In three major studies since 2003, Watson Wyatt has surveyed more than 750 companies to examine the relationship between an organization's employee communication practices and its business performance. The survey responses - completed by human resources and communication leaders representing more than 12 million employees worldwide - tell us that top-performing organizations do things differently than their lower-performing peers.

In this workshop, Kathryn Yates and John Finney, co-authors of Watson Wyatt's 2007/2008 Communication ROI Study, Secrets of Top Performers: How Companies With Highly Effective Employee Communication Differentiate Themselves will share the results and demonstrate how you can apply these best practices to your organization. During this interactive working session you will:

• Hear what the top-performing companies are doing in employee communications that make a difference to the bottom line
• Complete a brief communication effectiveness quiz to see how your company measures up
• Learn what other companies are doing around the six secrets that you can apply to your organization
• Explore how to use hard and soft measures to prove your value to senior management
• Take part in a breakout activity to develop a sample "strawman" communication strategy
• Discuss the importance of communicating the "employment deal" and the importance of internal branding

John Finney Senior Communication Consultant, Watson Wyatt Worldwide

Kathryn Yates Global Practice Director, Communication, Watson Wyatt Worldwide

What is the single most effective communication tool professionals have to engage the hearts and minds of employees? The answer? Leaders.

All of the leading research in internal communications supports the same finding: If you want to promote greater employee engagement, pay attention to the communication behavior of your leaders.

A recent Melcrum study of leadership and engagement reveals that the two top drivers of employee engagement are the actions of senior leadership and of supervisors. Other top drivers, such as belief in company vision, values and strategy and the company culture, are also clearly linked to leaders and their ability to communicate and connect with employees.

This highly interactive workshop will give you the tools you need to create a successful leadership communication initiative to your organization.

The top five takeaways from this three-hour session include:

• Data you can use to build a business case for effective leadership communication
• An overview and discussion of the communication needs of the four generations - from Depression Babies to Millenials - who will soon work side by side
• A model of employees' communication needs in relation to effective leadership
• Small group discussions of a case study designed to facilitate effective leadership communication at all levels of the organization
• Techniques you can use in your organization to create a tailored leadership communication strategy

Whether it's connecting people with strategy, leaders with employees, global teams across the world, or generations with each other, facilitating connections is becoming more and more central to the role of the communication professional.

In this highly interactive workshop, we will profile people in a prototypical organization and discuss their work situations and points of view, as well as potential solutions for resolving their issues and creating high levels of engagement. Some of the people you will meet and discuss in this workshop are:

• Clara - The baby boomer executive who is at her wits' end trying to understand this younger generation's work habits.
• George - The middle manager who has a global team and is frustrated trying to manage people who are located all over the world.
• Lynette - A professional who works from home, but feels really disconnected from her team, many of whom are located together in the company headquarters.
• Jason - The millenial who decides during his first six months whether he will stay or go.

Do any of them sound familiar? Join this workshop to get to know these people and understand their issues. Using research, best practices, case studies and your experience, we will discuss solutions for building connections with similar groups in your organization to help achieve a high performing culture that delivers improved business results.