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It seems that each and every day we’re hearing about changing economic conditions – inflation, energy availability and pricing (oil reached $116 a barrel yesterday) and the U.S. housing situation are just a few examples. The peaks and valleys are getting steeper and more frequent. New factors and new players have entered the discussion.

And while the new economic environment clearly impacts nations, markets and kitchen tables – it also impacts employers and our daily workplaces.

To address energy costs, firms such as Chrysler are being proactive and moving to four-day, yet full-time, workweeks and we’re hearing about public schools considering the move as well.

In uncertain times, the one thing we do know is that change is a constant – and as it relates to tomorrow’s workplace, and how to communicate with tomorrow’s workers, there are some things we can and may want to consider right now to be proactive communicators in a time of rapid change:

1. What are the internal communications implications for a transition to a four-day workweek and other “flexible” arrangements?
2. What are the employee communication hurdles around increased adoption of e-learning? Do some workers view this as a lessening of investment in their careers? How receptive are you to this type of training?
3. Given the 24-hour workday (hey, it’s the business day somewhere in a global economy) how should companies manage information-sharing technologies such as wikis, SharePoint? What’s the communicator’s role here?
4. How do we not lose the importance of the manager relationship in a virtual office setting? Should managers be trained as communicators to address the lessened face-to-face, informal communication opportunities?

And the list could go on. The bottom line is that the traditional workplace is getting less traditional all the time.

What do we do? How do we use our ever-growing communications toolbox to reach an increasingly interconnected yet dispersed workforce?

As a communicator, how are you changing?

Tags: employee engagement, flexible work arrangements, manager communications

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 20th, 2008 at 1:29 pm and is filed under Business and social trends. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.