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Whether or not you love sports, the ratings say there’s a good chance you tuned in to watch LeBron James’ announcement last week.  Being a PR professional and avid sports fan, I was certainly watching.  And while I could write an entire post on the 1-hour special, it was what happened afterwards that I found really fascinating. 

In case you’ve somehow avoided the 24-7 reporting, here’s the quick story.  LeBron became a free agent.  As free agents often do, he attended meetings with multiple teams, including the Cleveland Cavs (his former team).  The media circus began, building to a 1-hour announcement special (broadcast on ESPN) where LeBron announced he was going to the Miami Heat. 

What astonished me is how angry people – including many people outside of the state of Ohio – were about his decision.  He was called disloyal.  He was called a traitor.  He was called a follower, not a leader.  And by his former employer, he was called much, much more (you can read the open letter here).

In an age where people frequently change jobs, move to new cities or make choices for as much for their life outside the office as inside, I admit that I found the reaction a bit startling.  A recent Bureau of Labor Statistics report said that the average American born between 1957-1964 has held 10.8 jobs between age 18 and 42.  But LeBron leaving Cleveland after seven years was enough to totally light up my Facebook and Twitter feeds with a lot of negative reactions – and not just from Cavs fans. 

By the looks of things, no one was more upset than the owner of the Cavs – he believed he’d invested a lot in James and deserved his loyalty.  Bosses around the world feel this same pain when top-notch employees announce that they are taking their talents elsewhere.  But, there’s a lesson to be learned about how to create loyalty and longevity with your employees – who knows if they’d have kept LeBron in Cleveland, but they might keep some of your All-Star employees with you:

1. Surround talented people with talented people.  While everyone likes to feel like they’re the smartest person in the room, very few people like to feel like they are charged with carrying the whole team/department/company forward.  Some say champions thrive on that, and while that may be true in athletics, I’m not convinced it’s true in the corporate arena.  So, if you have one employee that always has to put out the fire, lead the meeting or save the day, it’s probably time to think about adding another superstar to your team. 
2. Check-in and find out how you’re doing in supporting your most-valued employees.  And by that, I don’t mean once a year during a review cycle.  Have regular conversations about whether your employee is satisfied, whether he or she is being challenged enough, etc.  If you have these conversations early and often, you’re less likely to be caught by an unexpected departure. 
3. Have a development plan in place – and be proactive about executing it.  For those conversations to have real meaning, they must also have action.  If there are things you need to address to keep your top talent, then commit to doing them by putting a plan in place.  This will show employees that you are loyal and committed to them – and they may feel the same in return. 
4. If an employee matters to you, found out what matters most to them.  If you believe LeBron, winning is what matters most to him – not money, not individual titles, not living close to his hometown, not being the superstar of a team.  And, once he didn’t feel he could accomplish his ultimate goal of winning an NBA Championship in Cleveland, he left.  So, when you’re talking to employees, ask them what matters most to them – you might be surprised by the answer.   Maybe it’s not money, but the ability to have a more flexible schedule.  Or, maybe they need to be in a creative role to feel fulfilled.  You don’t know until you ask.  And, as they say, knowledge is power. 

And, a final word of caution – saying bad things about a former employee isn’t likely to get you where you want to go.  It certainly won’t make them come back, and it may make your other employees wonder what you really think about them.  Burning bridges is rarely a smart move – life is long and often comes full circle. Remember my first post on this blog?

If you haven’t picked up the July 2010 issue of PRWeek yet, now’s the time. Not only does Insidedge have an attractive ad (is that biased?) on page 22, but the issue features a thought-provoking op-ed piece by our president, Keith Burton, about the accelerated rate of employee turnover in American companies. If you have a subscription to PRWeek, you can read the article online at www.prweekus.com in the Editorial section. Otherwise, here’s the full piece for your reading pleasure:

The Unnecessary War for Talent

The year was 1835. Charles Darwin, aboard the S.S. Beagle, witnessed an 8.5-magnitude temblor that struck the coast of Chile. When Darwin went ashore, he noticed how the region had been forced up, leading the evolutionist to speculate that the Andes Mountains could have been created by a series of quakes. His observation became one of the most important geologic insights in our history.

