đ„§ Layoff Comms, Ambiguous Goals, Feedback Pie
The authority on mixternal comms
đŠ Hello, March!
March 3 is the early bird deadline for entry into the Executive Communications Awards (ProRhetoric)
March 8 webinar: âNumbers to Narratives: Using your comms data to make a business caseâ by a seriously dynamic duo, Jackie Berg + Becky Sennett (Brilliant Ink via ThoughtFarmer)
March 8 is also International Womenâs Day. Youâre prepared, right?
Breaking the News to Employees
Mapping internal and external stakeholders is the first step to take when communicating layoffs, according to Jennifer Hirsch of the Grossman Group. Her five-step comms strategy about workforce reduction applies âwhether you sit in internal communications, human resources, corporate communications, or a blend of the above.â
Map internal and external stakeholders
Plan your messaging
Coordinate a run of show
Lead with empathy
Look to the future
Leading with empathy is critical, Hirsch says, because layoffs can be a traumatic experience. Doing so goes a long way in helping employees feel respected.
But Who Gets the News First? Employees or the Media?
Is telling CNBC that youâre thinking about layoffs an example of leading with empathy? (Rhetorical question)
In an interview with CNBC this week, the CEO of Novavax, John Jacobs, said the company has been spending at a âhot rate,â and plans to cut back, likely including job cuts.
âWeâre in the process of assessing the global footprint of Novavax, rationalizing our supply chain, rationalizing the portfolio and rationalizing the company structure and our infrastructure,â he said.
If Iâm at Novavax Iâm suddenly super motivated to come to work. (Sarcasm)
News about impending layoffs at Meta is also a badly kept secret, where Zuckerbergâs âyear of efficiencyâ cleverly allows for a fresh round of layoffsâthe company laid off 11,000 employees in November last year.
Meta staff is complaining that âzero workâ is getting done because budgets are still being finalized, according to The Financial Times ($). âHonestly, itâs still a mess,â said one employee. âThe year of efficiency is kicking off with a bunch of people getting paid to do nothing.â
Last year I reported on the disastrous way in which Googleâs CEO Sundar Pichai talked about layoffs at his company. Pichai spent much of an all-hands meeting talking about the companyâs cost-cutting measures.
One employee asked why Google was ânickel-and-diming employeesâ by slashing travel and swag budgets at a time when âGoogle has record profits and huge cash reserves.â
Pichaiâs response:
Look, I hope all of you are reading the news, externally. The fact that you know, we are being a bit more responsible through one of the toughest macroeconomic conditions underway in the past decade, I think itâs important that as a company, we pull together to get through moments like this.
đź Did you catch that? âI hope all of you are reading the news, externally.â
Employees shouldnât have to read CNBC, The Financial Times, or a trade publication to understand whether their job is on the line. Thatâs the opposite of empathy.
Quick Hits
đŠ Using Twitter to communicate directly with (or at) specific reporters or niche audiences can be an effective way to garner attention, push back on a narrative, and sway public opinion. (Axios)
đ The Institute of Directors (IoD) and the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) published a guide to PR for company directors to support planning, decision-making, and crisis preparedness. (CIPR)
đź The guide includes a study of 100 business leaders that found that ~20% of organizations donât have internal or external public relations support.
đ 25% of HR leaders say communication about company culture is âvery challengingâ with hybrid work. A throwing âspaghetti-at-the-wall philosophyâ contributes to a disjointed employee experience. (Human Resources Director)
đ©âđ» What is a digital workplace? (Arenât we all working in digital workplaces??) (Reworked)
âWell, I think I definitely recommend a heavy dose of wariness of the kind of corporate propaganda. Again, irony. Because I was a happy propaganda shiller for many years. And then to just divorce your sense of vocation, and work, and meaning from the job as much as possible.â
âClaire Stapleton, former internal comms manager at Google, on whether meaning can be found at work
Everything Everywhere All at Once
Last month Workshop released their Internal Communication Trends Report for 2023 and some of the results give me agita.
The primary goal for internal communicators in 2023, according to the survey âïž, is âengaging employees and creating a better place to work.â
âSupporting overall business goalsââwhich ranks #3 in the surveyâshould be the number one priority for any corporate comms team.
According to the survey, the number one type of content IC pros would like to prioritize for 2023 is content that reflects company values.
As if stories about how the company lives up to generic values of âteamwork,â âtrust,â and âinnovateâ will solve an âengagementâ problem.
See above, point 1.
What does employee engagement even mean?
Workshop doesnât define âemployee engagementâ in the report, but they do say the top three priorities paint a picture of âconnect[ing] employees to the companyâs goals, and to each other.â
âLack of employee engagementâ is listed as a top challenge for the IC pros.
Iâve heard practitioners define âemployee engagementâ as:
Emotional involvement and affinity with the company
Email opens, reading, and scrolling
Employee retention; job satisfaction
Clicks to intranet content, comments on articles, social activity (e.g., âlikesâ)
Participation in social media ambassador programs
Showing up at company events, like town halls, sales meetings, and volunteer outings
Giving feedback to management and leadership
Sharing information and resources horizontally
Productivity (i.e., not âquiet quittingâ)
âEmployee engagementâ means everything and therefore nothing. We need specifics.
Contrast Workshopâs findings with those from Oak Engage âïž (h/t Jenni Field), where the number one concern with IC pros is ensuring the relevancy of their comms.
âEmployee engagementâ never appears in their survey results.
Why? Are the stark differences in concerns over âemployee engagementâ a matter of social sciences, where the survey questions define (limit) the choices? If so, what is in the air that encourages U.S.-based Workshop to fish for employee engagement answers and U.K.-based Oak Engage altogether to ignore the phrase?
Or are we looking at a fundamental divide between how IC pros in the U.S. and U.K. see, approach, and do their job?
đ„ I get fired up by these kinds of reports because I empathize with my comms-rades who are overwhelmed with ceaseless demands. Having vague goals only adds to the distress.
When your amorphous priority is âengagement,â every request fits the bill.
Whatâs more, how do you measure success when there are a dozen plausible metrics? The goal can never be met.
Specific and achievable goals provide structure and sanity.
Interesting Opportunities
BDO - Executive Comms (Sydney)
Boeing - Senior Comms Specialist (Everett, WA)
Cisco - Communications Manager, Workplace Resources (U.S. east coast, remote)
Goodyear - Manager, Global Internal Comms (Akron, Ohio; hybrid)
Lego - Director, Comms, Americas (Boston)
Military Officers Association of America - VP of Comms (Alexandria, VA)
Been There đ
Have a great day! âïž
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Disclaimer: Besides running Mister Editorial, I am the editor-in-chief of Digital Publications at Lam Research. The views in this newsletter are my own.
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