Ask the Expert...with Helen Coley-Smith
Q: I’m in the process of setting up a staff forum to provide employees and senior managers with a vehicle for two-way communication.
I need to do the following:
1. Advise staff of the creation of a staff forum and its purpose/objective/aim
2. Explain the voting process and ask staff to vote for representatives
3. Advise staff of the results and next steps
Do you have any templates/ideas/views on what to include, how to market the forum and which channels to use?
A: In terms of advising staff of the creation of the forum and its purpose/objectives/aims, I'd include the following (not necessarily in one go, you might want to phase this/stagger content into a monthly update):
- Why the forum is being created.
- Who's on it, who they represent and how they were elected (or will be elected).
- When and how long the forum will meet for.
- The types of issues it will discuss.
- The format of the meetings.
- How to get an issue you're concerned about on to the forum's agenda.
- How the forum fits with other kinds of communication, and something about the fact that it doesn't abscond people from everyday conversations/communications and feedback.
- Possibly share the "charter" or terms of reference/agreement that members of the forum and senior managers have signed up to.
(I'm not sure whether you're unionized, and have union reps on the forum? If so, you might want to discuss with them what/how to communicate.)
I might include a short Q&A covering questions such as:
- Can I become a staff forum representative?
- How will my forum representative communicate with me about what was discussed and agreed at meetings?
Marketing the forum
In terms of marketing the forum, the best way to do this once it's established is through regular communication, so that people can see it's becoming part of the "fabric" of the business. You should integrate notices of meetings, feedback from meetings and activities which occur as a result of the forum into existing channels, such as your intranet, newsletters, notice boards and so on. I've definitely found this has worked well in the past.
Training and development
You may want to consider whether the forum members themselves need any learning and development to help them do their job well. I've worked with forums in various organizations to establish effective team communication and team work, and to train people in change communication.
We've used instruments such as the MBTI, Belbin and a variety of team building tools to get the group to understand each other, gel and trust that they all have employees' best interests at heart. If you have any change coming down the line, training/development may be particularly useful to help forum members to prepare for their role in that.
Have your say
Have you set up a similar forum to this? How successful was it? What did you learn from the experience? As ever, we'd love to hear from you.
Other recommendations:
Guardian News and Media: Moving onwards and upwards
The six phases of major change
ONLINE LIBRARY All change communication article