The U.S. Customs Service has discovered a tried but true method of getting important messages from executives down to front-line workers: Tell managers to talk to their employees.
Earlier this year Customs sent two internal communications specialists from headquarters to the Texas-Mexico border to figure out how to improve communications in the field and make sure the agency's border inspectors, who prevent illegal narcotics and contraband from entering the country, get the information they need from above.
Specialists Karen Hjelmervik and Jeffrey Brooke surveyed employees and front-line supervisors at three border stations. Nearly 70 percent of both groups said communication at their workplaces was poor or terrible. Important information was working its way to employees and supervisors through the grapevine; 60 percent of employees said their most important source of information was their co-workers. Surprisingly, 60 percent of front-line supervisors said their primary source of information was the National Treasury Employees Union (to which, of course, they did not belong).
Hjelmervik and Brooke discovered the major reason behind the grapevine effect was a communications breakdown between front-line supervisors and their mid-level managers. When mid-level managers received e-mail messages and memos from their border station directors, they simply sent them down the line to supervisors, who in turn shoveled them out to employees. Employees were overloaded with unprioritized raw information.
"If everything's a priority, nothing's a priority," Brooke said at a seminar in Washington this week sponsored by the Federal Communicators Network, an interagency group. "If employees don't understand the reasons behind decisions, they're less likely to adopt and internalize them."
Hjelmervik and Brooke's solution was simple: Get people talking. Mid-level managers at border stations were to hold regular meetings with front-line supervisors, discussing problems and priorities. Managers and supervisors also developed bulletins and daily talking points to prioritize information into usable chunks. Then supervisors met face-to-face with employees to explain directives and projects.
Then mid-level managers went out to the front lines and quizzed employees on the information their bosses were supposed to tell them, and posted the results--by supervisor--in the regular bulletins. Supervisors whose employees answered most questions correctly were clearly communicating well. Those whose employees were getting all the questions wrong had some work to do.
After a 10-week trial period, Hjelmervik and Brooke returned to the border to do follow-up surveys. They found that the grapevine had shriveled. Nearly 70 percent of front-line supervisors said they were getting the information they needed from their managers, instead of from the union. Employees said they better understood the reasons behind decisions.
The regular meetings between supervisors and their managers also helped address overtime management problems, leading to more than $100,000 in savings. Intelligence and training got to employees more effectively, resulting in more than $7 million in additional drug seizures.
"Communication is a measurable, accountable process," Hjelmervik said.
Hjelmervik and Brooke admit that not everyone has accepted the new way of doing things. Some supervisors still need to be encouraged to get on board, they said.
Nevertheless, their communications transformation process will be expanded to all of Customs' Southwest border stations, they said. Instead of going to the several dozen stations themselves, Hjelmervik and Brooke have developed a six-step guidebook to improving internal communications. Managers will be responsible for making the changes.
"The role of the manager is largely a role of being a communicator," Hjelmervik said.
NEXT STORY: Horn: Y2K Not A-OK