I used to work at Dairy Queen. Trying feigning self-respect with hot fudge in your bangs.

As for now, our only opportunities to drive a message home to those who aren't super plugged-in is to print it on a giveaway and hand it to them.

Meredith, I did time at DQ, too! Mine was on the major highway up to Minnesota Lake Country. The long lines in summer demanded standing for 9 hours with barely time to pee. Would I have read any kind of communication from Corporate? Sadly, probably not.

I wish I could say that Saks has a thorough corporate communication strategy for reaching part-time employees. Our printed magazine is available for everyone in breakrooms, and we try hard to involve lots of rank-and-file people to keep it relevant for Sales Associates. But I should do more to measure its effectiveness with part-time employees.

When we have something that MUST reach every single employee, we create check attachments that HR managers at each location staple to each employee's paycheck or direct deposit stub. That ensures the information reaches their hands, at least. What they do with it once they have it is up to them.

I dunno, folks. Maybe I'm magic! Because as a trouble shooter, I was going into stores with BIG problems - understaffed, theft, poor figures - and I was able to create ownership by providing the staff with the tools they needed and the information that I believed would empower them.

I let them know up front that I expected a lot: be on time, know your sales goals as well as the stores', know where you're supposed to be, look busy and have a GREAT time with the customers! But, at the same time, I gave them a lot in return: I'd teach them anything they wanted to know about the business, the sales books were open for them to view, I'd hire a big enough staff that I stayed under payroll but could basically guarantee them any shifts they wanted or any days they needed off, I never yelled at or embarrassed them and I talked to them like they were people, taking an interest in their families or education. Occasionally, I'd bring in snacks (goes a long way with hungry teens) or have a little contest with rewards - all out of my own pocket.

This was in a very blue collar area, too, not some ideal, pristine retail setting. In fact, one things I'd do was create a healthy rivalry with the nicer locations in our region, teasing with my staff that we could do better numbers than the others even selling off a dirt floor (our carpet was so old, it was decaying.) They loved the idea of a challenge and would really get into it.

Some of these people actually transferred to other companies as I made moves...and yes, they were making crappy minimum wage (when I would have paid them triple that, had I been permitted.)

I guess my point is that I've learned you get what you expect from people (of any age.) Yeah, you're gonna get a deadbeat here or there, but for the most part, people are good and they want to do a good job. They want to be recognized and rewarded, and they want to feel like you respect them. I think as communicators and managers, we have the responsibility to hire the BEST people (any age) and then find out what motivates them, then deliver.

There's two more cents for ya!

Everyone makes good points on both sides of the fence. However, as a manager of any type of business, if you don't take it seriously, how can employees be expected to. Its one thing to preach 'values' and high minded nonsense. It is another to implement a values system, and show the importance of working a certain way. Often, this is more a difference in managing/communication style, and less a question of 'should we hang 'values' posters or not'.

DATE: 03/24/2005 09:10:8P PM
I give up!! Your experience in retail makes you a much more credible authority than me . . . . since I was basing my advice on my own twisted past, rather than any real-life experience trying to communicate with this audience.

Although . . once, a long time ago, I did do some work for a company that employed a lot of young people. I don't want to name names, but the company makes copies, and it rhymes with Stinkos.

I did some focus groups with employees, and they pretty much mirrored how I felt at Wendy's. They didn't want to be there, didn't give a hoot about the company, and nothing the communicators did was going to change that.

That said, however, maybe it was the company. To use an Easter referrence, maybe it's a chicken and egg thing. They had that attitude because they weren't being communicated with properly, maybe.

Anyone else have any experience? Carmen, what about at Saks? I trust you have some younger part-timers?

Steve

DATE: 03/24/2005 10:31:2P PM
My husband worked at Wendy's in college and went to take the trash out the dumpster. The manager followed him out and yelled at him for dumping a perfectly good head of lettuce. He actually made Craig get in the dumpster, fish out the lettuce and bring it back in to wash it off for re-use. Now if this manager was then going to turn around and talk to Craig about integrity in the workplace or any other such nonsense, I don't believe it would have been well received.

I, on the otherhand, worked across town at McDonalds at age 18, and I am proud to say I was never forced to go spelunking for lettuce. Instead we used to drop a 20-piece McNugget order at 11:55 and eat the whole thing at midnight when we closed. That's not as gross, however, in my mind. Well, now that I think about it - it might be.

DATE: 03/24/2005 32:21:1P PM
Gotta largely side with Steve C on this one. Some folks -especially teenagers working part time jobs for money to buy weed - do not want to hear about vision and mission. Hell, *I* don't want to hear about vision and mission most of the time.

Now, I don't think that disqualifies those folks from getting ANY info, but I've long believed that the crux of successful employee communications is sending messages in a way that it has a *chance* of being paid attention to and understood. Hard to do with organizations of thousands of people across dozens of disciplines and scattered around the world, but such is life. Far too often we rely on how *we* like to send, rather than how our audiences like to receive.

SN

DATE: 03/24/2005 32:73:2P PM
Oh . . . you McDonalds people . . . you always thought you were so much BETTER than us poor Wendy's slobs. I remember when the McDonalds workers would come into Wendy's and snicker at us. My brother worked at McDonalds . . . and he used to rub it in my face all the time.

Steve

DATE: 03/28/2005 03:63:8P PM
I'm late into the game here on this one, but I have to side with Steve C...not to undermine what the "polite and respectful anonymous dissenter" is saying. I don't know what you were selling, but you can't compare retail to a grocery store. You just can't.

