1. Sophia Williams
COM 4900
Prof. Merkrami
December 5, 2013
White Paper Topic: How CEOs Connect with Employees
Though it is hard to imagine, communications is the most important tool of an organization.
The internal communication of an organization is instrumental to exceptional performances and
immaculate results and without it organizations cannot survive and deliver for its stakeholders,
management (for e.g. board members), employees, and customers. Internal communication
must exist amongst senior management, middle management, and employees to convey many
types of critical messaging. It is important to realize that management and employees are the
drivers of internal communications. It is even more important for the Chief Executive Officer
(CEO), to understand how he or she can effectively communicate with his employees.
Employees are the first line of representation for the business. They are especially critical in
their interaction and communication with their organization customers/clients. Therefore,
depending how well the CEO and his management communicate with their employees will affect
the communication between the employees and the customers/clients. To achieve successful
internal communications, there are six significant communication channels necessary for a CEO
to acknowledge, thoroughly understand, and implement in order to connect with his/her
employees. Those six channels comprise of an intranet, conferences/meetings, print
publication, blogs, videos, and social media.
Intranet
An intranet is an online internal communication channel accessible via a company website only
by those employed for the company. Whatever the content is that an organization intranet is

2. providing, it must always be remembered that it is a method of communicating messages. An
intranet is not an effective mode of communicating if only the CEO is making use of it. The
interactions between CEO and employees have to be present. It is noteworthy that the CEO and
his management team do not allow the intranet to be only a dumping ground for massive
amounts of information. The information provided should be engaging to all individual
employees and amongst all employees. Intranets serve the purpose to push information on what
is taking place at an organization. According to www.diffly.com, the “four pillars of content”
that an intranet has are work, HR, corporate, and social content. The pillars of content allows
employees and the CEO to have direct communication and connection as it circulate news, ideas
and organizational plans that many times help in understanding the employee and management
cultures much clearer. At Baruch Consulting Firm, for example, the CEO makes regular
engaging comments on topics directly pertinent to all his employees; and it has been said many
times by the staff that they now have complete knowledge on the cultural tone of the company.
Lastly, CEO’s not only connect with employees through intranets but also, offer meaningful
takeaways for their companies with it being an easy and informal reminder of the company
goals, a comfortable place to build trust and respect amongst the entire workplace community.
Conferences/Meetings
Formal and informal (where a CEO visits his employees at their location) conferences and
meetings are the best form of communication as it provides face-to-face interaction. In
Corporate Conversations, Shel Holtz, writes that, “Leaders intent on developing strong
organizations…need to understand that face-to-face at every level of the company must serve as
a key communication tool” (Pg. 68). A CEO job is to structure the vision, mission, and goals of
the organization and oversee the day-to-day activities. One of the best ways to have employees

3. perform really well at their day-to-day activities is having their CEO make meaningful and
helpful connections with them during informal and formal meetings. A formal employee
meeting affords the CEO the open opportunity to listen to employee voices on organizational
issues and observe their demeanor. By having this kind of a meeting he or she can easily get a
genuine understanding of his workers personalities and may find that he or she shares
similarities. Another way a CEO can interact with employees is by visiting them at their stores,
manufacturing and distribution centers, and other offices. If the CEO can walk in already
knowing the general profile of the staff at each location, that will make the visits more unique,
engaging and useful for employees. As seen in the Costco video where CEO Jim Senegal greets
and talks with his employees, every one of them feels appreciated for their work and respected
by their boss.
Print Publication
With print publication (pushed communication) an organization can develop a magazine, for
instance, and have the CEO write personal messages at the beginning of each publication.
He/she can have pictures from his visits to employees at the stores and other locations printed in
the magazine. This allows for employees and the CEO to have memories of the connections that
were made. The best outcome of the head of the company using print publication to stay
connected with employees is that at any time and anywhere they can access the messages of their
CEO. As noted in Internal Communication Tactics slides on blackboard and suggested by the
website www.cuttingedgepr.com, “The CEO should communicate with employees by using print
communication to confirm details explained face-to-face.” It is also wise that the CEO create
seasonal messages that can correlate in-depth employee related messages to the specific weather

4. season of the year. Doing so keep topics relevant and engaging between the CEO and his/her
workers.
Videos
Similar to print, videos are great tools to have the CEO talk with his/her staff at any given
moment, especially reaching employees who are not frequent online visitors. It is encouraged
that topics are centered on employee issues, such employee health benefits and vacation & sick
days, etc, so as to keep them completely in tuned. In addition, it is another form of presenting
the company news and its organizational ideas. This type of communication adds personal touch
and builds trusts among employees and the CEO.
Social Media
Social media with the use of a Twitter page, or the organization creating its own social media
platform (Yammer at Gatwick Airport) provides another alternative to enhance communication
and connections between employees and their CEO and create real-time information accessible
to all employees at any time. The CEO should find and share onto the social media page, easy-
going industry messages or topics from other sources relevant and unique to the interests of
his/her workers. This will show the employees that their CEO has a firm understanding of the
employee culture and really does care about the messages he/she sends them to read. As social
media is an exciting way for CEOs to engage and excite their employees, hash tags should be
created on Twitter to emphasize an event, meeting, a business change, etc. Creating hash tags
will bring more employees on board with whatever the CEO is trying to send out.
Blogs
A CEO writing their own blog featured on the company’s intranet site is a necessary tool to have
a two-way communication with employees. In the case study, Creating a Leadership Blog That

5. Will Work, establishing a “blog would be an effective channel to maintain a direct and open
dialogue between the boss and his employees.” An important goal of using a blog is having the
CEO broaden his reach and expand discussions on company issues to a wider audience, who are
sometimes more difficult to connect with. The CEO can really educate, engage, and connect
with employees as both sides can go back and forth on sharing thoughts on employee issues and
overall organizational issues. CEOs will see that the broad communication on the blogs
highlights the teamwork (developing on each other ideas, etc) of his employees, their dedication
to their jobs, and their trust in and connection with the leader of their organization. It is
important for all CEOs to understand that they should use a blog to not only share news on the
company, but to also share fun, interesting, and unrelated personal or shared stories that will
encourage regular conversations between individual employees and the CEO and employees.
This provides a meaningful opportunity for everyone in the organization to know and appreciate
each other personalities much more.
In conclusion, the intranet, conferences/meetings, print publication, videos, social media, and,
blogs all provide unique and diverse ways for a CEO to communicate, engage, interact, and
connect with his/her employees. Effectively using these methods will lead to the company’s
improved performance and an increased unified work culture among employees and
management, particularly the CEO.

6. Sources
The 4 pillars of intranet content http://www.diffily.com/articles/pillars.htm January 2007
Corporate Conversations: A Guide to Crafting Effective and Appropriate Internal
Communications
By Shel Holtz Amacom Books, 2003. Chapter: Traditional Communication Tools. Page 68.
CEO and senior managers are critical to employee satisfaction
http://www.cuttingedgepr.com/articles/empcomm_employee_satisfaction.asp
Week Five – Sept. 24-26 –Leadership Communications:
THURS Case Study: Creating a Leadership Blog that will Work