Sharing India with the world

Aware and Connected.

This is exactly how I felt earlier this month as I shared perspectives on social media and internal communication from India with a set of global communicators who attended my session at the 2011 World International Association of Business Communicatiors Conference held at San Diego, US.

The India story

The IABC World Conference brings 1,400 business communication professionals from 40 countries to learn about the latest trends, issues and best practices in communication. At the conference professionals get to access more than 70 conference sessions organized into seven tracks and presented by a global faculty of communication experts.

I attended parts of few sessions that interested me and to make the most of my limited time at the conference. Among the sessions I attended were the general session with IABC’S 2011 EXCEL Award winner, Deborah Tabart. Deborah leads the Save the Koala campaign from Australia although her reach is now truly global. Thanks to the power of social media and communication. Her ability to make the most of her resources, garner global support through communication and her interest to leverage social media tools revealed opportunities that all communicators can learn from. Bill Quirke’s address on ‘Raising your internal communication game: Be valued for what you do’ got me thinking more about the role of internal communication in driving change. I loved his sense of humor, the ability to keep the audience engaged and provide superb pointers to improve impact, effectiveness and value. Likewise, Don Ranly, a senior faculty at the Missouri School of Journalism talked about conveying complex messages to employees in his session – ‘Let’s tell a story’. It made a lot of sense and I could relate to the ongoing challenges I face as a communicator. Storytelling and clarity of thought goes a long way in cutting through the clutter. Personally, the sessions were very enriching and gave me insights to share with my team and stakeholders.

The dolphin show at Sea World

In my session, I set context on the social media landscape before talking through influences that impact adoption from an internal communication lens. As an internal communication professional I constantly worry that the youngest workforce in the world (half of India’s population is below the age of 25) aren’t engaged in a dialogue as much as they would prefer. And this is what organizations probably don’t ‘get’ still in India. Furthermore, the influence of culture, community, entertainment and sports in percolating messages is barely understood. This feeds frustrations and engagement challenges which companies in India grapple with. Importantly, the dichotomies that exist in India adds a different dimension to potential solutions. For example, while Hindi is our official language and English is our preferred business communication language we still have 21 other official languages. Likewise, while we have a mobile subscriber base that is 2X the US population only 40% can access the internet via their devices. Also, we have the world’s third largest number of internet users but 31% of India’s rural population aren’t even aware of its presence.

The appreciation, interest and keenness by the audience to understand the world’s second largest nation and one of the world’s growing economies impressed me.

Bird's eye view

Here are a sample of questions that were asked during my session:

1. How can we ensure company’s information is protected while leveraging social media for internal communication?
2. What are the core challenges that affect adoption?
3. What can we do to help leaders understand the nuances of social media better?
4. How does external and internal communication integrate better for improving impact in India?
5. Can we avoid releasing control to all employees?
6. What is the role of the internal communication team in managing social media and internal communication?
7. How do you handle crisis for this domain?

To me these questions were a reflection of how the audience experienced their needs in managing growing workforce challenges that plague organizations with a presence in India.

It gave me a good feeling when a large majority of people (about 70 participants were in my address) indicated their interest to visit India and have a consistent level of interactions with counterparts or stakeholders in this region. India is definitely on everyone’s minds and that is a key take-away for me.

Other notes:

1. The flawless conference event management impressed me. It worked like clockwork. The interactions with the staff before, during and after the conference gave me a very positive experience. To me it felt that consistency is crucial in delivering effective communication and I witnessed it working so well from the outside.
2. As a speaker I felt extremely well supported right till the end. I now have a wonderful understanding with my moderator, Marcia Vaughan. Her experience and expertise put me at ease.
3.  There is a growing interest in cracking the India code in employee engagement and communication.
4. How communication is understood, perceived and practiced in the western world is vastly different from how it is in Asia.

Overall, this experience is one step forward in making me understand the world better and on an important milestone on the road as an enlightened communication professional.

You can also read my article on the topic at: http://www.simply-communicate.com/news/india%E2%80%99s-new-normal-influencing-social-media-adoption-internal-communication

Engaging the ‘Young & Restless’ Generation

Never before has the challenge of keeping our younger staff engaged greater that now. According to recent reports the population of India will be much younger than China’s in 2050. With more young people being part of its workforce (median age of 25), India is expected to enjoy a huge economic advantage. A recent study indicates that in the next five years more than 30% if the workforce in India will belong to the Net Generation. However unless companies, especially in India realize their worth the generation that leads will not have anyone to lead.

In a realistic representation of the impact Gen Ys are making in the corporate world Business Today’s cover story – ‘Brats at work, How twentysomethings are changing the workplace’ sums up steps companies are taking to listen, understand, involve and engage these youngsters.

Seems like the corporate world in India is feeling the heat managing the young workforce they fondly call ‘brats’.

Petal glow

I feel that the story is a ‘must read’ for all supervisors, human resources, communication and training professionals in the corporate world in India.

