PUREcommunications

The recently published 2008 Vedior Asia Pacific Employment Trends Survey (see below) said that the top three areas where the talent shortage was having a negative impact were increasing workload and stress among staff; increasing staff turnover; decreasing company performance.

Bottomline: human capital (especially in terms of hiring, morale and retention) is increasingly an issue discussed in the executive suite as a key strategic business element. But where does internal communications come into play in this scenario?

Very often, as pressures to grow the revenue line increase, human issues take a back seat to anything that can be linked directly to sales. HR and all its attendant issues are seen as secondary. This means executives tend to focus on meeting numbers and targets – and so they should. In a workday crammed with priorities, however, it is sometimes hard for executives to find time to focus on issues to do with staff motivation, retention and communication as part of their integral job functions. As a result, the human relationships – the manager-team relationship is fraught with problems that eventually lead to lower motivation, reduced effectiveness and eventually, if left unchecked, higher staff turnover.

What is worse, when staff leave, they do not have anything good to say about the company. If this becomes widespread – and in this age of speed-of-light communication, information spreads like wildfire – it can become difficult to hire because people would be reluctant to join the company. Additionally, if morale is low, new staffers are affected and could find it harder to adjust to their new work environment.

Internal communications steps into this breach by:

a) working with HR and executives on programs to increase staff commitment and motivation

b) working with the leadership team to discern human capital issues, and managing them;

c) building brand ambassadors amongst staff, and an employer brand that will attract and retain top talent

The competitive business environment translates to increased workplace stress. Staff need to marshall all their resources to focus on the job at hand because companies are less forgiving these days, and everyone needs to hit the floor running. Communications, efficient and accurate information disemmination and superior acculturation and orientation tools all work together to increase commitment of existing staff, while shortening the ramp-up time for new staff.

Internal communications therefore is a critical strategic tool which can make a significant contribution to business effectiveness by helping to build a highly motivated, high performance teams.