Your Employees = Your Cheerleaders?

NOTE: This is Part 2 of this topic. Please see earlier post for context.

Too often, it’s easy to see employee as expendable commodities rather than assets. But as part of a comprehensive and ongoing public relations program, they should be seen a “front line” soldiers for your brand. They should be (or become) your Brand Cheerleaders. (Hint: Don’t require the uniforms, though. Then it might become an HR issue!)

However, when you factor in the amount of money it takes to replace an employee, that perspective can change. It is estimated that turnovers cost a company from $10,000 to $40,000 per person, depending on the position. One researcher shows the “turnover costs” alone can run more than $2,000 per employee. That’s money which could be better spent, don’t you agree? (If you don’t, please contact me and I have lots of ideas for how to use all that extra money you apparently have and don't need!)

If you communicate well with your staff, you are creating a positive working environment. The staff will be better informed and better able to help in building the important relationships with your customers/clients. Unfortunately, the opposite is all too true also. Unhappy, disconnected employees can hurt business by providing poor or inadequate customer service. Customers leave and employees leave, both affecting your business and your bottom line.

To build a positive working environment—as part of your commitment to public relations—it is necessary to take some specific steps that will let your employees know they are valued and vital to your success. Consider these simple tactics:

• Educate them. If there are messages you want your customers to hear, you must make sure your staff knows the message. It is important to regularly tell them—repeating the key messages over and over. You can do this in training meetings, memos, e-mails and even through creative methods, such as games and contests. (Don’t just “send out” the information, help them understand why it’s important.)
  
  
• Listen to them. Because they are the front line, you can learn much from their perspective and their experience. If they are truly part of your team, you need their expertise and they need to know that you want to know it. They see, hear and know things just because of what they do, and it’s often very different than those in the “corner offices” might think. Incorporate ways for them to talk to you, even about difficult issues and personal concerns. It could be as simple as a suggestion box, but as complex as a peer group that monitors and mediates conflict. Employees who feel they have no say will never see themselves as part of a team.
  
  
• Engage them. I’ve been to those “retreats” with the team building exercises. And as beneficial as they might be, they’re nothing compared to getting your team involved in building the organization. This is one step beyond listening; it’s finding way to get them active in the direction of the organization. Focus groups, staff committees, brainstorming meetings, Q&As with the leadership are all ways to get feedback. But it can’t be perfunctory; if the employees feel it’s just for show, don’t expect them to invest actual energy or sincerity to the process.
  
  
• Appreciate, Recognize and Reward them. Everyone likes to be told they are doing a good job, and your staff is no different. Of course, job evaluations, salary increases and performance bonuses are important, but those are generally private. (And those fall under HR, not PR) You should look for ways to publicly identify those who are working diligently for your organization—celebrating successes, publicizing productivity, honoring extra efforts and “kudoing” (Is that a word?) the ones doing an outstanding job.
  
  
• Help them stay balanced. Your employees, as good an they might be, also have a life outside the job. (Remember our example of Ebenezer Scrooge? He had no idea the family pressures of his faithful employee, Bob Cratchit.) None of us can be happy and content when our life is out of balance. And though your business might benefit briefly by an employee who is putting in extra hours to the detriment of their home-life, in the long-term, it’s a no-win situation. You must make certain your staff is taking the needed time off to rest, relax and recreate. It is also possible to build in those kinds of experiences during the work-week. It will make for better, more satisfied employees and greater productivity.
  
  

The amount of effort required for Internal Public Relations is small compared to the lasting effects in employee satisfaction, decrease in turnover and increase in quality customer service. Can you afford to ignore them?

In future posts, I plan to cover topics such as:

* Becoming a good citizen of your community

* Techniques of Good Writing

* Working with your local Media

* Elements of Effective Communication

* When You Should Hire a PR/Communications professional

PR Begins at “Home”

To be successful, every business must incorporate basic public relations into their underlying philosophy and into the everyday practice. Otherwise, those connected with the business will become dissatisfied, detached, disloyal…and they could ultimately disappear! Then where would your organization go?

