Let’s not lose the human touch

 

Internal communicators have a lot thank technology for. We have many more tools and platforms than were available even five years ago, giving us more ways of building closer connections with employees. But is tech always the right solution?

I worry that there is so much attention on different tools to seek views or track sentiment that we are losing focus on human interaction. That a new platform can actually increase the distance between employers and employees rather than reduce it.

Rather than reaching for a new tool of some kind (and the ever-growing array of suppliers willing to sell us one), I feel we should be spending more time on helping our leaders and managers reach into our organisations, to connect with colleagues and have open and productive discussions. That will help us strengthen the culture of engagement far more than a shiny new platform alone, however sophisticated that may be.

People are still people

Tomorrow marks 43 years since Depeche Mode released their first album in the UK. 43 YEARS! Where has that time gone?! Anyway, it made me recall this piece from five years ago, which I feel still holds true...

I suspect few would have synth-pop legends Depeche Mode down as pioneers of employee engagement. But the more complex that participants in this field try to make it, the more their simple refrain ‘People are people’ appeals.

The articulation and application of labels to groups in the workforce has almost become an industry in its own right. To be fair, it’s not just this profession: many protagonists have helped to light the fire, but we avidly fan the flames. And I’m not sure it’s doing us or our organisations any favours.

Supporters argue that such segmentation helps us make sense of changing workforce needs. Detractors say that it introduces massive generalisations that don’t help anyone.

Cynics might argue that developing new labels provides an opportunity to sell something different.

There’s probably some truth in each case. But I feel that developing labels has become a distraction from our core challenge of understanding and responding to the needs of our particular organisations and their people.  

Let’s get back to some basics and the principles that those boys from Basildon espoused more than 30 years ago. Let’s understand our people as they are. Not through the lens of a label that is foisted upon them.