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eye on > making the "Most Admired"
Communicators Can Help Their Companies Aspire to be the Most Admired
At a recent symposium for Atlanta-area employee benefits and communications executives, international consulting firm Hay Group updated attendees on the most distinguishing attributes among companies featured in Fortune magazine’s annual “Most Admired Companies” ranking.
What the Hay Group revealed is of particular relevance to communications professionals:
- The ability to attract and retain talented people is the most distinctive characteristic among the most admired. At see see eye, we believe those companies that make employee excellence and retention a priority should communicate these values to educate stakeholders about the connection between good people and good performance.
- Employees of the most admired companies are focused on the customer and are empowered to make choices. Employees who have greater independence from their supervisors exhibit better morale, and are stronger contributors to quality and the bottom line. see see eye believes that stakeholder communications – annual reports, Web sites, intranets and other communications – offer an opportunity to demonstrate how empowered employees are critical to product and service excellence and bottom-line health.
- The most admired companies lead their peers in offering excellent work/life balance opportunities. The most admired list seems to prove that aspects of a corporate culture that support such balance also heighten morale. We think that messages making this connection shouldn’t be limited to internal publications and Web sites. It is important they are made clear to investors, customers and other stakeholders as well.
- The most admired companies truly understand that individual employees have individual needs. The most admired companies look at audience segmentation and communicate differently to different age groups, and their managers communicate more frequently. Better-informed employees feel more empowered, also contributing to better performance. We support the notion of developing communications that differ in media and style, as much as budgets will allow, to reach a diverse audience. Where they don’t, we advise selecting a method of communication that will be accessed and understood by the widest possible audience.
Where Communications Come Into the Picture
Corporate communicators can – through telling stories and clearly communicating their companies’ aspirations – reinforce the practices that foster superior performance and help create a picture of success. The result? Communications that may indeed contribute to the building of a new future “most admired” firm.
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