In 1963, Edward Lorenz published what has subsequently become known as the ‘butterfly effect’ construct. In it, he posits that even an apparently insignificant and random event, such as a seagull flapping its wings, can have a huge eventual ripple-effect on an entire weather front on the other side of the world. For dramatic effect at a later speech to present his paper, Lorenz replaced the prosaic seagull with the more evocative butterfly.
The construct of ripples emanating from a central source or event and travelling around the world was brought home to me last year whilst doing some global research for one particular organisation. However, the result was, in effect, the opposite to that of Lorenz’s work. The organisation in question was one of the most positive I’ve had the pleasure of engaging with. Its people felt they were growing, learning, invested in and supported. They were able to collaborate and they had regular contact and interaction with some very charismatic senior leaders. The ambience and culture of the organisation could hardly have been more positive.
In its head office, that is.
The further away from this head office my conversations reached, the more the sense of energy and engagement began to dissipate. People felt detached from the purpose, the pace and the point of what was happening. They had far less access to those charismatic leaders, communications reached them diluted and ambiguous. They had little grasp of the lived values and behaviours. They did not have contact with role models and mentors. Their culture had very little in common with that of the head office they would often hear about.
The hugely positive magic ripples coming out of head office had rather petered out before reaching overseas sites.
This is not atypical of many head office initiatives. Projects, communications, even EVPs which are the work solely of one office or location struggle to make an impact or gain traction elsewhere. There is little sense of local ownership, buy-in or involvement. The stories told relate to other places, other cultures, other working realities.
And this has been brought sharply into focus with the third (I think, I lose track) lockdown.
Many of us are back to working from home for potentially several months. The challenge for many organisations is potentially greater than the one they faced in March 2020. Today, people are tired, disenchanted and scared with an unmistakeable feeling of déjà vu. They’ve been here before and didn’t particularly care for it.
So, the ripples of communication broadcasting business updates, purpose, organisational direction, health and wellbeing guidance, engagement and even EVPs have to work that much harder. Such communications are typically via social media platforms, email or Zoom. They cannot, now, be supplemented by casual conversations around the coffee machines, bike parks or canteens. They lack tangibility.
The potential for greater dislocation and distance is clear. The ripples of communication emanating out from an organisation, be they for external recruitment or internal engagement purposes, face greater challenges than perhaps ever before.
“Communication effectiveness has been tested by remote, dispersed & home working. Yet the best managers and leaders have risen to this challenge by adapting their style, placing more emphasis on checking in on employee wellbeing, more time getting to know them as individuals within a wider context. Organisations need to acknowledge the old processes may not be fit for purpose, new ways of thinking & doing are now required”. Sandy Wilkie, Head of Organisational Effectiveness, Greenhill HR
How organisations re-focus their communications efforts will have a huge effect on how their people emerge from the current lockdown. Such ripples have the chance of inspiring and motivating, providing people with support, reassurance and a clear and believable line of sight of where both they and their employer is heading, despite the ambiguity and uncertainty around them.
This touches on a fascinating piece of competitor research I worked on last year, comparing the global employer branding outputs of a number of household name FMCG players. There was a telling disparity between organisations which appeared from a distance to have much in common. Some of the employers within the study had a true global consistency about what they were saying to candidates and employees alike, whilst allowing for local flexibility, local markets and local stories. Their EVPs rippled clearly around the globe.
For others, however, the ripples from head office broke down quickly. The sense of a common, cohesive golden thread running through their messaging simply wasn’t there. An enterprise-wide employment why was replaced by local initiatives which varied significantly in terms of execution and effectiveness.
Similar pressures apply too to scale-up organisations. In a business’ formative period, the ripple of its Employee Value Proposition does not have far to travel. Often around one office and a small clutch of ill-matching chairs and mugs. Recruitment is often very local. Friends, family, network contacts are usually tapped up to join. The sense of the why can be clearly communicated to a relatively small employee and candidate group, often living within a very immediate catchment area.
As such a start-up begins to scale, then four things are likely to take place. The organisation has exhausted its supply of word-of-mouth referrals and personal contacts. Recruitment has to become more formal and reach out with greater geographic impact. The EVP of the start-up is likely to have evolved from something touching a small group of people gathered around a modest office, into something broader and more sophisticated. The final change is potentially that such messaging has to function across more than one office location. So, such scale-ups are faced not only with moving on their EVP to reflect a growing business, but also to ensure that such an EVP touches, involves and reaches out across a growing number of offices and locations.
For global organisations through to scale-ups, audiences have never been so detached, isolated and alone as they are today. Such audiences are often working from home, isolating and shielding. These are not natural drivers of effective communications.
