Unspoken Rules

Joining a new company is exciting but, at the same time, it could be a bit scary. Starting a new job is not only about the new tasks, responsibilities, tools or colleagues. A new workplace is an unexplored paradise (or hell) full of unwritten rules and protocols to be discovered and followed by the new employees. From discovering what the right time for a coffee break is, or understanding the working-from-home policy to getting to know how much open feedback the colleagues and the management are able to take, discovering all those new things might be a painful journey.

An unspoken rule is a rule that is not officially written down but, somehow is imposed in the company. To be honest, I have seen many work situations fail due to the lack of knowledge or lack of understanding of those rules. I am sure that all of us have faced a situation at the office in which we wished we would have known about an unspoken rule. The future of every new employee and his/her acceptance as part of the team will depend on how this person behaves and follows the company rules, particularly those unspoken ones. 

Avoiding the unspoken rules shock

Many companies have created clear induction procedures to make the new employee's landing to the new place an enjoyable journey. Creating clear procedures and rules can help your company avoiding surprises while simplifying the life of many managers and supervisors. Unfortunately, there is no clear way to officially teach the unspoken rules to the newcomers. Those can be mainly discovered by staying around and learning from others. Sometimes, we learn by doing mistakes, too. 

I have found useful getting to know the company already during the recruitment process. Using your network to ask about the company and its culture before joining the company is also a good way to go. I know, sometimes, we get the first impression only from the hiring manager or the HR representative but, some companies are already involving the rest of the team at the recruitment stage. When you get to know the team or at least some members in advance, you are able to see how they behave together, what kind of clothes do they wear and even how they talk to the recruiting manager. This might help a bit.

Written rules vs. unspoken rules

Incongruities between professed rules and actual practices are very common in the workplace. This means, that despite having clear policies or protocols to follow, people at the company have created their own way to proceed and that has been well accepted and implemented. There are also cases in which the official rules only apply to certain people and not to all equally. This can be a bit frustrating for newcomers.


So, how to learn the unspoken rules? Summing up, the best recommendation when you join a new company is to take the time to observe your surroundings and to watch how other people at the company behave. Prudence is essential. It is important that you take the time to get to know your colleagues and your managers before doing anything dramatic.

How To Encourage Your Employees To Share Your Content

Sharing is caring they said but, what to share if your employees do not know about your company's steps, happenings, and plans? 

By creating and sharing content, your employees can add value to your marketing. They can be the voice of your company and, help you to increase your company's visibility and your brand awareness. Unfortunately, in many companies, employees are still underused as a marketing force.

Here, six ideas to encourage your employees to share your content:

1. The first step to increasing your employees’ participation is to share information with them. I know it sounds very obvious but, sometimes, communication can be underestimated in some companies. If your employees don't know what is going on, they cannot help you to spread the news. Make them know what is happening and, encourage them to create and share their own stories.

2. Stop random marketing and create a clear marketing strategy. After this is created, you have to share it with your employees. No excuses! Knowing about your company's future plans and direction will help them to make decisions on what kind of content they can create and share.

3. Create good quality content that at the same time is easy to share. It is important that they feel proud of the content they are sharing. A well-written and visually appealing material has more chances to be shared than a poor one.

Give your employees the chance to create and share their own content

4. Educate your employees to become your brand ambassadors. If fact, you should train them even before they start to use the social media channels. Communication and social media training will help your employees to feel comfortable when creating and sharing content. You might train them, for example, on how to use the channels as well as on how to follow the company’s social media guidelines. As soon as the content start to be shared by them, it will be useful to share best practices among your employees. Make sure your employees are spending time on the right social media channels, based on your company strategies and goals. 

5. Encourage your employees to try new things. It will not only help you to innovate and develop your communication and marketing but, also it will make their fear of saying or doing something wrong disappear and they will be sharing more and more.

6. Take actions yourself as a manager. You could create and share inspiring content and celebrates your employees' social sharing. Be present and engage with your audience.


Be aware that no all your employees will be willing to take part of these activities. That is ok, too. They are not required to act as your company's brand ambassadors so, you cannot force them to do so. On the other hand, it is important to reward those who take on this role. Make them feel valued.

Do you have any other tip? Share your experience.

Does Your Company Need A Social Media Guru?

The company's brand ambassadors are hot right now.

