Key Driver 7: Open and Effective Communication

We know that communication is a problem, but the company is not going to discuss it with the employees.

—SWITCHING SUPERVISOR, TELECOMMUNICATIONS PROVIDER

Communication is its own Engagement Driver, but in reality, Communication enables the success of all other Engagement Drivers as well. Without good communication, the other Engagement Drivers would fall short. This is why Communication is one of the aforementioned three Power Dimensions (see Chapter 1).

Only 68 percent of employees believe their organization’s policies are clearly communicated.¹¹ The greatest Communication misalignment that typically occurs in the workplace involves employees’ sources of information. This Communication gap is found when considering where employees prefer to get their information and where they are actually getting their information. We offer two survey items to gauge this Communication gap, and quite a gap it is. See Figure 3.4.