Don’t Let Your
Utility’s Staff Performance Suffer Because of Poor Internal Communication
By David Saxby
What’s getting in the way of your utility’s employees performing at their
highest level possible? Poor internal communication could be a contributing
factor.
A number of things can hamper the performance of a utility’s staff,
including lack of employee training, personality differences, lack of
management support, being too busy and frequent policy changes. From my
experience, poor internal communication can be a serious barrier. Poor
communication certainly accounts for a great number of workplace problems,
including low morale, poor productivity, wasted effort, financial loss, high
turnover and even conflict.
Poor communication can encompass a variety of dynamics. While it seems to be
a growing problem for a lot of organizations, the good news is that most
problems can be resolved.
Here are a few thoughts about common internal communication problems and
some solutions.
Electronic Barriers
E-mail has become a useful tool for speeding up communication among
employees. But e-mail messages can be easily misunderstood and that leads to
a breakdown in communication. When writing e-mail messages, type like you
would talk. Don’t use words or phrases that could be misconstrued. Don’t use
capitalization to make a point because it may appear to the person on the
receiving end that you are screaming at them. E-mails are like voice mails –
respond to them immediately. Many people prefer to hide behind e-mails
instead of dealing with an issue. If there is a chance the e-mail could be
misinterpreted or if the tone of the e-mail conversation is getting heated,
pick up the phone and talk with the other person.
When I do internal customer service and communication training at utilities,
I usually discover that a number of departments aren’t kept in the
communication loop. Those departments don’t feel that they are an important
part of the company because management doesn’t include them. A weekly,
companywide e-mail can make a big difference in keeping everyone in the
loop.
Setting Expectations
Employees need clearly defined expectations. In addition to telling them
what is expected of them, also tell them why it is expected. The more
clearly people understand why they’ve been asked to complete a task, the
more ownership they will take in seeing it through successfully. To turn
expectations into action, you also need accountability. Get a commitment
from employees on the actions they will take and the timeline they have for
completion of those actions. When they have established the actions and
timeline, they will have more ownership.
Measure Internal Customer Service
If you asked all of your employees to rate their experience with the company
as an internal customer on a scale of 1 to 4 with 4 being the highest, would
they give you a 4? If the answer is no, what is missing in their internal
customer service experience? The only way to find the answer is to ask your
employees. In other words, ask them to communicate with management. Survey
your employees anonymously. Give them the opportunity to provide candid
feedback on areas within the company that could be improved. Share the
results of the survey throughout the utility and follow up with the actions
the company will take to improve the internal customer service experience.
Improve the Grapevine
Every utility I work with has its own internal grapevine for sharing rumors.
Rumors can destroy the communication, trust and respect within a company in
short order. Rumors exist when there isn’t clear, concise and consistent
communication from top management down to the rest of the company. I find
that in many cases, management didn’t take the time or feel it was important
to keep the whole utility informed. Upper management needs to hold managers
accountable for immediately conveying information to their departments.
One of the easiest ways to keep everyone in the same communication loop and
eliminate rumors is to create a weekly newsletter or bulletin that can be
sent electronically to every employee. Make every department at the utility
responsible for contributing to its content.
Invest in Management
I find in many companies that people are promoted to management positions
because of their seniority. The problem is that these people may not have
the skills, knowledge or experience to be effective managers. Managers with
a strong skill set make better communicators. So how much money have you
invested in the last 12 months to improve the coaching and leaderships
skills of your management team? Send them to management training or industry
conferences or bring a training organization on site. Training will ensure
that your managers have the skills to develop your most valuable asset –
your employees!
Job Shadowing Works
Many miscommunications occur because employees only see a situation from
their perspective. Their point of view is all they know. Employees will
develop a better understanding of other departments’ responsibilities when
they have the opportunity to “walk in their shoes” for a day. Encourage
employees to shadow staff members in other departments for a day or even
half a day to experience other people’s jobs first hand. Have customer
service representatives ride along with outside plant personnel. Have
outside plant employees spend a day with CSRs. Job shadowing will help
employees develop a deeper appreciation and respect for one another.
Ultimately, that will significantly improve internal communication.
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David Saxby is president of Measure-X, a Phoenix,
Ariz.-based measurement, training and recognition company that specializes in
customer service and sales skill training for utility companies. He can be
reached at 888-644-5499 or via e-mail at
david@measure-x.com. Visit the Measure-X Web site at
www.measure-x.com.
