Creating digital stories that resonate and inspire

Author: Renee DeVaughn

The Importance of Professional Networking

Importance of Professional NetworkingThe Importance of Professional Networking

You open your inbox and there is an invitation to attend an event or alternatively, you receive a formal invitation in the mail. So you gingerly place the invitation on the side or in a pending file, or you may even throw it away without a second glance. If it’s an Evite, you may respond and say you cannot attend. But you’ll never know what opportunities may have awaited you.

My professors and bosses have always stressed the importance of networking, and I couldn’t agree with them more. The old saying, “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know” holds a lot of truth.

Here are some reasons why professional networking is important:

Developing Relationships is Critical to Success
Developing and cultivating relationships is critical to success. People do business with those they know, like, and trust. It takes time, energy, and effort to build a network. Through building that network you develop and cultivate relationships with people who know you, trust you, and will do business with you.

Increases Your Chance of Getting a Job
In today’s current economic climate, the job market is very challenging and competitive with going up against potentially hundreds of other candidates for a single position. Constant rejections and lengthy interviews can sometimes mean that your face becomes just another in the pile. Just as networking with specific businesses can help you find your next job, so too can networking with industry recruiters. Often employers and industry recruiters have the inside scoop on possible new job openings before they are advertised. Employers prefer to hire based on referrals or recommendations which people in your network can provide. Managers and recruiters looking to fill a position will first search their own networks for candidates before the job goes public. Gaining access to these key players and hiring managers is tied directly to your network.

Increases Confidence Levels
Networking increases confidence levels because it will help you to push yourself to talk to people you don’t know. We cannot build strategic partnerships or social relationships unless we communicate. No matter what walk of life we pursue, we need to be able to break the ice, approach strangers and start, build, and maintain conversations. The more you do this, the easier it will become.

Allows for Visibility and Presence
Networking allows you to be visible and present. Instead of hiding in your cubicle or office, networking ensures that you are visible so the people in your organization know who you are. In each of my positions, I actively networked at all levels in the organization in order to develop positive relationships and create value for others in the company by being knowledgeable, reliable and a supportive person. Being visible and getting noticed is a big benefit of networking.

Who Should Be In Your Network?

Build Your Network

Your network can be made up of almost anyone you’ve ever met and each of your contacts can lead you to new ones such as:

  • Current and Former Co-Workers: Those you currently work with as well as those you’ve worked with in the past can be part of your network.
  • Your Co-Members in Professional Associations: When you become an active member in a professional association, you will increase your chances of meeting people. It will also give your colleagues a chance to see you in action.
  • Friends and Family: Keep your family and friends apprised of your career goals. You never know who will end up having the ability to help you.
  • Former Professors and Instructors: Your former professors and instructors most likely worked in your field or at least have some connections.
  • Former Classmates: The alumni directory of your college can provide you with contacts to add to your network.

In conclusion, when your invitation arrives, gladly accept the invitation, and attend the event. These events give us a chance to meet new people and cultivate lasting relationships. With practice, you will be able to mingle while increasing your confidence level.

The Subjectivity of Performance Appraisals

The Subjectivity of Performance Appraisals

In a perfect world employee evaluations can be an excellent tool for both managers and employees to maximize productivity to achieve personal objectives and organizational goals. But the workplace is not a perfect world, and in reality some surveys of managers indicate that they hate conducting performance appraisals, second only to firing employees. The vast majority of U.S. organizations use some kind of performance appraisal as a means to evaluate their workforce. These appraisals are important since they are often used when it comes to human resource decisions such as salary increases, promotions, career advancement, and training opportunities. While performance appraisals can have a positive influence on the above personnel decisions, other research has found that many U.S. organizations face difficulty when it comes to terminating employees that demonstrate unsatisfactory workplace performance. Why? Managers are reluctant to give truly candid performance appraisals for fear of creating conflict and possible recrimination by the employee against the manager. This subjectivity raises some ethical questions about the performance appraisal process.

