Let's Talk About It

Lately, I've been having a lot of conversations with lots of people about employee communications. And not just the "they don't read our mass e-mail" talks, either. Employers KNOW employees don't read mass e-mails, because many of the folks I've talked don't really read them either.

No, there are other things afoot. Like this blog, for instance. It's been around for a little over a year, and let's face it: it was a relative newcomer. The field is full of blogs, talking about everything from the writer's My Little Pony collection (not that I know anything about THAT blog) to what it's like to work as a flight attendant for a major airline.

Huh. Now that's interesting, isn't it?

Do you know if someone's blogging about what it's like to work in YOUR organization? And do you mind them doing it?

Naturally the answer for you likely is, "Well, it'll depend on what they're saying." And therein lies the problem: you can't control that. We need to step aside from the legalities for a moment, which I don't think are at all settled on questions of blogging, wikis and social networking. Let's assume you'd rather not be the folks that have to go to the Supreme Court of Canada on this issue to determine if blogging can join collective bargaining as the newest human right.

Hundreds of thousands of people, many of them employees, and likely your employees, are active on the web. Not reading, or Googling, but actively posting content on it. Whether through blogging, or on Facebook, they're there. And they may very well be talking about you. It may not be a blog, but it might be on a Facebook network set up for all of your employees. (Note: when I say "set up," I mean it took them about five minutes to fill in an on-line form. This stuff isn't hard to do anymore; you don't need a computer science degree, just a browser and basic literacy.)

Sure, you could come down with the hammer. You could find those networks--Hell, my employer's relatively small and we've got one on Facebook and on LinkedIn--get in there and wag your finger, police and set policies, and just generally clamp down. But here's the thing: it's the Internet, and hundreds of thousands of other people are watching you.

Maybe you want some of them to work for you. Maybe you just want them to buy your product. And if you think how you deal with employee freedom of expression has no impact on sales, you might want to ask Wal-Mart about how it feels about having 14% of its potential customers as "consciencious objectors" thanks in large part to disagreements regarding that company's employment approach.

There are no easy solutions to this problem; the purpose of this post is just to share my thoughts on what's happening NOW. There will be follow up on the subject, but until then: what do you know about your employees on the Web 2.0? Have you wikipedia'd your CEO? Have you looked up your organization's name on FaceBook? Have you Googled your VP HR?

No worries. Take your time. I'm not going anywhere.