Deputy Head of HR Services Department BDO Unicon Outsourcing
Internal communications suffer quite often due to a large number of employees and various business areas of a large company. How to unite workfellows, direct information flows and get feedback?
DEVELOP FEEDBACK
Are you sure that your workfellows truly want to celebrate the new year in a restaurant and they like a new motivation system? Feedback provides insight into how comfortable the working conditions are, what problems the company faces, what the employees lack for effective work.
For a better study of the “pressing problems”, you can conduct a survey of employee involvement. We conduct such polls once a year. Such survey is based on the Gallup methodology and is a questionnaire of 12 questions using which you can identify the needs of employees, the quality of employees interaction with each other and with the management, as well as opportunities for professional advancement. The results are divided into two blocks: the first one includes problems associated with administrative points (broken down refrigerator, malfunctions) that may be quickly rectified; the second one brings together problems that require a global approach. Having received the poll results, we communicate with our employees, forming focus groups to get more detailed feedback.
The heads need to inform their employees that the involvement survey is not used just to observe formalities: it will certainly be followed by steps required to solve the existing problems. If a task is global, you should bring the implementation plan to the notice of your workfellows. This way the employees would not have the feeling that you are not going to rectifying anything.
The company should have a feedback system in place. The managers should meet with their employees additionally to discuss not only the current tasks, but also strategic issues. It is important for the employee to understand what his/her growth prospects are, what competencies he/she should develop, what he/she can and cannot do well and how to correct it. Without such meetings, the employee would feel uncomfortable not understanding in which area to develop.
UNITE SUBDIVISIONS
In large companies that consist of several divisions and departments, the employees are often not acquainted with their workfellows, especially if they work remotely, and have no idea of what they do.
We began to unite our employees into initiative groups: anyone, except for the managers, may take part in discussing pressing issues, whether it is an upcoming holiday or updating corporate resources. We connect remote workfellows via Skype. Such meetings provide an opportunity for the employee to show himself/herself in a field not related to the professional activities and to better know those with whom he/she works side by side.
We also try to unite our workfellows during our in-house events: several years ago we gave up usual holiday formats, and now we prefer teambuilding. At one of the last events, all employees of our company assembled a large construction kit. The participants were divided into teams, each of them assembled a separate part of the whole figure for a definite period. If at least one team failed, the entire task would fail. Such approach enables the employees to get acquainted with their workfellows from other divisions and understand that the operations of the entire company depend on their work.
Our HR Department conducts workshops for the managers at which it offers to solve cases based on what is happening in the company. The participants tell what they would do in a particular situation. Then, the HR professionals analyze the proposed options.
TALK ABOUT WHAT IS HAPPENING IN THE COMPANY MORE OFTEN
The larger is the company, the more difficult it is to tell everyone about what is happening inside the company, how it is developing and what it is striving for. This results in reduced employee involvement and efficiency.
To increase the employee involvement, you can use an internal portal or social media with useful resources. We have developed such tool that is regularly updated with exciting news about our employees, results of corporate surveys and announcements of upcoming events, master classes and trainings. The portal is a versatile tool for work and communication: the employees store and exchange documents, comment on news and like workfellows’ materials. Each post shows its author, and with one click you can see his/her photo, the subdivision where the employee works, his/her e-mail and contact phone number. If the post is not clear, you can always receive the particulars from your workfellow. After the latest involvement survey, the number of employees who have enough information on what is happening at the company grew by 18%.
Despite informing online, the employees still want to learn the news firsthand. Every six months, BDO Unicon Outsourcing holds employee meetings where the top management talks about the crowning achievements of the company over the period, shares plans for the next quarter and year, and comments on innovations. The employees may also ask the management a question before the meeting and get an answer during the event. In addition, we introduced various nominations: the best project, the dream team, the best employee of the sales department, etc. The winners are chosen by the employees themselves — this is how they learn better about the achievements of their workfellows.
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