ICYMI: Oxen, Unknowns, and Turning 50
Hello and welcome to the end of the week!
The kind of employee comms we don’t want to see: CNBC headline - Eli Lilly CFO resigns after investigation finds “inappropriate communication” with employees.
🐂 It’s the Year of the Ox! Happy Lunar New Year!
In case you missed it…
1. A Dark Wood
Internal comms’ 2021 unknown: When, if ever, are we returning to the office?
Conversation in my internal comms circles is dominated by the return-to-office debate. It seems nobody has a clear idea of how this is going to play out.
Who is making the decision on when to return to work? Facilities? HR? The CDC?
When will it be safe to return to the office? I’m hearing everything from “possibly June” to “planning on September” to “not until 2022” to “we have no clue.”
What is the business case for re-opening offices? Or keeping them closed? Or moving to a hybrid model?
How we will phase the return? By region? By degrees of essentialsim? By whether employees are vaccinated?
Can we force employees to take the vaccine? Should it be part of a wellness program? A financial incentive effort?
If you think this is a dilemma for internal comms, imagine how everyday employees feel. Workers are largely in the dark, taking it day by day…because they have to.
Problem is… 45% of companies have not communicated a vaccination policy to their employees, per a survey from The Conference Board, reports Axios @Work.
"These findings reinforce the need for companies to limit as much uncertainty as possible by communicating what they know and what their expectations are about returning to the workplace, as well as guidelines about the vaccine to employees," notes Rebecca Ray, who leads human capital research at The Conference Board.
Many companies, like Kroger, are providing financial incentives for their employees to get vaccinated.
That’s easier to do when your employees are frontline workers who regularly interact with the public.
It’s not so easy when your staff is confined to an office and interactions are limited to co-workers.
Nobody seems to want to make the first move.
2. Quick Reads
The Case for Semicolons: There are very few opportunities in life to have it both ways; semicolons are the rare instance in which you can; there is absolutely no downside. (NYT)
Microsoft unveils Viva, “the first employee experience platform built for the digital era. (Microsoft)
Remember: What You Do Is Not Who You Are: The line between our personal lives and our work lives has all but disappeared. Make the effort to redraw it. (NYT)
Is It Time to Reset Your Corporate Narrative? In recent years, a renewed focus on purpose has meant that enterprises and brands with a human story tend to stand out more and resonate with audiences. Post-covid, this will surely remain the case. (Forbes)
The New Rules for Night Owls: In our age of remote work, many jobs have never been so untethered from the 9-to-5 paradigm. And a lot of night owls, who do their best work later in the day, are thriving. (WSJ)
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3. Fightin’ Words
Diane Gayeski, professor of Strategic Communications at Ithaca College, says that a “profession” is characterized by:
Having a specific body of knowledge based on ongoing research that is endorsed as the basis of practice;
Requiring certification or licensure to practice that is based on a degree and/or exam and/or a certain amount or type of experience;
Requiring continuing education for re-certification;
Methods to remove the license to practice of individuals who violate ethical standards or demonstrate that they do not follow current models of practice.
Based on those characteristics, she says, internal comms is not a profession.
The American Heritage Dictionary has a looser definition.
Read Gayeski’s argument on Poppulo’s blog, then take it up with her on Twitter: @dianegayeski.
4. 50 Things Turning 50 Years Old in 2021
🎂 Happy 50th to Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange, Disney World, the Nasdaq, Malibu Barbie, FedEx, and email. Take a trip down memory lane.