Holtz Communications + Technology

Lately I seem to have stumbled upon more than my usual share of posts addressing change management. One of the recurring themes in many of these posts is that people don’t like change, that they resist change and that change management efforts—including communications—need to address resistance. After all, the vast majority of change initiatives fail, according to every survey and study ever conducted…

Bravo to David Spark (whom, unbelievably, I still haven’t met) for calling BS on the practices employed by far too many companies in their efforts to boost employee morale.

Sparks decries as condescending and meaningless such activities as handing out worthless certificates of appreciation, distributing “achievement ribbons” and hanging morale-boosting banners in the office.

Sparks’ rant reminded me of a situation I encountered while working at…

Cross-posted from Stop Blocking

An article by Barclay Communications appearing in a tech publication from Northern Ireland is strident in its insistence that blocking employee access to Facebook is a requirement in the face of so much risk.

“According to a recent MyJobGroup study, over half of the UKs workforce could be trying to check and update their social networking sites in…

Countless articles and blog posts have been written listing ways to encourage employees to become brand ambassadors. A lot of companies already engage in many of these practices, but that doesn’t stop most employees from ranking among the company’s detractors. As I reported earlier this week, a Forrester study found the Net Promoter Score among information workers is a disheartening -23%.

The problem is…

The various reasons companies block employee access to social media can be summed up in one word: fear. Among the many things that make employers afraid, from lost productivity to network infections, worry that employees will say the wrong things—or, worse, bad things—ranks near to the top.

A Forrester study released last week (and reported by Josh Bernoff) offers a good-news/bad-news outlook on the…

In the summer of 1986 (dear God, 24 years ago), I was chatting with a customer service rep at Mattel, my employer at the time. She told me of the thousands of letters the toymaker routinely received from children. I wondered if the employee communications department (for which I was responsible) might be able to take a look at them.…