Alyssa Zeff:
Hi, Alison. Welcome back to Employee Buzz. Nice to have you here.

Alison:
Feels like it’s been a while.

Alyssa Zeff:
It does. It's been crazy few months, year, a lot going on.

Alison:
Yeah, sure has.

Alyssa Zeff:
So, one of the reasons why I thought it would be good for us to get together and chat, or the main reason, is that a lot of our clients and organizations, in general, are planning their return to the office or return to the work site. And it's making a lot of headlines across sectors and industries. And I think there are some pretty big implications for communication.

Alison:
Absolutely. And maybe we can help some of our clients not make the mistakes that have been made.

Alyssa Zeff:
Absolutely. We're not here to share our thoughts on whether companies should or should not go back to work sites. That's the company's decision. But not surprisingly, we are here to talk about whatever your policies are, the right ways to be communicating them and how important communication is.

Alison:
Absolutely. We're ready.

Alyssa Zeff:
Let's start with that. What is the role of internal communication when it comes to returning to the work site?

Alison:
It's very similar to the role of internal communication when it comes to any change, especially where you're asking people to change what they do. And this is certainly a big change because people are working from home, and then you're saying, "Please come back. We'd love to see you at the work site." Nothing could be bigger than that in terms of change.

Alyssa Zeff:
Absolutely. So, for our listeners out there who play a role in internal communication, what should they do first?

Alison:
The first thing they should do is the first thing they should always do, which is ask a lot of questions. I think that's a key role that we communicators play. And I'm always amazed when I am invited to a meeting, whether it's at the beginning of a change process or further down. And I say, "Well, what about X?" And the planning team hasn't really thought that through. And in this particular case I think there's a lot of, "What about this? What about that? How is that going to work? How are people going to experience it? What's the timing exactly?" All those great questions that we can think of.

Alyssa Zeff:
We've always thought of ourselves in these scenarios like journalists looking for the story. And the way you get the story is to ask as many questions as possible and thinking about our readers if we were journalists, or our audiences. And I think asking those questions helps people think about how things are going to be received by the employees. And we are really bringing that employee perspective, which is really valuable.

Alison:
Yeah. And I mean, I'm seeing when you mentioned a lot of headlines, a lot of coverage of companies that have gone out first and said, "We're returning." And in many cases, I think if there's backlash or bad feeling, it's because someone hasn't really thought through what the answers to those questions are.

Alyssa Zeff:
That's right. So, one of the first things after the policy is pretty well-defined that a communicator is going to need to do is craft the message. Do you have any thoughts on that in terms of how to start, what that should look like, what that should feel like, how to tell this to employees?

Alison:
Telling, I think, is a good way to think about it, which is it's a story. And I'm glad you mentioned policy because I think the inclination is just to report on the facts, report on the policy, but there's more to it than that. And part of the way you tell a story is you talk about the why. What are the advantages to our organization in returning to the work site? What do we hope to gain? What will you gain as an employee?

Alyssa Zeff:
I think that's a great point. So, if you are asking people to come back, what is it about your organization that in-person is valuable, in-person is needed? And we said, "Well, we know what that is, for example, for Davis & Company, but I don't know what it is for you, big company. What is that?" And then another thing that I saw that I thought was really interesting was focusing on what they said, "Make the work site a magnet." And that really gets at the why, which is, what is it that draws employees to the space, makes them want to come back and encourage that and really focused on that?

Alison:
Yeah. And there needs to be two parts to the why; one is why to the organization, but also why to the individual. And I think sometimes when messages are written, not just about this topic, that benefit to the individual is missed, and yet that's where you really influence people.

Alyssa Zeff:
Absolutely. I think the last point I wanted to bring up when it comes to messaging is that word choices do make a difference here. One thing that we've seen a lot of backlash on is when these guidelines or policies are referred to as return to work. And as you can imagine, the backlash is, “While, we have been working." So that's a flag I would put out there for people.

Alison:
Yes, absolutely. And I would also say that sensitivity to other things as well. If you're an organization that has retail employees or manufacturing employees, those folks have been going into that location the whole time. So that's one. The other is global sensitivity. If you're an organization in North America or U.S. that's returning to work, and you have people all over the world, they are returning to the work site, sorry, but you have people all over the world. There's many countries where that is months or a year away.

Alyssa Zeff:
So, our message is figured out; we know the story that we want to tell. Now it's time to communicate to employees, but the instinct is, "Let's hit send on that email." What do you think?

Alison:
I agree that that is the instinct. An email can be part of the communication for sure. The question really becomes, how big is the change? And how much dialogue are people going to need? Which is what you would ask about any big change. So, the communication effort really should include small groups, big groups, lots of opportunities for people to ask questions and get those questions answered.

Alyssa Zeff:
Yeah. And I think it may change over time, it may evolve, so that one email doesn't solve for ongoing changes in the environment, changes in the organization, that could change the guidelines about where people should be working. I think that you hit the nail on the head. This is change management in a big way. And with change comes discomfort. And unfortunately, one email does not solve for discomfort.

