CEO Blogging: Building relationships with employees
Posted on August 7, 2007
Filed Under Interviews / Leaders, Blogging for Business |
How does a CEO engage with over 1200 employees across 10 countries every working day? By writing to them daily. And the one person who has done this remarkably well is Rudy Karsan, chairman and CEO of Kenexa, a leading provider of employee hiring and retention solutions. Here’s all about communicating in his own words as told to TechGazing:
Where do I write?
On the company’s blog, and internal and external publications.
Why do I write?
CEO stands for the only job with three bosses: Customers, Employees and Owners. One thus needs to develop a communications protocol for all three; and the larger a company becomes, the more efficient this process needs to get. When Kenexa started off 15-20 years back, I could talk to the small team anytime, anywhere. But as we grew and globalised, the number of locations and employees went up. And we realised the best way to touch them was through writing. I started a thought of the day, which could be the words of a famous person, or about what the company is doing, or my personal experiences besides other things. And these would wait on everyone’s desktops as if to say, “Hello, how are you this morning?”
Here’s also an extract from one of my blog postings: “In today’s global economy, companies have to provide value to stakeholders around the mantra of ‘faster, cheaper, better’. As organizations strive to achieve this, they often lose sight of the smaller picture, i.e., communicating with and keeping their employee base informed. However, effective communication is a vital business tool for speeding up change and improving the quality and performance of any organization. Handled correctly, it is a critical way of aligning, motivating, and engaging employees.”
I walk into any of our offices, and employees think they know me and connect with me even without ever having met me before. All because of the thought of the day. The writings are a reflection of the kind of organization we are; it’s a way of showing our values. We are seen as a company with integrity and highly service focused with a culture of fun.
We have other leaders and employees who also write. We are thus perceived as a smart company where smart people work.
High employee turnover is the biggest problem we have for our operations in India; as a result the competitive advantages based on just cost in this country are eroding fast. We need to have a differentiator to survive. In our business, it cannot be any patents or technical developments. Communicating the way we do helps establish us as thought leaders, giving us that edge.
And how I do it?
One needs to write with discipline and consistency; otherwise the rhythm breaks. For 10 years, I have not missed a single thought of the day, nor I have missed any deadlines for the newsletters.
Comments
3 Responses to “CEO Blogging: Building relationships with employees”
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Nice read, reinforcing the fine advantages of a Blog.
Excellent article… great meaning given to the word CEO….. i guess if every CEO takes the responsiblity of satisfying the 3 bosses Customer, Employee and Owners (stakeholders)…. organizations will difeinitely see pinacles of success…
Great reading….. and fortunate to know Mr. Rudy
Shajahan
Head (Quality)
DST Global Solutions - Hyderabad
9849294477
Hi Shajahan,
Thanks for your comment to this post. Glad you agree with it. One wishes companies and their management get this message strongly to ensure win-win relationships with their stakeholders. Sadly, so many get it wrong - even while being profitable companies. But they must realise that indifferent attitudes can come at a heavy price in the future.
Look forward to seeing you more often at my blogs.
Cheers…
Ajay