Employee communications, in its earliest days, existed purely to inform employees. Informing them of what was expected of them at their place of work and, if they were lucky, informing them of company performance and future plans.
As the discipline evolved, the need to inform was augmented by the desire to inspire employees. Organizations recognized that employees were an important “audience,” and the era of Internal Marketing was born. Leaders would deliver inspirational speeches, company newsletters would share success stories - all with the aim of making employees feel good about working for their organization.
The next step was to involve employees. In more progressive organizations workers were consulted as part of the decision-making process, not just informed of its results. Employees were empowered to put forward suggestions and attempts were made to establish dialogue between leaders and workers rather than the traditional top-down monologue.
While today’s employee communications programs must continue to inform, inspire and involve employees, its most important priority is now the 4th I - improve.
It is no longer enough to make employees feel good about working for the company, employee communications today needs to play a direct role in improving the company’s performance by improving the communications skills of every employee.
While employee communications that inform, inspire and involve can be managed, a program focused on improvement requires the skills of a communications mentor.
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