The signs are always there. The trick is observing them and learning what they mean.

In the spring of 2008, reengineering guru Michael Hammer told us how a major food company was running a global unit with fewer managers – one for every 56 front-line workers. Everything we learned about organizational effectiveness this past decade told us that a front-line manager should optimally oversee no more than 12 employees to facilitate strong engagement and communications. Yet these food industry workers, once they were briefed on the company’s plans and processes, would be expected to act as self-directed teams.

When our economy collapsed in 2008, companies did what they invariably do when times are tough – slashing jobs, freezing pay and eliminating training and development programs. They cranked up the overtime rather than hiring new workers to bolster the sagging energies and morale of those who had wrenched their way through the downturn. And they asked those beleaguered managers who had taken on ever-larger numbers of direct reports to press on.

If ever there was a recipe for disaster, you’ve just tasted it.

Fast forward to February 2010, when the number of employees voluntarily quitting surpassed the number being fired for the first time since 2008, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Right Management reported that 60 percent of the workers they polled in 2009 said they would quit their jobs when the economy improved – an alarming number.

With the economy improving, our leaders are troubled. They tell us they’ve been hunkered down, worried about profits and operations, without time for mingling with their employees. Only now have they resumed the long march among staff, asking how they’re feeling, what they’re thinking and how conditions can be made better. What they’re hearing is, “You’re too late,” and, “Pay me significantly more if you expect me to stay.” We should expect attrition to grow dramatically in the days ahead.

Why do we always return to fight the unnecessary war for talent? Because employees speak but leaders don’t listen. Because we take up management models that force front-line leaders to choose between certain failure or a new employer that values employee engagement. Because companies slash and burn what employees value most — programs designed to manage, retain, develop and advance high performers.

The signs are always there.

It’s that time of year again: thermometers are climbing, schools are closing and pools are opening. While it’s likely harder to tell from your air conditioned work-space, it’s hot (in some places, really hot). Yes, as of June 21, it’s officially summer.

If you have school-aged children or you know a teacher I’m willing to bet that by now you’re one “Dad, why can’t you come to the pool with us today” or “Laying at the pool – my fave way to spend a Tuesday” Tweet or Facebook friend status update away from losing your mind.

If this sounds familiar then you, my friend, may be in dire need of a vacation. But don’t worry, you’re not alone. According to the 2009 Expedia Vacation Deprivation Survey, most of us need to take a vacation… but few of us actually will. In fact, 34-percent of Americans will leave vacation days on the table this year (a stat that’s up three-percent from last year). 

Many sources point to job stress as a primary reason for not taking off and fully enjoying a vacation. In fact, nearly one in five employed adults participating in the survey said they’ve cancelled or postponed vacation plans because of work. An additional 24-percent say they check e-mail or voicemail if they do take a vacation and 30-percent confess that they often have trouble coping with stress at some point during vacation.  To summarize: we’re so stressed at work that we need a vacation, but won’t take one because it stresses us out to take one. Now that just can’t be good for morale.

According to the Bureau of Labor, this March, for the second month in a row, more people voluntarily quit their jobs than were laid off. This trend has been credited to one of two things: a bettering economy or low employee morale. I think there’s merit in both theories.

As the economy improves, many companies are able to prepare persuasive offers to lure candidates to fill open positions. Burned out employees now find that they have new options – and the chance for a fresh start, maybe including some time off.  At the same time, as we emerge from the depths of the recession many companies are still running full speed ahead with a reduced team. You don’t have to be a mathematician to figure out that means more work for everyone – perhaps only further making employees feel like they can’t take the time they’ve earned.

The reality is that now, more than ever, all signs point to a greater need for a supportive, reinforcing workplace that encourages employees to take their time, and to completely unplug while they’re gone. Unfortunately, as the economy improves, companies that don’t read the signs might be at risk of losing some of their best and brightest. Is that a statistic that your company is prepared to face?