Due to their widespread use and substantial influence on the status of an employee, Performance Appraisal Subjectivitymanagers have an ethical obligation to conduct employee appraisals in the most impartial and unbiased way possible. Researchers have recently distinguished two different types of performance appraisals: one based on the rational and the other based on the political perspective. The rational approach is designed to use objective criteria to assign accurate ratings. The goal of the political approach is subjective in nature and can use ambiguous standards which are designed to increase the degree of latitude provided to a manager when evaluating an employee. Prior studies have found that many managers have manipulated the performance appraisal process for political purposes. To reduce employee discord and workplace dissonance, managers have been found to give higher ratings to employees to keep them content. Higher ratings can also be given to obtain a promotion for preferential employees. Lower ratings can often be given to employees as a signal that they are no longer held in high esteem by the organization and it may be time to seek employment elsewhere. Low ratings can also be given by managers as a form of retaliation. However, lower ratings can be detrimental to employers because it can lead to decreased motivation, increased turnover, and increased risk of litigation.

Manipulating ratings either higher or lower is unethical. Performance ratings should provide an honest appraisal of an employee’s abilities. To intentionally lower a worker’s rating for political purposes is unethical because it deprives deserving employees of rewards and promotional opportunities. An inflated performance rating is unethical because it fails to provide an employee with a true assessment of their abilities and where they can improve. Furthermore, it decreases employee morale because it fails to differentiate higher-achieving employees from the average.

When a company incorporates a code of ethics into its business practices, it helps assure that business is conducted in a fair and professional manner. A company’s ethical conduct should be an integral part of its corporate landscape. Managers do not always act upon ethical issues. For example, the overall objective of a performance evaluation is to provide an honest assessment of the employee’s performance and to develop an action plan when there is a need for improvement.

Communication is an integral part of the performance evaluation process and should be ongoing throughout the entire year. Specific performance feedback should be communicated to subordinates about any unsatisfactory behavior and what alternative methodologies can be incorporated to improve their performance. Continual feedback and communication are important in fostering a harmonious working relationship. Ideally, a manager should not wait until the formal evaluation process to convey performance problems that have occurred during the course of the year.

In my work experience, I have found that performance evaluations are frequently based on the manager’s opinion and are often subjective. The evaluation reflects what the manager can remember which is usually the more recent events when evaluating a subordinate. Thus some managers tend to evaluate employees on what they have recently done rather than looking at the entire year. This, of course, does not accurately reflect an employee’s overall performance because it only reflects the employee’s most recent behavior. Other managers can place unreasonably high demands on subordinates that makes it difficult for them to achieve positive performance evaluations. Less than positive ratings can result in decreased motivation. Often managers may give inflated ratings in order to avoid conflict. In today’s tough economic environment where organizations are giving modest to no salary increases, managers may create a discord in the work environment when giving an unsatisfactory performance evaluation. This internal conflict can be devastating on workplace morale and can last for a long time. To avoid this, many managers try to prevent conflict and opt for a more harmonious workplace by giving inflated evaluations. However, by not providing honest feedback, the purpose of the performance evaluation is ultimately defeated.

Performance evaluations that are not properly conducted can have a negative effect and can be subject to legal action particularly in the areas of discrimination and EEOC compliance. Some organizations use forced rankings. Forced rankings is a process where a company ranks its employees against each other than can terminate those employees at the lowest end of the ranking. Consider the high-profile cases of Capital One, Ford Motor Company, and Goodyear who have been sued for age-related discrimination associated with forced rankings. In another instance, a class-action lawsuit was filed against 3M for alleged age discrimination in training, performance reviews, pay, promotions, and layoffs. Lawsuits can be costly to a company’s reputation and its bottom line.

No matter how objective performance appraisal rating systems appear to be, they are still substantially influenced by the subjectivity that is part of human nature.

Industry Specific Digital Marketing Acronyms

Industry Specific Digital Marketing Acronyms

We all tend to speak in industry-specific jargon as a means of impressing clients or customers. Jargon is a specialized vocabulary that functions as a kind of shorthand by people with common backgrounds and experience. It can be valuable for those who understand it. However, jargon often leads to misunderstanding and confusion because clients or customers may be unfamiliar with the language. As digital marketing continues to advance, I am going to detangle some of the industry-specific acronyms and their meanings.

