Does your company's mission match its true ambition?

Welcome to Melcrum's new Social Media and Intranets Newsletter.

As you'll notice with the revised title, the scope of this newsletter has been widened a little, so it seems a fitting time to look at the broader technological reality in many organizations.

Some months back, Melcrum's Sona Hathi questioned the value of the corporate mission statement:

"Companies spend hours thinking up their Mission Statement, umming and aahing over each word, but do employees understand it? Do they even know it? And if they do, do they buy it?"

It's a good question. Many companies make grandiose values and mission statements that include phrases such as:

"We want to be leaders, and be seen to innovate."
"We want our company to be a desirable place to work."
"We encourage two-way communication throughout our organization."

Yet, when a new employee walks through the typical office door and fires up their computer for the first time, reality sets in.

Dated systems, an intranet more 1998 than 2008, a life that revolves around endless emails, the crusty, ghost-written CEO message, and you can forget any notion of social networking beyond your cubicle unless it's to discover who stole the special bread from the fridge.

Does this sound familiar? If so, it's time to take action.

Demonstrate the disconnect
There are numerous examples out there that demonstrate organizations - from government to corporate and SME to global monster - making bold steps with social media. Whether it's a monthly blog session from the CEO or a futuristic virtual meeting, the hype has subsided and real, practical uses abound.

Social news
For example, if your company stresses the importance of two-way communication, yet the idea of letting employees post their own news to the intranet fills the executive team (or even your comms colleagues) with horror, then tell them about the pharmaceutical company, Janssen-Cilag, that's been running such a system for over a year (yes, every single employee can post a news message to the intranet!).

What about money?
If your CEO says they want to communicate with employees more regularly and more personally, wherever they are, but roadshows are too expensive, then the last issue's example of the CPA Congress in Second Life might get them thinking out of the box.

Return on investment?
Are you being thrown the bone that social media measurement is too hard and there's no ROI on new technology? What about the Best Buy example, where an average 75% employee turnover was reduced to 8% among employees who signed up to the Blue Shirt Nation social network.

Walk the walk
These organizations and many others can hold candles to those common mission statements above. They're engaging with employees, capitalizing on internal expertise, and demonstrating that dialogue, innovation and new ideas aren't simply nice words printed on motivational posters and stuck on cubicles.

How does your company measure up against them?

Until next week,

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Dealing with racism at work: best communication practices?
Melcrum's Communicators' Network, November 10, 2008

An HR Director recently asked me for advice on how to deal with racism that arises in his company (2000 employees, all over Belgium). Unfortunately, I have no experience of this sensitive issue and I'm looking for documentation, examples of communication actions, best practices...join the discussion

The Source for Communicators is a free resource for corporate communicators from Melcrum Publishing.
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