Issue
Corporate, Division, and departmental messages may or may not reach the frontline.
Messages that do reach the front line may not be heard, seen or read…
- And, even if they are they may not be understood
- And even if they’re understood they may not be relevant
- And even if they’re relevant the employee may not agree
- And even if they agree they may or may not take the intended action
Frontline employees often don’t have:
- Access to traditional print and online tools
- Time to do anything other than their work while on the job
Facts
Employees want to hear important news from their direct supervisor. Frontline supervisors may have as little as 10 minutes a week to speak with their teams.
Learnings
Translating Corporate messaging is key and the people who can do that best and with the most credibility are their direct supervisors:
- Focus on people with people reporting to them
- Understand their needs – opportunities and constraints
- Re-think content and tools
- Establish internal discipline
- Communicate business context (see simplifying communication)
- Formal cascading conversations
- Get a clear understanding of roles, responsibilities and timing
- Provide content in a form that makes it easy to present and discuss
- Increase ability to translate content to make it relevant – Connect to the customer
- Listen – Processes and systems for feeding back up
Bottomline
Understanding when and how to engage and support front line supervisors must be part of your institutional communications plan.