CRM: Every business has a list of existing and potential customers. Customer Relationship Management is an effective strategy that allows your business to manage and track the history of your customers, collaborate effectively, increase productivity, and grow your business. Salesforce and Marketo are just two examples of CRM software application tools for organizations.

CSS: Used in web design, Cascading Style Sheets is a “style sheet language” used to define HTML interface design elements such as typography and page layout (color, font size, line spacing, letter spacing, indents, margins, element positioning, text alignment, borders).

CTA:  A Call to Action is a word or phrase that’s used to prompt the reader to take immediate action. Some examples include “Click Here”, “Subscribe Today”, or “Act Now.”

HTML: HyperText Markup Language is the language used to create webpages that can be viewed on the web.

Digital Marketing Acronyms

PPC: The easiest way to make money from a blog or website is to run pay-per-click ads and banners. Pay-per-click, or PPC, is an internet advertising model used to direct traffic to websites where advertisers pay the publisher, which is typically the website owner, each time a user clicks on your ad.

Google’s AdWords is the most popular PPC program. Advertisers bid on keywords, and the highest bidders get top listings, next to the organic (non-paid) search results. They’re charged only when a visitor clicks their ad.

PV: Page Views are the total number of different pages on your site that visitors have opened during a specific period.

RSS: Real simple syndication, or RSS, allows users to subscribe to content and read at their own convenience, using an application called a feed reader. Every time new content is developed or updated, the user will get a notification. Feedly, NewzCrawler, and Feed Demon are among the most popular feed readers.

SEO: You’ve spent lots of time building and optimizing your website, but what if you launch your site and nobody visits? And if you do get visitors, how do you know if you’re giving them the information they came for? Search engine optimization, or SEO, are methods used to gain visibility on a search engine’s list of search results with the end goal to gain more relevant site traffic. The most commonly used search engines are Google, Yahoo, and Bing. These methods include optimizing and creating keywords, URL structures, page titles, content, meta titles and descriptions, page load times, inbound links, internal links, and more.

SEM: SEM stands for Search Engine Marketing. SEO and SEM are not interchangeable terms but, when practiced together, they can help can boost your website’s rankings on search engines. SEO is the practice of boosting your rankings through organic methods such as publishing effective content and using good keywords, links, and easy navigation for users. SEM typically refers to pay-per-click advertising that would appear on sites like Google, Yahoo, or Bing. It’s the ads that appear on the top and side of those pages and include search engine optimization (SEO) to have their business show up naturally or organically within the results page.

URL: Uniform Resource Locator, or URL, is the web or specific address of information found on the Internet.

The digital marketing industry is rife with acronyms, so this list is not exhaustive and only includes some of the more commonly used terms.

 

The Importance of Color

Importance of Color - Branding

The Importance of Color

Color is an important element in marketing, branding, web design, or even interviewing for a job. Research has shown that people react differently to colors. Color can sway thinking, change actions, and cause reactions. It can soothe, raise your blood pressure, or even make you hungry. You can drive almost anywhere and assume that a traffic light has red, amber, and green; that red means stop and green means go.

Colors can evoke connotations like aggressive, soothing, cheerful, luxurious—and those connotations differ across cultures.

Color is a powerful form of communication.

Color and its Meanings

Black is a mysterious color that signifies power, strength, authority, and commands respect. It is simple, elegant, and speaks of class.

Blue is a favorite color for businesses and suggests stability. It inspires confidence and is the second most powerful color. Darker shades of blue represent authority while brighter hues signify trust and security. Paler shades imply peace, loyalty, and wisdom.  Blue causes a calming effect.

Gray is a cool, neutral, and balanced color and is associated with conservative qualities and considered traditional, business-wise symbolizes high-tech and suggests authority, practicality, earnestness, and creativity.

White is the color of innocence, cleanliness, purity, and neutrality. For this reason, many websites use white as a background. It is considered to be the color of perfection. White is a brilliant color and works well for contrast but, that same brilliance can make white hard to focus on and may cause eye fatigue and can be blinding at times.

