Today's successful organizations are the ones which carry on open and honest communications with their employees. If employees know and understand the mission, they will help communicate it to customers.

Here are some employee communication methods and the pros and cons of each. As in marketing communications, a multi-media approach will be most effective when delivering honest and open communication.

Meetings and Discussion Groups

Pros ? Effective. Allow immediate response and feedback. Allow Q&A. Delivers message that management cares and wants open communication. Also, one of employees' top preferred methods.

Cons ? Consistency at risk with many different group leaders involved. Hard to evaluate. Can get out-of-hand and become counter-productive. Management time required.

Newsletters

Pros ? Consistent, controlled message. Big picture message can be combined with local messages, allowing you to tailor to location, audience. Relatively inexpensive. Timely.

Cons ? Not a society of readers. Impersonal.

Television

Pros ? Consistency, control, timeliness. Chosen spokesperson speaks directly to audience. We are a TV society, so people relate well to this method. Live interaction through teleconferencing provides some of the benefits of face-to-face meetings.

Cons ? Distribution. Cost. Time required on the part of the spokesperson.

Audio Tapes/CDs

Pros ? Consistency, control, timeliness. Chosen spokesperson speaks directly to audience. Relatively low cost. Ease of use (most people have access to cassette/CD players at home, work or in the car.)

Cons ? Distribution. Time required on the part of the spokesperson.

Harry Hoover is managing principal of Hoover ink PR. He has 26 years of experience in crafting and delivering bottom line messages that ensure success for serious businesses like Brent Dees Financial Planning, Focus Four, Levolor, New World Mortgage, North Carolina Tourism, TeamHeidi, Ty Boyd Executive Learning Systems, VELUX, Verbatim and Youth Link USA.