So what are the most important reason senior leaders should be visible at work?
This is the question I asked all of you lovely lot over on LinkedIn a couple of weeks back and the responses were surprising.
77% of people said that creating trust and relatability was the key reason that senior leaders should put their head above the parapet.
24% said growing employee engagement was the key reason for being visible - yet only 5% chose creating buy-in to strategy as their top factor.
AND absolutely no one said adapting to change was the key reason for leaders to be visible.
When I drilled down to look at who voted, some more revealing insights came to light about how internal communications and leadership visibility are perceived. Leaders themselves chose trust and relatability as their top reason and employees naturally said engagement was their number one choice. People in sales roles voted for creating buy-in to strategy.
So we could argue that leaders themselves chose the least commercial reason! Perhaps this is the real reason why so few leaders are visible at work - they don’t attribute any hard commercial return for being visible and upping their internal communication game.
When leaders fail to value internal communications and the commercial impact of their presence they are ultimately waving goodbye to profitability. It’s staggering that only 13% of employees strongly agree that their senior leaders communicate effectively with the rest of the business. *1
Now, trust and relatability DO lead to higher engagement, which leads to higher retention levels, which leads to reduced turnover, better business continuity and higher productivity and profits.
And maybe we should give leaders the benefit of the doubt that they too had this in mind when they voted!
But that’s putting the horse before the cart if you like. For me, the top reason senior leaders should be visible at work is because it will contribute to achieving their business goals and help the organisation make more money. So buy-in to strategy and adapting to change are far more important reasons for senior leaders to be creating internal communications that employees actually engage with.
It’s a common misconception that warmer concepts like engagement, trust, relatability etc are the key purpose of internal communications. I believe making more money is actually the key purpose of internal communication.
I don’t mean that in a cynical way but it is the reason corporate organisations exist - to generate profit, create more jobs and stimulate the economy.
If you’re a not-for-profit? You still have to have commercial gains - to support end users on larger scales. So your purpose has to be at the centre.
And actually, employees agree with this approach.
77% of people say that their companies don’t focus on aligning employees' goals with corporate purposes. *2
Employees are most connected and engaged when they know their individual role purpose and how it relates to organisational success.
But most companies can’t explain this connection, do it poorly or think employees, particularly front-line employees, won’t get it - so they simply don’t bother.
So we have leaders who don’t see the point of communicating key information their employees actually want to know and instead, companies end up focusing on wooly ‘engagement’ campaigns and free pizza. (Now I’m not knocking free pizza per se but it doesn't get buy-in for complex change projects or help employees to adapt to that change!)
We also know that leaders don’t really believe in ‘engagement’ as a concept. In fact, 35% of leaders say focusing on employee engagement is a distraction from getting “Real Work” done. *3
And I see this all the time at the new organisations I work with. Where does that leave us? Well, we have a double whammy!
1. Leaders don’t think conveying the impact of strategy and change on their people is the most important reason for internal communications. So softer engagement campaigns get rolled out, led by internal communications, not led by the business…
2. Leaders don’t really believe in engagement anyway, so internal communications bears the burden of communicating, which further weakens its commerciality and relevance to the business.
This leads to greater disengagement in internal communications from senior leaders and a downward spiral.
The vast majority of leaders have the best intentions: 74% say they stay connected with frontline workers through informal conversations and meetings.*4
This face-to-face interaction is vital, and helps leaders establish relationships with their workforce. But a leader is only one person. They’ll never have time to see everyone, and often this means they miss out on hearing from the quieter, more self-effacing employees, or kid themselves into thinking they’re more available than they actually are.
This might explain the worrying trend for employees to feel disconnected from everyone outside their immediate team.
While 86% of employees feel connected to their direct co-workers, only 14% feel connected to their business HQ. Meanwhile, just 3% feel connected to their C-Suite. *5
So what’s the answer?
Commerciality has to be at the heart of your internal communications strategy.
And senior leaders need to buy into the true commercial purpose of internal communications so they can play a full role in creating engaging updates for their people.
Need help to create visible, engaging leaders who understand how to place commerciality at the heart of their internal communications?
For a complimentary consultation to understand how your leaders could be communicating differently so that you can drive change projects, increase employee engagement and team retention, book 30 minutes into my diary here.
