Employees Aren't a Key Constituent Audience

I've always believed employees were a key constituent audience, especially in times of crisis. As a matter of fact, I've counseled countless clients to consider employees their most important audience since they are any organization's first line of defense. But, I was wrong. Employees aren't a key constituent audience. In fact, they shouldn't even be labeled as such.

Anthony Johndrow of The Reputation Institute hit the nail on the head in our webinar yesterday when he said employees should be treated as partners and colleagues, not as an "audience." He is so right.

Traditional, top down communications has been totally disintermediated by the blogosphere and word-of-mouth. Honest, transparent and frank discussions with employees on a peer-to-peer level are the only way to go in the current economic crisis, said Kathryn Williams of KRW, a leadership/executive coaching firm and another webinar panelist.

Johndrow concurred and said specificity is the key to lessening employee angst and fear of job loss. "The more they know exactly what's expected of them and how they can contribute to the bottom-line, the more likely they are to stay focused on the task at hand and not get caught up in the rumor mill," he said. 

The webinar was a fascinating exercise that focused on how each and every one of us can become "heroes" within our organization. Panelists agreed heroes need to be honest, transparent, open to taking risks and, above all, a calm, steadying influence. Those are tall orders in the 24x7 all doom, all-the-time world in which we all live.

But, as was the case in past crises, the cream will rise to the top and new heroes will be anointed. And, each one will instinctively "get" that every employee within their organization is a colleague with whom to collaborate and not a constituent audience member to be talked at.

Comments

[SixStringsNC]

Great stuff, Steve. Where might we find more information from that presentation?

[Larry, PepperDigital]

Thanks for your interest in our webinar, SixStringsNC. You can find some more information on the PepperDigital blog here (http://tinyurl.com/56bpam), here (http://tinyurl.com/5aenl6) and here (http://tinyurl.com/638bmt), and the presentation is available for you to view here (http://tinyurl.com/6zdyx9).

[Leo Bottary]

I applaud the sentiment and it's all true, but employees are an audience as well, there's no escaping it. I've always suggested that if you think of the media as a target audience in a crisis, you're dead; you have to think of them as a communucation tool through which you reach out to your true stakeholders. With employees, they should be on the same side of the table with the leadership - ambassadors for the company. If thinking of employees and media as "not audiences" helps to clarify thinking, then great, but when it's all said and done they are still audiences too.

By the way, you've been tagged for the seven things... post. Just check my blog for details! Cheers!

[Steve Cody]

Thanks Leo. Obviously, employees remain a critical audience. The point of the the blog was to ensure management doesn't talk "at" employees, especially in the middle of this economic meltdown.

[Steve Cody]

Thanks Leo. Obviously, employees remain a critical audience. The point of the the blog was to ensure management doesn't talk 'at' employees, especially in the middle of this economic meltdown.