Side Note: Of course, I define successful as more than profitable. I recognize that all organizations have financial needs, but just the “bottom line” of the ledger should not be ultimate goal. Should it? What about job satisfaction? What about reputation? What about community involvement and respect? These cannot be measured with a calculator nor can they be recorded on a spreadsheet. But without them, I fear our lives would reflect that of Ebenezer Scrooge, just before the ghostly visitations—rich in goods, but poor in life.

Scrooge. His very name has come to symbolize that which is undesirable in human greed. One line from Dickens’ novel describes him: “The cold within him froze his old features, nipped his pointed nose, made his eyes red, his thin lips blue, and he spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice ...” He is incredibly wealthy, but despised by most everyone around him. His work demands all his time and energy, to the loss of any family connection. He requires unquestioned loyalty from his employee, but provides no compensation beyond a meager wage, assuming that is sufficient for long-term tenure. (Hmmm. I think I worked for this person once!) Profitable, yes. Successful? Well, it’s not the portrait of achievement that would be featured on any success seminar I’d want to attend!

To initiate a productive PR campaign, it is necessary to clearly define those with whom you want—and need—to build strong relationships. Remember, you are targeting those strategic audiences that will ensure your success, while being mutually beneficial to them as well. Which begs the question: Who are they?

When asked, most business leaders would say that customers/clients are the first and foremost target audience. Makes sense, doesn’t it? After all, without those who buy your products or use your services, success is out of the question.

But there’s another group that might be overlooked, to the serious detriment of your business. We’ve all heard the old saying “charity begins at home.” If I could borrow and adapt that adage, the same can be said of public relations. Stand in your office and look around. There they are!

When you want to begin an effective PR strategy, start with the “front line” folks: the ones who answer the phones when your customers call, talk to them when they have question and listen to them when they have complaints. In short, when you begin your public relations emphasis, don’t forget to look at “home” at your own employees. (i.e., all those Bob Cratchits around your office)

An integral part of your overall, ongoing public relations is what’s generally called “internal public relations” or employee relations (There’s that word again). Staying with our earlier definition, it focuses on building and maintaining “healthy, mutually beneficial” relationships within the staff. Ultimately, it’s one of the keys to success in any organization because it contributes to productivity, motivation, morale and longevity. (Note: This is different from, but complementary to, Human Resources, which is concerned primarily with the logistics of salaries, benefits, performance, promotions, etc.) Internal PR is about communicating your key messages, your brand, your image, your mission, your goals to this essential support group. They see your vision; they share your passion. They take ownership.

And as we’ll see in our next entry, the effort is very cost-effective.

Next time: Your Team As PR Agents

Parts of the Whole

In our last article, we examined a basic definition of public relations and determined that the very core of what PR does is about relationships. Public relations involves “relating” to “publics,” those people who insure our success.

Let’s expand our simple definition in order to get a better understanding of the functional aspect of public relations. We once again ask the question: What is public relations?

Over the years, as I’ve taught PR workshops, I developed my own definition of public relations. It’s not as technical as some, but concentrates on the pragmatic aspect of the work.

Public Relations is using ongoing, directive communication to share your message, build and maintain your image/brand and motivate desired behavior in order to encourage and enhance healthy, mutually beneficial relationships.

Using my definition, allow me to break it down into some tangible components to help us better understand the practice (or practicals) of Public Relations.

The process of PR is proactive. PR is doing, not just wishing, hoping and thinking. PR is active and it’s about the now. Public Relations teaches us that the time to build good relations is before you need them. (e.g., Quality customer service is less important once a disgruntled employees has offended your best client. The optimal time to initiate a crisis plan is before you have a crisis. It defeats the goal if you decide to practice good employee relations after you lose a great team member who feels unappreciated.)

The medium of PR is communication. The heart of public relations involves getting your message out to those with whom you want to relate, those people who are essential to your success. What is it that you want others to know about you, your company/organization and your products or services? PR involves crafting the key points you want people to know. There are many methods for this (e.g., fact sheets, talking points, backgrounders, news releases, etc.), but the message is crucial. It should be clear, concise and accurate (PR is about truth!).