The most obvious factor in an organisation’s communication ripples reaching out successfully to both employee and candidate communities is their employer brand. If such people already grasp your why – or are at least prepared to believe it – and respond positively to it, then such ripples will tend to land successfully. Such audiences understand what you do, why you do it, what the purpose that drives your organisation is about, how you conducted yourself through Covid. You have to explain your why to a far lesser degree.
“BT has been brilliant at making us feel connected with both the big and the little things, and has been especially supportive of those struggling with their day-to-day activities. I do hope that when we emerge from this, we will all be more compassionate, more understanding and a whole lot more tolerant of the people around us. Compassionate unity is how I would describe it – and it’s the best kind of employer brand there is”. Laura Price, Employer Brand Lead – BT Security.
Because we have all been through an utterly unique experience, it’s important to take stock. Such stock taking needs, therefore, to take in your employer brand. How is it landing, how is it understood, how has it negotiated Covid? You won’t know if you’re not asking. Asking the right questions of the right audiences.
“There are a few words which resonate with me when it comes to EB and how organisations take that message to market, namely authenticity and differentiation. It’s not about pretty pictures or beautifully crafted messaging (whilst important), candidates want to understand the reality of day-to-day life and the challenges they’ll face. The good, the bad and the ugly, so to speak, and your EB should paint that whole picture with engaging and authentic content.
With offices closed and limited or no opportunity for candidates to experience your workplace, remote candidate experience is even more important than ever. But again, companies need to ensure it’s reflective of the culture and value – to inform and engage at the same time”. Craig Morgans, Global Head of Talent Acquisition, IWG plc.
Similarly, audits or analyses of communication channels are important. Both in terms of external routes to candidate audiences, but also in terms of which internal platforms have emerged during the last year as the most effective, engaging and useful. You should gain a more forensic understanding of how people at the margins (both hierarchal and geographical) of your organisation have grasped your communication ripples. If, indeed, they have. Have such communications got through, have they been grasped, have they lost much in terms of distance and translation?
And even though the current lockdown feels even more disheartening than its predecessors, and further pain lies ahead, there is the unmistakeable sense of an economy just quietly firming.
The important purchasing manager’s index rose to its highest level regarding hiring intentions, at 47.2, since February 2020. Similarly, the PMI economic indicator, combining services and manufacturing, boasted a reading of 50.4, suggesting growth. And the latest survey by Deloitte amongst Finance Directors, shows that a net 58% were more upbeat about their company prospects than three months earlier, pushing the change in optimism levels to its highest since the survey began in 2007.
As you are weighing up talent acquisition and internal communications messaging for this year, there are a lot of often conflicting noises and sentiment to take on board. However, to ensure the ripples of your organisational strength, purpose and direction reach your key audiences, it’s important they demonstrate the following characteristics –
- They need to differentiate from the potentially similar messaging of others. What are your competitors saying and how are they saying it? Don’t be a me-too employer brand;
- If we’ve learned anything over the last year, it’s about how to differentiate the genuine from the bogus. Your people messaging has to be of and from your people, their experiences, their stories, their aspirations, their realities;
- Your messaging has to say goodbye to 2020. For those who survived it, they don’t want to repeat it. Acknowledge what has happened and move on to what 2021 might look like;
- No organisation knows exactly how this year will pan out, but your people want a broad idea. They want a vision and an aspiration. They want something to aim for, to work towards, to contribute to;
- They want something that brings your people – wherever they are, at home, in a different location, overseas – together. Something that unifies and mends;
- And, despite what’s going on around us, be positive. People want to think that their efforts are helping to produce positive, constructive, productive outcomes;
- They want a message that takes the brakes off. Many people have had their lives and careers put on hold over the last year. They want to see their ambition accelerated;
- They need your ripples to do two things – to connect with and deliver a big picture to a range of often global audiences, but also to reach out successfully and personally to individuals, likely to be on their own in front of a small screen;
- And just like anything that successfully creates ripples, they want your employer branding messages to have impact.
“The key now is in the authenticity of organisational communication. What employees need is messages they can trust, buy into and endorse. We need organisations to be transparent, to engage, to trust their employees to help co-create the way ahead. Authentic two-way dialogue, informed by shared values, is crucial in this respect. We get this wrong now, opportunities will be lost. Possibly for a generation, perhaps forever”, Sandy Wilkie.
Creating effective, meaningful communication ripples across your organisation and beyond is harder, yet more important, than perhaps ever before.
But they are messages that have to connect and resonate with credibility, authenticity and differentiation.
Getting to the heart of your employee mindset 