One of the greatest challenges we encounter as internal communicators is to get leadership to take what we do seriously. When people hear what we do for a living they relegate us to the “nice” category… you know that place where child-care workers, music teachers and social workers dwell. Well enough already. Internal communications is finally coming into its own and study after study proves its merits. A recent article in the Careers section of the Globe and Mail by Sue Shellenbarger caught our attention with a sub head that read, Employers are seeing the light: engaged workers are good for the bottom line. Damn right they are and it’s time that more leadership did something about it.
Perhaps the ever-present chatter in the news about the looming shortage in the labour pool is getting through because slowly some are starting to pay some attention. Shellenbarger’s article speaks about several companies who saw the light and did something about it. Still according to a recent Towers Perrin study only 23% of Canadian workers are currently engaged at work. That number should scare more companies into action. When addressing the study, Canadian Business Magazine recently quoted a Towers Perrin principal “You can’t hire or buy an engaged workforce – only leadership can build it.” To be good internal communicators we need to help leadership do just that. Another study done by Hewitt Associates found that “increases in employee engagement clearly preceded improvements in financial performance. Even among companies with below-average profit, an upturn in employee attitudes tended to precede a profit turnaround.” Let’s stop being relegated to the “nice” category and show everybody that what we do is actually help businesses make money.
Links:
"Work-life balance? It's working" - The Globe and Mail
Towers Perrin Global Workforce Study
Article on Global Workforce Study - Canadian Business Magazine
Employee Engagement Study - Hewitt Associates
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