References: *1 Gallup State of the Workplace 2017 * 2 Deloitte *3 Dale Carnegie *4 & 5 Meta survey of 2000 CEOs and front line workers: Deskless Not Voiceless
Today marks the one-year anniversary of the death of my business partner, best friend and co-founder of 300, the inimitable Phil Jenkins.
I wanted to take a moment to remember him, the joy he brought to my working life, what I learnt from him and encourage you to take a moment of gratitude for a colleague who’s shaped your journey.
If you knew Phil, I know you’ll have great stories of your own, please drop us a line at hello@the300.co !
For those of you who didn’t have the privilege of meeting Phil, he was warm, funny and could say the most inappropriately hilarious things and joyously could just get away with it.
“A true gent”, “young at heart”, “a whirlwind of utter joy"- just some of the ways Phil’s friends and colleagues describe him. After a chat with Phil you instantly felt happier, more hopeful and believed anything was possible.
He gave people opportunities and they never forgot: like Naomi: “Phil remains to this day one of the most welcoming, funny and kind bosses!”
He even cheered people up on the way to work, like Dominic: “I had the tremendous privilege of travelling into London with Phil for several years. Whatever the weather or time of day, he never failed to bring joy and compassion into every journey.”
Phil reinvented himself several times through life, from art school rebel, professional sailor, recruitment consultant, Masters student, photographer, digital marketing director, 300 business founder, and who knows what reincarnations were to come next.
Phil died at 56 years of age. Far too young.
But he left a lasting legacy.
When I was battling in the corporate world of communications he recognised something in me. He believed in me and my skills in a way that no one had done before. He was the best boss I ever had and the best human being. He brought out the best in me and I did the same for him.
Leaders need epic followers, we often forget that.
But the real magic at work happens when the follower becomes a partner.
And then you’re an unbeatable team.
Our Big Boss at the time described us as “a many headed hydra” which we took to mean Big Boss was mildly frustrated they couldn’t “divide and conquer”
(Ooh, and if said Boss in this newsletter list? We respected it 😉 )
Like many, we got frustrated with the corporate world, plotted our escape and 300 Communications was born. Fed up with working with big creative and comms agencies who just didn’t get the realities of corporate organisations we thought we could do better!
Over the last five years we’ve launched new communications platforms for clients, turned around dire communications and poor employee engagement, coached senior leaders to be epic communicators, launched amazing Bots to increase productivity and engagement, launched podcasts and much much more.
Phil, Caroline & Afshin
Phil & Caroline presenting at Meta
Working on a client’s conference
On site at a client, rocking hair nets!
Phil in film director mode!
Phil in his office, sporting our covid charity Tshirt line!
Learning to go it alone over the last year has been hard.
But I’m still standing.
And 300 is thriving.
That’s what Phil wanted.
Starting the company meant something to both of us and I’m proud to continue Phil’s legacy.
It’s been the toughest year of my life, personally and professionally.
I’ve had battles I didn’t expect to face.
And it’s hard having board meetings on your jack jones without your epic business partner!
Some amazing people have stepped up during that time who are definitely approaching Phil’s legendary status! My business coach and epic human being Jessica Lorimer. The clever Faye Levi who’s got a bit of the Phil strategy magic! And the dependable tech brain of Ricky Kalsi.
Change at work is hard. It’s not always welcome. I’ve had to pivot, evolve, adapt and change.
Phil’s unshakeable confidence and faith in me is part of me now and that’s his legacy living on.
If you’ve never had a Phil in your career, then hopefully you’ve been a Phil to yourself and been your own cheerleader! Or maybe it’s time to step up and be a Phil to someone else. People remember that support and appreciation. They don’t remember so much of what you did at work but they DO remember how you did it.
And that’s what I learned from Phil I guess. Be a decent person. I try every day and fail a bit better each day. Because you know, we all have to phone mobile phone and utilities companies from time to time.
If you’ve got a colleague who makes your life infinitely easier and more fun at work, please drop them a thank you today.
So here's to you Phil. Your legacy lives on in the wit you bestowed on us all, the projects you started and 300 has completed in your absence and the leaders that we're teaching how to communicate authentically and distinctively like you always did.
From 300 in remembrance,
Caroline
Contact Caroline Watkin at hello@the300.co to share your Phil stories!
