Using supervisors to introduce major changes to frontline employees is the most desired, credible and effective way to ensure success according to TJ and S Larkin’s advice based on extensive international research, in their groundbreaking book, Communicating Change: Winning employee support for new business goals.

Too many organisations still insist on a ‘top down’ communication approach, with the initial information delivered by the CEO or senior management. But solid research supports the Larkins’ contention that ‘frontline employees distrust information from senior managers, don’t believe employee publications, hate watching executives on video, and have little or no interest in corporate-wide topics. The boundary of the frontline worker’s world is his or her local work area. If the communication doesn’t break through this boundary, it is wasted’.

Most workers trust their immediate supervisor, desire to have communication from that supervisor, and believe in the accuracy of the information coming from their supervisor.

Employee Concerns

Employees want clear, unemotional information. And they want to hear it from their immediate supervisor. When planning major changes, use supervisors as a significant component of your communication program if you want to succeed. So, where do you start when planning your communication about change?

1. Communication should be receiver-oriented if it is to change behaviour.

When communicating about changes at work, the key concerns of employees are:

• What is happening to me?
  
• Why is it happening to me? 
  
• When will it happen? 
  
• How will I be affected?

Whether communication is about improving customer service, cost-cutting, efficiency improvements, new systems, staff cuts or other significant issues, if your employee communication, via supervisors, addresses these issues, the evidence suggests it will be more likely to succeed.

2. Undertake supervisor briefings and supervisors’ opinion reports early.

Start by confidentially briefing the supervisors on the organisation’s plans, addressing what has been planned; how it would impact on their area; when changes would occur and how their area would be affected.

Then research supervisors’ opinions of the changes – usually one-to-one, anonymous interviews with supervisors. The opinion reports are then shared with supervisors and senior management, including the CEO, to ensure supervisor concerns (usually quite different to senior management concerns) are identified and addressed before changes are implemented (and the flaws begin to show).

Remember, workplaces are rife with rumours and speculation about impending changes, and supervisors are likely to be aware of potential problems and fearful of their implications in terms of their direct area of operation, while management may not be. These briefings and reports give supervisors access to senior management and put their concerns on the CEO agenda, plus should result in improved communication and winning the support of both supervisors and ultimately employees.

Supervisors are the opinion leaders for frontline employees. If organisations ignore these critical gatekeepers who help determine the attitude and behaviour of the rest of the workforce, then changes may be doomed to failure.

3. Strong supervisors communicate better to frontline employees - support them.

By properly briefing supervisors, addressing their concerns, and using them to deliver the information to their teams, research by Paul Nystrom shows the quality of the relationship between supervisors and employees is enhanced, as is employee feelings towards the company.

Allowing for the supervisor to be seen as a strong leader also results in increased trust in the supervisor; increased desire for communication with the supervisor and increased belief in the accuracy of the information from the supervisor, according to research by Karlene Roberts and Charles O’Reilly. And Brad Whitworth’s study found that employees who reported negative opinions of supervisor communication also had lower levels of job satisfaction and lower opinions of overall management, working conditions, operating efficiency, corporate policies and company image.

Don’t communicate via middle management either. Other research suggests that communicating change messages through middle managers results in messages being ‘reconstructed’ in ways that enhance the power and control of the manager, rather than enhancing communication or positive acceptance of change.

4. Give supervisors the tools they need to communicate with employees.

As only face-to-face, verbal communication between a supervisor and employees has the power to change the way employees act, support this.

One method is supervisor briefing cards – small, fold-up cards which fit in a shirt pocket, with answers to key questions likely to be asked by employees. They can be replaced as issues/information changes, eg during a takeover or change exercise, and ensure the front-line supervisors can answer employee questions accurately.

If you want to communicate about the results of a poor customer service survey, limit the information to the supervisor’s specific area, with key information relevant to that area. Focus on what supervisors and employees care about – perhaps results for their department compared to other departments, or the relationship between their customer satisfaction results and resultant levels of overtime or staffing in their department in the past. Have supervisors tell the staff about the results.

Even a simple diagram identifying potential situations faced by a section, and the likely results of each, in a few words specifically relevant to a section or department, presented to supervisors and then used by them to communicate with front-line employees, can be useful. These work far better than an organisation-wide document that may have no relevance to most employees. Most employees are parochial. They care far more about their area of operation than about the company as a whole.

Communicating about quality improvements faces the same issues – the Larkins’ note that loyalty, pride and devotion are felt by employees towards their local work area, not to the corporate values of quality production. If you communicate directly with supervisors about the results of their area’s performance, compared to competitors (either in-house or external) they will pass on the information. And it will change behaviour because the communication is about the employee’s job and how well they did it compared to others, while aggregated data will have little impact.

5. Don't use organisation-wide videos or newspapers

Australian research by Dennis Taylor suggests videos are the preferred method of receiving information by only 0.5% of employees (90% preferred verbal communication). Employee videos are effective only for communicating technical information with immediate, practical application and for senior executives responding to a dramatic event of concern to all employees, according to the Larkins. In a tragedy, they note, leaders need to be visible and people outside the company expect employees to know about the situation and so communication methods that usually don’t work now do.

Other research suggests in-house newspapers are equally ineffective in changing behaviour (it has also been suggested that at least 10% of the workforce is functionally illiterate).

B&A would be happy to discuss how to improve your employee communication about change. Call 02-97891263 or email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it