What struck me most is that the organizations featured aren’t all from the sunrise industries but ‘old world’ who are keen to evolve and get to the next level of innovation, knowledge management and success.

The key trends are – a focus on swifter recognition (in tune with the instant gratification needs of Gen Y), demand for greater acknowledgement of their life outside of work (social media, family expectations among others), greater emphasis on internal communications by human resources and the organization’s acceptance of their influence in the workplace’s future.

Among the expectations these youngsters seek are increased latitude, honest answers to questions, frequent and meaningful communication, option to choose their mentors and a life beyond work.

Here are some best practices that caught my attention –

Larsen & Toubro: redesigning employee benefits to give ‘cash in hand’, internal version of Facebook kind of social network

Maruti and Genpact: have overhauled their appraisals to ensure employees see near term action. They also get to experiment and are put on a leadership program

Adobe: begun their own social networking site on Yammer

Amex: has a reverse mentoring program where youngsters coach leaders

Ashok Leyland: created a program called Mission Yes aimed at Gen Y whereby including greater delegation and shared ownership

Apollo Tyres: has collapsed their performance system to give feedback every 3 months and has a mandatory, structured training program

Babaj Allianz: unique concept of having a two minute learning module instead of relevant themes such as time management and customer segmentation.  Guess it works for a generation with declining attention spans.

Bharti Airtel: has skits by trainees that allows better assimilation of messages and is used by the L&D team to engage employees. Also senior leadership is paired with top performers.

DLF Pramaerica Life Insurance: flexible work timings, allows for hobbies, higher studies.

While all these initiatives look like easy-to-replicate my recommendation is that leaders, human resources, training and internal communicators must first examine the business need and impact.

Here are pointers that can help you better engage your Gen Next.

Understand your young-gen: It seems only 1/3^rd of companies have accurate data on employees (Managing Today’s Global Workforce – an Ernst & Young May 2010 study). Without a clear understanding of your employees’ interests and background it becomes difficult to manage expectations, let alone provide ample support. Your data should integrate knowledge and expertise that each individual brings to the table. This mapping gives every organization immense clout to internally manage resources and capacity.

Make your workplace’s technology current: Nothing appeals more to this generation to work for an organization that is moving with the times. Accenture’s study on Global Millenials (born in the 1990s) suggests that ‘state of the art’ technology is a differentiator for most Indians when they choose an employer.

Learning is multidimensional: Learning isn’t about instructor led courses, e-classes or structured programs – it is now everywhere. Tap the immense wealth of knowledge that the youth of your organization come with. Especially in areas such as marketing, technology, social media, environment and even crisis management. Enroll them as ‘experts’ who can give guidance, provide ideas and involve networks. During 26/11 (Terror attack in Mumbai) the young generation mostly provided real-time updates on Twitter, YouTube and Flickr, much faster than the print or the television media.

Allow for internal networking: Youngsters expect to explore their environment in ways in which they feel comfortable. Keep your organization’s culture and systems flexible to allow for internal networking. The new generation will find their way around and they are known to seek their own mentors (people they respect and look for guidance).They are keen to innovate and help organizations they work for successful. Make them central to your core committees which create social media plans and take IT decisions.

Co-create communication: If you haven’t realized yet, Gen Y are light years ahead in finding information, creating and publishing real-time. In this world of instant communication it is foolhardy to package information that they can anyway get from their networks. By involving them as ‘internal communicators’ you can tap live stories in formats (for example, blogs, podcasts and videos) that appeal to their peers.

Succession planning at the start: It is important to show this generation how they can grow and prosper within the organization. Without a clear succession plan and career map they will lose interest or seem opportunities elsewhere. However don’t expect them to be loyal. They view it as a symbiotic relationship.

Manage performance often: If it needs to be everyday, it works even better! They expect to know how they fare with every task and if there isn’t a mechanism they will lose faith in the system of appraisal. Real-time feedback and course correction is the order of the day to keep this young bunch focused. Most importantly, you need to be a role model if you want them to believe and respect you.

Create policies that enable not deter: A shockingly large number of this young group routinely bypass IT barriers to get to sites they like to access. The following statistics indicate the growing trend: ‘a staggering 45 percent of employed Millennials globally use social networking sites at work, whether prohibited or not. Only 32 percent say that the social networks they use are supported by their IT department and meet their expectations’.

Join ‘em or lose ‘em:  Research points to India Millenials on e-mail, text, IM and social networks in that order.  As leaders and supervisors it is essential to understand their online behavior and engage them accordingly. Those who have lesser knowledge of their world are respected even lesser! Not surprisingly, where more than three in four Millennials use social networks more than half of the time when trying to learn more about peers or superiors.

All said and done this new generation can’t be ignored as they take over the reins in organizations in a few years from now. Unless they are groomed to lead, think long term and be inclusive in their communication we may see organizations struggle to know how to manage these ‘twentysomethings’.