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Communicating Your Financial Strength To All Employees

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How many of your employees could articulate the steps your electric utility or telecommunications company takes to stay financially strong?

I recently had the privilege of interviewing the CFO of a G&T who told me that it takes $15,000 a minute to run their company. One of his goals in using this simple metric was to communicate to his co-workers the amount of planning that goes into keeping the operation financially secure — and how these efforts impact not only their jobs but their member systems as well.

How are your customers affected by your financial planning, and are you communicating any of the work that you’re doing in that area? It can be easy to talk about your response to a major storm or about your latest service or program. Those are things that your customers can see and easily understand. Financial matters can be more difficult to discuss, but they’re just as important to communicate.

Start with your key employees. Make sure each member of your management team, as well as each department head, has a firm understanding of your financial strength and what steps are involved in keeping your utility on firm financial footing.

Communicate with all employees. Perhaps you have an internal newsletter or conduct team meetings where you discuss what’s happening in your company. Use all available channels to communicate this message.

Explain key factors. Make sure your employees understand the various factors that affect your rates — labor, materials, regulatory, etc. What factors can you control? What factors are outside of your control? They need to know the difference, along with what role they can play in reducing costs.

Talk about debt. Help your employees understand the role debt plays in operating your company. Explain the importance of having access to low-interest loans and how planning for the future through equipment upgrades and long-range capital projects helps control costs down the road.

Focus on consumers. However you decide to talk about these issues, remember that your financial planning and strength allow you to better serve your customers. Though some financial concepts may be harder to understand, your overall message should be that today’s focus on financial strength ultimately helps your company offer better, more reliable service to those customers at the end of the line.

 

Communicating In Times Of Uncertainty

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We’ve all heard the saying “the only constant is change.” That doesn’t make change any more comfortable to bear.

It’s not so much the change itself we dread, but the uncertainly that comes with it. What is going to change? How will it affect me? Will life be better for me and my family, or will things get worse?

Your employees and customers may have such questions from time to time. For your employees, it could be a change in their benefits package or the transition to new billing software. For your customers, it could be the introduction of automated meters or gig internet service.

Whatever the reason for the uncertainty, taking a few simple steps to address it in the beginning can help prevent uncertainty from turning into crisis.

Begin Early
“Something is coming” is almost always better than “here’s something new, effective immediately.” Sure, there are times when you need to sit on information for a while due to its sensitive nature or legal requirements. But as a general rule, it’s better to prepare your employees or customers for coming changes with a well-thought-out communications plan. Let people know what to expect up front and you’ll set expectations you can build upon as the situation unfolds.

Acknowledge The Pain
As a leader at your company, you have thought through this decision from every angle. You’ve lived with it for a long time, examined it from top to bottom. But before you roll it out, you need to look at it with fresh eyes. Make a list of all the concerns your people may have about the change, then use this list to guide your communications efforts. Anticipating and addressing their concerns before anyone has time to voice them will help you lead your employees and customers through the next phase, whatever it may be.

Keep The Information Flowing
Communicating is not a “one and done” game. You can never say, “OK, we have communicated. We’re finished.” More than likely, your message contains many components (here’s why we’re doing this, this is how it will work, here’s how it will impact you, here’s a list of things you can do, etc.), and your employees or customers need time to truly absorb these details. To be successful, your communications plan needs to be ongoing.

It doesn’t take a dramatic event to create uncertainty. Even when the upcoming change will have nothing but a positive impact on your employees or customers, it’s important for you to have a solid plan in place to communicate throughout the process. You’ll be rewarded with a better-informed base, fewer questions and less of the anxiety that comes from not knowing what is going to happen next.

Communicating Starts With Your Number One Audience — Your Employees

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Joe Lineman had just left work and stopped at a local convenience store on his way home. While his truck filled with gas, he went inside to pick up a gallon of milk. “Hey, Joe,” said the man behind the counter, who had owned the store since Joe was just a kid. “I got a notice in my bill about that new round up program you guys are starting. I was thinking about participating. What do you think about it?”