Brown is an earthy color and is often associated with nature, warmth, and coziness. It suggests richness, stability, reliability, dependability, and approachability, and wholesomeness.

Red signifies power. It’s an emotionally intense color that ignites thoughts of love, passion, and danger. This can have the effect of raising blood pressure. In contrast, red is also the color of alarm and is used as a shorthand sign for danger.

Green is associated with the color of nature, good health, and money. It is seen as calming and is associated with many foods.

Yellow is an energetic and bright color. It represents sunshine, happiness, and warmth. Yellow is associated with creativity and is one of the most difficult colors to focus on visually.

Orange exudes confidence, cheerfulness, hot, fiery, and excitement.  It’s often associated with vibrancy, tropics, and instills a sense of fun and pleasure. Orange appeals to a wide range of people.

Purple is often associated with royalty, nobility, luxury, power, creativity, and ambition. It conveys wealth, extravagance, and creativity.

Color matters and is definitely something to consider whether you’re going on a job interview, designing a website, a logo, or marketing a product.

The Importance of Well-Traveled Employees

Well-Traveled

The Importance of Well-Traveled Employees

There are some people who never feel the urge to leave their homes. They’re content to stay in the city they came from. Then there’s the rest of us: the people who can’t sit still. Having an incurable case of wanderlust, we returned home from our latest vacation in pursuit of our next big adventure.

In today’s competitive market, you must find ways to differentiate yourself from your peers. The skills and experience gained from traveling abroad can give you a competitive advantage and enhance your career. When traveling abroad you are likely to possess the skills needed in the global economy – economic and geographical knowledge, cross-cultural communication skills, analytical skills, flexibility, an understanding of and familiarity with local customs, an ability to adapt to new circumstances, and may be proficient in multiple languages.

Traveling Improves our Communication Skills

When trying to converse in foreign cultures, verbal and non-verbal communication is necessary to overcome language and cultural barriers. Being able to communicate with other people from diverse cultures and backgrounds is an important skill in any job.

Traveling Improves Negotiation Skills

Whether you’re haggling at a market or negotiating a fare with a taxi driver, bargaining is a regular part of traveling abroad and is an important skill to hone. Employers want people who are savvy negotiators.

Understanding Cross-cultural Sensitivity

Today companies both large and small are effectively competing on the global stage in order to survive and prosper. Living among people as you travel abroad, talking with them, and learning their stories and culture gives you a competitive advantage in the workplace.

Becoming Self-sufficient and Confident

When you’re traveling abroad, you don’t have anyone to call for help. As you figure out how to get around in a foreign country, you build confidence and adaptability in foreign situations. Things can go awry and plans change. As a traveler, you are forced to change plans constantly.

While in Turkey, we were suddenly left without travel arrangements to Greece. Without internet service in our hostel, we found a nearby internet café and had to research a new flight to Greece within time frame and budget. This turned out to be no easy feat.

The ability to adapt is important and appealing to employers.

Learning to Budget and Plan

Prior to traveling, I had to plan and save for each of my vacations abroad. In addition, I had to continue to monitor my budget once we arrived.

In conclusion, employers are looking for people who are versatile and adaptable. By embracing your travel experience on your resume, you are demonstrating your willingness to seek out new experiences. Having relevant global experience on your resume can be an advantage.

Creating a Workplace that Embraces Diversity and Inclusion

Creating a Workplace that Embraces Diversity and Inclusion

The demographics of the workplace are changing and will continue to do so in the coming years. Demographically, many organizations look different than it did a decade ago as the U.S. population is becoming more heterogeneous, with minority groups making up larger portions of the populace.

Diversity can be defined in many ways. One such example is that diversity includes Diversity and inclusionall the ways in which people differ and is an awareness of and respect for individuals with unique perspectives, backgrounds, and their attributes working towards a common goal. It’s about people.

Inclusion, on the other hand, is about the organization and involves putting the practice of diversity into action by creating an environment of respect, and where everyone is valued and included. Inclusion should be reflected in an organization’s culture, practices, business strategies, mission, and relationships.

