As part of my new series on internal marketing’s critical connections, my last post covered new staff orientation as a way to connect employees to the organization. Now we’ll look at what happens next.
After Orientation – Communication
Orientation is great for focusing attention on the new hires. But what about the employees who have been around for a while? When do they get to be reminded of their fit in and contribution to the organization? Unfortunately in a lot of companies, this may only occur once a year at performance review time … and we know how much people look forward to that process!
This is where constant communication plays a major role. Through top-down communications — from the executive level to the front-line — managers & supervisors need to share three important types of information:
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What is happening within the organization and where it is going
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What is the employee’s role & what is expected of the person in the process
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Feedback on how everyone is doing – individually and collectively.
There are lots of internal communications vehicles for this:
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Staff meetings
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Internal memos & newsletters (print and/or electronic)
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All-employee forums such as town-hall type meetings or video conferences
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Special events such as employee appreciation programs, staff dinners/picnics.
Keeping Focused
Given the hectic pace of today’s workplace, it’s easy to lose sight of the “big picture” especially when people are so busy putting out the latest fires. That’s why reinforcing the message is so critical — when employees feel a strong connection to their organization, when they know why they’re there & what they need to do, they’re more easily engaged.
My next post will continue this series and address how to strengthen employee connections within an organization.
3 replies on “Internal Marketing’s Critical Connections (Part 1-continued)”
Rachit, I highly recommend you check out any of the books written by Leonard L. Berry on services marketing, service quality, and bank marketing.
Dear Sir/Maam
I am student of Business Administration and doing a project training on service marketing for a bank. Can you please guide me how to go about it? I would be highly oblidged , if i can get to read some connected articles, or you could suggest me a web site to serve the purpose.
Thank You
Rachit Saksena
Dear maam, im an undergraduate student of management specialising in HR in delhi, india, and i must say i was delighted to discover your blog perchance today! you see im doing a project on measuring hr service quality, and linking it with employee (line mnagers specifically) perception of hr’s role, contribution and service. im also taking into account hr deps perception on how they think theyre faring… im using servqual modified (with employees as internal customers and hr dep as the service provider) to measure service quality. i was lost as to how to link the employee perceptions with the kind of service quality gap, and your writing on internal marketing brought me that flash of understanding!
indeed, whether we call it marketing or ob or hr, the bottom line is to take care of employees, so they take care of customers, in the end to achieve organisational goals. it is indeed so simple. and hr’s role is just a part of the whole deal- to take care of employees. and in a way, focussed hr is all about internal marketing!