Employee communication and community relations are important functions of public relations. Effective employee communication helps keep employees informed and encourages feedback, while community relations involves participating in the community to benefit both the organization and community. Key aspects of employee communication include using various internal media like publications and intranets, while community relations aims to support local activities and economy through donations, volunteering and sharing resources.

1. EMPLOYEECOMMUNICATION
andCOMMUNITYRELATIONS

2. CONTENT
• Introduction
• Employee communication
• Concept of organizational culture
• Importance of employee communication
• Media for employee communication
• Community relations
• Importance and process
• Specific functions of community relations

3. EMPLOYEE COMMUNICATION

5. Introduction
• Employee communication help employee to be
well informed about their organization, encourage
to express view to management
“Employees are asset to organization”

6. COMMUNITY RELATIONS, A PR
FUNCTION
Planned, active and continuing participation with and within a
community to maintain and enhance its environment to the
benefit of both the organization and the community.

7. • Organizational culture are employees
collective perceptions of:
– Policies, Structure, Leadership, Standards, Values,
Rule
• Authoritarian cultures - centralized decision-
making with the CEO and a few top-level
managers
• Participative cultures - feature the common
value of teamwork
Concept of organizational culture

8. • Public relations contribute to a productive
workplace culture in that:
– Establishes organizational policy based on a goal-
oriented approach
– Helps in designing and implementing organizational
change programs
– Provides an expertise in employee communication
• The best workplace culture should provide
feelings of:
– Confidence, Openness, Candor, Satisfaction, Involvem
ent, Pride, Supportiveness
Concept of organizational culture

9. Importance Of Employee Communication
• PR practitioners’ duties in employee
communication include:
– Promoting understanding and awareness of
company goals
– Interpreting management and personnel policies
– Fulfilling employee information needs
– Providing channels for two-way communication
– Encouraging favorable attitudes and increased
productivity

10. Importance of employee communication
• Research shows employee interest focuses
on…
– Organizational plans for the future
– Job advancement opportunities
– Job-related “how to” information
– Productivity improvement
– Personnel policies and procedures
– How the organization is doing vs. competitors
– How individual jobs fit into the organization

11. MediaForEmployee
Communication
• In order to promote a positive
organizational culture, PR
practitioners use the following
internal media:
– Publications
– Videos
– Television
– Intranets
– Email
– News releases

12. MEDIAFOREMPLOYEECOMMUNICATION
Union communications:
• Company-union relationships are adversarial in
nature, governed by statutes and regulations.
• Those laws and regulations limit organizational
behaviors and communicator messages.
• Keep in mind why employees may unionize to
pursue their goals and interests
• Work toward resolving issues with unions and
establishing an effective continuing institutional
relationship

13. Content of employee media:
• There must be a balance between the
information employees want and what they
need.
• Typically, an employee program contains:
– 50 % about the organization
– 20 % about employees – benefits, etc.
– 20 % relevant non-company information about
competitors, the community, etc.
– 10 % personals and trivia
MEDIAFOREMPLOYEECOMMUNICATION

14. • Principle of employee relations:
– Employees must be told first
– Must tell the bad news with the good.
– Must be timely with info
– Must inform employees on subjects they think are
important
– Use media employees trust
• Preferred topics of interest include:
– Plans for the future
– Productivity improvements
– Personnel policies and practices
MEDIAFOREMPLOYEECOMMUNICATION

15. Community relations

16. Organization
CommunityCitizens
Infrastructure
Facilities
CustomersEmployees
UtilitiesTransportation
Offices Schools
Inter-dependence: Organizations and Communities
COMMUNITY RELATIONS

17. COMMUNITY RELATIONS
• The need for
community relations:
– Inter-dependence
makes community
relationships very
important
– Communities and
organizations must
work together and
share many of the
same resources to
assure economic
prosperity for both.