One of the most important things leaders can do is create a culture of diversity and inclusion in the workplace for their employees. This is key to building a successful business with today’s workforce.

Workforce diversity can bring about an increase in productivity and competitive advantage. Organizations can offer more solutions to their stakeholders because of new ideas and processes brought into the organizations. Moreover, diversity gives access to a greater talent pool which can improve a company’s reputation and image.

Communicating with a diverse workforce does have its advantages. Research suggests that one of the advantages of communicating with a diverse workforce is the increase in creativity. Employees from different backgrounds can bring in a variety of solutions on how to achieve a common goal. When team members are culturally diverse, more ideas are formed because they may approach a problem totally different.

One disadvantage is the implementation and successful management of diversity programs in the workplace, which can be challenging.

Following are a variety of strategies that employers can implement that can make great strides toward promoting diversity and inclusion in the workplace:

  • Diversity training
  • Mentoring programs
  • Employee resource groups
  • Diversity task forces, committees, and advisory boards
  • Employee network support groups

Research has shown that nothing drives home the message of inclusion than exposing diverse groups to one another. That is exactly what one company did when they were facing a demographic problem of epic proportions. Here’s their story.

Lockheed Martin, one of the world’s leading global aerospace, defense, and advanced technology companies, needed to replenish a large majority of their engineers who were expected to retire. To create a more diverse and inclusive workforce, Lockheed Martin’s MS2 employee communications and design team developed an “Embrace Diversity” print postcard campaign that helped employees understand the beliefs and backgrounds of all the workers who comprised the organization. The team created innovative, vibrant, eye-catching postcards as a communications tool to get employees to think about their own reactions and beliefs. This campaign involved a series of different postcards that explored topics such as generational differences, cultural and religious traditions, teamwork, as well as company loyalty. The communications team designed the postcards with the diversity messages to spark discussion among employees.

In conclusion, diversity and inclusion are relevant to successful business strategies that increase quality performance and better productivity.

 

Employee Retention Tips

It’s Friday afternoon and one of your employees asks for a private meeting. The conversation ends with an unexpected resignation from someone you’ve grown to rely on. Perhaps the person was reliable, knowledgeable, or working on a critical project. If this has ever happened to you, you’re not alone. Although you didn’t see it coming and you hate to lose the person, abrupt employee departures can be especially hard for managers.

Intrinsic motivation means that an individual’s motivational stimuli comes from within and can include acceptance, appreciation, curiosity, independence, social contact, and social status. In contrast, extrinsic motivation is controlled by outside forces such as money, benefits package, bonuses, and employee of the month.

When employees feel that their work is not appreciated, their morale can quickly deteriorate. This can ultimately lead to reduced performance and productivity and can cause some employees to look for employment elsewhere. Keeping employees engaged and motivated is essential. Verbal recognition and rewarding performance, even for small contributions, is important. If employees feel valued and appreciated for their achievements, they make a difference to you and your company.

Employee retentionThere are many ways an employer can show recognition and appreciation to their employees. Shouldn’t you take the time to find out before they end up leaving? Sometimes all it takes is a thank you or a pat on the back or a small luncheon or perhaps some schedule flexibility. If a client or someone from another department sends you an email sharing an amazing experience they had with one of your employees, then share it. Showing appreciation could even be as simple as asking employees for their input or opinions about something important on a project. The possibilities are endless but one thing is for sure. Showing appreciation for each employee will improve staff retention.

All employees need positive reinforcement. It is important that you do not take employees for granted especially in an already overworked and understaffed workforce.

Even if managers do all of these things effectively, some people will still leave to pursue other opportunities. This is particularly true for top performers.

Retaining employees takes a lot of hard work, but so does replacing them. Research has shown that retaining staff is not related to extrinsic motivation and compensation—it’s about intrinsic factors such as appreciation, recognition, acceptance, social status, communication, and teamwork.

 

Are Your Employees Engaged?

employee engagement

Unleashing the energy and talent of people in the workplace and engaging employees more fully in their work is a critical challenge facing organizations. Engagement is particularly important today due to morale problems, lack of harmonious relations between employees and managers, lack of career development opportunities, and organizational reputation.

