Is Your Employee Newsletter Management Propaganda?
It should not be. If it is an effective newsletter, it will serve the needs of readers (employees) as much as it serves the needs of the publisher (management).
Let me explain how to ensure it serves employees as well as management, by reviewing four key points I make in A Manager's Guide to Newsletters: Communicating for Results.
Objectives and reader responses:
First, state your objectives in terms of reader responses. This forces you to focus on your readers, and what they're likely or not likely to do. Nothing brings objectives down to earth more quickly than the reality of implementation.
Now you may have self-serving objectives, such as increasing employee productivity, which is fine. But, once you state that objective in terms of reader responses, you are forced to see that objective in new terms.
For example, let's say you want to increase productivity. The desired reader response might be that employees will participate in lunch hour learning sessions. Now, you have to plan and write articles that give readers some good reasons to attend.
Reader goals:
To find those reasons, you'll have to identify readers' goals, and which of them they can achieve through your organization. Chances are your organization can offer a stable income, but probably not the chance to become fabulously wealthy. Nor would you expect most organizations to be part of spiritual or family goals. So the second key point is to focus on the goals that your organization can help readers attain, and leave the rest alone.
Content in which you share an interest:
Third, select content that serves both your objectives and readers' goals, and I emphasize the word 'both.' If there isn't something that interests both management and employees in an article, then it doesn't belong in your newsletter. You both must have something to gain or something to lose in choosing subjects for coverage.
Presentation style:
Fourth, the style of presentation should be appropriate for the characteristics readers bring to the newsletter. They don't pick up a newsletter with their minds in the blank slate position. Instead, they bring to it emotions, degrees of involvement, and ranges of consistency with your attitudes and beliefs.
You need to do at least some basic profiling, to identify these characteristics. For example, if morale is poor, you need to address the reasons and the solutions. It makes absolutely no sense to pretend everyone's happy when the opposite is true.
Of course, not every organization covers these four issues. Take a look at many employee newsletters and you'll see something much different. These newsletters have objectives that serve only management, and not management and employees both.
You'll see what amounts to a brochure, a sales pitch that does nothing to help employees advance toward or achieve their goals. And, if there's nothing there for employees, why would they read it?
And, if they don't read the newsletter, how will it help management achieve its objectives? It won't, of course, and the employee, having found nothing of relevance to her interests in the newsletter, will assume it is management propaganda.
In summary, an effective employee newsletter addresses the needs of both the publisher (management) and readers (employees). And, ironically, a newsletter can only achieve its self-serving objectives by serving the interests of readers, too.
Robert F. Abbott is the author of A Manager's Guide to Newsletters: Communicating for Results, which explains how to create effective newsletters, newsletters that get the desired responses. Learn how to start a newsletter, with real-life examples, at: http://www.managersguide.com/articles.htm
Latest News
Single Source Introduces New Advanced Quote Management (AQM)(TM ... MarketWatch - All functions seamlessly integrate to the inherent back-office financials, inventory, purchasing and management reporting functionality of SM-Plus-meeting ... KANA Recognized by Leading Industry Publications for Innovation ... |
![]() BBC News | ECONOMIC REPORT Global manufacturing gauges collapse in November MarketWatch - ... of price pressures hit an all-time low, according to a survey of corporate purchasing managers released Monday by the Institute for Supply Management. ... Manufacturing index drops to 26-year low Manufacturing index at 26-year low Manufacturing activity hits 26-year low |
The Apogee Companies, a Leading Property Management Company ... MarketWatch - "These upcoming new deals will broaden our abilities to grow throughout the US" The Apogee Companies is a leader in property and real estate management with ... |
![]() Telegraph.co.uk | New Star Plunges, Regulator Denies Suspension Request (Update1) Bloomberg - 1 (Bloomberg) -- New Star Asset Management Group Ltd. dropped 71 percent in London trading after the UK fund company, founded by John Duffield, ... New Star shares fall as it begins fresh debt talks New Star in urgent negotiations with bankers New Star: Reaction from financial advisers |
Reuters | AIG sells wealth management unit to Abu Dhabi group International Herald Tribune, France - NEW YORK: American International Group, the troubled insurance giant, said Monday that it had agreed to sell its wealth management provider AIG Private Bank ... UPDATE 1-AIG to sell AIG Private Bank to UAE's Aabar AIG to Sell Private Bank to Aabar AIG Unloads Wealth Management Business (AIG) |
Tendenci(R) Online Management Software Helps Housing Authority of ... MarketWatch - Tendenci's rich content management system makes it simple to add and edit content on the HACLA Web site, which means the information stays current and the ... |
Research and Markets: Training Management Maturity Model: A ... MarketWatch - How effective is your current training management system? What do you need to do to improve it? Find out with this best practice model and set of assessment ... |
Research and Markets: Software as a Service Human Resource ... MarketWatch - Human resources management - or human capital management, to use the trendier term - was one of the first markets addressed by software-as-a-service (SaaS) ... |
Mexico's Number One Security Provider Selects NavStar's Fleet ... MarketWatch - The NavStar Fleet Management System will allow Grupo Diamante to track assets, and provide security and risk mitigation service solutions for wireless ... |
![]() WNCT | '12 Days of Christmas' items would cost $86609 The Associated Press - That's this year's cost, according to the annual "Christmas Price Index" compiled by PNC Wealth Management, which tallies the single partridge in a pear ... Video: 12 Days of Christmas' Items Would Cost $86,609 Costly Classical Christmas Swans push up the cost of the 12 Days of Christmas |
Resources
-
AdWords | Google AdWords | 21 Ways to Maximize ROI by Andrew Goodman
Get the original Google AdWords handbook by Andrew Goodman. This 155-page e-book is packed with advanced tips to help you maximize your AdWords campaigns. Download and get free December 2005 update.
-
Reservation software for Hotels, Motels, Bed and breakfast
Reservation software for Hotels, Motels, Bed and breakfast
-
Restaurant Checklists: restaurant menu design, cafe training, business plans, restaurant marketing a
Full package of restaurant information including restaurant menu design, training, restaurant business plans, restaurant marketing and Management forms and templates
-
Castlemelody.com: Web design and creative design of graphics
Web design with content Management system for dynamic and flexible websites.
-
...MySoftwareTemplates.com high-quality Microsoft Word templates for Software
Development, Proposal
Write successful Proposals, White Papers, Case Studies with slick templates, checklist and forms.
-
Living Within Your Means - The Easy Way!
"
-
PARENTING TOOLS to design the family of your dreams! What does your dream family look like?
Powerful tools for parenting, anger Management, and creative blocks!
-
Productivity. Improve business productivity through work measurement and method study.
Set of resources to improve worker, workplace and office productivity. Learn to measure productivity, calculate a productivity index and construct a total factor productivity index. Resources include team productivity and employee productivity.
-
Construction Information Services - Construction Management
Construction Information Services include Construction Management ebooks - Construction Software - Articles - Firm directories - Forecasting and Trends of the building industry
-
Landlord Property Management Rental Guide
Looking to manage your own rental property? Use our beginners guide for landlords and rental property investors!


