HR and Communications: Essential Business Catalysts

Maria LazarimouCEO Advocate/Burson-Marsteller

GPMA HR Forum 2014Athens, April 24

Two Historically Parallel paths

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HR COMMS

Two historically parallel paths…

…now converging

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In today’s reputation driven economy those functions have

no other choice but to converge

They both need to serve a common goal of

creating corporate value

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To do this they both need to build a bridge to the business strategy

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They need to become relevant to the business and join the fight for market share, customer loyalty, license to operate and stock price

A reputation Economy

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“80 percent of reputation leaders across 300+ global companies agree that we compete in a reputation economy in which people buy products, take jobs, and make investments based primarily on their trust, admiration and appreciation for the companies and institutions that stand behind them.

Only 20 percent feel they are ready to deliver on these expectations and even take advantage of them.”

- 2013 Forbes Reputation Leaders study

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HR = In

tern

al Aud

ience

s

Comm

s = E

xtern

al Aud

ience

s

Until yesterday

Two parallel worlds of influence

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Today

Increasingly important HR Challenges

+ HR from the outside

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An extremely complex working environment

technology

internet

Social media

GEN Y

networking

Work-life balance

Aging employees

digitization

Office decentralization

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A new reality

Evolving challenges for HR

• Managing Talent• Managing Demographics• Becoming a learning

organization• Managing work-life

balance• Managing change and

cultural transformation

This is when HR & Coms started dating!

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Both consumers and employees seek companies with a vision and a clear sense of purpose

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The internal and external view of a company becomes unified.

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HR and communications have to work hand in hand, developing and

nurturing the company’s reputation.

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On Balancing art and science

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Companies with high effectiveness

in change management &

communication are 3.5 times more

likely to significantly outperform

their industry peers than firms that

are not effective in these areas.

2013-2014 Change and Communication ROI Study

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“The project made us realize that there are three outcomes for most communication: to

inform, to instruct and to inspire.”

[This] caused us to think differently about outcomes. Why settle for informing employees if there is a chance of

increasing their overall engagement with the firm through more effective

communications?

Internal Communication as a business driver

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HR & Communications

A Common Architecture

Burson-Marsteller has been tracking emerging organizational performance trends and practices since 1997

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• Scanning latest organizational performance- and organizational communications-focused publications, studies and news coverage

• Conducting in-depth interviews with organizational performance counselors and practitioners to understand the practices of public and private sector organizations across most industries

• Leveraging Burson-Marsteller’s latest research on overall communications trends, analyzing the implications for workplace communications

Categories

At the micro level, we continue to see evolution in key trends and practices, but also many “evergreen” practices that hold true from our previous research. But the most significant shifts we’re seeing are at the macro level.

Micro Categories Macro Categories

CATE

GO

RIES

Strategies and Programs

Messaging and Content

Channels and Vehicles

Process and Planning

Structure and Roles

Feedback and Measures

Challenging Times

CATE

GO

RIES

Workplace Environment

Employee Mindset and Behaviors

“Anatomy” of Communications

Macro Trends: Workplace Environment

• From dissemination to conversation

• Digitization significantly affecting expectations

• Workplace decentralization affecting expectations as well

2,000+ European

communications professionals rated “coping with the digital evolution and

the social web” as the most important

strategic issue for the next 3

years, ahead of “linking business

strategy and communication” (54.9% vs. 44%)

European Communication Monitor, 2011

Macro Trends: Employee Mindset and Behaviors

• Individual-centric focus and experiences

• Increasing culture of co-ownership

• From empowerment to entitlement

• Increasing interest in organization’s health

Macro Trends: "Anatomy" of Communications

• Less is more

• Story sharing as well as storytelling

• The power of visuals

• Anywhere, any device

• Digital communities rule

• Relevance has become the baseline

NASA used a visual storytelling technique

to explain the complexity of the

Higgs boson

Newcomers Mobli and SwitchCam are

taking visual story sharing a step

further than “basic” story sharing—

enabling the crowdsourcing of user-generated

videos and imagery on common topics or events to provide a

360o view from around the world

Macro Trends: "Anatomy" of Communications

Target behavior by affecting attitudes, commitment and behavioral intent

Enable professionals to perform successfully as members of the organization

Focus on message and form

Ensure messages are received by audiences as intended; basic quality

Level 1Execution

Level 2Quality

Level 3Relevance

Level 4Influence Behavior

Commitment Attitudes

Relevant – Useful

Customized

Tone/Style – Credible – Compelling

Awareness – Understanding

Preferred Channels/Tactics/Information Sources

Clear/Understandable

Delivery – Accessibility – Timeliness – Frequency

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Finally just to spur your thinking, you may want to

take a quick look at FastCompany’s list of the most

innovative companies. Some of the innovations cited

might suggest some parallels regarding the work

done in HR and Communications that builds better

mousetraps and drives businesses forward.

http://www.fastcompany.com/most-innovative-

companies/2014/

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Working closely together, HR and Communications can become essential catalysts for business growth.

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Maria LazarimouAdvocate/Burson-Marsteller

www.advocate-bm.grmlazarimou@advocate-bm.gr

Facebook – LinkedIn- Twitter:@marialaz