So, what should you do if you’re experiencing low morale or high turnover at your organization? Encouraging employees to actually take and fully enjoy their vacations this summer may be a first step. After all, according to Expedia’s survey, roughly one-third (34 percent) of employed U.S. adults reported feeling better about their job and feeling more productive upon returning from a vacation.

Innovation is a common value and guiding principle amongst today’s thriving global companies. More and more we are asking employees to come up with new ways to work or to “be inventive,” or to “get outside of the box.” An innovative free-thinking, creative workforce translates into new products, getting ahead of the competition and long-term sustainability for even the smallest of organizations.

But what does it really mean for employees every day? It is such an imprecise, intangible word to begin with – do we teach innovation to employees? Inspire it? Communicate it? Capture it? How does a workforce embrace innovation and then actually “do it?” After seeing the word pop up in communication materials and in conversations over the past few years, I have compiled a few ideas:

- Define it. Don’t let the word scare employees. Innovation is a nebulous word unto itself. If expectations cannot be explained in plain terms, how can we expect anyone to act on it. Sometimes realizing innovation is just finding new ways to solve old problems or brainstorming how to improve a process. It could be asking employees to challenge the status quo. It doesn’t have to be the “next big thing” that catapults the organization in marketplace wonderland.

 - Listen. Even the best ideas sometimes start out as the worst or the smallest. Ask employees to “throw a plate of spaghetti at the wall and see what sticks.” Encourage everyone to submit ideas or participate in roundtable discussions – and never dismiss even the smallest ideas or seemingly insignificant thoughts. These often trigger the minds of others who build upon them.

- Train managers. Managers can cultivate or kill innovation. Teach management how to listen and encourage new problem-solving and creativity. Show them what tools are available –brainstorming sessions, appreciative inquiries or best practice sharing and ideations. And build it into their performance plans—how many new ideas are coming from their department? Make them accountable too.

 - Provide opportunities. So Jill in Accounting has a great idea about how to reduce waste in the break room in the 5^th floor office in St. Louis and save hard dollars. Now what does she do with it? Email her idea to the CEO?  Not likely anything would happen.  Provide a place to submit ideas – an “idea web page” or “innovation station” in an employee gathering area or even just a suggestion box. If ideas don’t have anywhere to go, they won’t go anywhere. 

 - Reward and recognize. If nothing happens when people submit great new ideas, will they keep doing it? Incentives to innovate work well as does recognition publicly by peers. Spotlight those who not only have solved new problems or generated ideas “with legs” but those who submitted one or who worked with a team to try to find a new way of doing a broken process. An innovative culture values the process of ideation, not just the winning ideas.

 - Share best practices. Storytelling is a great way to share what intra-departments are doing as well as what other organizations do.  Set up best practice sharing within the company or with other innovative companies. Ask employees to attend or to watch on video. Post thought leadership articles about innovative, progressive companies on the intranet or in break rooms. Reach out to the best and learn from what they’re doing to motivate employees.

 - Ask employees what innovation means to them. Ownership fosters buy-in and engagement.  Hold a contest or storytelling exercise called “what innovation means to me” and post entries where other the whole company can see. Sometimes the best definition and its relevance come from those who are being asked to innovate. The goal is to make it real and reduce the ambiguity of the concept.

Innovation is imperative in today’s marketplace. Companies are not just trying to edge out the competition, but also trying to reduce costs and work smarter, better, faster. Who better to figure out how to do this than the employees themselves?  But we have to show them how. Asking a workforce to be innovative is one thing, showing them how is another.

Years ago, as a young political reporter, I was sent from Chicago to cover the Republican National Convention in Houston. My editor decided I would have richer experiences to write about if I took Amtrak instead of flying. He wasn’t wrong. You see a lot of things sitting in coach class on a train for 28 hours. Not the least of which is how bad of an experience you can have if the crew assigned to your train would rather be anywhere else but on a 28-hour trek across the Heartland.

