Are your employee communications as productive as your employees?

Tweet

Pin It

With fewer employees doing more of the work, the economy has really put the squeeze on workers during the last 12 to 18 months. For those fortunate enough to be considered in the employed rather than the unemployed category, they’ve stepped up, done more with less, and the statistics show it. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, productivity has increased more in the last year than it has in the last 48 years. Read that again: the productivity of American workers has increased so dramatically over the last 12 months that 1962 was the last time the workforce saw such an increase. Specifically, from the first quarter of 2009 to the first quarter of 2010, productivity increased 6.3 percent.

Can this rate continue? Or is this a cause-effect relationship that will be a mere blip on the radar a year from now? Is your business prepared to make this a long-term trend? Businesses today don’t need sprinters, they need marathoners. It is foolish for employers to do nothing and expect that this trend will continue. It is more important than ever to have a strategic employee communications program in place. Whether your company consists of 5 or 50,000 – employees must feel connected, engaged.

If they are not already, have your corporate communications team work closely with human resources. Make sure employees are getting the need to know information as well as the nice to know.

At (W)right On, we’re leading internal communications programs for small businesses as well as for large, international businesses with tens of thousands of employees in hundreds of locations spread across the world. Don’t let language barriers, multiple time zones or diverse cultures be excuses. If you’re a small business, don’t just assume employees feel connected. Make the effort to communicate, it builds employee morale which will help keep productivity on the upswing.

Paraphrasing our favorite character from "The Office," Dwight Schrute. "Would I ever leave this company? Look, I’m all about loyalty. In fact, I feel like part of what I’m being paid for here is my loyalty. But if there were somewhere else that valued loyalty more highly, I’m going wherever they value loyalty the most."