18. • Kodak., as part of
their community
affairs
programs, contributes
money to local
orchestras and science
centers in the
Rochester, NY area.
– They also sponsor
community events and
provide grants to
charities.

19. • Objectives:
– Inform the community about the organization.
– Obtain legislation favorable to operating within
the community.
– Determine community attitudes and expectations.
– Support community activities.
– Assist local economy
Importance & Process

20. Importance & Process
• Tips for effective community
relations:
– Know the community.
– Develop a community relations
policy.
– Harmonize organizational practice
with community needs.
– Cooperate with local
organizations.
– Make appropriate donations to
community groups
– Patronize local businesses.

21. Specific Functions Of Community
Relations
• Ideally, communities relations will:
– Create something that didn’t exist before or revive
an old program.
– Solve a community problem.
– Broaden the scope of a community service.
– Share equipment, facilities, and expertise.
– Reconstituting, Repairing, and “Dressing Up”
– Tutor, counsel or train citizens to help others.
– Activate others

22. Create something needed that
didn’t exist before
• Intel is using spare processing power of personal
computers to fight cancer in a Philanthropic Peer-
to-Peer program in hopes of reducing the time
new drugs can get on the market.

23. Solve a Community Problem
• An major oil company turned
its facilities and land over to a
small town in Kansas without
cost when it closed its
business there to make an
industrial park and to help
solve the resultant
unemployment problem.

24. • Marriott Hotels often provide day care facilities for
its employees use so it can provide employment
for those who couldn’t afford to work otherwise.
Broaden the Scope of Community Service

25. Sharing
Facilities &
Expertise
• The American Bar
Association provides
free legal services for
the poor and elderly
who typically would
not be able to afford
legal help otherwise.

26. Reconstituting, Repairing, &
Dressing Up
• Helps communities
with rebuilding or re-
invigorating a
community area.
• Lowe’s has continually
supported Habitat for
Humanity and it’s
efforts to construct
homes for those in
need.

27. Tutor, Counsel
, or Teach
Others
• M a n y
c o r p o r a t i
o n s
e n c o u r a g e
t h e i r
e mp l o y e e s
t o t u t o r
i n t h e i r
a r e a o f
e x p e r t i s e

28. Activa
ting
Others
• St. Jude’s Research
Hospital has worked with
corporations such as FedEx
to host a PGA golf
tournament to provide
thousands of dollars for
cancer research.

29. SpecificFunctionsofCommunityRelations
• Major areas of corporate philanthropic
support include:
– Educational Opportunities
– Healthcare
– Human Services
– Arts and Culture

30. • Challenges of Corporate Social Responsibility
– Issues are not static – they change over time
– Priorities vary among publics – Know Your Public!
– Problems are complex
– Difficulty satisfying the public’s expectations – the
public may expect more than your organization
can reasonably ensure
SpecificFunctionsofCommunityRelations

31. • Factors involved in effective corporate
philanthropy programs:
– Do No Harm
– Communicate with Partnerships
– Target Contributions to Specific Areas
– Contributions must be in line with Corporate Policies
– Plan within a specific budget
– Communicate plan to all parties
– Do Follow-Up after campaign
– Money may not be only item needed, i.e. volunteers
SpecificFunctionsofCommunityRelations

32. • Trends that make corporate giving more
effective:
– More corporations are giving money to problems
they think are significant and want to help fix.
– Venture Philanthropy – corporations give money
to nonprofits who follow solid business practices
– Cause-Related Marketing – A corporation ties it’s
product with a cause.
SpecificFunctionsofCommunityRelations

33. Benefits of Cause-Related Marketing
• Increase Sales of a Corporations Product
• Enhances the Reputation of the Corporation
• Benefits the Charity and the Partners involved
SpecificFunctionsofCommunityRelations

34. In Summary
• Community relations programs are based on a
few fundamental principles:
– The community is vital to the organization.
– Community relations programs should serve the
interests of the organization and the community.
– Programs should be conceived and managed to
provide benefits to all parties.