Situation at the Company and Root Causes
Dr. Emmett Shane III, the CEO of Consolidated Electrical (ConsoE) wants to increase the national presence of the company. According to a recent survey of the Consolidated Electrical (ConsoE), the employees of the company are satisfied with their compensations and benefits. However, the employees felt that there was no communication between them and the executive officers. The employees do not understand where the executive is talking about in the company newspaper and do not know what are the company’s plans. The company has also lost touch with clients, shareholders, some board members with most of them simply finding the company boring.
Strategies and Tactics
The CEO of the company is interested in increasing the company’s national presence and increase sales from $125 million to $175 million within the next one year. Effective communication and high level of employee engagement is known to bring a company success (Harvard Business Review, 2013). The company’s plan in achieving this goal is acquiring between seven to ten small competitors, starting a new ad campaign, and become the number electrical equipment supplier to large and mid-sized companies. Advertising has the power to increase sales consequently increasing profits (Frolova, 2014). Studies also reveal that internal communication between the executive and the employees leads to better customer service (Mishra, Boynton, & Mishra, 2014). The company also wishes to expand its internet presence, cut costs and headcount and move the company’s headquarters from Los Angeles to Denver. The company’s Board of Director’s and Wall Street are behind the CEO but the employees do not seem to be happy.
High-Level Employees Communication Plan
The high-level employees should open up to dialogue with feedback from lower level employees. This will help in collaborating and coordinating the activities of the entire organization (Parl, 2014). The executive should also abandon the use of webcasts and letters that seem not be working and create more face-to-face communication lines through such ways as engaging in meetings and participating in company workshops.
Communication Plan
The goal of the communication plan is to inform the employees of the company’s objective, persuade them to help in achieving the objectives, and activate the strategies set by the company. To do this, the company has to re-establish communication lines between the VPs and the employees. The intranet and the company newspaper should be upheld but their content changed to improve the employees’ business literacy and boost their morale.
Six months communication plan overview
Within six months the company should create more face-to-face communication channels and re-established internal communication platforms. Shane and the VPs should receive media training and development. The company should launch a public relations campaign with local newspapers and launch team building exercises and events. Finally, the company should begin evaluation of the new communication channels and platforms.
Three months detailed employee communication plan
The company should implement a new vision workshop and create face time with Shane through Friday walkthrough of the company. The aim of these strategies is to increase lower and mid-level employee engagement in the business. The company newspaper should be revamped to make its content stronger. The main of the strategy is to boost morale and also increase employee engagement.
One month sample of an executive plan
The media training for Shane and the VPs should start with to develop ways of communicating the company’s strategy to the employees. The executive should also revamp a new system of meetings to facilitate face-to-face communication and improve dialogue. Finally, ConsoE should implement vision workshops to increase employee engagement. This would lower the cost of the company achieving its goals (Harvard Business Review, 2013).
References
Frolova, S. (2014). The Role of Advertising in Promoting a Product. Retrieved from https://www.theseus.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/80777/Frolova_Svetlana.pdf?sequence=1
Harvard Business Review. (2013). The impact of employee engagement on performance. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/resources/pdfs/comm/achievers/hbr_achievers_report_sep13.pdf
Harvard Business Review. (2016). Harvard business review, October 2013. Retrieved June 9, 2016, from Harvard Business Review, https://hbr.org/product/harvard-business-review-october-2013/an/BR1310-MAG-ENG
Mishra, A., Boynton, L., & Mishra, K. (2014, November 10). Driving employee engagement: The expanded role of internal communications | institute for public relations. Retrieved June 9, 2016, from Employee Engagement, http://www.instituteforpr.org/driving-employee-engagement-expanded-role-internal-communications/
Pärl, Ü. (2014). The role of dialogue between executives and ground-level employees mediated by MACS. Baltic Journal of Management, 9(2), 189–212. doi:10.1108/bjm-10-2013-0153
