Tag: internal communications

Viral Employee Video and Weak CEO Apology Demonstrate Need to Have PR in the C-Suite

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Right at the end of the past winter semester, a business story broke about a company in my area in West Michigan that had public relations implications. In an employee meeting, the CEO of furniture company MillerKnoll told employees to quit worrying about not getting a bonus when they asked about how to stay motivated. Instead, she implored them to commit to meeting an internal corporate financial goal. 

She famously told her team to “leave pity city.”

An employee had recorded this message and shared it on social media. It went quickly viral, reaching 7 million views quickly with numerous comments. The story earned more media mentions than a typical new product release, including national outlets like the summary with perspective on the incident in the Wall Street Journal as well as a series of articles in local media leading up to a reported apology by the CEO in Crain’s Grand Rapids Business. 

I don’t know if the MillerKnoll PR team was involved or listened to with regard to crafting the messaging for the initial meeting or the subsequent apology. But there are certainly some PR lessons here. 

A primary lesson is that internal communications can quickly go external. MillerKnoll is not the first and won’t be the last to experience a window opened on what they think are internal deliberations. All internal communications should be planned considering the impact on reputation if it is seen externally.

Related, employees can’t be isolated. First, employees are also members of the community and may also be customers and/or investors. Even if they are not, those other stakeholder groups increasingly care about and make decisions based on how employees are treated by corporate management. In a talent shortage, potential employees may wonder if they want to bother applying for a job at a company where the leadership communicates in harsh and insulting fashion.

There is a lot of published advice on executive apologies and lots of research on what makes them effective. Suffice it to say apologies have to be sincere, address the reason for the offense, be meaningful and often action based. In this case, the CEO said she was sorry for how employees reacted—but not for what she said and what that implies about her view of employees and their concerns. This is especially true in this case when the CEO told employees not to worry about their bonus when she received nearly $5 million in salary, stock options and non-equity incentive compensation and other perks, according to the MillerKnoll 2022 proxy statement (see page 32).

The central issue in this whole story is about employee motivation. Employee motivation—as well as retention and engagement—are primary concerns of CEOs everywhere, especially post-Covid. Motivation is not done by chastisement or shame. Making company ‘needs” paramount and diminishing the legitimacy of personal concern is not a wise plan. Asking employees for commitment after negating your own commitment to them is set up for failure. 

At the time this incident was getting social media and news media spotlight, I was reading papers and grading a final exam in my graduate course in Communication Management. I was reminded about some of the readings we discussed in the section we did on internal communications and performance. The 2021 Edelman Trust Barometer showed that after the pandemic, employees are considered the most important stakeholder for long-term success, replacing customers, that 78% of employees surveyed have anxiety about losing their job, and 43% say their employer doesn’t take seriously employee burnout. 

The Axios 2023 State of Essential Workplace Communications shows that management and employees are not in sync in terms of how things are communicated to them. 77% of leaders think the communication they provide has the context to help employees do their jobs well, whereas only 46% of employees agree.

One research study we dove into showed a complex model that essentially showed the importance of internal public relations in achieving employee engagement. Briefly, internal communication satisfaction (made up of feedback, information, climate and media) will positively affect both perceived organizational support and perceived employer attractiveness. Those two things are key determinants of employee engagement, which in common terms means employees who work with vigor and dedication. 

Another article we reviewed in a section on communication and leadership demonstrated the importance of a “communicative” leadership style, defined as “someone who engages employees in dialogue, actively shares and seeks feedback, practices participative decision making, and is perceived as open and involved.”

A CEO who pays attention to all of the above would not have had to mention “pity city” in the first place.

Reviewing this situation also made me thing about all of the interesting and practical topics my graduate students wrote papers about. There were papers on executive communication coaching, communication competence, transformational leadership, communication management and the ethic of care, the communication role in organizational culture and employee performance, and more.

All of this shows that leadership is more than having authority and insisting on something. Communication is more than just distributing information. An educated public relations or communications professional should be at the right hand of a CEO to ethically and strategically consider both communications and actions with regard to employees. 

PR is the Talent that Attracts and Retains Talent

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An article in last week’s Grand Rapids Business Journal alerted me to another study about “talent.” It’s become almost cliche’ to say that CEOs value “attracting and retaining top talent.” This study was no different in that regard, but it did have a refreshing emphasis on communication as a tool to acquire and keep a skilled workforce.

The 2017 Gallagher Benefits Strategy and Benchmarking Survey  had the usual discussion of benefits, salary and quality of life. But near the end it had this gem: communication is a key factor in employee satisfaction. What I especially appreciated was a comment from one of the executives of Gallagher, an insurance, risk management and consulting firm. He noted the need for a comprehensive communication strategy to communicate the solutions human resources provides, but that only 15% of companies have such a comprehensive strategy.

