Branch Offices - A Communication Opportunity!
Have you heard this before? "I am the manager of a San Francisco
branch sales and service office for a company with its head
office in Atlanta. Overall, it is a good company to work for.
The problem is that on many occasions we seem to be left out of
the corporate loop. I have voiced my concerns to senior
management and they always say that they will correct the
communications gap and they do for a month or two. Then it goes
back to the way it was. Is there anything that I can do get
managements attention?"
You are not alone, mushroom farming in multiple facility
businesses is more common than not. Most branch offices, whether
they are part of a small or large company feel that they are the
foster children of their parent organization. The vast majority
of information disseminated by a company, especially a small
business is done informally. In general, the staff finds out who
is leaving, what changes to the organizational structure have
been proposed, major capital investments and what orders have
been received around the coffee machine or at the lunch table.
Although memos may be written by management to advise the staff,
employees are usually well aware of any announcements long
before they are committed to pen and paper.
It's not that they want you to keep you in the dark. In most
cases, you are facing what I like to call the out of sight, out
of mind syndrome. I know how frustrating this can be to you and
the branch staff. It leads to a low moral that equates to
reduced productivity.
Rectifying the communications problem is not an easy task and
requires on-going effort. The first thing that you must realize
is that although senior management is the group implementing
change, in most cases they do not directly disseminate the
information. That tasks falls to administrative assistants and
secretaries. It is important that you cultivate that group of
people. On your next visit to the head-office invest in some
lunches and promote the need for inter-office communication with
them. Make sure that there is a mail slot for inter-office
correspondence and ask the person who is responsible for sending
whatever is in that mailbox to you, to throw in copies of any
general company memos that they get.
It is a two way street. You should also be aware, that the staff
at the head-office feel that they have no idea what is going on
at their branch offices. It is equally important that you keep
the head-office advised of branch happenings. With some
concerted effort, you may be able to convert the mushroom farm
to a rose garden!