My sister has been in retail for years...more than I care to think about. She managed a quite famous ladies store (the last part of which sounds like Seacrest) and now manages an even more wonderful handbag store (rhymes with Poach)...and her employees have been loyal and wonderful and young and all that jazz.

I on the other hand, before my lucrative (yeah, right) career in IT used to manage Burger King. My employees couldn't have cared less about the latest happy meal prize (unless it got them good resale on the street, like those darn watches), let alone the "company vision".

The difference? Retail can be a cool place to work, with upward mobility and a great discount. I can't believe they are offering much in the way of a discount on green beans at the large supermarket chain, and even if they are, do the kids care? They are not buying the groceries, mom is. So maybe she likes the discount. Most of them are probably part-time, so they don't qualify for benefits, 401k or their future in supermarketing. It is what it is, a J-O-B.

So maybe skip the big corporate stuff and stick to the real meat: common courtesy, good work ethics, teamwork...it's still a part of the company vision, I'm sure, and something they'll carry with them when they go.

DATE: 03/28/2005 12:65:5P PM
Now see, if I was on the Tender Crisp Bacon Cheddar Ranch as a farmhand, I would be much more interested in learning about the key messages and overall business objectives.

COME AND GET IT! ^_^

DATE: 03/28/2005 73:63:0A PM
A lot of it depends on the business. If it's a fast food place where your young employees aren't looking at it as any future career, but only as a way of earning some money it would tough to communicate vision/mission/goals, etc. They're just there for the measly paycheck.

But if the young person is working part-time or summer jobs at a business that might possibly build into a full-time position or a career choice they would probably much more receptive.

It's tough to get most adult, full-time, career-oriented employees looking, much less buying into high level goals and mission statements anyway.

DATE: 03/29/2005 38:03:0P PM
I also work for a grocery company...we are a regional company based in Texas. I have a couple of comments here.

First, it is critical to hire the right people. When hiring high school folks, some are more committed on the job than others, so all you can do is try to hire the best person for the job and then go from there. If you don't hire the right people, no amount of communication is going to motivate them to do better on the job.

In our company, many times communication is handed to our employees with their paychecks or copies are left or posted in the break room. However, we did focus groups with employees in all areas of the company and they told us that if they received something in the mail from the company, they thought it was very important and paid closer attention to it. They also said getting something in the mail ensured that they did not lose it (they don't have many places to keep personal stuff at the stores) and that they had time at home to sit down and read it thoroughly.

We also did a communication audit wherein we discovered one of the communication vehicles with the highest readership was our Investment and Retirement newsletter. Now, that could be because money is involved (!), but, out of all of the communication vehicles we audited, it was also the only one that was mailed to people at their homes.

As a result of this, last year, we created a new business-focused, information-packed newsletter for all employees to educate them about our company, our industry, and our key business strategies (no grip and grin promotional crap allowed). Despite the sizable expense, we mail it to employees at their homes. Employees really seem to be reading it and we have been getting all kinds of positive feedback from them. Another upside is that our employees' family members also read it, since it comes to the house, and that has encouraged some of them to come to work for us or shop our stores more often! Either way, it has turned out to be news our employees want and a great promotional piece for people outside the company as well.

Just thought I would share these lessons learned...

DATE: 03/30/2005 18:80:1P PM
Relevance is in the eye of the receiver, not necessarily the sender. We can have a certain group of facts, data and information that WE believe all employees (even pimply yout's) need to know about. We can therefore find the best way to get that info to them and measure how well they get it. The big deal is that when you weed out all the chaff, the wheat remaining is "do right by customers" and "understand how what you do contributes to success" -- both for the company and the individual employee.

Connecting the dots in a creative and effective fashion is what wins.

DATE: 03/30/2005 69:95:6A PM
Great info, Sonya. But I think we're splitting the discussion. Steve C's entry wasn't talking about how to communicate to younger employees about doing good work or improving at their job. I agree that we shouldn't lump all kids into the "lazy" category. There are many who are of good character, want to work and do a good job.

Steve's point (I think) was the difficulty in communicating high level key messages, overall business objectives, mission/vision and future plans to young workers who aren't working there as a career, but just a temporary job to make some money.

DATE: 03/30/2005 79:42:8P PM
Darin,

Thanks for the note...my post was actually more a response to Carmen's post about some of the methods they use at her company to get messages to their employees than a direct response to Steve's original post. I just wanted to share with her what we are now doing in a similar workplace situation (mailing more critical info home rather than leaving copies in breakrooms or giving out with paychecks). I should have made that clear...I thought that would be clear if people read every post.

As for motivating young people, certainly many young guns don't consider working at the grocery store, Wendy's or McDonald's a long-term career and thus don't care what you tell them about the mission or vision of the company. However, in my company, many people start off in our stores with that attitude and end up staying with the company through high school, college, and beyond...including my boss who at 40, has been with our company 23 years. She began as a bagger at 17 and is now the head of the internal communication department. And that is the norm rather than the exception...lots of people are in double-digits here!

So you never know...all we communicators can do is keep trying to reach this audience creatively and not "talk" down to them...somewhere along the way, some of them begin to view these companies as careers. And communication can play a key role in that.

Stepping off my soapbox now. :-)
Sonya

DATE: 07/09/2005 80:30:2P PM
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