We live in an age of information. With 24/7 access to blogs, wikis, YouTube and more, employees can find, create and comment on any topic that interests them. Employees are holding their employers to a higher standard when it comes to communication. And that means more opportunities for the internal communications profession.
People want the same experience in the workplace as they have on the Internet. Employees want user-friendly tools to do their jobs and accurate information to manage their personal and professional lives. They expect to receive trustworthy, credible responses quickly.
Faced with this new, more demanding “employee-consumer,” internal communication has a significant opportunity to leverage emerging technologies and develop new strategies for engaging employees.
Over the past decade, the internal communication function has gone beyond the role of simply disseminating information to employees. We continue to enhance the profession of internal communications from information providers to influencers.
We are now in a position to influence our leaders on the value of emerging technologies in building trust and engagement with employees. Employees want to know their leaders and the strategic direction of the company. In other words, “who do I work for and where are we going?” Effective communication helps answer these questions and enhance overall business performance.
Thanks to the democratization of information, internal communications competes for the hearts and minds of employees. After all, faced with the prospect of reading lifeless corporate prose, who wouldn’t want to check out the latest celebrity immortalized on YouTube?
Amy Fry is VP, public relations at Boehringer Ingelheim North America
From the June 01, 2007 Issue of MM+M - Medical Marketing and Media
