Friday Words
“You can’t connect the dots looking forward, you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something: your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. Because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart, even when it leads you off the well-worn path.“
- Steve Jobs
Communicating internally with Carolyn Bobo
This is my coverage of the speech Carolyn Bobo, APR, Fellow PRSA, UNT InHouse editor, gave to some students of the Mayborn School of Journalism on March 15, 2012.
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Communicating internally with Carolyn Bobo
Written by Tanya Nguyen
In our technologically wired environment today, employees within an organization are showered with a staggering volume of messages from a variety of different communication platforms each day. So is it even possible to communicate with a group of people who are interrupted by a new series of messages multiple times each hour of their workday?
According to Carolyn Bobo, APR, Fellow PRSA, establishing and managing effective communication with employees within an organization is not only possible but also integral to supporting goals and achieving success. The key to effective communication with employees is knowledge of the organization’s culture, demographics and variables through the communications process of research, planning, execution and evaluation. This knowledge will shape the communications tactics and styles that the organization should pursue.
Speaking with UNT students on Thursday, March 16, Bobo explained that one of an organization’s key groups of constituents is always its employees, especially when it comes to the task of presenting a unified image and message to its other publics. Employees must be knowledgeable of their organization’s mission, value and purpose in order to support those goals through their actions and, according to Bobo, many organizations underestimate the importance of how internal communications can affect management’s relationship with its employees and their successes.
A clear and effective channel of communication must be established with an organization’s employees to quickly deliver messages about strategies and goals, or to address issues or weaknesses, Bobo said. Internal communications help employees better understand the reasons behind the actions and improvements that they are asked to make. This understanding of their actions’ purposes impacts how the organization can achieve its goals and also helps build camaraderie and internal pride in organizational success, Bobo said. Internal communications also helps employees access other information that they need, including news on benefits, policies and procedures, deadlines, events and updates on the industry’s environment or the organization’s competitors.
Bobo briefly discussed using Hage’s four variables to observe organizational structure and behavior, therefore determining how an organization can communicate with its employees. Centralization and stratification typically promote one-way, downward communication based on the organization’s hierarchy with decision making concentrated among the high-level employees. Formalization typically discourages communication and is focused on the level of rigidity of an organization’s rules and regulations and tends to control its members, rather than coordinate them. Complexity, the fourth variable, has a range of upward and downward communications and refers to the extent of varied job roles and educated, professionalized employees.
Bobo also talked about the different communication style preferences, which research can uncover. According to Bobo, most employees prefer face-to-face communication with their immediate supervisor. However, because of today’s technologically advanced and wired environment, organizations must determine other means of communication aside from cascading information down through the levels of management to the front line employee.
To connect with internal publics, organizations can utilize forms of electronic, print, video, audio and grapevine communication, though the last channel is the least effective according to Bobo. Including the essential 5W’s/H are still useful towards organizing and executing any tactics, but writing for internal communications requires a certain degree of information mapping to align the message’s accessibility with the current, rapidly changing technological environment. Bobo explains that messages should be suitable for online distribution, with short sentences and paragraphs, and encourages the use of bullet points to quickly and clearly present important information.
Bobo also discussed intranets, a website within an organization, as a means of interactively engaging employees by allowing them to add and exchange information, ideas and news. According to Bobo, an organization’s in-house website or blog must be well-designed and functional to successfully engage and communicate with employees. Another benefit of having an organizational website or blog includes the ability to link other relevant content to the message for employees to find more information.
Bobo stresses that all communication and information from an organization must be 100 percent accurate and professional since credibility greatly affects an organization’s ability to reach its goals. Having a clear message that internal publics can understand and support is crucial in effectively communicating with all other publics.
Nancy Voith talks about resume building, LinkedIn and getting hired in the PR field
This is my coverage of the “How to Make It in the Real World,” by guest speaker Nancy S. Voith, APR, Managing Director, CRA, Inc., on February 7, 2012.
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Nancy Voith talks about resume building, LinkedIn and getting hired in the PR field
Nancy Voith encouraged UNT students this past Tuesday to pose this question toward themselves: “What do I want to be found as? What kind of job am I going for?” From there, Voith advises that keywords answering those questions must be spread throughout students’ resumes and LinkedIn profiles.