The pandemic, hybrid working and ‘quiet quitting’ frustrations all mean that employee engagement has taken a hit in recent years. In fact, whilst 86% of employees feel connected to their direct co-workers, only 14% say they feel connected to their business headquarters. More worryingly, just 3% feel connected to their C-Suite executives.*
That connection is critical to business success and profitability. We don’t need research to tell us that people who like their bosses are more productive but if we want the stats then take a look at LSE’s analysis of 339 independent studies on the topic. It clearly shows the relationship between employee satisfaction and stock market returns.
Funnily enough, organisations with higher employee satisfaction had between 2 and 4% higher returns than the industry average.**
So just how do you create and crucially DEEPEN that engagement between employees and senior leaders, particularly if most people in your organisation never even get to meet the CEO and senior leadership team?
Well, if you’ve been alive recently you can’t have failed to notice the growth of podcasts.
In the UK alone, 6 million more of us listened in during the last three years. That’s about 15 million Brits each year tuning into a podcast. Everyone’s got one, from Michelle Obama to Ru Paul Charles, even my dog sitter has one. And if you don’t know who Ru Paul Charles is, stop reading this article and go listen to his podcast IMMEDIATELY. Then come back!
Now we’re seeing the rising trend of the internal corporate podcast. We’re working with all sorts of organisations that are using the unique benefits of podcasts to better connect with their workforce, drive retention and ultimately make more money.
Here’s six ways you can use internal podcasts in your organisation to drive engagement, retention and profit:
1. Promote internal career opportunities and talent initiatives
Podcasts create connection and are convenient for employees to listen to so they are perfect platforms to share non-urgent but critical information that can combat the great resignation, for example, by highlighting the awesome career opportunities in your business.
Interviewing people in key functional areas humanises their career stories and brings career paths to life - much more engaging than the ‘flow diagrams’ that most organisations share on how you get from A to Z!
Corporate podcasts are also great ways to showcase the diversity of roles in your business and a fantastic way to showcase talent and celebrate success - motivating and inspiring others to progress so that retention increases and the costs of new hires are reduced.
Learning & Development teams can also use podcasts to share updates on their latest training initiatives in an engaging and accessible way so their visibility increases and employees buy into new initiatives from the start.
In fact, podcasts are a great way to actually deliver learning and training. Some organisations have specific courses as podcasts and some have ALL their learning as bite-sized podcast episodes - saving time and money whilst increasing that all-important engagement.
2. Reach dispersed, busy sales teams (e.g. recruitment, estate agency, car retailers)
Podcasts are so successful at creating connection because of something called ‘parasocial empathy’. Scientists have found that podcasts enhance perceived intimacy with hosts by well, err, changing our brains! I’m paraphrasing but in essence this is what’s happening.
When we factor in that most people listen to podcasts with headphones on, the effect is amplified, triggering a greater feeling of closeness according to On Amir, co-author of a study in the journal Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes.
That means podcasts are a brilliant way to reach skeptical people in the organisation, like hard-to-reach, dispersed sales professionals. Ideas, best practice and training can be shared in a non preaching way with top performers who may be missing the detail, or not following the company process.
There's also a chance for the sales director to explain why the company way is important and a greater chance of salespeople actually buying into this purpose and taking willing action. New starters and poorer performers can also learn how to improve, driving higher sales and profitability.
The beauty of podcasts is that time-pressured staff can also listen to podcasts whilst they’re doing something else. In fact, most of us listen to podcasts to ease the pain of unpleasant or boring tasks like doing admin and expenses or when we’re on the move, say doing the school run, driving to work or at the gym.*****
It gives people the choice to engage, when they want to and so drives productivity and engagement. You can even give sales professionals a platform as guests on the podcast to supercharge engagement. AND by getting them to share their top tips, they help the rest of the sales force, making the most of peer-to-peer learning and reducing training costs.
3. Supporting neurodiverse employees
Staff with Aspergers, autism or those with challenges like dyslexia may struggle with traditional learning methods, which typically involve reading copious amounts of text. It’s estimated that 6 million people in the UK have some form of dyslexia, it’s much more common than we think and different learning styles are often a reason why internal communications and training fail to hit the mark. The same goes for our colleagues with visual impairments. It democratises learning and gives everyone a change from the same old ways of doing things.
