Company A had a problem. Some manufacturing defects were detected after a few batches of a new product line were released in the market. There was a storm on social media and incessant queries from distributors. A complete recall of the product was in order.
But how does the management go through the process without hurting the morale of the product development and marketing teams? There were already a lot of questions in people's minds: How will the rollback impact the company's bottom line? Can the company come out of the crisis without tarnishing its image in the market and without ceding share to competition? Most importantly, will heads roll?
When the human resources team learnt about the shimmering tension, it identified a crucial first step in the damage control process: communicating with the in-house teams on the plan, explain to them the repercussions of an exercise of that scale and lay out before them the company's comeback strategy.
In an era when volatility is the name of the game, when organisations work with a diverse and geographically dispersed workforce, the role of internal communication cannot be overestimated. The emergence of multiple communication tools and the growing popularity of social media have further amplified the need for organisations to have an effective internal communication strategy in place to keep employees well informed and engaged. Says Jeremy Hunter, president, Henkel Group India, "Strong internal communication systems can make a company more powerful and a brand influential, as it helps people connect and collaborate, thereby improving productivity and performance."
For Henkel, empowering employees to deliver on strategy and business targets is a key focus area of its internal communication system. The company uses various platforms and tools to communicate with its people. Apart from the quarterly town-hall meetings, an employee newsletter called Henkel Life and the Henkel portal (intranet) have emerged as key tools to facilitate the process. Recently, the company launched Yammer, an enterprise social networking platform, which enables employees to connect with colleagues, experts around the world and exchange knowledge and experiences.
Evidently, technology-enabled communication tools are not the exclusive preserve of new age corporations. Jindal Steel and Power (JSPL), for instance, uses Gyan Dhrishti, an internal e-learning platform that not only sensitises employees on company policies, the code of conduct and best practices but also encourages learning across domains. Apart from Gyan Dhrishti, JSPL facilitates top-down as well as bottom-up communication through structured collaterals like WeTalk, a fortnightly e-newsletter, Connect, a quarterly news magazine available electronically and in print, and SAMPARK, a quarterly Hindi magazine.
Says Rajeev Bhadauria, director, HR, JSPL, "The objective of all our internal communication interventions is creating a long-term value proposition for our people by empowering them with information, news, domain knowledge and skill development. In a way we are enabling our employees to overcome challenges and be future-ready." for more :- http://www.afaqs.com/news/story/46352_Intelligent-communication