Communication is no longer just a “soft” function.

Communication can improve company performance and drive business success. How can we establish effective communication and change management?

Fundamental: Understanding culture and behavior

The purpose of effective communication and change management is to promote the positive behavior of employees, but if there is no corporate culture and behavioral awareness as the basis, the chances of corporate success may be reduced.

If employees cannot be motivated to participate and respond positively, even the most outstanding business strategy may fail. If an enterprise proposes an innovative strategic proposition, then all employees need to actively carry out innovative thinking and share innovative views with each other. The most successful companies will actively build an organizational culture that is consistent with their corporate strategy.

Common practices include: clarifying which employee groups and which cultural elements are needed to support the company’s strategic goals; classifying employees of the company and clarifying what can motivate the behavior of different groups of employees so that they can help the company achieve its goals; according to the above information, Formulate employment conditions and rewards and incentives for each key employee group based on the talent life cycle.

Foundation: Build an attractive employee value proposition and put it into practice

The Employee Value Proposition (EVP) is the “employment agreement”, which includes all aspects of the employee experience in the organization-including not only the benefits of employees (work experience, opportunities, and rewards), but also the employee returns expected by the organization (employees’ core competencies) , Active effort, self-improvement, values and behavior).

Efficient companies have outstanding performance in the following three aspects:

(1).Efficient companies learn from the method of dividing the consumer market, and divide employees into different groups according to their skills or roles, as well as their different personal characteristics and social positioning. Compared to low-efficiency companies, high-efficiency companies are twice as likely to spend time understanding what motivates different groups of employees.

(2).The most efficient companies create differentiated employee value propositions to cultivate the culture and behaviors required by the organization to achieve its business strategic goals. The most efficient companies are more than three times more likely to focus on the behaviors that drive the company’s success instead of focusing primarily on project costs.

(3).The effectiveness of managers in the most efficient organizations is outstanding in fulfilling employee value propositions. These managers will not only explain the “conditions of employment” to the employees, but also fulfill their promises (Figure 1). Companies that have formal EVP and encourage managers to make full use of EVP will pay more attention to managers who implement EVP.

Strategy: mobilize managers to carry out effective change management

Most corporate change projects did not achieve the set goals. Only 55% of the change projects were successful in the initial stage, and only a quarter of the change projects achieved long-term success.

Managers can be a catalyst for successful change-the premise is to prepare managers for change and hold them accountable for their role in corporate change. Almost all companies provide skills training for managers, but only a quarter of companies believe that these trainings really work. The best companies will increase their investment in managerial training, so that they can give their employees more support and help during the period of change, listen to their demands and give firm and powerful feedback.

Behavior: Build corporate community culture and promote information sharing

In the past, companies focused on maintaining hierarchical working relationships and establishing clear links between employee work and customer feedback. Now, employees who are keen on new technologies are establishing a more relaxed and collaborative working relationship online and offline. The best-performing companies are building corporate communities-cultivating symbiosis between employees and companies at all levels.

At the same time, data shows that efficient managers are more important than social media when building corporate communities. One of the most important characteristics of effective managers in the current situation is to establish a trusting relationship with their employees-including the use of new social tools and building a sense of corporate community. The most efficient companies will clearly require managers to build corporate communities and master the skills to achieve this goal-these skills are not related to whether or not to use new social media.