In some cases
it’s a lag in sales, in others, plans to float
the company. Whatever the trigger, realising that employees
are working for an enterprise they know little about
can come as a shock to their bosses. So what can internal
communicators do to up the level of business literacy?
Shayla Walmsley has some pointers.
It doesn't have to be all graphs and grids. To communicate
commerce:
Tell them what they need to know
You don’t need to sign up every employee for an
MBA: what you’re after is operational business
literacy. Communicators could replace workplace community
stories and department party photos with business news
and graphs measuring performance against group-wide
targets.
Make it relevant – and manageable
The finer points of finance will never have the wide
appeal of big-bang branding, but a deskdrop highlighting
the vast sums the company saved on its phone bill last
year is more likely to lodge in employees’ minds
than even a brief history of currency hedging. Give
real-life examples of how small changes made by one
team can have a major impact on other parts of the business.
Bring it all back home
How do you get employees to behave as entrepreneurs?
Encourage them to recast themselves and their roles.
In the late1990s, US retailer Sears’s ‘chief
learning officer’ toured the firm’s stores,
asking employees, ‘What do we pay you for?’
Open up to competition
Even in tough markets, traditionally closed-mouthed
companies can often behave like monopolies operating
in a competitive vacuum. The result? Employees become
insulated from business realities. Bring the market
in by running a spread on the competitive landscape
– or feature a profile of the main rival. Better
still, launch an intranet ‘Marketwatch’
column.
Paint a picture
The more visually arresting the presentation, the stickier
the information will be. In its 1990s campaign, Sears
drew up 6ft roadmaps featuring scenes with familiar
images and a basic storyline. One of them, ‘A
new day on retail street’, involved a car journey
showing changes in the competitive environment for retail
since the 1950s.
Use words that mean business
The word organisation covers everything from the mafia
to the Women’s Institute. It’s a business
you’re trying to grow, and the language you use
across channels should reflect this fact. But beware:
couching commercial drive in militaristic jargon (‘the
battle for sales’) is more likely to provoke laughter
than a collective adrenaline rush.
Build up business knowledge
Schedule a regular factsheet detailing progress towards
business goals, factors influencing performance, competitor
and customer activity, short-term business needs and
action points for employees.
Proving cause and effect can be tricky, and demonstrating
a return on investment in business literacy even more
so. But companies that have launched programmes to spread
business literacy among employees – including
greeting card company Hallmark, Sears and Pepsi –
have found it resulted in better sales performance and
geared employees up for commercially-minded change.
For some employees, it was a first glimpse at the bottom
line. For most, it was the first time they realised
the contribution they could make to it.
Shayla Walmsley is a Saffron
House Consultancy partner specialising in corporate
journalism and internal communications. She contributes
to a wide range of employee media as well as The Sunday
Times, The Banker and European CEO. She also develops
tools for business understanding and high level intelligence
reports.
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