If a business is to succeed and remain competitive in today’s corporate landscape, it is essential to keep their employees engaged.

But some contend if it is even possible to achieve employee engagement in a hierarchical organization where leadership dominates. Still, others believe that engagement is a manipulative management technique to squeeze more out of an overworked and understaffed workforce. Clearly, engagement is not a simple matter.

According to recent research conducted by Towers Watson, a leading global professional services company that helps organizations improve performance through effective people, risk, and financial management, only a small percentage of employees are actively engaged. In fact, research suggests there has been a considerable decline in engagement over the last several years.

But, what exactly is employee engagement? Employee engagement refers to the emotional commitment an employee has to their organization and its goals, their job, and their colleagues.

Oftentimes, employee engagement is confused with employee satisfaction because the concepts are similar, so the terms are often used interchangeably. Employee satisfaction is an attitude where employees are happy or content with their jobs and work environment. However, engaged employees are passionate about their jobs and are committed to the organization and its goals. Just because an employee is satisfied doesn’t necessarily mean they are engaged.

When I worked at Signet Bank (Union Trust) in the 1980s, I was proud to be working there. The company wasn’t perfect, but it took care of us. Later I had the same commitment and passion during my years at Union Memorial Hospital, and then again at LifeBridge Health. Yes, sometimes management issues got in the way, but it was always my ability to contribute and make a difference, innovate, and enjoy the people who made me happy, which got me engaged.

How is employee engagement measured? Employee engagement is typically measured using an employee engagement survey that has been developed specifically for this purpose. These surveys must be statistically validated and benchmarked to measure your employee’s level of engagement.

One such survey, the Gallup Q12, was designed to measure employee engagement to worker productivity, customer loyalty, and sales growth. Twelve survey questions were chosen ranging from topics including basic needs, management support, teamwork, and growth. The answers were used to categorize employees into three areas:

  1. Engaged—employees who love their jobs and feel a connection to their company. Actively engaged employees demonstrate high levels of performance, a drive for innovation and efficiency, commitment to their roles and to the organization as a whole, and high-energy enthusiasm.
  2. Disengaged—employees who do as little as possible just to get by. Disengaged employees view their jobs as an exchange of time for a paycheck. They complete their tasks, but they do so unenthusiastically and put in little to no additional effort.
  3. Actively Disengaged—employees who are not only unhappy with their job but they have a bad attitude and are damaging to the workplace. They are actively negative and voice their displeasure in the workplace. Their negativity permeates the job place and often undermines the performance of other employees.

The benefits of an engaged workforce are clear. Research has shown that organizations with engaged and committed employees are significantly more productive than those where employees are disengaged. Employee retention rates are also considerably higher. A Towers Watson study found that companies with more engaged employees produce greater financial returns.

Our organization regularly takes employee satisfaction surveys. In order to get some anecdotal feedback, I raised the question of employee satisfaction surveys with some of my coworkers. My question seemed to strike a raw nerve with many of my coworkers because they felt the surveys are not anonymous since very specific demographic questions are asked about each employee. Any negative feedback brought forth could mean fear of reprisal.   Further, one would have to look at the validity and reliability of feedback methodology.

How can leaders effectively engage their employees? Following are several tips that can stimulate employee engagement:

  • Provide Clear Direction: Leadership needs to know where the company is going and how employees can help it get there. This is where a mission and core values come in. Change often fails because of the lack of clear and credible communication. Management cannot and should not expect employees who lack awareness and understanding of corporate strategy to become committed to carrying out the organization’s policy.
  • Communication: Once the strategy is in place, the leaders need to communicate and reinforce the overarching message among all employees. Each employee should know how he or she can contribute. Leaders and professional communicators can help by aligning words with actions, building relationships, and conversing with employees rather than communicating at them.
  • Employee Development: Organizations should offer training to employees to help them advance in their careers.
  • Supportive Managers: Managers must give their employees clear goals, offer feedback, and have an open-door policy.