Alison:
A senior leader of a client said something which I thought was really spurred. He said, "Last March when suddenly everyone had to go home, that was easy communication. Now, now it's hard because it's still a moving target; it's not set. It's different in different regions. It's different for different organizations. It's different for different types of workers. The pandemic is not by any means over. Things could change. They could get worse. Hey, this is just the beginning of the communication, whatever it is, it's just the beginning. And it's really, you're in for the long haul."

Alyssa Zeff:
Absolutely. We always talk about, just to get very tactical, we have our bite-snack-meal approach. And I think that's a really good framework for thinking about this as it is with a lot of change communication, which is making sure you have vehicles that give employees just a little bit of information, just the basics of what they need, a little bit more if they want more detail, and then a lot which goes into the dialogue and the ability to ask questions. I think if people who are developing this communication think about that, we'll move away from just hitting send on the email.

Alison:
Yes, and I also think that the lot, the meal, is the reference.

Alyssa Zeff:
Mm-hmm.

Alison:
I, as an employee, want to go back and look exactly at all the information that I might need to refer to.

Alyssa Zeff:
So, there are some key players in all of this that very often are forgotten. Talk to us about who is often forgotten that we need to make sure are a part of this communication plan.

Alison:
Well, one group that certainly will need some attention, our leaders, and I don't mean the people at the very top of the organization, but a layer or a couple layers down, because they're going to hear about this from their employees and they're going to need to answer questions. And then I think the second group are supervisors; they're the ones who are actually managing their work group.

Alyssa Zeff:
That's right. And we know that they're the first place that people go with questions. So, if I have a question about how something works, the first place I'm going to go is my supervisor. So, we need to make sure that those supervisors have the answers that they need.

Alison:
Yeah. And I mean, I think the supervisors, the managers, and even the leaders are going through it themselves.

Alyssa Zeff:
Right.

Alison:
So, they may have children at home who haven't gone to school in a long time, or they may have somebody with a health risk, or they may have just all the juggling issues. So, it's always, I think, challenging when you're asking someone to be an advocate for change when they're experiencing the change themselves.

Alyssa Zeff:
The one other group that I would add to that are HR business partners, or whatever organizations call that, because especially in large organizations, that's the immediate resource for clarification on questions, for guidance as things change. As you mentioned, another group that is also going through this themselves, but they are really going to be expected to be the true experts on this. I think taking the time to walk those people through everything and make sure they understand it is critical.

Alison:
Absolutely. So, who needs help? That's always the question I ask.

Alyssa Zeff:
That's a great question. Anything else that we would want to share with our listeners on this topic before we wrap up?

Alison:
Well, I think something that we did talk about, but I just want to emphasize again, is just being nimble and flexible. This is not a fixed situation; it's a moving target. And so, it means that even if you feel like you've got everything under control, there may be a wild card that comes in and means you've got to respond to that.

Alyssa Zeff:
I agree. And what I would add to that is, we always say how important it is to be employee-centric. And this is really bringing it to life. It has to factor in the needs of employees in big ways. And so, understanding those needs and the mindset of employees so that you can create communication that resonates is more critical than ever in a situation like this.

Alison:
Absolutely.

Alyssa Zeff:
So, with that, for those of our listeners who've listened to us regularly, you know that we would typically end with a game. Since this is a special edition, instead of a game, although it's sort of gamey, last year, when we started, shortly after the pandemic when we did our first podcast, we asked each other two questions, what's one thing you miss about being in the office, and what's one thing you like about working from home? And I thought it would be fun if we revisited those answers and see if anything changed. So, we'll start with what we missed about being in the office. You missed the food and the informal interactions.

Alison:
Yeah, I could eat a lot less food right now. I think that maybe less food would be good. But I definitely miss the informal interaction. I think that's so critical. What about you, Alyssa? What did you miss?

Alyssa Zeff:
I miss the people. And that has changed only in that it has gotten worse. And I guess it's just, you don't realize how much you crave that human interaction until it's gone for a year and a half. And things we liked about working from home last year, I said I enjoy controlling the temperature in my house. That's true, but I do have a funny anecdote. My air conditioning runs on a program, so it typically goes off during the day, which I have to manually override. And there've been a few days that I forget to do that. And it's very gradual, but all of a sudden, by the afternoon, I'm like, "Why am I so hot? What is happening?" So maybe it's better if somebody else takes control of the temperature around me. Last year, what you said you liked about working from home was that the grooming expectations were a lot lower.

Alison:
Well, yeah. And I'm really contemplating with dread a life without elastic pants. And some of the shoes I'm looking at, some of the shoes I own, and I'm thinking, "Really? Do I want to wear those again?" So that is definitely something that I'm thinking about.

Alyssa Zeff:
Well, Alison, thank you so much for being here. It was a great discussion. I think our listeners will benefit from this a lot.

Alison:
I wish everybody good luck and hope to see you all soon.

Alyssa Zeff:
Thank you. Thanks for joining us on Employee Buzz, where we laugh and learn. If you like what you're hearing, go to your podcast platform, iTunes, Podbean, Stitcher, or Google Play to rate and review.