June 11, 2007

Make managers your partners in improving employee engagement

Spring has sprung and summer is upon us, along with the results of employee engagement surveys. Communicators like you, at large and mid-size companies, are bracing themselves for the fallout if survey scores fail to meet the CEO’s expectations. But there is a way to bring in reinforcements—make managers your partners in improving employee engagement and your scores will go up in the future.

While managers are too often passive bystanders in the communication process, the irony is that they are at the heart of employee engagement. They help employees understand what’s expected of them by translating messages from leaders, have a direct impact on ensuring employees have a solid grasp of strategic business goals, and play a major part in influencing and improving employee performance and customer communication. Yet, most managers either don’t understand their critical role as communicators or don’t have time to focus on it.

Communicators can help by providing managers with the tools they need to fulfill this vital communication function. Here are some tips to help turn managers into your communication partners:

1. Set up face-to-face meetings with leaders for managers. Managers are the ones on the front lines, so leaders need to engage them in discussions about the content they need to know so they can accurately pass this information along to their employees. Face-to-face sessions are best for getting real dialogue going and for making sure managers grasp what leaders want them to get across to the troops.”
   
2. Give managers the tools they need. Prepare and send frequently asked questions to managers and update the information on a weekly basis. This not only enables managers to have important information at their fingertips, but gives them the confidence to communicate the approved messages consistently with what management is saying.
   

3. Provide managers with two or three sample agendas. Ease the pain managers may feel when planning their next staff meeting by providing them with two or three sample agendas. Also include reflective questions that highlight current business priorities to help them stimulate a lively dialogue with their employees.

4. Keep your list of managers’ e-mail addresses current. A great way to keep the communication lines open is to send managers a simple, clear, easy-to-read e-mail about the three top business priorities being talked about by senior management. Then provide an online link for each topic to relevant articles.  This will save time for managers by giving them easy access to the information they need