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Below are key themes that dominated corporate communications news in April 2024. We’re covering the connection between innovation and the return to work, the say-do gap when it comes to company values, the shift from the age of the empowered employee to the age of the detached employee, and the art of effective feedback.
Many companies are changing course to drive innovation in today’s hybrid, distributed workplace. Fortune discussed a TV interview with Nike’s top executive on rebuilding the company’s disruptive approach, quoting CEO John Donahoe who said, “Ambitious product innovation suffered when employees were remote.” While many workers insist they’re more productive from home, in-office days at American companies have increased from 1.1 days per week on average in 2021 to 3.4 days in 2023. Nike teams have returned to fully in-person work and their CEO states there is a “huge amount” of innovation going on now at the athletic gear giant, with a 9% revenue growth as a result.
Parallel to the continued return-to-work debate, an increasing number of leaders suggest it is a mistake to position innovation separately from the business itself, and that doing so can lead to simply pursuing technology for technology’s sake. To underscore this argument, The Wall Street Journal highlighted Walmart’s decision to close Store No. 8, its idea-incubation arm based in California’s Silicon Valley, embedding innovation deeper across its organization instead to give more employees the opportunity to contribute. MIT Sloan Management Review focused specifically on using data to drive innovation, covering Lufthansa’s bid to increase data and AI literacy among its ranks and turn all employees into data leaders — starting in the C-suite. Meanwhile another MIT Sloan Management Review piece discussed how hard innovation has become in our complex world, using the disruptive examples of Apple, Uber and Tesla to demonstrate the importance of both looking at the broader ecosystem and getting granular to accelerate change.
Bottom line: Companies that strive to keep up with technology and harness AI for new discoveries understand the best ideas come from within the business, rather than from detached groups. As innovation is increasingly embedded in the organization, employees at all levels need to be equipped not only to analyze data but also to get over their fear of change — including any anxiety over AI.
Two trends we covered in our last Cup of Corporate Comms continue: Less is still more and you still need to watch your mouth when it comes to reporting on environmental, social, and governance (ESG), as well as sustainability and climate topics. As disclosure standards and reporting requirements begin to take effect — and more are developing — related communications are becoming especially challenging. In response, The WSJ Sustainable Business explored how increasing sustainability reporting requirements significantly increase the need to improve the quality and access of sustainability data across companies. Forbes dug deeper into reporting trends in general and the newest virtue signaling called “diversity washing” in particular, suggesting that many firms ranked high in DEI discussions do not rank as highly on the diversity of their workforces. Fortune covered the same trend, highlighting global apparel brand adidas, which has managed to leverage diversity in ads worth billions of business — but its workers say the company has been failing when it comes to internal DEI efforts.
On a related thread, The Wall Street Journal focused on the idea of saying less: the phenomenon of disappearing diversity goals from companies’ annual reports from 2022 to 2023, as they try to navigate pressure from both critics and advocates of DEI efforts in the U.S. And The Guardian highlighted one company that is planning to do less: Unilever’s announcement to scale back its ESG ambitions on a range of issues including plastics and pay has drawn sharp criticism from environmental groups.
Bottom line: While firms’ ESG rhetoric may not match their reality, currently there is no penalty for misrepresenting their commitments or achievements, highlighting a need for accountability to ensure accurate reporting. Companies need to find the right balance not to overcommit, undercommit or misrepresent their goals and efforts, while staying true to their purpose.
In addition to say-do pressures, a related thread continuing from our March coverage brings company values — and the need for consistency in living those — into sharp focus, highlighting the nuanced ways companies are navigating strong points of views on the issues of the day. On the one hand, employees have gotten more vocal of late, and The Wall Street Journal focused on the clear warning that many business leaders in the U.S. are beginning to send to their staff to discourage protests: Dissent that disrupts the workplace won’t be tolerated. In a related piece, The Washington Post highlighted Google’s decision to terminate 28 employees over staging protests against its deal to sell technology to Israel, which has resulted in extensive coverage and debate.
On the other hand, executives are becoming less keen to speak up: Bloomberg discussed a new survey of 600 C-suite leaders, which shows that nearly nine in 10 are wary of taking a public stance on current issues — with an overwhelming 87% stating that speaking up poses a greater risk for their company than not saying anything. Growing backlash against ESG initiatives from shareholders and activist groups has not only quieted leaders but also put a chill on the ESG job market, as reported by Fast Company.
Bottom line: As companies continue to look for ways to carry out their ESG priorities without getting trapped in any political crosshairs, they need to demonstrate not only a genuine commitment but validate these commitments by showing measurable benefits along with the costs.
During the Great Resignation in 2021 and 2022, companies were desperate to retain employees and give them what they wanted, but the mood has shifted dramatically since. Following peak empathy and engagement in 2020, a new Gallup survey found that employee engagement in the U.S. has dropped to its lowest level since 2013, along with a rise in detachment and a weakening sense of connection to employers’ mission or purpose. Forbes focused on the groups seeing the highest levels of disengagement: Gen Z, remote-ready jobs who don’t have the flexibility to work from home, as well as those who work exclusively remotely. In a related piece, Fast Company dug deeper into the root causes: return-to-office mandates, high-profile layoffs and a strong labor market have contributed to a marked shift in empowerment, as employees no longer feel like they can quit a job unless they have another one lined up — in sharp contrast just a few years ago.
Looking beyond the problem at possible solutions, Ragan discussed the important role managers play to boost morale, from creating opportunities for open dialogue to building authentic connections, practicing active listening and providing regular feedback and support. Meanwhile Fortune took a different approach, highlighting the power of community engagement and volunteer programs to drive engagement and retention.
Bottom line: Leaders must be ready to turn up the HEAT — a term coined by a HAVAS Red white paper, to communicate with humanity, empathy, accountability and transparency — and internal communicators must be ready to collaborate on crafting effective messaging that resonates with employees, provide tips and resources on engagement strategies, and offer consistent feedback and support.
The ability to give and receive effective feedback is an essential part of communication at work — regardless of level or role — and it’s critical for managers to do it authentically and empathetically with the individual in mind. But while traditional performance management conversations occur once or twice a year, effective feedback needs to be a continuous process that is more frequent and predictable. The Washington Post focused on generational differences, highlighting Gen Z — the first generation to have grown up with the internet at their fingertips, who bring their expectations of instant access to information to the workplace — who enjoy criticism as long as it’s timely, collaborative and empathetic. Forbes discussed the flipside of the feedback process: fearing feedback conversations is more common among leaders than we’d think. And Harvard Business Review focused on the bigger picture, highlighting the importance of corporate learning to support improved performance, and its power to transform upskilling from a mundane task into a fun journey.
Bottom line: Meaningful performance feedback increases employee wellbeing, engagement, retention and business impact. More frequent and predictable performance check-ins lead to larger increases in each of these areas.
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