In conclusion, engagement requires a sustained effort from everyone. Organizations must carefully identify the causes of disengagement through data gathering and surveys then address these issues with a clear strategy in mind.

The Impact of Technology on Corporate Communications

Corporate Communications

Nationally, the newspaper industry is in a state of collapse. Many newspapers have either been forced into bankruptcy or have become extinct. Even the New York Times has been forced to seek outside investors to stay afloat. The major reason why the industry is crumbling is the internet. Since more people get their news from computers, newspaper circulation and ad revenues are shrinking and readership dwindling. With the adoption of the internet, we have seen a shift in budding forms of communication (journalism) from print to online. Another transformation that took place is that people wanted a voice so communication (including journalism) moved from monologue to dialogue. Traditionally, journalism was a one-way form of communication. In stark contrast, social media is about dialogue, audience, and citizen journalism.

Social media is created and distributed by the audience and represents the channels of communication that the audience uses to write, create, and share information. Today, the explosion of digital solutions provides communicators with a new arsenal of tools. These tools can take the form of blogs, social networking, visual communication, and podcasts. Since organizations use different types of media to reach their audience, knowing how to select the right medium for your message and how to create different forms of communication is integral in today’s corporate landscape. Today’s communicators need to learn the foundational digital skills in order to stay competitive. These new skill sets include but are not limited to using RSS feeds, search engine optimization, video production, and analyzing/monitoring metrics. Although digital media is important, companies should not solely concentrate on electronic communications at the expense of print or face-to-face communication. Each has a role and should be used accordingly.

While technology has made business communication easier and faster, at times communication is more distracting because of message overload. From constant emails to cell phones, instant communication can make it hard to focus on meeting deadlines so at times you need to turn off communication devices.

Is Corporate Reputation Important?

Sticky post

Corporate Reputation ManagementAccording to Tamara Gillis, author of the  IABC  Handbook of Organizational Communication, the term corporate reputation refers to how positively, or negatively, a company or similar institution is perceived by its key stakeholders. Corporate reputation, which is considered a soft or intrinsic concept, is important because it affects the efficiency and effectiveness of the way a company operates. Additionally, a good organizational reputation can increase competitive advantage because customers will be more loyal and may influence other potential customers by word of mouth. While some organizations place this intrinsic concept on the back burner to more critical matters, other businesses consider organizational reputation to be of great importance. This is especially true if their business is in the financial, legal, or medical arenas. These sectors proactively try and build their image and goodwill.

All organizations have the responsibility to operate in accordance with all applicable laws and regulations. Organizations must also have an economic and ethical responsibility. To enhance organizational reputation, a company’s level of corporate social responsibility can increase competitive advantage and attract customers.

Having a good organizational reputation has many benefits. Some of these benefits include but are not limited to: being able to attract and retain talent, being able to charge premium prices for products and services, being able to weather bad times, being able to attract investors, increasing market share, and gaining more favorable media coverage.

One thing is for sure, there is a high cost to pay for an organization losing their reputation, the good standing among stakeholders. Past experience has shown that a badly handled crisis can taint or potentially ruin a company such as the Exxon Valdez, BP, Arthur Andersen, and Enron incidents. A smaller organization could be devastated by a loss of reputation. Conversely, the skillful handling of a major issue or crisis can maintain a good reputation. As history has shown, rebuilding a reputation is not easy and takes a lot of time. It is my belief that repairing a reputation is often harder than building a reputation.

There are several measures that organizations can do to safeguard their reputation. Media and reputation perception audits should be conducted regularly. In addition, organizations need to frequently monitor the Internet for what is being said about them, their competitors, and industry.

One of the most effective strategies for protecting corporate reputation is creating an early warning system that detects and tracks potential threats and provides response-related policies and procedures before the threat matures into a full-blown crisis. Giving in to the natural tendency to believe that a potential problem will dissipate over time has proven to be a fatal mistake for far too many companies. As the Internet has shown us, company crises live forever and are nearly impossible to erase.

Regularly and consistently communicating internally the importance of corporate reputation, and the company’s commitment to protecting it is also important in ensuring that a positive reputation remains a priority for all employees and a core feature of the corporate culture.

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