Podcasts are also great learning mechanisms for the creative brains and other freethinkers in the business from designers and developers to software engineers.
4. Showcasing corporate social responsibility (CSR) / environment, social and governance (ESG) initiatives
Nearly two in five employees responding to a survey by Robert Half said they’d look for a new job if their employer wasn’t doing enough on ESG issues. And ESG is particularly important for younger people, with 22% of 18-34 year-olds putting corporate values above salary.******
The immediacy of podcasts gives us a fighting chance to showcase charitable and ESG type initiatives, building the employer brand and giving employees the sense of purpose they crave from their employer nowadays.
And this is only going to grow in importance. By 2029, Gen Z and Millennials will make up 72% of the world’s workforce. As our employees of the future place greater importance on environmental and social concerns than their predecessors, organisations that can communicate their initiatives effectively, will become employers of choice.
Podcasts motivate and inspire, deepening engagement so employees can dive deeper into these initiatives. And those who want to can get even more involved, taking actions like volunteering, becoming champions to inspire others and ESG focused podcasts are also great ways to promote competitions and new initiatives, for example, inviting employees to take part in charitable trips and events.
As 30 percent of workers will look for a new job unless ESG activity is increased, according to one study******* it’s crucial that such initiatives are communicated well. As if no one knows or engages, it may as well not be happening!
Podcasts are a great way to engage your people in CSR initiatives
5. CEO / senior leader podcast - how I have built my career, career moments, etc
A job isn’t just a job these days, most people have or want to have an emotional connection to the brand that they work for and their drive and productivity is driven by how they feel about the business and its leaders.
The humanising effect of a well-done podcast makes people feel understood by their leadership team. So a CEO or senior leader podcast is the perfect vehicle for increasing leaders’ visibility and closing the gap between the top of the organisation and its front-line workers.
The CEO can talk about how they built their career, key moments, how employees can own their career, toughest moments, how they deal with conflict and so on. Senior leaders can rotate between podcast episodes and cover the same topics or new issues.
People want a leadership team they understand and respect, that are human, who don’t speak in jargon or corporate language, who can motivate, inspire and convey empathy.
By avoiding the jargon and overly corporate language the podcast is a great way to showcase company culture, making people feel part of that culture, driving retention. I said at the start that just 3% of employees feel connected to their C-Suite executives so a podcast is a great way to close that connection gap.
6. Celebrate new initiatives or awareness days like Stress Awareness, World Diversity Day or Pride
Having a special podcast series can also help celebrate or draw attention to key initiatives such as the upcoming Pride month in June. Celebrating these awareness events using podcasting as a tool really helps employees to engage more actively with the initiative and helps to answer potentially sensitive questions that they might have in a simple and refreshing way. And we can really get to hear those personal stories of why these initiatives really matter to your leaders.
Here are some of the ideas that we created for clients to support better engagement during International Women's Day and beyond to drive retention of key female staff and create a more diverse talent pipeline:
We interviewed a variety of women in organisations to celebrate their achievements so that newer recruits were able to be inspired by the stories and challenges other women have faced, cultivating a strong sense of community whilst creating a strong talent pipeline
Podcasting’s mix of immediacy and intimacy means that employees better connect with career stories and by featuring women in nontraditional roles we helped organisations break the bias surrounding male-dominated functions like engineering and manufacturing - so that they can recruit more women into these roles, generate more referrals and work to ensure female talent stays in the organisation.
We worked with organisations to create podcast series with a clear purpose and strategy so that employees felt their company was doing more than paying lip service to key issues, building trust in the employer brand and increasing employee satisfaction
Worked with organisations' existing groups, like their women’s network, to use podcasting as a way to conveniently share initiatives and invite inspiring guest speakers so that content had a much longer shelf life, unlike a one-off webinar, which may get lost in the busyness of the working day.
Want help to create an effective awareness day podcast that can inspire, motivate and engage your employees?
Book your podcast for Pride Month in June or other awareness events...
A well-done podcast will get people listening to your message and drive that all-important engagement. Hiring broadcasting specialists to deliver your podcast alleviates the stress on already busy communications teams, without podcasting skills, so that you can quickly get your campaign sorted for International Women’s Day.