In my PR seminars, I tell business leaders that they (and ideally, every person in their organization) should be able to summarize in about 20 seconds the primary message about the organization—who you are, what you do and what makes you special. (We then do a quick workshop and they write out their “elevator speech”) PR is about telling your story.

The desire of PR is action. One of the reasons you want to be proactive and directive in communicating is to bring about change to those who receive the message. The change could be in attitude/perception (e.g., their opinion of you, your company or your products) or action/behavior (e.g., their choice to use you, your company and your products for their purchases). Hearing the message is important, but if nothing else takes place, it didn’t meet this definition of PR.

The heart of PR is reputation. PR is proactive in building a good name and diligent about maintaining it. You can have the best products/services in your industry, but if people don’t trust or don’t like your company, you have a reputation problem. PR can be the solution. This brings the parts together; your ongoing, directive communication is designed to reinforce your reputation with those people to whom you relate.

The result of PR is mutual benefit. In advertising, the anticipated result is an increase in sales, which is a definite positive result. In marketing, the focus is usually targeted to a specific product, service or event for the organization. However, in public relations, the goal is mutual benefit. How do both parties “profit” from this interaction? (Note: the “profit” aspect may not be financial or monetary, but there should be some gain for each party)

Public relations is definitely worth the effort it takes to put into practice. Is it part of the priority and practice in your organization?

In future posts, I plan to cover topics such as:

* Becoming a good citizen of your community

* Techniques of Good Writing

* Working with your local Media

* Employee Engagement

* Elements of Effective Communication

* When You Should Hire a PR/Communications professional

Simply, Public Relations

At the end of my last post, I ask the question: What is Public Relations? Rather than begin with discussing lengthy and technical definitions (we will cover some in another post), a good place to start is by simply looking at the term “public relations” to derive some basic understand of the concept. Stripping away the preconceptions and the professional jargon, the term is fairly self-explanatory.

Obviously, by the very nature of the name, “public relations” involves the public. But before you shrug it off as too expansive, it’s important to note for our discussion that the word is more specific than just the general population. The word basically refers to people. It might just as accurate to call what I do “people relations.” (But I figure after all these years, it’s too late to try and change the name.)

It's that simple: public relations is about…people. PR is concerned with any/all of the people (i.e., “publics”) who are involved with you and your products/services. It is related to those people on whom you depend for success. Who would that be for your business?

Obviously, it would include your customers; they are a “public” that you want to keep satisfied because your success is dependant upon their goodwill. In addition to this obvious group, your “publics” will start inside and extend outward, in what I describe in my PR workshops as concentric circles of influence. Other key publics would include potential customers, your community, your industry as a whole, the media, the government, etc. (NOTE: We will spend more time on this subject in future posts and examine some of the specific "publics" in your sphere of influence.)

The second part of our description of “public relations” involves relating to your identified publics. If these people are important to your success (And they are, aren't they?) and if you have something that they want/need (You do, don't you?), it’s imperative that you relate to them in a mutually beneficial way. That's more than just selling products to a customer; it’s finding ways to build a lasting relationship with a person. It’s more than just hiring someone to answer the phone at the office; it’s treating that person with dignity and respect, making them a valued member of your team.

The optimum concept is that the relationship is mutually beneficial. Naturally, if a customer buys a truck load of your products, you have benefited. But what about the customer? Anyone can sell a product; there are many books, workshops and seminars that teach those skills. The focus of public relations is not sales, but building and maintaining healthy relationships.

Consider this scenario: A customer wants to buy several cases of a products that you know are inferior. You can sell the product and you have benefited. That’s sales. But when the products fail to meet the client’s expectation, and the customer is disappointed, where is the long-term relationship? That’s the difference is a sales mentality and a PR-focus. And you will need plenty of PR resources tactics to salvage the customer.

Simply put, public relations is relating to people. On that foundation, a successful PR campaign and ongoing program can emerge...and flourish.



In future posts, I plan to cover topics such as:

* Becoming a good citizen of your community

* Techniques of Good Writing

* Working with your local Media

* Employee Engagement

* Elements of Effective Communication

* When You Should Hire a PR/Communications professional