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January 28, 2008

“It seems to be well-received.”

About a week ago, we had a meeting with a new client who was showing us the company’s employee communication vehicles, including a home page, an e-newsletter and a print publication.

“Nice work,” I said, looking at the samples. “What do employees think? Are these vehicles meeting employees’ needs?”

The communicator had a ready answer. “I get lots of good feedback. All of our vehicles seem to be very well-received.”

I bit my tongue; we weren’t being retained by the company to critique the communication vehicles, but to help with another project, so I didn’t think it was the time or place for me to challenge this smart, hard-working professional.

But what I thought was this: Unless you have tangible measurement from employees about how relevant and useful communication is to them, all of your efforts may be in vain.

Seems obvious, doesn’t it? But far too many professionals who communicate to employees—whether it’s about the company, benefits, compensation or other HR issues, change initiatives or any other topic—think that their job is done when they hit the “send” button. They’re satisfied with positive comments from a few colleagues or their boss, and assume that communication was effective because there was no negative feedback.

This particular company is spending a considerable amount of time and money creating communication that might go right into the trash can (electronic or actual). Or, more likely, employees love some of it, are neutral about other stuff, and think some is useless. But, since there’s no measurement, nobody knows what’s a hit and what’s a flop.

If we were marketing a product, not providing information, we’d be out of business. As it is, communicators who don’t measure put themselves in a weak position: Since they don’t know what their customers (employees) want, need and use, they have no ammunition against a client (someone more senior or powerful) who wants to communicate a certain way.

Don’t be an order-taker; start measuring.

Posted by Alison Davis at 08:43 AM

January 16, 2008

The problem child

Bad behavior—being arrogant, blind, inconsiderate, mean, and any combination of these—seems to be running rampant these days, as evidenced by the number of frantic calls I’m getting from colleagues complaining about people they work for or with. I guess stress is getting to people, especially those whose mamas didn’t raise them right.

Here’s just a sampling, with the facts changed to protect the guilty:

The Senior HR exec who’s acting like a toddler when it comes to communicating her program: “Me, me, me! Now, now, now! I want it my way!” This gal has no perspective; she doesn’t care about the organization’s needs, employee preferences, or realities of cost and timing—to her, it’s 110% about what she wants to say (loudly and immediately) and not a smidgen about what people need to know.

Other than giving my client an opportunity to vent, I have not been able to offer any helpful advice on how to manage this toxic exec, except: Do the communication and let it fail. Sound callous? No, it’s pragmatic realism: This evil person is not worth losing one’s job (involuntarily) for; bad communication will die of its own weight, and you can (quietly) get your resume in order.

The colleague who rejects data he doesn’t agree with. We conducted a communication survey; employees were very clear about the fact that they hate a certain vehicle, which we’ll call an online newsletter. But since the colleague in question produces the newsletter and has a strong sense of ownership, he’s trying to ignore the feedback, calling it “bad data.”

This is like rejecting the results of a medical test because you don’t like the diagnosis; “if I say I’m not sick, by golly, I must not be sick.” What a missed opportunity to listen to employees! We’re trying to gently lead this guy to truth, but if he wants to keep banging his head against the wall, we’re hoping someday soon he’ll realize what’s causing his headache.

The senior communicator who’s trapped in the past She remembers vividly why she wanted a career in communication in the first place: She saw the 1976 movie, “All The President’s Men” and wanted to be Woodward, Bernstein and the whole editorial staff of The New York Times.

So she has this sense that internal communication should be “journalistic:” complete, factual, serious in tone, important, objective. Meanwhile, The Washington Post, The New York Times and all other media have dramatically changed, but this communicator hasn’t; she clings to an ideal that probably never existed, but certainly doesn’t make sense today.

What to do? We’re advising our clients to keep bringing data (from employee surveys and usage stats) to the table, as well as to leverage the current versions of The Times and The Post as examples of (today’s) best practices.

Got someone like this in your work life? Do what I do: Take deep cleansing breaths, and console yourself with the fact that this person was probably potty-trained too early, had an unhappy childhood and couldn’t get a date in high school. It may not change the situation, but at least you’ll feel a little better.

Posted by Alison Davis at 03:08 PM

January 09, 2008

For intranet inspiration, go shopping

When we’re helping a client revamp an intranet site, we often conduct a nifty little exercise that we call “Let’s go shopping,” where we ask planning participants to think of web sites they visit to buy online.

The results can be quite varied—in a recent session, sites included Red Envelope, Lands’ End and Home Shopping Network—but participants’ favorite is almost always Amazon. (More on Amazon in a moment.)

Why is this relevant? Quite simply, shopping sites offer tons of ideas for how to improve any web site. After all, these sites live and die on their ability to attract users, encourage them to put merchandise in their carts, and get them to commit to buy. So shopping sites are often great role models for navigation, graphics, and other key web elements.

And since an increasing number of people shop online—the 2007 holiday season racked up a 20% gain in such shopping, according to a comScore report—the shopping site interface is one they’re familiar with.

Of course, there’s a lot of variety from site to site, so there’s not a one-size-fits-all solution. The idea of the exercise is not to slavishly imitate, but to gain (free) inspiration to unlock your thought process about how to organize and design your site.

Regardless of which sites you refer to, one choice should always be Amazon. I’ve long extolled Amazon’s virtues for clarity, user-friendliness and organization, but I was surprised that what really got participants jazzed in our recent session is a different feature: the reviews.

“I sometimes go to Amazon even if I’m planning to buy a product elsewhere to see what the reviewers say,” commented one participant. “You can’t beat the objectivity of having regular shoppers rate books, movies or other products.”

Intriguing, because it certainly supports the growing social media trend, where participation is an integral part of the user experience. Something to think about when you’re revamping your intranet site? Visit amazon.com for more inspiration.

(By the way, New York Times writer Joe Nocera just composed a valentine to Amazon that pays tribute to another reason people love the site: customer service. Read the piece.

Posted by Alison Davis at 05:18 PM