Provokeap: Why Gossip & Grapevines Matter More In Employee Comms

(MENAFN- PRovoke) Senior industry communicators believe the 'trusted grapevine' and 'colleague influencers' will gain prominence as companies deal with hybrid and multi-generational employees, heard delegates at the PRovoke Summit Asia-Pacific in Singapore last week.

The panel was inspired from the findings of a study by Weber Shandwick's management consultancy United Minds, which looked at employee sentiment over the last decade and found that about 49% of employees rely on the grapevine and water cooler chat to find information about their organization. About 55% of Gen Z, and 52% of millennials use the grapevine, compared to only about 35% in previous years. Additionally, 70% of people say they trust their colleagues and peers, compared to about 59% of people who say that they trust the CEO, an interesting dynamic highlighting the rise of the colleague influencer in organizations.

Daniel Feiler, senior director communications APJ, ServiceNow believes that a
“tactic in internal communications that you have probably not spoken about too much, but it's used a lot more frequently, there's a lot more comfort working with HR teams, is to have a certain amount of gossip around a big change, depending on what it is....And I think that actually helps get people ready for change.”

Feiler was responding to a question asked by moderator Jessica Ulhmann, VP of employee engagement and transformation, Weber Shandwick, on mechanisms companies used beyond top down and traditional communications, to engage employees, particularly in the light of the United Minds study findings.

Barkha Patel, SVP communications at Mastercard, said that her company has moved towards not just top down but bottom up communication.

“That's been interesting. Employee advocacy, and employee advocates being engaged to speak to different cohorts in the company has been pretty powerful for us. I think it's worked really well for us to be doing things like games, refine a way in which we communicate, not so much what we're saying, which needs to have more authenticity and transparency than ever before, but also the manner in which it's being delivered,” Patel said.

She gave the example of Mastercard's initiative Real Talk, which has different cohorts in the company, different people with different life stages, and consequently, different experience stages, engaging through multiple formats and becoming trusted voices within the company.

“So they became, to your point as well, a trusted grapevine, and they were then able to take that message out in a more evangelical way, without feeling like they were being forced to do it. It was authentic for them, because it was a lived experience,” she added.

Hin-Yan Wong, Weber Shandwick EVP strategic planning and head of intelligence, believes that top down has a role in times of transformation specifically in setting direction, but middle management layers cannot be ignored, because they're much closer to the business and employees and in a position to translate changes into the context that their teams and colleagues can understand.

On the question of how companies can find these trusted voices to be a part of the grapevine, Wong believes that it boils down to understanding your organization's dynamics.

“Building that trusted grapevine often is about identifying the right person within the organization where they can reach up and also reach down. And not to forget the fact that sometimes we have big companies with colleagues on the road. I think we call it uncapped colleagues. How do we ensure that they have those moments to engage with the middle management ?”

When asked to share tips on improving engagement with employees, especially those on the fence or indifferent around the change process, the three panelists shared interesting insights.

Patel thinks that while there will always be a few unhappy people, it is important for companies to understand how people prefer to consume content. According to her, short form videos, shorter ways of engaging, bite sized information and frequency of information are important aspects to keep in mind while designing a strategy.

“We have to remember people are getting their news from everywhere all the time, so if they don't have a similar, congruent experience within the workforce, even if it is incremental information delivered over and over again, they feel like they are not in the norm,” says Patel.

Wong believes that listening is an important tactic that creates opportunities for the internal comms team to get feedback. According to him, beyond getting feedback from surveys, it's important to utilize a mid-tier team of leaders to hear on the ground concerns and pass it on to senior teams.

“We work for different companies, have different structures, different footprints, different geographical spread, and having a better understanding on how the messages are not only being heard but also being understood, is actually important to shape how we engage with our employees.”

Feiler, meanwhile, warns companies against the kind of message padding which appears to be creeping into APAC companies from the US.

“..We live in an age where feelings are more important than facts. That's something that has complicated things... I've worked for the past 25 years for US based companies, and certainly with global companies (with US base) the internal comms has so much more padding to check in with everybody and make sure everything is fine before they get to actually the facts of what is, because they don't want to offend anyone. I believe there's a nervous sort of thing, the core of the story, of what you want to actually communicate gets buried in communication.”

Summary of United Minds study

A study by United Minds, Weber Shandwick's management consultancy, which looked at employee sentiment over the last decade found that across the board, employees are happier than they've ever been before at work.

The study found that 64% of employees are very happy in their roles, a much higher figure compared to 10 years ago.

The numbers on the expectations and experiences with the communications that the employees are receiving today was positive. 70% of employees say they're trusting the communications they're receiving from their leaders, and about 62% say that they're receiving communications in a format that works for them.

When employees were asked whether they're receiving communications in a way that works for them, a quarter were neutral. They couldn't confirm or deny, and about one in 10, 11%, actually proactively disagreed with this statement.

An interesting finding is that despite the high number (64%) being happy in their roles, they're still open to switching jobs with 38% saying that they would change jobs tomorrow if they had a chance, the exact same stat as 10 years ago.

About 49% of employees, so nearly half, rely on the grapevine and water cooler chat to find information about their organization. About 55% of Gen X, 52% of millennials use the grapevine, compared to only about 35% in previous years.

70% of people say they trust their colleagues and peers, compared to about 59% of people who say that they trust the CEO, an interesting dynamic where we're seeing the rise of the colleague influencer in organizations.

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