The keys to maintaining employee experience even in the tough times

When things are uncertain, employee comms can provide a sense of trust.

At Ragan’s Employee Culture and Communication Conference earlier this year, Stephanie Lerdall, head of corporate communications at Morningstar, and Taylor Shawver, senior vice president of strategy and co-founder at Integral, led an interactive session that covered how employers can ground their employee experience and communications in authentic trust.

Shawver began the session by sharing some data from Integral, revealing that 66% of employees trust their companies and find the communication from them authentic, while 60% said that their companies were willing to admit mistakes to employees. However, the data showed a gap in behavior in admitting and communicating missteps, dependent upon experience level.

“83% of senior leaders say their organization admits to mistakes,” Shawver said. “But only 46% of non-managers agree.”

Lerdall said that communicators can serve as a bridge and counselor to leaders that might not know how to approach their employees with the admission of a mistake during times of turbulence.

“Remind them that it’s OK,” she said. “Say, ‘What you just told me in private, why don’t you say that to everybody?’ Sometimes it’s about translating a moment of vulnerability they shared with you into a message they can share with their employees.”

Shawver added that in the toughest times, employees will remember how they were communicated with just as much as they will recall what information was shared with them.

“Even in hard situations like layoffs, employees remember how they were treated,” Shawver said. “Whether they were surprised. Whether they felt cared for. Whether there was empathy and transparency.”

Lerdall said that transparency in leadership can help build trust, especially when employees feel pressure from both work and outside the office in their personal lives. She shared an example of Morningstar’s CEO, Kunal Kapoor, taking questions from employees via Microsoft Teams as part of a new town hall format.

“It’s made a big difference,” she said. That kind of direct, unfiltered communication from leadership builds enormous trust.”

Check out the entire presentation below.

Sean Devlin is an editor at Ragan Communications. In his spare time he enjoys Philly sports and hosting trivia.

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