There are quite many blogs, books, and social media conversations covering this topic. It looks like everyone is talking about the relevance of the brand ambassador. The benefit of using this figure to promote your company and your products is undeniable. 

I totally support the idea of "people" (instead of "companies") taking a more active role representing the company in different events as well as on the social media channels and blogs. However, when the advice for the companies is to hire a "social media guru" to take care of this, it makes me think, is this really necessary?

Forget the external social media guru. Focus on your employees. 

First, let me clarify that I have nothing against the "social media gurus". In fact, I feel a sincere admiration for the guys out there who are able to engage masses and become influencers by giving fantastic speeches, creating catchy content, or sharing amazing pictures and videos. That requires a lot of talent and dedication.

My point here is that no all companies can hire a "social media guru". Sometimes, it does not even make sense. This can be very expensive and the company might not be "mature" enough to take this step and to make this investment. The hiring person might not understand how to start the hiring process or what kind of skills are needed for the role.

The good news is that social media management is a skill that can be developed. In most of the cases, you can develop the skills of somebody who is already in your team. By training well your employees, you can convert them into your own social media gurus and brand ambassadors.

Never underestimate the power of your employees

The advantage of using you employees as brand ambassadors is that they already know your company, your products, and your people. They will be able to network inside your organization and get the information they need to create their content. Of course, it will help a lot if your company embraces a culture of sharing content.  

Your employees' strengths and talents can be shown in different ways. Some employees might be very good writing on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn. Others might be better at taking pictures and using Instagram, or presenting in different shows or events. There will be space for everyone interested in being your company's ambassador. 

6 reason why you should convert your employees into your brand ambassadors

- Your employees might have already thousands of connections across multiple networks. Therefore, they might reach a much larger audience than the one you are reaching now by using your company channel.

- It is well known that the content shared by employees receives more engagement than the content shared by the company channels. People prefer to follow people.

- If your employees share content that is relevant for your brand and for the industry in which you operate, they will create a personal brand. This means they will be seen as experts, and they will be contacted for advice. If your prospects think about your employee and his/her expertise while finding a solution, they might be purchasing your product or service. 

- Employees talking and sharing content about your company and your culture will help you to create your employer brand. If the shared content is positive, this might help you to attract and source new talent.

-  When your employees participate actively sharing information on the social media channel or they participate in the industry events, they also get more information. The social media channels and the events itself are a great source for learning new skills and perfect for networking with people in your industry.

- Encouragement and new responsibilities can increase motivation. The beauty of allowing your employees to use and experiment with the social media channels at work is that at the same time you will inspire them to do something new and exciting. This will also create a positive buzz and an infectious excitement among the rest of the employees.


Summing up, it is time to start your "treasure hunting" inside your own company. Find people interested in this development area and help them becoming your company ambassador and your own social media gurus. 

The Cost Of Poor Internal Communication

Internal communication is an unresolved issue in many companies, and again an underestimate competence to develop. Have you ever been in a situation in which you just receive unclear emails over and over again? Or do you feel like the communication in your organization is a good example of a circus? Have you been in a situation in which the team members do not understand each other although they speak the same language? Or employees do not know about a project or its results although all those emails, weekly meetings, CRM, and other available tools, but all the information is in somebody’s head? I believe you are familiar with these situations. And trust me, I understand your frustration. 

Is your organizational communication looking like a circus?

Poor internal communication is costly:

Poor communication or the lack of it is not just a disengaging factor but, it is very costly for your company, too. Don’t let poor communication be part of your company culture. Don't let poor communication be your way of doing things. Underestimating internal communication might have multiple consequences -from the basic misunderstanding among the team members producing for, example, some project fails and the dysfunctionality of your products or services, to affecting some safety issues and generating accidents.

Unfortunately, the cost of poor communication is not a number easy to report. However, many of us have experienced at some point in our careers the loss of productivity as a result of a poor meeting. Other times we have failed and lost a business opportunity due to the bad given information or misunderstandings. We have seen underachievement of a team due to the time they use deciphering emails instead of working.

Internal communication and the management:

The way managers communicate with their team has an impact on the company results. When employees understand what they need to do and they received enough information to do their job properly, they will just do it. However: 

- If the message is unclear, the result will be messy or there will not be a result at all.

- If the manager communicates poorly or not communicates at all, there is a high risk of disengaging employees.

