Welcome back for another round of tips from Improving Employee Engagement through Investor Relations. Last week, we focused on the importance of a company’s story, how to present ESG initiatives in a genuine way and employee engagement as a priority. If you need a refresh, you can find that blog here. Keep those tips in the back of your mind as we cover the next three tips:
Tip 4 — Consistency is key
Telling a consistent corporate story needs to extend well beyond the IRO’s standard work and quarterly earnings calls. A consistent corporate story includes all departments, business units and brands in an organization.
IROs, take these steps to create consistent storytelling:
Build relationships and align with other communications functions within your organization, like corporate communications, marketing and brand.
Meet regularly with other storytellers within your organization.
Participate in developing communications plans.
Advocate to tell the IR story internally.
Your employees are fantastic at noticing if your story is out of alignment, especially with your purpose and values, so keep your ears open to their feedback. Listen to employees, and then show them you’ve heard them by incorporating their input into your communications.
Tip 5 — Build trust and credibility through collaboration
A lot of your time is spent building credibility, which if you do it right, will actually improve the employee experience of all those around you.
When it comes to earning trust internally, here are our best suggestions:
The first is earnings communications. How many fellow company leaders and functions do you need to work with to get your message out to investors?
Next, we understand that it can be difficult to build trust with co-workers who don’t share your skillsets. However, by working with people across functions and across experience levels, you’ll have opportunities to learn and better understand your business, which can build credibility across the board.
Social media is a critical channel, so now’s the time to send a basket of mini muffins to that team.
Tip 6 — Educate your employees
While not every employee needs to know every detail of a company’s performance, consider the impact of companywide financial literacy for your organization. Educating your employees on what investor relations is and what it means for your company can have a huge impact, especially when that education includes employees at all levels – because it’s not just deskless workers or new hires that might struggle with this.
Here are a few ideas to help you educate employees:
The new hire stage is a perfect place to start. Get involved in the onboarding process. Make sure new team members are hearing a consistent corporate story, including your purpose, mission, vision, values and key performance metrics.
Hold informal education sessions, like lunch and learns to clearly articulate how analysts are thinking about your company and what is needed to drive valuation higher.
Going on an NDR with your execs? Why not practice it for employees before hitting the road?
If you’ve just held an investor and analyst day, post the recap and FAQs on your IR website and share via internal channels.
Advocate for increased ESG awareness at your company.
Profile your top five shareholders internally. Who are they and why do they invest in your company? Highlighting this important group can give employees a good understanding of your investment story and see how their work makes the company more attractive to investors.
That does it for our second installment of Improving Employee Engagement through Investor Relations tips! As always, Small Potatoes is on your team, from communications strategy to presentation design and everything in between. If you’re as excited as we are to start leveling up your communications, check out our strategy sessions.
We’ll see you next week!
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