It is often said that positive word-of-mouth is the strongest form of Public Relations (PR) an organisation can ever have and if it’s a profit-making organisation, it could even increase its profit margins.
However, most PR Practitioners often seem to forget this, as well as neglect those most capable of spreading the positive word – the employees.
Employees who are often referred to as internal publics are the main public relations representatives of the organisation.
They represent the organisation in their communities - they are the face and voice of their organisation in their communities.
Their attitude and behaviour inside and outside their workplace and their knowledge (or lack thereof) of the organisation’s operations can often make or break an organisation’s image.
Negative attitudes and lack of trust by employees towards their employer creates a negative internal culture which could affect productivity and sometimes lead to high staff turnover.
“Research published [...] by lobby group Business in the Community suggests [that the] internal communication of companies' values and priorities is key to attracting and keeping talent.” (PR Week)
Most often, if not always, PR practitioners leave the job of satisfying employees to the Human Resource (HR) department, but it is now becoming increasingly important for PR practitioners and Marketing departments to work hand-in-hand with HR departments to put the employees first and listen to their views.
It is therefore important for public relations practitioners to be more aware of their internal publics and always include them in any PR campaign they plan to undertake.
Organisations should develop effective internal public relations programmes geared towards making the employees feel valued, such as organising awards ceremonies for employee recognition; showing interest in employees lives by organising family events; and informing them (although not revealing all the details) on what is going on in the workplace so that they are not caught by surprised or feel embarrassed when asked by public members on what is happing within the organisation during a crisis situation.
Hello Toivo
ReplyDeleteYou pointed out the fact that many organisations fail to be aware of their employees. Indeed in most cases internal staff exactly are the whistle-blowers who may destroy a organisation.
I completely agree with your idea that PR department works with other departments to satisfy internal employees. But I have a question, why do you suggest that it should include Marketing department? I think to improve job satisfaction of internal staff PR department only needs to work with HR department. It seems that Marketing department can do nothing to improve staff's job satisfaction. Am I right? Critisims welcome!
As i stated in my blog post in the first paragraph, 'positive word-of-mouth' can also increase the sales of a company. If you have a company that sells shoes, your staff members could help you increase sales, if they say nice and impressive things about the shoes to their friends and friends' friends. They can market your product for you.
ReplyDeleteToivo, I agree that the organisation must involve it's employees in stuff going on within it, but I don't agree what you are saying with the PR and HR department. The PR role is completely different than the HR. The HR is purely focused on it's employees, to encourage motivation, drive satisfaction. And putting your employees first to be heared is nothing new. It's always been like that,but doesn't mean organisations always acted like that!
ReplyDeleteAs for WOM, I dont think it's only a PR role, WOM could come is also a form of viral marketing, and I think various roles can create WOM. Personally, I think WOM is more importantant, WOM is the factor that can make or break an organisations image...reputation!! And not employees attitudes and behavriours outside the workforce as you stated.
I believe that in general, whatever job you are doing, its important to invlove the emlpoyees, your customers, suppliers, whatever you are. However, I feel that HR is striclty focused on the employees, how to motivate and drive satisfaction while PR just focuses on maintaining the relationships with people and be on good terms.
I agree with what you have said (1820232), but read my article again.
ReplyDeleteWord-of-Mouth is public relations in its basic form, but it is now also being used as marketing technique to increase sales (profit margins) as i have stated in my article.
And as i stated, marketing people and PR people need to work together with the HR people to get the best out of the employees.
If you leave that job to HR alone, you are making a mistake, because as a PR person, you are and should be an expert in human relations. A PR practitioner is a 'fixer of people's problems'.
Both departments need to advice one another on various aspects.
I don't agree with you about the attitudes and behaviours being seperate from Word-of-Mouth.
The attitudes and behaviour of employees are what makes up 'Word-of-Mouth. Word-of-Mouth is basically gossip. It is also sometimes referred to as the 'Grapevine' in the PR industry.
What you gossip about or talk about is based on how you feel about something and in this case, your employer and your workplace.
I'm not saying that PR should not function or cooperate with the other departments in the organisation. I'm just saying that HR has its specific role, and PR has its specific role.
ReplyDeleteEveryone is entitled to their own opinion, so we can agree to disagree on the attitudes and behaviours of employees outside the organisation can make or break an organisation. I'm not saying that does'nt create WOM, but how an employee chooses to be outside the organisation is not something anyone can control or do about it. And employees should respect the organisations culture during working times. I'm just saying that I think there are other factors that create WOM that can make or break an orgnisation and I just don't think it's the behaviours and attitudes of employees outside the organisation.
You also stated that PR practioners leave the job satisfaction factor entirely upto HR, that is because that is the HR role. The HR department does involve and contact ALL other departments, that's because HR's main asset is the people, the employees.
Toivo, I think that you make a good point about the impact a member of an organisation can have upon shaping the reputation of said organisation. However I think that the PR department is geared towards providing information to a mass audience where as an individual employee will only have a very limited audience i.e. friends and family. It is for this reason that I am sceptical about an employees ability to ‘make or break an organisation’s image’.
ReplyDeleteThere are of course instances where an employee can damage reputation but often this is in the form of whistle-blowing or serious misconduct. However an organisation can often recover from this.
I would also be interested in seeing how the role of ensuring employees tow the line is divided between HR and PR. With departments competing for allocated budgets and recourses perhaps more damage than good would be done to internal harmony if PR muscled in on HR.