This not a revelation to people who work in or teach public relations, particularly those who focus on what is typically called internal or employee relations. It’s a specialty form of public relations, focused on a specific public–employees. When I teach public relations management and other courses, I devote some time to the objectives and strategies of employee relations. I know more than a few PR professionals, including a growing number of former students, whose full-time job is to manage internal communications.

There is an increasing number of books on employee communication, including the recent “Excellence in Internal Communication Management” by professors Rita Men and Shannon Bowen (writing this blog post reminded me to order it!). The Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), which has special interest sections for various specialties within the broad profession, has long had an Employee Communications Section.

All of this is to say that it’s good to see the CEOs and management consultancies are understanding that communication is vital to the talent problem, and that communication is not just “getting the word out” but requires strategy that is tailored to the public and the goal. This comes from educated and practiced public relations professionals. They may be embedded in the human resources department, or they assist HR from their separate PR department. But however it’s structured, a PR professional is both a tool in the talent acquisition and retention of an organization and a form of talent in it’s own right.

The fact that PR “talent” is also sought is evident in the Bureau of Labor Statistics forecast that there will be a 6% increase in demand for “PR specialists” between 2014 and 2024. I think it will be higher if the definition of “what they do” on the BLS site went beyond “maintaining a favorable image” and “sending news releases.” That may have summed it  up in 1914 when “public relations” was new. But the profession is far more diverse than that now, including employee relations.

I would hope that the focus on “talent” will help CEOs and others see the full breadth of what public relations is and can do for a company. One day managers will place as much emphasis on employee relations as they do on consumer relations.

As one example. consider the simple “employee life cycle” that mimics cycles for products or consumer engagement. To truly attract and retain talent, companies need to be thinking about what and how they communicate through all stages:

  • before even hiring, reputation matters. Potential employees look at how current employees are treated, and people talk! The goal is to become an employer of choice in your industry or region, the place top talent would love to work if possible. 
  • when hiring, process matters. This is the initial relationship formation stage. Communication needs to be frequent, transparent, and respectful.
  • the employment stage is obviously the crucial one, and must go beyond dissemination of information and policy. That’s necessary, but the objective needs to be motivation, morale, and retention. More than cheerleading is required.
  • the exit, whether by retirement, job change or termination, must be managed wisely. Good companies do exit interviews to understand why an employee is leaving, and to get honest reflection on their time with the company. Excellent companies have alumni employee programs and keep in touch years after employment, recognizing that former employees are their best ambassadors in talent acquisition. 
While much of the emphasis on attracting talent focuses on employees in STEM fields (science, technology, engineering and math), I would hope CEOs in those and other industries see the wisdom and benefit in attracting and retaining PR talent as well.

The Good PR of Happy Employees

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First, a self-disclosure: I worked for a brief period at the Grand Rapids Community Foundation. But I’m not writing about them now because of that connection.

Rather, it’s a response to an article in MLive about GRCF being named number 6 on a Nonprofit Times list of “50 Best Nonprofits to Work for in 2012.”

I’m always a little dubious of national publications generating “best of” lists, or lists of any kind. They tend to read as “Desperate Attempts to Get Attention to Boost Our Flagging Subscriptions and Ad Sales.”

But this list, and the justification for it, caught my eye. The article this list generated gives GRCF some publicity, but that’s not the real PR value. Essentially, it shows why and how employee relations is good public relations.

Public relations is about establishing mutually beneficial relationships with ALL publics. Too many in the communication profession think all publics are customers, or that PR is all about media. But that’s a simplistic view.

Employees are the face, the brand, the essence of organizations. They meet the public face to face more often and in more ways than the top management does. If they come off as less than happy, less than knowledgeable, less than passionate…it affects the messaging, the branding, the operations, the reputation and the success of an organization.

As many men say about marriage–“Happy wife, happy life”–the same is true of employees and organizations.

Add to that the fact that good employees with the right skill sets and personal attributes can be hard to find. Any organization should have as one of its objectives to be seen as “an employer of choice” so that when they are in a position to hire, their reputation as an organization–not merely the job opportunity–helps them attract the best employees.

GRCF shows that they are doing things recommended by PR professionals and academics who specialize in employee or internal communications. President Diana Sieger speaks of the intentional effort to make every employee feel they are an integral part of organizational success. Employees speak of GRCF valuing innovation, encouraging work-life balance, involving everyone in strategic planning, and maintaining open relationships with management.

Bingo.

Congratulations to GRCF, and thanks for the positive example.