DEPARTMENT OF INFORMATION STUDIES

INFS 325-PUBLIC RELATIONS

LECTURER- DR. MUSAH ADAMS

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EMPLOYEE RELATIONS

•Employee relations is concerned with how public

relations practitioners in profit making and non-

profit making organizations help promote

effective communication among employees and

between line employees and top management.

IMPORTANCE OF EMPLOYEES RELATIONS

• Practitioners of employees relations can strive to establish

organizational communication policy which must help

employees understand, contribute to and identify with

organizational objectives and problems

• They can help in designing and implementing organisational

change programme

• They can provide expertise as employee communicators.

CHALLENGES IN EMPLOYEE RELATIONS

• The move toward globalization.

• The wave of downsizing and layoffs has taken its toll

on employee loyalty.

• Lack of Training.

•Motivating employees to give superior service.

• Employees want a sense of fulfilment from their jobs.

•Retaining good employees.

DEALING WITH EMPLOYEE PUBLIC

The employee public is made up of numerous subgroups. In

the library/archives for instance, there are

librarians/archivists, assistant librarians/archivists,

library/archives assistants, administrative staff, and so on.

Any organisation which is really concerned about

communicating effectively with its employees especially in the

face of challenges noted in the previous section should

reinforce these five specific principles.

• Respect

• Honest feedback

• Recognition

• A voice

• Encouragement

Six criteria distinguish communication effort at the work

place . According to Milton Moskowitz, these are:

• Willingness to express dissent

• Visibility and proximity of upper management

• Priority of internal to external communication

• Attention to clarity

• Friendly tone

• Sense of humour

EMPLOYEE COMMUNICATIONS STRATEGIES

•Communications must be strategic

•Communications must be open

•Communications must be consistent

EMPLOYEE COMMUNICATIONS TACTICS • Employee communications is vital to the success of any

organization. One important step in the communication

process is determining which vehicles(media) you will use to

reach your target audiences.

• A variety of techniques can be adopted to reach employees.

But before any communications program can be

implemented, communicators must have a good sense of staff

attitudes. This can be done through an internal

communications audit.

EMPLOYEE COMMUNICATIONS TACTICS CONT’D

• Internal communications audit : audits help determine

staff attitudes about their jobs, the organization and its

mission coupled with an analysis of existing

communications techniques. It starts with personal, in-depth

interviews with both top management and communicators

VEHICLES THAT CAN BE USED TO COMMUNICATE EFFECTIVELY WITH EMPLOYEES INCLUDE

•Online communications

• The internet/intranets

•Print publications

•Desktop publishing

• Employee annual reports

•Bulletin boards

VEHICLES CONT’D

•Suggestion Box/Town Hall Meetings

• Internal Video

• Face-to-Face Supervisory Communications

•Dealing with the Grapevine

EMPLOYEE AND COMMUNITY RELATIONS

• Community relations refers to the various methods organizations

use to establish and maintain a mutually beneficial relationship

with the communities in which they operate.

• The underlying principle of community relations is that when an

organization accepts it’s civic responsibility and takes an active

interest in the well-being of its community, then it gains a number

of long-term benefits in terms of community support, loyalty, and

goodwill

WHY COMMUNITY RELATIONS? Business organizations give attention to their community

relations for good reasons.

• An organisation does not live in a vacuum

• Community relations build public image and employee

morale and foster a sense of teamwork that is essential in

long-term success.

WHY COMMUNITY RELATIONS? CONT’D

• Organizations are recognized as good community citizens

when they support programs that improve the quality of life

in their community.

• Good community relations programs offer a wide variety of

benefit. For instance, that give employees a reason to be

proud of the organization which increases loyalty and may

help to reduce labour and production costs

WHY COMMUNITY RELATIONS CONT’D

•An organization might generate new business through

the contacts and leads it generates in its community

relations activities.

•Good community relations can also be beneficial in

times of crisis, such as a fire or a flood disaster, by

rallying the community around the affected business.

TYPES OF COMMUNITY RELATIONS ACTIVITIES

• Listening to community wants and needs

•Community relations should involve more than just

annual contribution

•Allaying the community’s fears about the organization

TYPES OF COMMUNITY RELATIONS ACTIVITIES CONT’D

•Protecting the community’s health and safety

• Encouraging and managing employee volunteerism

• Implementing fair recruitment and employment

practices

•Maintaining profitable but ethical operating practices

END OF LECTURE