Employee communicators spend a lot of time producing communication materials they distribute to employees. You have to wonder how much this traditional top-down communication model will engage employees. It’s an important consideration, seeing as how senior executives have made it clear through a number of channels that they believe an engaged workforce is a requirement if they’re going to compete in the emerging economy.

If you’re looking for an example of engagement, it may be something of a surprise to find it at a trucking company. But at Roadway Express Inc., an effort to turn loading dock workers into leaders paid off in a big way. Employee communications, by the way, was one of the issues loading dock workers addressed at a three-day off-site.

Communicators should not be reporting these kinds of activities. They should be recommending and leading them. Roadway used the services of a management school professor. That shouldn’t be necessary if the company has a strategic communicator on the staff.

FastCompany has the story.