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March 05, 2007

This advice about consumers applies to employees, too

The other day, I was at a meeting with senior HR folks at a Fortune 500 company to talk about how to communicate significant changes in performance management, compensation and benefits. And, as often happens in this kind of meeting, the conversation was completely focused on what HR needed to tell employees. I found myself repeating my little mantra: “What do employees need? What about managers? Let’s look at this from the audience’s point of view.”

It would have helped if I could have invited Jim Stengel, Chief Marketing Officer of Procter & Gamble, to the meeting. What does P&G marketing have to do with employee communication? A lot, if you’re paying attention to the way communication is changing from one-way to dialogue.

Mr. Stengel gave a speech at the American Association of Advertising Agencies (AAAA) Media Conference last week, and in a meeting obsessed with digital, interactive, and new media, his mind was on relationships.

“Building relationships . . . is the future of marketing,” said Mr. Stengel. “It’s not about new media models and new tools. It’s about engaging with people in a two-way relationships.

“It’s about seeking to understand the other person rather than trying to control their actions. . . Building honest relationships between us and our consumers is not only a smart business decision; it is the right thing for us as marketers to do.”

But it means thinking differently, Mr. Stengel said. “It takes stepping outside your comfort zone and eliminating the barriers that separate you from your consumers. After all, at he end of the day, we’re all consumers.

“Sometimes we just need to be open to bringing more of that personal human perspective to our professional lives,” he said. “This business is personal and that’s the bottom line. And making it personal is how we’ll grow the bottom line in the future.”

So my advice to the HR team—and to anyone today who needs to reach employees—is to stop broadcasting, start opening up the lines of communication that create a dialogue. It’s not about us; it’s about employees. Let’s ask them what they need.

Posted by Alison Davis at March 5, 2007 05:00 AM