A message from CEO
I had an interesting conversation with a friend who works in an executive communications function at a major corporation. His latest statistics on readership of his company’s Message from CEO were dismal. “The readership is diving and we’re seriously thinking of dropping the whole thing altogether,” he said.
The particular problem is not as unique as you may think. This type of communication started with employee newsletters sent out in the internal mail a few times a year, way back when they were printed on paper. Email increased their frequency because some misguided person successfully argued that emails cost nothing. The IT folks could check how many emails were opened and everyone was happy. But no one thought about – or measured – how much time people actually spent reading them. Sending emails with links to intranets explains how the real statistics are collected, causing serious headaches in communications departments. Instead of getting an impressive 90 percent email opening rate, you may find a 90 percent click-through rate with this important caveat: people may spend so little time reading your CEO messages that very little gets past eyeballs to reach brains.
My advice to my friend, after I read a few of the CEO’s messages, was to change the frequency and content. I said not to write them unless there is news that concerns all employees. If that means four messages from your CEO a year, fine. Frequency of the newsletters should be driven by content. And content is something that few organizations pay much attention to. How often does an awkward process mangle even the best-written prose?What I mean by an awkward process is when people from HR, legal, engineering and countless other departments discover their hidden writing talents and proceed to edit everything. Or so it seems when the copy gets back with countless comments and tracked changes. Get their input before you write your messages. Send them a draft for approval regarding accuracy of material related to their content expertise, not their writing talent.
The web is full of examples of messages from chief executives that insult their readers’ intelligence. The most common is a paragraph that starts with “As you may know…” followed by “news” that had been published and broadcast by every major news media outlet in the country for weeks. Other loser examples are sentences that start with “Keep in mind,” “Let me make this perfectly clear.” These and many others do nothing to keep your readers interested, while diminishing their respect for your chief executive.
Internal executive communications is critical, especially in tough economic times, for this simple reason: If your chief executive doesn’t communicate pertinent news affecting your employees, the rumor mill will do it. And the damage could be incalculable.
