Now is no time for silence

Managers are failing to update their staff just when they need to most, it seems. The training manager of a blue-chip multinational was telling us recently how many managers had gone curiously quiet.

It seems that their tongues (or their keyboards) have gone west along with the firm’s profits, just as their teams were looking to them for information and leadership.

‘Let’s face it, anyone can lead in the easy times,’ she said. ‘It’s at times like these that managers prove their worth.’

The problem is, of course, that the managers are just as worried and uncertain as everyone else. But harsh though it may seem, it’s no good drawing a manager’s salary if all you can do when times get tough is clam up and hide under the same black cloud as everyone else. If a team can’t turn to management for leadership, then they quickly begin to wonder if anyone’s at the helm at all.

These sentiments were echoed recently by the Association of Communicators in Business (CiB), which represents internal communications managers. They warned that organisations should redouble their internal-communication efforts during uncertain economic times rather than putting them on the back burner.

They have a point. Internal communication may seem the least of a company’s worries when sales are in free fall. But failing to keep your people in the loop can seriously demotivate them. And this effect can last long past the end of the recession, creating a corporate hangover that slows recovery. Worse still, although job security fears could keep them around for now, they may quickly jump ship as soon as the outlook improves.

‘You have to ratchet up your commitment to engage with staff,’ says CiB chairman Paul Brasington. ‘People are usually mature enough to understand bad news. The worst mistake is to say nothing.’
Among the steps you can take to improve internal communication in a recession are:

• explaining the direct impact of the recession on your industry and organisation, and saying what the firm will need to do to weather the storm
• telling people about job or budget cuts as soon as possible, along with the reasons and timescales
• keeping up the information flow, and making sure it’s two way: silence breeds rumours
• moving quickly to correct inaccurate information
• making sure employees hear news first, before you communicate it externally.

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