Change in how we communicate is certainly a constant in our life today. How are you and your organization adapting to that change? Are you taking advantage of the ways to more efficiently communicate with your employees or with your customers?

The Vandiver Group has utilized the evolving social media technologies to enable change in the way we communicate as employees and as company representatives. TVG’s Pulse program and proprietary software creates an online, social space for more efficient and engaging conversations. Learn more about the Pulse program from our online Pulse booklet.

Pulse for Focus Groups
Instead of taking weeks or months to set up a focus group, Pulse efficiently brings together an online group, facilitates conversation, identifies key trends and builds summary reports. Pulse can gather valuable information from global audiences at the same time.

Pulse for Public Engagement
Managing public comments and responses is tedious. Pulse streamlines the process by taking large quantities of data and creating charts and graphs that capture public comment results.

Pulse for Brainstorming
Instead of scheduling multiple meetings and conference calls, Pulse uses an online platform to facilitate communication and collaboration. Employees in the same office or a network of offices can share ideas and opinions 24/7.

Pulse for Employee Engagement
Pulse engages employees in a two-way conversation to identify hot topics within an organization. Conversations allow employees to become more connect to the organization and builds the employee brand.

What does social media mean for employees? Paul Van Klaveren, Director of Branding and Social Media at TVG, addressed this topic in his recent presentation at Webster University titled: Engaging Your Employees: Web 2.0. Below is a quick summary of the presentation.

Even if your organization isn’t formally using social media to communicate, you can bet that your employees are already using it. They are using Facebook, Twitter and Glassdoor (just to name a few) to talk about their experiences while on the job. Using the power of social media, organizations have a unique opportunity to become part of the online conversation and create two-way dialogue between employees and organizational leadership. Some examples of ways that social media can be utilized in the corporate world include:

• Capturing Employee Feedback
• Training & Education
• Employee Recruitment
• Project Collaboration

Not only does social media allow organizations to collect real-time data, but it is often a cost effective solution to allow employees who do not work in the same office to connect and share ideas. Social media can also have an impact on the overall culture of an organization by creating an environment that acknowledges employee input and values their comments.

But, before jumping into social media as a means of employee engagement, there are a few things you should keep in mind:

• Remember the importance of monitoring social media for mentions of your organization.
• Develop Web 2.0 policies and training to establish expectations and guidelines for employees using social media.
• Make sure to get buy in from C-level executives. They should be participating in the conversation and letting employees know they are listening.
• Instead of employees starting their own conversations on various social media outlets, create the space for them. This could be a micro site available on the company intranet or something as simple as a designated Facebook page. As long as you create a means for engagement, conversations will begin and a community will start to build.

Thank you to everyone who came out bright and early to listen to Paul’s presentation and thank you to the team at Webster University for hosting the event. Click here for more information on TVG’s social media or employee communications programs.

All of these concerns are valid but simply focus on the negative; I’d prefer to discuss the positive. How can companies use social media to engage with employees? Forget about the public for a minute- and let’s focus on your employees – the group who should be your biggest asset, not your biggest liability.

No doubt there are employees engaging with social media, not only for personal use but as a representative of your company. Just do a quick search on Facebook or Ning and you’ll find hundreds of groups dedicated to employees for various companies: airlines, Best Buy, EBay, and my favorite Who Killed the Bear? a network for former Bear Sterns employees providing support for each other’s job searches. They are sharing their stories, news, complaints and questions.

Instead of just monitoring or trying to control (and inevitably stifle) these public conversations, why not build a new private conversation where you can truly engage with your workforce?

As public communication transforms with social media, companies should also transform their internal communications. A social platform on an intranet allows a company to hear grievances, build culture, share news and discuss possible changes without the fear of public fallouts, leaks of sensitive information or damaged reputations.

At TVG we work with clients to build social networks on their intranet and create their own private social network and discussion board where employees can interact with all levels of management.

Your employees will probably still log in to their public network of choice to connect with fellow workers, but don’t leave that as their only option for communication. Instead of waiting and worrying what workers might say about your company online, create an opportunity to join the discussion, engage with your employees, solve problems, answer questions and improve productivity with a valued workforce.

1. Develop a communication strategy that includes all components of the internal and external vehicles and plans for messaging throughout the year.
2. Create a consistent process to coordinate timing and delivery of internal and external messages.
3. Have plans in place to mobilize your team to respond to crises or issues; practice and refine your plans as needed.
4. Create an ongoing dialog between Corporate Communication, PR, Internal Communication and other key stakeholders (Human Resources, Legal, Information Technology).
5. Leverage new media as a component of your communication strategy.
6. Reinforce the purpose or goal of internal channels to help employees know and understand how to use the medium and get the most out of it.
7. Create a brand voice and replicate it through coherent, consistent messaging.
8. Educate leaders and executives to make smart choices about vehicles and channels.
9. Don’t forget the value of traditional channels.

