In recent years, our network of internal communicators has pivoted to keep up with the changing needs of 70,000-plus employees across 90-plus countries. Along with shifting dynamics between employees and executives, and new expectations in terms of access to senior leaders, what has also changed was where and how our employees want to receive their information, as well as the level of information about and transparency into decisions being made. Our colleagues want to be heard on the issues that are important to them—such as our vision, performance, equity, or sustainability—and they also need to feel that as a company, we are following through on our pledges and commitments in tangible ways. 

Listening to, understanding, and appreciating employees are essential to creating a culture that truly fosters engagement, inclusion, and belonging. As a result, elevating employee voices has become one of our most important endeavors that isn’t a time-limited campaign or initiative—rather, a guiding principle that we apply to all our internal communications, recognizing our colleagues as bona fide stakeholders with the same import as customers and other stakeholder groups. From the town hall stage to newsletters, intranet articles, events, and initiatives, we are committed to bringing the voice of our employees to the forefront to shape the messages we craft and the tactics we use. 

Starting with listening
Understanding, appreciating, and elevating employee voices starts with listening. We are fortunate to have a chief executive who uses active listening strategically. When he was named CEO two years ago, he embarked on a virtual listening tour, hosting more than 30 sessions globally to give our employees the opportunity to ask him questions about his priorities, leadership philosophy, and expectations, and be able to share their perspectives in return—both on what is working well and what areas they might like to see our senior leaders address and how. The listening tour was very well received, with a high employee satisfaction rating.  

Once the tour was completed, our CEO also didn’t stop listening. Instead, he continued to host virtual “e-coffee corners”—small, informal, employee-directed roundtables held over Teams—to keep the dialogue going. He also holds periodic “Ask Me Anything” sessions on Yammer to connect informally with employees around their questions and concerns. These have become so popular that we are now using similar forums to have dialogues with our colleagues on a range of other topics—from wellbeing and inclusion to resilience, communicating with impact, or the principles of customer centricity, just to name a few—that involve other executives along with our CEO. 

Small steps to big impact
Next, we decided to shift our global town halls from a presentation-style format to more conversational roundtables, using pre-submitted employee questions to shape the agenda and conversation, while leaving plenty of time for live Q&A at the end. We also expanded our list of presenters and panelists to include—on stage or virtually—not just the CEO but other members of the senior management team, and even select colleagues, so we could go deeper into the various topics that are top of mind for our employees. These were simple changes that brought measurable results in both the participation and engagement rates of our global town halls. 

We also continue to look for other ways to showcase our colleagues in person and on screen. For example, we held a global event earlier this spring focused on the topic of intentional inclusion. We kicked off the conversation with a video featuring employees from various locations, with different roles and backgrounds, sharing personal experiences that made them feel included or excluded on their team. We then held a series of panels—also featuring employees—to examine what we heard in the video and discuss real and actionable ways to practice intentional inclusion in various situations—from conducting a one-on-one meeting to welcoming a new team member, to how we behave at a team lunch, business dinner, or coffee break, for example. 

The response to this event was extremely positive because we kept it authentic. What’s more, one of our senior leaders then spoke openly about being called out in his 360-degree performance review for tolerating exclusive behavior and what he was doing to ensure he called out ‘bad’ behavior on the spot. His story took the conversation to an entirely different level—especially when employees realized that our CEO attended the entire session—as it demonstrated true commitment to inclusion and that everyone, at all levels of the organization, had a role to play. 

Never-ending commitment 

As we travel this path, it’s important to remind ourselves that our job of elevating employee voices is never going to be done. Rather, we must view this as a muscle that we are building—one that’s getting stronger and better each time we exercise it. In addition, as internal communicators, we must help our senior management team make thoughtful changes in their communications practices to do the same. For example, most of our executives have begun modeling our new, global format for their own regional and functional town halls. Many have also created employee ambassador networks to provide input on local programming, co-create local content, and cascade key messages across their organizations. 

Our network of internal communicators also incorporates employee voices into our communications programming related to global initiatives, whether it is the rollout of our new hybrid work program, new leadership behaviors, or new parental leave guidelines. Now, when we are communicating about these and other topics, in addition to interviewing senior leaders about why this is important to our business and to them, we also interview employees from different parts and levels of the organization to share their perspectives. 

All these initiatives helped improve our employee survey scores relating to the clarity and relevancy of our communications—both of which have seen double-digit improvements since 2019—along with confidence in our leaders and perceptions that our leaders are demonstrating visible leadership—both reaching over 70% favorability. In addition, I am particularly proud that our peers in other companies have recognized our efforts as well, awarding us Inspiring Workplace, Communicate Magazine, and Stevie International Business awards, which are motivating us to keep up the momentum, making sure our colleagues around the world continue to feel heard, valued, and included.