“I don’t know much about it,” Joe said, a frown pulling down his face. “They don’t tell us anything around there, you know. But from what I’ve heard, I don’t like it. I’m gonna opt out.”

“Well, that’s good enough for me,” the store owner said as he gave Joe his change. That week, he opted out of the charity program — as did hundreds of other citizens who had similar conversations with employees of the utility.

What happened? Was the round up charity program a bad idea? Was there a lack of customer outreach? Were the employees bad people who didn’t want to help good causes in their community? No, no and no. To quote a classic movie, “what we’ve got here is failure to communicate.”

The management team of the company in this story made the same mistake so many other companies make every day. They focused all their resources on communicating with Audience No. 2 (their customers) and forgot about Audience No. 1 (their employees).

Let me emphasize something here: Your employees are the key to the success of every program launch, every company initiative and every message your electric utility or telecommunications company hopes to impart to its customers. Here’s why every communications effort should start at home:

  1. Your employees are empowered by information. They work there. Many have devoted years of service to the company and the communities it serves. They want to know what plans the management team has for the utility. In more than two decades of working with electric and telecommunications companies, the top complaint we hear from employees — by far — is “we’re always the last ones to know what’s going on.” When you communicate with your employees, they become “in the know,” which gives them the power to carry the company’s mission forward.
  2. Your employees can be your strongest advocates. When your employees are armed with information, your utility gains an invaluable asset in communicating with its customers. Beyond the traditional methods of communicating, plus the newer digital channels, you will also have a small army of advocates who will share the good news of your program with friends, family, neighbors and anyone who asks about it.
  3. Your employees can be your strongest saboteurs. It’s difficult to say who has the most power: an employee armed with information or an employee armed with ignorance. If you have employees with no information interacting with your customers, the results will never be positive. Employees who don’t understand your mission and who feel left out will inevitably sabotage your efforts, whether they realize that’s what they are doing or not.

So how do you empower your employees and make sure they are advocates and not saboteurs? Here are a few tips:

  1. Tell them in writing. Give details of your plan or new program launch to every employee — in writing. Perhaps it’s just a single sheet of bullet points, or maybe a copy of the brochure or direct mail piece that customers will soon see.
  2. Tell them in person. Do you have regular company-wide employee meetings? If so, devote a portion of those meetings to sharing information about the latest company initiatives.
  3. Tell them in multiple settings. Look for opportunities to mention your latest project. Talk about it when you see employees on the job site, in the hallway or in the break room. Call team leaders into your office, ask for their input and let them know they are an important part of the success of this new program.
    Tell them until you are sick and tired of telling them. Then tell them again. It’s true that by the time you are weary of hearing yourself talk about it, your message is just beginning to take root with your audience. Just keep talking.
  4. Give them ample opportunity to ask questions. Every time you talk about it, end the conversation by asking for input from your employees. In newsletters, provide an email address. In personal contact and in meetings, leave time in the conversation for taking questions. No matter how you reach out, make sure you provide an avenue for your employees to ask questions.
  5. Be transparent. When they ask questions, they want answers. Sometimes you may not have the answers, and it’s OK to say, “I don’t know, but let me get back to you with an answer.” Other times you may not be at liberty to share the information they have asked for. It’s OK to say, “that is not something we can talk about at this moment for (financial/legal/competitive) reasons, but when we can share that information I’ll be sure to let you know.”

Imagine what would have happened that day if Joe Lineman had been empowered by his company. He would have encouraged the store owner to participate in the round up charity program. And how many people would the store owner have seen and encouraged on a weekly basis? The ripple effect would have been incredible, and would have helped so many people in that community.

You have plenty to think about when getting a new product or service ready to launch. But don’t forget the most important step — communicate with your employees first, and you will have a group of empowered advocates ready to help you make the launch a success.

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StoryConnect is a production of WordSouth — A Content Marketing Company. We work with electric utilities and telecommunications companies who serve rural and small-town America. Their mission becomes our mission as our hard work and big ideas earn their trust in us as a true communications partner.