CEOs try to reconnect with staff following a troubling year

By Kelly Kass

By now, we’ve all heard war stories about massive lay-offs, frozen pensions, restructuring, transformations, and diminished morale inside of companies around the world. Establishing trust and employee engagement is surely a tall order these days but CEO’s and senior leadership appear to be making a strong effort to make that happen.

Quicken Loans CEO Bill Emerson always maintains an open door policy with his staff and is quick to avoid hierarchical terms like "bosses" or "workers" in his internal communications. "Instead, we call them 'leaders' or 'team members'. It's the 1,001 little things that personalize our communication," Emerson explains.

That's not all. Emerson makes it his business to hear what's on the minds of his 3,000 employees. Effective communication at the company is his top priority.

"I personally host weekly face-to-face meetings with approximately 22 team members in which we have an open forum to ask questions, talk about concerns, express their opinions and encourage ideas for process improvements," Emerson says.

"Hands down, the most important face-to-face communication is our personal interaction each and every day. Our leaders spend a considerable part of their day 'on the floor' so they can be in touch with team members. Very rarely do you find our leaders stuck in offices or conference rooms, instead they are 'in the trenches' alongside their teams. We've found that by integrating more closely with our team members, our senior leaders are viewed as more approachable and are able to stay close to the business to keep that trust and morale at a high level," Emerson points out.

That policy is probably one of the reasons why the company was recently voted among FORTUNE’S 100 Best Companies To Work For. 

While the US mortgage industry was experiencing an upheaval through much of 2007 and 2008, Quicken Loans actually retained more team members than the business required.

"While many of our competitors made deep cuts on human capital, we made a conscious effort to retain skilled team members. We stepped up our communication: clear, honest, open communication was the key to our growth during a time when many of our competitors were struggling," Emerson says.

So what do Quicken Loans' employees think of Emerson's personalized internal communication strategy? According to Emerson,

"The top three observations I have received specifically from our face-to-face meetings would be that they enjoy the informal two-way format of the meeting, they walk away with important business messages and the direction of our company, and they feel comfortable asking anything, knowing that my door is always open."

Change communications

Internal communication staff we spoke to at Ernst & Young in London told us that they’re making a conscious effort to try to encourage engagement and connection between leadership and staff during times of big scale change.

“As Ernst & Young embark on major global transformation of much our core business service we understand that connecting our people with the change that is going on around them is paramount to the likely success of these programs. A number of channels will be used, many of them simple, not necessarily new or especially innovative but rigorously and effectively enforced,” explains Howard Krais, Head of Communications, EY Global Services.

For example, Krais and his team are encouraging leaders to take advantage of the amount of travel they do by spending more time in face-to-face sessions talking and listening to different groups of staff at different office locations.

“These simple ‘meet and greet’ sessions allow free flowing conversation that personalizes the change. By ensuring a record is kept of the conversations they can then be shared more widely across other channels so that more people can benefit from finding out what was said in these meetings, even if they are unable to attend,” Krais points out.

Judging by the large employee turnout, the meet-and-greet sessions are becoming a popular way for leaders to engage with EY staff. There was even a full house at a recent session in New Jersey.

To unite EY staff unable to attend such a meeting, webcasts are also becoming more widely used at the company. “IT Services colleagues in Toronto linked IT people from across Canada so that people could take part even though the particular leader was only visiting one city,” Krais recalls.
 
He continues, “With conscious efforts being made by leadership to spend part of their travel time conversing with groups of staff, the understanding of why change is necessary and what it means for individuals is rising, especially as people hear questions and concerns being answered honestly and openly. And leadership get a buzz from the discussions too. All it requires is a little planning and the initial commitment  – once they start they usually just want to do more and more.”

Managing conflict and salary concerns

At the Independent Living Association (ILA) in New York, Executive Director Arthur Palevsky is currently experiencing division among staff regarding pay rises and Union negotiations at the 26-year-old not-for-profit agency.

To appease employee griping and concerns, Palevsky has worked closely with his executive team to help employees better understand the negotiation process including frequent visits to ILA’s 30+ job sites to interact with staff.

