What’s in it for me?

“Excuse me, I’ve just put some anthrax in the Pick ‘n’ Mix” / “It’s not my counter.” (from a sketch by British comedian Jasper Carrott.)

I’ve just held my second Internal Communications Forum (ICF) meeting where I get people together from across the business to discuss communications issues and successes and to check the pulse of the business from a comms standpoint.

It was encouraging to see that across the company communications have stepped up in the last 12 months or so, since we ran the employee opinion survey: team meetings are happening more frequently, people are hearing about issues internally before they hear them on the grapevine and so on.  There are parts of the business where this may never happen properly, but at least I can focus on those areas.

The biggest revelation (although not a total surprise or shock) was that some people don’t really care what’s happening in other parts of the company.  If it doesn’t affect them, it seems, then it doesn’t concern them.

Granted, these people are few and thankfully far between, but it seems that the people who have been here for 10-15 years (and then some) are quite happy – or not – plodding along doing their job, leaving when it’s done, collecting their payslip at the end of the month and carrying on regardless.  Is it because they’ve become too cynical and suspicious of corporate communications?  Is it just because they’re ‘waiting for the cheque’?

What chance have we communicators got with trying to inform these people, get them on board with the company’s goals and strategy and try to engage, inspire or vaguely interest them when their attitude is not to really care about the communications which are guided their way?

And should I care or just concentrate on those who are more susceptible and interested in the bigger picture?