Voith, the managing editor at CRA Inc, spoke with UNT public relations students this past Tuesday morning about the sometimes daunting tasks of making oneself stand out in a stack of resumes and getting hired in the real world. The path to hiring success includes showcasing skills and attitudes, knowledge of the organization and environment, and differentiation, according to Voith.
A corporate communications and marketing veteran with nearly 30 years of experience, Voith explained that the key way students can make themselves a more attractive job candidate is by knowing their audience and distinguishing themselves and their work from the masses. Students should have as many resumes as the number of jobs they are applying for, Voith said, and each resume should be tailored specifically toward the particular position and company. Knowing ones audience through good research is crucial toward this personalization aspect.
In order to differentiate oneself in a real-world way, Voith emphasizes that students remain astute and informed about their particular industry. With a field-specific job, Voith recommends highlighting important words throughout the job description and researching the company. Students should discover what the company environment is like and understand what kind of person the company wants to hire, Voith said.
She revealed the three qualities through which hiring managers evaluate candidates: IQ, EQ and CQ. IQ refers to the student’s intelligence related to the particular field and includes the table stakes the candidate possesses, such as writing skill or if they are more qualified than another person. EQ signifies a candidate’s emotional qualities and maturity. Employers evaluate how savvy, astute, well-mannered and balanced the candidate is. CQ represents the culture fit of the candidate within the company and must not be underestimated, Voith said.
“What are you going to leave the interviewer that they didn’t already know?” Voith asked. Smart interviewing isn’t so much about selling oneself as it is about understanding an organization’s pain points, Voith said. “You have to show how you can be relevant to that organization.” This is a major part of differentiating oneself, and is something other interviewees don’t know to do, Voith said.
A concern plaguing many students is the type of work experience they’re able to list on their resume. Voith suggests that students list as many legitimate jobs as possible, whether they are industry-related or volunteer work, and to have at least one recommendation for each. For the students whose professional history consists of mainly serving in the food industry, Voith advises that highlighting ones leadership and initiative will help the student stand out.
Whatever the job may be, leadership is a very important quality toward differentiating students from each other, according to Voith, and therefore it should be emphasized at every opportunity in jobs listed on a student’s resume. Explaining the ways a student went above and beyond in each particular position gives employers and recruiters a perspective, Voith said.
Though her speech was similar in ways to many speeches about resume building and getting hired, Voith incorporates an important calling card in today’s technological environment: the LinkedIn profile. Referred to as the new digital business card by some, Voith explains that the business-related social networking site is where many students can amass a variety of professional connections and market themselves. Voith encouraged students to create and maintain a complete LinkedIn profile that matches their resume and to have others review the profile to provide feedback on their impression of the profile.
Emphasizing the importance of leadership and initiative again, Voith said profiles must showcase each and all opportunities for those qualities since the LinkedIn is like a digital business card and resume. “What I’m looking for is someone who has leadership and initiative. I’ll take that over a 4.5 [grade point average] student who can’t talk to anybody any day,” Voith said. According to her, the formula used to showcase a student’s experience is SAR: situation, action and results. Explain in one bullet what the situation was, what you did about it, and what the results were, Voith said. She emphasized that every bullet on a student’s resume or profile ideally would be in a SAR format that helps hiring managers understand why the student is different.
Voith brought her speech to a personal level, revealing to students her difficulties with finding a job after graduation and her experience as an intern to her congressman and traveling to Washington, D.C. At that internship, Voith improved the newsletter that went out to the district and that work went on her resume. “I took it upon myself to change that newsletter. Was it a big thing? No, but it was initiative and showed leadership,” Voith said.
Reiterating how LinkedIn is a useful tool for networking, Voith advised students to maintain their connections and relationships, since 87 to 90 percent of job opportunities come through one’s own personal network. “You always go into a conversation thinking about ‘what can I do to help you?’ It’s not what they can do to help you,” Voith said.
Voith reminded students that in everything they do, they are spending at least one of the three currencies in the world: time, money and reputation. She prompted students to ask themselves, “Am I spending it right?” and to always be thinking about endorsements and who is talking about their reputation. “How you choose to spend those [currencies] personally is going to be a huge factor in your success,” Voith said.