“I found out we were on a completely different page. Although I thought people understood what ILA has to do to maintain their salaries, they really had no idea. So I simply told them what needed to be done and backed up the information with facts and figures. The key is to be as transparent as possible when it comes to salary negotiations and present the information in a context that employees will relate to,” he explains.

Palevsky often comes armed with an informative PowerPoint presentation that outlines the basics of ILA as a business, the current state of the economy, and their goals for the next few years.

As a result, he says, employees “immediately relate to my presentation, and therefore, relate to me. I elicit new ‘gripes’ so that the session becomes therapeutic.  Within this atmosphere, they listen to my positions and are more inclined to internalize the information. Similarly, because communication is 2 ways, I listen.”

Palevsky says the interaction has been quite educational, giving him a better sense of what’s necessary to raise staff morale.  “I am convinced that because of these visits, I will be a better leader.”

New online surveys and an increase in employee recognition programs are also in the works to help boost morale at the agency.
 
In addition, Palevsky plans to initiate a ‘Breakfast with the Exec program’, giving employees of all job titles further opportunities to meet with him - 5 or 6 people at a time - to discuss any issues they’re encountering at ILA.

Getting by with a little help and some coaching

When it comes to leaders delivering key messages to internal audiences, UK-based presentations coach Louise Beckett told simply that she’s seeing an increase in demand for training and speaker support for CEO’s. 

“What’s common is that they want to project care. They want to project understanding. They feel uncomfortable about people being made redundant, about the changes; so really they want to project clarity, understanding and reassurance in a fast-changing insecure world.”

Beckett’s tips for shaky CEO’s? First off, she says, it’s not about them.

“They need to know their audience. In today’s environment, what’s the fear out there? It’s vital that they express emotional empathy so that we’re getting a balance of head and heart from our leaders. That’s what everybody is wanting now.”

Be yourself

Before addressing an audience of skeptical employees, Beckett recommends ample prep time so leaders can truly understand the messages that will be communicated, how they feel about a situation and what it all really means – particularly if an organization is undergoing a period of crisis. That way, they’re free to be themselves.

“If someone’s on message, if they’re saying what they’ve been told to say, if they haven’t really connected with the (situation), we’re going to sense they’re not sincere and we’re going to push until we get what we think is the real man.

“Chief executives are there to serve. It’s a public company, they’re there to serve the Board of Directors, they are there to serve the shareholders. It’s about motivating others; it’s about engaging others to follow and to believe they’re being led in the right direction,” Beckett points out.

Along with that notion comes the importance of congruency. Beckett advises CEO’s and senior managers to always be aware of what they are saying, matching their words with their tone of voice. “Think of what you’re saying, then the tone and body language will match it.”

Use of video

Along with face-to-face, the use of video communications inside of companies is also on the rise. This has led to executives being more aware of how they come off on camera. Beckett’s advice for a successful video presentaion?

“We need to see someone who makes eye contact, who has a direct gaze, and speaks clearly and from the heart.”

Companies like Coca-Cola are making a concerted effort to work with executives to loosen up in front of the lens and appear more authentic.

“I think the importance of getting your leaders off script is key. When employees see a manufactured, produced, slick video where the leader is obviously reading from a script in front of a beautiful background, it just doesn’t come across as something real,” explains Kari Bjorhus, VP, Enterprise Communications for The Coca-Cola Company.



A changing pattern

Authenticity is a hot trend that Beckett is also seeing with her CEO clients. Having coached countless senior leaders from FTSE Top 200 companies over the last 17 years, Beckett is now seeing bosses loosening up and the ties coming off.

“I attended a meeting recently with 300 in the audience. The senior managers spoke from the floor. There wasn’t a lectern. Nobody had any notes.  It was quite intimate. I found this so exciting, so refreshing because when I first starting doing this work 17 years ago, it was formal - there were lecterns, podiums, there were written scripts. There was even auto cue. That seems to be thrown away now and it takes courage for a senior manager to say it as it is, to be open and transparent. That makes for great culture.”