- If your company is facing changes, and there is not enough information about it, this will increase misconduct.

Better than saying that poor communication is frustrating on many levels, I would like to emphasize how enriching good communication is. The communication skills are not just a job requirement. These skills can be developed. Communication should be an essential process inside the organization.

Your Employees Are Getting Social: Are You ready?

I have always believed that the employees are the best ambassadors of the company, its brands and products. The companies need employees to be represented in front of customers, competitors, and even future employees. It is clear for all of us that if employees are happy, they will share it with the people around- in offline or online scenarios. Online, for example, they will share pictures of the company events or they will tweet about the good time they have at work. Their friends will get this info (and maybe they will get jealous, too) and they will ask for more information and maybe for a job in that “so good” company. Other case could be when your employee’ friends can be your customers, and they will be buying your products, inspired by the company guy’s comments.

With the reach of the social media, the messages that you employees are delivering are part of the company communication, in an easier, informal and yet more powerful way.

The power social media has given to employees can be intimidating for many managers, especially if they are not familiar with the new channels. If as a manager you are getting anxious and even stressed because this is something that you cannot control, it is moment to take it easy -to take it forward. You cannot avoid social media anymore. You cannot control the employees’ communication but, you can help them to understand the importance of their communication and the role they play in increasing your company online presence.

  

The debate about prohibiting to use or to check the channels at work or not has been on the table for a while. Prohibiting employees to take part of the conversation can be more a problem than a solution. Ignoring the role that your employees can play in this social media game just because they don’t master the channels is a fail, too. Instead, arranging some basic workshop on how to use the media, what kind of tonality is appropriate, etc. might help you to canalize the message in the right direction and especially, to avoid negative surprises in the future. The most important thing to remember is to use this workshop to encourage your employees and to improve their confidence in using social media.

The social media channels are inexpensive and give you access to the entire world. See social media as a networking channel which will help you spreading your message and get fans and followers. Employees can see what is happening around your product and in your business. They can also perceive the direction that the industry is taking, and therefore, react on time and innovate.

If you are in one of those industries in which social media is not yet a common practice, enjoy, you are very lucky. Don’t wait for the other companies to go ahead, you have the chance to show how to do it first. Social media is happening, you cannot avoid this anymore.

The Tone Of Your Internal Communication

During my days as communicator I (have) learned that managers don’t need to share everything they know but, they should always keep the communication open and positive. It encourages employees to take part of the company conversation and the development. It also increases their commitment. I know, I could go deeply and talk about the role of the cultural differences in this open and positive communication understanding, but let’s keep that for later…
 

My point this time is that even if the message is essential, the tone plays as important role as the message itself. If the tone is positive, you can see the results in the company atmosphere:employees are enthusiastic and optimistic. It is like they can get energy and good vibes from the message. However, if the tone is negative, everything will suck, as simple as that. 

The tone is the message:

• Keep the tone positive even in the most challenging times -especially in the most challenging times.
• Get the vision right and well explained: whatever you want to achieve with your company, with your team or even with your colleague, be clear. People cannot read your mind. Get it right, explain it, repeat!
• Focus: The only case in which you should be extinguishing fires everywhere is if you are you are a fireman. If you are not, quit this hobby. If you have problem focusing: select three main topics and talk about those. We humans cannot digest all the info at the time, we will not even remember more than three or four basic points.
• Share the right message in the right way: all your team members are different. Use different channels but, especially use the appropriate content and way of talking when you communicate with them.
• Increase urgency: If you are facing challenging time, don’t wait, prioritize communication. Use it for example, to push the team to get the goal, to inspire and to get the commitment. Don’t use the urgency as an excuse to talk about results or the lack of it. Don’t use urgency to be a pain or to push the limits (and the patience) of your team members.
• Remove obstacles: So if you see that something is not working. Talk! Stop ignoring the situation, stop complaining about it and find out –seriously- the obstacles. Take action.  
• Stop taking care of everything: the company communication is no a one man show. Let your team take part of it. Their way can be also a good way.
• Be consistent:  Sync your messages, tone and actions. Always!

Communication, formal or informal, should be a continuous process in any organization. Practice this often and seriously. If you are facing a challenge finding the right way to communicate or finding the way to develop your internal communication, look for advice. Communication is an investment.