Employee communication starts with leaders

The leadership culture of a company and the way its policies are embodied communicate volumes to its employees. Management style, work environment, employee development, compensation, transparency – this is where true employee engagement begins. Any communications added on top either confirm and enhance what already exists or contradict and send mixed signals.

The incongruity that exists between what a company’s leaders do and what they say determines the amount of trust – or lack of – employees have in management. If the gap becomes too large, then employees feel insulted. It’s as if leadership is saying, “What are you going to believe? Your own eyes or what I’m telling you?”

My point is that no amount of “after-market” communication will make a bit of difference if it gives the lie to what’s really going on. Employees will put up with it to a point before they become cynical and look for ways to play the system.

I think it would be worthwhile for companies to devise a communications quotient that measures the degree of integrity and honesty of enterprise-wide communications. This would provide a key metric in any employee communications assessment and serve as a quick heads up to management as to whether or not they are losing their number-one asset.

Employee communication begins with leaders, not communicators. And that’s why it’s so important to have leaders’ personal buy-in and endorsement for any new program – communications or otherwise. The more they own what’s behind the program, the more positively they can influence its communication and outcome.