If you’d like to set up a professional podcast for Pride, we are running a special offer to set up your entire podcast for you:
You’ll get access to:
A clear Pride podcast strategy and angle, bespoke to your organisation so that you can build greater community, trust and employee engagement
A professional, virtual broadcast studio so that you can create a high-quality podcast that employees want to listen to, creating increased buy in, engagement and higher retention
A professional interviewer so that the right questions are asked, the conversation builds naturally, saving busy executives time in the organisation and production of the podcast
A complete, done for you podcast, with all production and editing included so that time is saved, meaning you can sit back and enjoy the results.
The package includes four episodes with four guest speakers from your organisation to celebrate achievements so that newer recruits are able to be inspired by the stories and challenges other's have faced in your organisation, cultivating a strong sense of community whilst creating a strong talent pipeline
Advice and tips on the best way to get people listening to your podcast and how to communicate its arrival so that you can maximise your investment and achieve your goals of increasing engagement and retention
Design templates you can personalise for your organisation to advertise your podcast internally
Contact Caroline Watkin at hello@the300.co to talk about your podcast for Pride or other awareness event.
Lots of internal communications teams are telling me that they struggle to create engaging, valued updates for their business. BUT even when they have designed the perfect campaign, with every box ticked, they’re still faced with senior leaders and other employee groups who simply ignore all communications.
Kind of like the ‘quiet quitting’ trend in a way but these people are high performers who go above and beyond for the work but simply won’t engage in internal communications and the wider culture of the company.
They have a get out of jail free card if you like, whether that’s because of the tyranny of billable hours in professional services, commission culture driving top sales performers or operations directors solely focused on getting perishable products out the door.
Navigating the balance between creating truly relevant content that your people will value and at the same time figuring out ways to better partner with stakeholders who simply don’t see the point of engaging is a perennial challenge for many internal communications teams.
I take a closer look at the top five problems companies are facing right now with internal communications.
1. No CEO buy-in
The saying goes ‘the fish rots from the head down’ so if your CEO isn’t behaving in a way that supports great internal communications it’s unlikely your high-performing leaders will see the point either.
The perennial issues I see here are CEOs who either don’t see the point of being a visible leader themselves or, they pay lip service to internal communications because they don’t believe there’s any commercial merit in it.
Others are at the stage where they see there could be value for the organisation but they genuinely don’t think anyone wants to hear from them and are genuinely stumped as to what they’d talk about. Once they do get the value, many actually lack confidence in their ability to create engaging updates, the skills to come across naturally, or are simply a bit scared of modern workplace technology.
2. Too many internal communication channels
Even if your CEO is on board and the internal communications team has done sterling work to partner with the ‘disengaged doers’ of the organisation, there are often so many entry points to get work done that it’s simply too easy to ignore company communications.
And let’s face it, even the most engaged people in an organisation are simply not going to log onto several places if it’s not essential to your job. Employees want frictionless experiences and the workforce has much higher expectations of great design and ease of use.
When you consider ALL the places we expect people to check into it’s no wonder internal communications teams don’t see a return for their efforts. From clunky intranets, email, videos, Microsoft Teams groups, Yammer, Slack and WhatsApp, plus the average employee needs about 40 apps just to get their job done.
In fact, according to a recent report, an average enterprise uses 461 disparate apps — with each functional group relying on specialised functional apps designed to serve them better. The average number of apps for HR came to 90, Finance totalled 60 and even Sales came to 43*.
This means workers are using hundred of disconnected apps and performing hundreds of disconnected tasks to complete their projects. And because there’s often no central space or platform to access everything, internal communications is ANOTHER thing people have to do rather than a seamless part of getting work done.
*Source: Mary Meeker internet trends 2017.
3. Communications teams' excluded from board level conversations
Many internal communications professionals tell me that it’s hard to get a seat at the table and so it’s difficult to get their voices heard as a driver of business change. I’ve been there and it genuinely is the toughest thing about the role.
Senior internal communications professionals also bemoan the shortage of internal communications professionals with the skills to act as true business partners.
That can mean that the function struggles to show the relevance of company communications to leaders and people’s jobs across the organisation.
4. Struggling to make communications engaging, interesting and valuable
So if internal communications teams can’t influence their key stakeholders and functions across the organisation and those important conversations don’t happen, it means internal communications is completely disconnected from business strategy.
It also means it’s disconnected from the kind of the culture the organisation wants to build. That’s when internal communications becomes ‘window dressing’ or a dull news function rather than the glue that links the business together, adding real value.
