER
Associate Director, Global Employee Communications, The Dow Chemical Co.
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Employees in a global organization are inundated with communication from all corners of the organization—the business director sharing business priorities; reminders from Human Resources about performance management deadlines or a plant manager with a production update. Layered on top of these messages are the interests of the corporation to align employees to organizational goals and build a competitive advantage for the company.
Managing the information flow to employees can be a challenge, but our global employee communication network helps improve coordination across the organization. Led by the Global Employee Communications team, members of the network include employee communication professionals in businesses, functions and geographies. The network reviews the upcoming schedule, and provides communicators the opportunity to offer their input on corporate plans.
For specific programs, we frequently develop communication toolkits. The toolkits include key messages and resources such as posters, electronic bulletin board templates, news copy and more.
The prepared materials help drive consistency across the organization and are efficient and cost-effective solutions for Dow.
ANN FAHEY, APR
Vice President, Corporate Communications, Medline
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Whether your company is B2B or B2C, communicating to a global employee audience is complicated. While newer technologies are opening up new channels for two-way dialogue, there is still no substitute for face-to-face communications, and I would argue, there never will be.
Your company could have an award-winning intranet with a truly transparent blog authored by the company’s CEO and you could stream your town hall meetings to all of your global sites in real time, but these tactics are not a substitute for your CEO walking through the doors of your plant in Shanghai to greet employees in person. This is why Medline’s executives are travelling to company sites around the globe.
Since we expanded our global employee outreach last year, more than 90% of employees responded that communications at the company have improved. While there were a lot of other communications improvements made to contribute to these results, I have no doubt that the increase in executive face time is the key contributor. PRN
CONTACT:
B2B Communications is written by Mary C. Buhay, VP, marketing and business development, at Gibbs & Soell Public Relations. She can be reached at [email protected].