In just over one day’s time, I was chided, ridiculed and ignored by one porter after another. They refused to answer even the most basic questions.

“Can I have chicken for dinner?” (‘No MORE CHICKEN!’)

“How long is the layover in Dallas?” (No answer, but tosses a train schedule across the aisle at my chest).

While all that occurred nearly 20 years ago, I remember it clearly today. Which brings me to the point.

Over coffee today, I read one of the more puzzling blog posts I’ve ever seen – a piece called “3 Reasons Why Employee Engagement is a Scam” by CV Harquail.

Harquail shares a Towers Perrin definition of employee engagement that suggests engaged employees offer more discretionary effort than non-engaged employees. But Harquail argues that employees shouldn’t give discretionary effort, however, because they are rarely rewarded for it.

She concludes that the only real beneficiary of employee engagement is the company itself.

I disagree. In my view, employee engagement means listening to employees, hearing their concerns, addressing those that should or can be addressed. Explaining when they can’t or won’t be addressed. Employee engagement is about building a mutual respect between an organization and its people. Employee engagement is about building an emotional bond between employees and the company they work for. Employee engagement is about doing what’s good for the company by doing what’s good for the employee. Here are a few examples:

 - A professional services company learns from its annual employee survey that its people want more and better training opportunities. The company invests in improving its training programs. Employees feel better educated and well-rounded in their careers. The company benefits by having more satisfied, better-trained employees. Win-win.

- A struggling computer software company uses surveys and focus groups to learn that its employees are disenfranchised and likely to leave the company if the company’s executive leaders don’t more clearly define a vision of the future. The executives step up, involving employees in a conversation about new corporate strategy and brand. Employees rally behind their leaders and the company excels. Employees feel valued professionally and renew their bond to the company. Win-win.

- A financial services company develops plans to use the internet to supplement its agent-based sales force. But first, the company discusses the issue with its people in focus groups and regional meetings. The company adjusts its plans so that its sales force can also benefit from the internet-based sales.  The company sells more product, and the sales force earns more commission. Win-win.

These are but three examples from the past 15 years where my team and I have helped companies establish employee engagement programs that benefitted the company, its employees and its customers in one way or another.

Which brings me back to my cross-country train odyssey of 1992. In reality, the porters on that train did what I asked of them. They apprised me of the menu situation. They gave me information that let me know how much time I could spend in Dealy Plaza without missing the next leg of my journey. And they provided me with a lifetime of ammunition against ever riding the train anywhere again.

Now, there are many reasons why I can’t entirely blame those porters for their churlish behavior. I suspect their pay wasn’t that great. I can understand how riding the rails for days on end could get tedious. And some of my fellow passengers were less-than pleasant. But there might have been more at the root of the problem – perhaps they were not treated very well by their management either, or given a reason to care about their performance.

When I rode the train, I was in another line of work. But even then, I considered how things might have been different if those porters had been engaged in their work. I guess I might not be telling this story today.

How do you convince the cavemen that “fire and warmth are good?”

That was the challenge the U.S. Marine Corps’ Public Affairs team faced as it wrestled with persuading “grey-beard” officers that social media could transform the way this historic military branch interacts with its 200,000 active duty soldiers, their dependents, other key constituencies and the public at-large. The Marine Corps’ use of social media was in the floodlights this week in a Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) session in New York titled, “Facebooking the U.S. Marine Corps: How the Few and the Proud Use Social Media.”

With 160,000 of its active duty troops cast as Millennials and another 40,000 identified as Generation X-ers, the Marines couldn’t ignore the new media or order people to stop using them. Younger soldiers, they’ve learned, just like younger employees in our companies, require a new mindset. “We had to shift away from communicating through a press release,” said Lt. Col. Greg Reeder. So they turned a problem into an opportunity — choosing to “surf the wave rather than being buried by it.”