As the New Year approaches, how do you plan to send consistent messages to all of your stakeholders?

TVG currently works with one of its clients to better understand the employee conversations taking place within their marketplace, and uses social media methods to capture feedback on relevant topics from these employee audiences. After identifying the “influencers” in the client’s employee population, TVG set up an online discussion group to bring employees together to discuss or “Jam”—transparently and openly–on the organization’s values, and existing company practices and policies. Each week employees can respond to the posted question, or the comments left by others, providing invaluable data useful in establishing the company’s employment branding built upon the company’s values.

Providing an open discussion forum such as the one detailed above, helps establish trust with employees because company leaders are seeking opinions and ideas from all members of the organization.

How are you encouraging dialogue between employees and your company about your values? Is it helping to foster trust with employees when company leaders seek to engage employees in strengthening company values?

Contact us at tvg@vandivergroup.com or send comments to blog@vandivergroup.com.

New information technology applications are being developed and fielded all the time to make it increasingly easier for companies to engage employees in a variety of more effective conversations and feedback. TVG currently uses new, premier applications that allow companies to integrate technology in facilitating and analyzing interactive employee communications.

One of these TVG applications involves a three-phase process called “JAM”. The goal of JAM is to get employees engaged in discussion on a variety of company topics. The first phase of JAM involves developing baseline research through employees focus groups. The second involves setting up and facilitating a secure site for an on-line employee discussion/interaction forum. The third JAM phase involves analyzing and reporting on the baseline research and the feedback from the employee forum. The entire three-phase process can be repeated and reiterated to continually refine or expand the employee interaction.

By using a blog and/or discussion board as the JAM employee forum, companies can now apply “new media” to not only reach its consumer audience but also improve business operations through enhanced communications with employees. With JAM, TVG supports these new media with traditional focus groups and analysis to help employee communications yield meaningful and actionable information that are focused on the organization’s unique needs.

To support the analysis phase in JAM, or support any analysis of employee communications, TVG also offers a second new application called “PULSE”, TVG’s communications/feedback software. PULSE can track, sort and understand a large quantity of raw content the JAM process will generate. Public forums, blogs, e-mails, letters, Web sites and even media clips can all be processed by the TVG supported PULSE software and can be organized into a comprehensive report.

The combination of TVG’s JAM program and PULSE analysis allows any company to conduct an effective internal communications program that reinforces the company’s vision, connects employees to the business, fosters process improvement, facilitates change and drives bottom line results by positively impacting employee behavior.

Contact us at tvg@vandivergroup.com or send comments to blog@vandivergroup.com.

Since 2003/2004 the HR consultancy firm, Watson Wyatt has released its Communication ROI Study™ that examines the relationship between an organization’s employee communication practices and its business performance. Each year the results are clear. Strong internal communications translates into less organizational turnover and strong financial performance. After considering this survey, it is clear that a strong internal communications program is essential for any business to reach its full financial performance potential.

According to the 2007/2008 study, which surveyed over 6 million employees worldwide, companies that made significant improvements to internal communications over the past five years (2002-2006) were associated with a 15.7% increase in market value.

For organizations without a strong internal communications program, now is the time to develop one. Poor internal communications can harm your business performance, and failure to get everyone on the same page can lead an organization to lose its most valuable asset – the alignment and understanding of its business goals and objectives of its employees.

At TVG, we recognize the importance of an internal communications process that not only talks to employees, but also listens to them, keeps them informed and is open to their feedback. Every year we run internal and external communications audits for numerous clients in order to help them assess their current system and recommend best practices for the future. Results and feedback from these clients are consistently positive. They are now equipped to understand how their employees see their business and their role, and how the outside world sees them. By having this information, they can more efficiently run their businesses and contribute to their bottom line. In a recession or an economic downturn, this connection with your employees becomes all the more important in order to maintain a competitive advantage.

Contact us at tvg@vandivergroup.com or send comments to blog@vandivergroup.com.

Visit MODOT’s website to learn more about the I-64 closure and share your ideas on how to best keep a St. Louis business running come January 2.

Fortunately, the business world is no longer confined to office buildings—it can go wherever you go and continue to function amid highway closures and other problems. PDAs such as Blackberries and iPhones are increasingly common, along with other office-wide investments such as GoTo products from Citrix. GoToMyPC , for example, allows employees to access their office computer from any internet-connected computer. GoToMeeting, in conjunction with a conference call, allows a company to hold a meeting where attendees attend remotely by logging in online from wherever in the world they may be, to view the moderator’s computer and presentation on their own desktop.

Post your favorite ways you’ve found to work from wherever you are.

Contact us at tvg@vandivergroup.com or send comments to blog@vandivergroup.com.