No matter if you have the world’s best editorial team writing your comms, if you can’t connect what business leaders and the organisation want and need, internal communications simply will not be engaging, interesting and VALUABLE. You may hit engaging and interesting but if it's not working towards a bigger purpose or organisational narrative it’s kind of pointless.
5. Staff focused on delivery, not leadership
Now, we’ve all had a tough few years and just getting a product out the door or a service delivered frankly takes a bloody heroic effort. From Covid to supply chain challenges, cost inflation and recession, it’s been pretty relentless. Then we expect people to engage in internal communications, fill in all the forms and have a good work-life balance!
Even before the world went bonkers, every organisation had its ‘untouchables’ or high performers, who simply sidestep contributing to company culture and internal communications because they are too important to distract from billing or delivering.
Yet when organisational change happens and you REALLY need these people to engage it’s a hard habit to break. And when these key leaders are unwilling to be visible and communicate to their teams it can impact retention and becomes a business critical issue.
So when you have inexperienced internal communications teams unable to business partner with these tricky stakeholders, the problem intensifies. It's an issue that needs addressing if the business is to carry on changing and growing.
Are you struggling with these issues? You aren’t alone.
Book a call with me to discuss how organisations are increasing engagement through better internal communications AND increasing stakeholder buy in. bit.ly/book-an-insights-call
If you have any questions, please feel free to email me at caroline.watkin@the300.co and we’ll be more than happy to answer your questions personally.
Check out our Future of Work podcast episode!
Check out our Future of Work podcast episode if you are interested in what people want from work and how this influences your communications technology choices.
Are you considering what communications technology you need in place to drive productivity in a hybrid work setting? Or are you dead set on a new intranet but haven’t considered the alternatives out there? Perhaps you’re wondering how other companies are organising company knowledge and can’t see the wood for the trees in your business?
If you’re going in circles then come on in and find out how to make the right choice for your organisation, the reasons why intranets fail so often and the different models companies are adopting to replace or modernise the traditional intranet.
Caveat: this is NOT just for techies, we cover the people, culture and business aspects of choosing communications technology and intranets. In fact, we take a deeper dive into why the needs of people matter when making communications technology choices.
We also discuss how the rise of consumer technology is impacting us at work and why the future of work matters when considering your next intranet move.
Whether your intranet is a thorn in your side OR your crowning glory, this episode will give you the lowdown on what’s next for the modern intranet and workplace technology. And if you’re in the ‘why have an intranet’ camp there’s plenty here to drive the conversation with your business.
In this episode we’re discussing:
The legacy of early intranets and how old thinking still impacts organisations today 3:37
Definition of the ‘intranet’ - knowledge repository or news channel? 4:22
What are the alternatives to an intranet? 5:56 OR
The benefits of social technology vs an intranet 6:41
The rise of the personalised news feed v static intranets 7:37
How does your organisation type influence your technology choice? 8:58
What are the factors you need to consider when choosing a new intranet solution? 8:58
Why some companies are ditching the intranet in favour of social collaboration 9:19
The biggest reason intranets fail and how you can avoid this 10:52
The three most popular models for organising company information 11:17
The disadvantages of an intranet & why companies replace them every 3-5 years 14:00
Is Microsoft Teams the answer to everything? 15:05
Who you need to get involved in the decision and why 23:32
The ESSENTIAL thing you need to do avoid making a comms technology mistake 28:44
The rise of ‘shadow’ IT 30:39
New to market ‘intranet’ options that are changing the game 33:36
Why forgetting front line workers is a mistake 34:34
Key resources mentioned in this episode:
Book an exploratory chat with Phil & Caroline
We’re offering insights sessions so that you can gain clarity on the right tech solutions for your business and hear market insights from similar organisations.
These opportunities are limited - so if you’d like our insights and a transparent conversation about how we could support your goals, book here now: bit.ly/book-an-insights-call
If you have any questions on the modern intranet, other workplace technology or communications strategy please feel free to email caroline.watkin@the300.co or phil.jenkins@the300.co we’ll be more than happy to answer your questions personally.
Check out our Future of Work episode!
Don’t forget to check out our Future of Work podcast episode if you are interested in what people want from work and how this influences your communications technology choices.