The Public Affairs Team led by Col. Bryan Salas “framed the problem:” They dug in with research and examined best practices to gain a rich understanding of the field of social media. They determined the demographics of their enlisted force and their preferences globally for consuming and using these media. And then, very smartly, they integrated social media as an operational tool to guide interactions and to create a more dynamic recruiting model.

In the absence of clear guidelines, the Marines simply followed the rule of “doing the right things.” They created their own rules of engagement. They learned, early on, that trying to do too much in this new space was unproductive, and when stung by Wired magazine’s criticism of their early attempts with social media, they licked their wounds, regrouped and moved forward.

Salas’ team of Maj. Carrie Baston, Lt. Col. Reeder, Maj. Christian Devine and Gunnery Sgt. C. Nuntavong highlighted their work and key learnings regarding social media:

- A critical aspect of Facebook and Twitter is linking the Marines with families and friends back home, to share in the grief that families experience, and to celebrate in a homecoming after a long tour of duty. “An important aspect of social media for the Marines is in humanizing the Corps and helping people better understand who we are and what we do.”

- Engagement is very specific and unique as the Marines are selling a lifestyle and sharing an experience unlike any other.

- The Marines face significant governance issues that must be monitored  — from accuracy to counter-intelligence to cyber criminal activity to legal, personal and other challenges.

- Their mission is to increase knowledge through the use of social media.

- Key goals include enhancing transparency in their communications, protecting their reputation and the Marine Corps’ brand, improving the identification and response capability, improving decision-making through feedback, and helping to recruit quality people.

- Two-way communications drive everything they do today. “We’re working to share stories people want to hear.” Incredibly, they’ve identified more than 500 storytellers throughout the Corps. Many are 19- and 20-year-old men and women, and they’ve learned restraint, good judgment and proper protocol in posting stories, tweets and videos that enhance the Marine Corps’ brand.

- In recruiting, “every day is an election day.” Because people no longer answer telephone  calls at home, social media are essential for reaching, screening and recruiting candidates.

- Data for the Marine Corps are like a bikini: “What it shows you is important. What it doesn’t show you is vital.” Rather than counting click-throughs and page views, the team looks for cause and correlation.

- More than 2.5 million people have viewed YouTube videos on the Marines. If you go to the Marines’ official Facebook home page, you’ll see that more than 341,000 people had pledged that they “like this” site. Still in its infancy, 2,300 Twitter followers currently track the Marines.

Not bad for an organization founded in 1775. Even the cavemen learn the quest for fire can be good. And so it is.

One of the most important roles a corporate communicator can play in their organization is that of the Chief Simplicity Officer. By championing the cause to simplify business processes, abbreviate policies and procedures, eliminate bureaucracy and encourage a culture of colloquialism and candor, you can help free your executives and employees up to get real work done.

I love this quote from a recent BusinessWeek article in which the author argues against overdone policy manuals:

You know who’s making money for your employer right now? Workers who are selling, building, or inventing stuff. You know who’s spending the business’s money right now? Other employees (most easily found in HR, IT, and Finance) who’ve been commanded to write, administer, and enforce the 10,000 policies that make up your company’s employee handbook. Overblown policy efforts squelch creativity, bake fear into your culture, and make busywork for countless office admins, on top of wasting paper, time, and brain cells. What to do instead? Nuke one unnecessary or outdated policy every week and require the CEO’s signature to add any new ones.

Though communication may not have direct control over your company’s policies and procedures, you can have a strong influence in setting the tone for simplicity. Recently, a Fortune 500 client of ours reworked their employee code of conduct manual under the editing eye of the employee communications team. The result? The hundreds-of-pages-long “snooze fest” that was became a 12-sheet page turner, filled with relatable anecdotes and plain ole’ English.

Long live the CSO.

Ever wonder what the right mix of social media tools should be within your organization? How to measure the success of your internal blogs, wikis and other social technologies? How to even get started with Intranet 2.0?

