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