This Thursday, Insidedge’s own Dave Duschene will be co-presenting a free webinar with Julian Mills and our friends at Prescient Digital Media. They’ll cover the strategic and practical sides of social media for internal communications, including:

- The business drivers for intranet 2.0
- A framework for evaluating best fit social media technologies
- How technology can help or hinder employee engagement
- Using storytelling in the digital age
- Key metrics for planning and evaluating success

The webinar is Thursday, April 8, from 12 to 1 p.m. EDT. To register for free, click here. Your employees will thank you.

A glimmer of recovery in the economy and the arrival of spring have brought a blossoming of new overtures to employees as leaders worry about morale and possible defections.

Why now?

Leaders tell us they’ve been hunkered down for a while, worried about their profits and operating integrity, without time for mingling with their associates. So now they resume the long march among staff, asking how they’re feeling, what they’re thinking and how conditions can be made better.

And what they’re hearing is “Restore pay increases,” “Tell us how the business is doing,” and “What should we expect in the future?”

As sure as death and taxes, we can expect that our leaders will vacillate between worrying about the business and fretting over morale in every cycle. That should never surprise us.

What surprises and delights us are the companies that listen to and talk with their people in good times and bad, without hesitation.

Imagine that — evening out morale swings so that when the economy has palpitations, employees can quickly mobilize and spring into high gear because they’re informed, motivated and properly directed.

Okay, I guess I told a “white lie” — sort of. Someone asked me a few weeks ago if I would be getting the new Apple iPad, and I said, “No.” Wrong answer. The more I thought about it, the more I knew that I had to visit the Apple Store in early March and pre-register to buy one of the first iPads. I did, and this Saturday, the UPS delivery man will pull up to my home with a package containing a 64-gigabyte iPad from Shenzen, China. I’ll be among the more than 240,000 consumers who pre-registered to get the very first iPads, which says something about the power of all things Apple.

Anyone who knows me will tell you that I’m an early adopter of new technologies and all things Apple. I bought one of the first Apple Powerbooks in the early ‘90s, as well as an Apple Newton Messenger, a forerunner to today’s PDAs. And through the years, I’ve been on top of Apple’s introduction of new desktops, laptops, iPods, iPhones, MacBooks, the MacBook Air and now, the iPad — purchasing these for business and personal use.

If you read Newsweek, BusinessWeek, The Wall Street Journal or dozens of other publications this week, you’ll see the headlines on the much-anticipated introduction of this cutting-edge tablet device, the iPad. It promises to revolutionize the computing world — and I’m wagering it will have a profound affect on how we, as communicators and consultants, adapt technology in internal communications. I’ve already cancelled my print versions of the WSJ and the NYT, and will do so with other publications, which I’ll plan to read online. I’ll use it in client and prospective client meetings to share presentations on our work. I’ll use it remotely to access shared drives, to create documents, presentations and worksheets. I’ll use it to play video and to listen to audio books and music, as well as to read books available through the iTunes store, amazon.com and other sites. I’ll use it to catalog photos. I’ll use it to read blogs and email, visit Facebook and websites, and to research all things related to employee communications and the forces that shape our discipline in the global workplace.

Imagine, if you will, managers using the iPad to access a repository of files and materials that comprise the “toolkit” they’ll use to communicate major changes to their teams. Imagine employees using it to view the “virtual” meeting site, with video, that their CEO is deploying to introduce new petroleum exploration and drilling activities directly from the North Sea, and what this capital project will mean for employment and growth in the future. Imagine the storytelling model coming to life through the YouTube site that the company has created to share with us on our iPad. Imagine using “social bookmarking” and RSS on our iPad to help guide us through the labyrinth of the corporate intranet to information that we need to do our work — while we’re meeting remotely in a “tailgate” session being staged from the back of a pick-up truck near Topeka, Kansas.

We can only imagine how dramatically this device will transform work as tens of thousands of existing apps available for the iPhone, and a host of new apps that have been written just for the iPad, find their way into the machine.

I’ll report back. I’ll let you know what I think about the iPad and how we can use it to lift our game. But I’ll never again say “No” when someone asks me whether I’ll ride the wave of another Apple tsunami. You know the answer.