Keeping in touch with employee
 

I've been working at Federal Express for the past month and me and my coworker actually got a video from the corporation headquarter in memphis called "In the Ex".

Basically, what it was about is a report on how FedEx has been doing for the past few months in terms of finiancially as well talking about what it's been doing to promote itself on the market among other minor things.

This was actually the first time I've ever watched such video from the corporation and I thought it was a cheesey mixture of propagenda as well moral booster for its employee including part of the video where VP of FedEx canada visiting one of the centre that wasn't doing well.

I thought a simple newsletter or emails would suffice but a video? Isn't that a tad over doing it?

Has anybody watched a similar video from your management or something?

I'm a cynic -- Rah rah company cheerleading bullshit... :)

When I worked for an ad agency, we got crap like that all the time... One of my current clients is another ad agency, they do that stuff regularly, some people like them - -and find them informative -- I'd rather just get a memo that I can read when I want. Just give me the facts and hold the song and dance.

I get an email in my company email inbox every single weekday from the head of the corporation on what's happening globally with the company. Most days they just get glanced over and put aside.

we have quarterly employee meetings for just this purpose.....as well as a question and answer session with the CEO where we get "no answer" answer to questions about our concerns.

one upside...we get pretty cool "company" gifts at them...like back packs, compass watches...really nice tape measures....those fold out "camping" chairs" so thats kinda cool

do you ever do anything but complain?

Although it may be cheesy, I think it's cool that Fed Express is educating it's employees about the current happenings of the company. I can see your point that the video is tad over doing it, but atleast they are making an effort to keep their employees informed.

For big companies I think it is OK. Small companies don't have the resources (employees and/or money).

When I worked for Bank of America (a slightly big company :) ) we used to get those videos once a year or so. It was interesting to see the Board of Directors and the really high up guys in person (sort of). Otherwise, they are just names in the paper.

The videos were done in-house by the group that does training videos and such.

We did video conferencing to deal with current business situations and decisions. The videos were really just PR for the employees. But hey, your employees are your best representatives so while I would not disagree with Mal that they are "Rah rah company cheerleading bullshit..." I don't think they are a bad idea.

When I worked for Dish Network, the CEO (Charlie Ergan, for those who don't know) would hold weekly or bi-weekly Charlie Chats, which any subscriber could watch. His VP at the time, Soraya Cartwright (nasty evil woman) would also do weekly Soraya Chats, aimed primarily at employees. Every week we were pulled off our desks to watch these things. Mostly, they made us sick, because we got to see just how far behind the company brass really were. Things that happened on the floor of the call center took one, two, three months to reach the desks of the higher-ups. We were constantly being advised about how to handle issues which were so outdated that half the people didn't remember them in the first place.

I get the proverbial mushroom treatment. But I also get a fair wage, fair benefits, job security and recognition from my higher ups so I can't complain much.

Mostly, in high tech, this is done poorly. And it's often overdone.

At my last company, Seagate, they'd gather us for quarterly meetings and show us videos, sometimes even skits, about the latest weird management idea they wanted to push on the company. They'd have the meeting down at the local civic auditorium, 700-800 people there and everybody else at remote locations watching via TV hookups. The CEO and SVPs would come on with a light show and music effects usually reserved for rock stars. Unfortunately, most of the news they gave us was massaged and self-serving. They never mentioned layoffs, even when actual layoffs were going on. Somebody dared ask about the layoffs in Q&A, and was told, "Well, it's a tough business these days. What do you expect?" End of subject. Arrogant bastards.

I can't say that it was _overdone_ at Hewlett Packard, but it sure was weird. Every quarter the CEO would get on _the public address system_ and lecture employees while they were sitting at their desks. Usually to tell them that they had to do more, more, more, with less, less, less. Everybody took it stoically, mainly because what they were really waiting for was the profit numbers for the quarter -- half the staff were old-timers who were hooked into profit-sharing. I was only a contractor, not even an employee, but it was so demeaning -- Big Brother shouting down at you -- that I wanted to find the guy and kill him. It's probably different now that Carly Fiorina's in charge -- but not better.

In the old days at Tandem Computers, CEO Jimmy Treybig would use the company's elaborate video studio (they didn't need it, but Treybig liked video) to put on weekly video broadcasts to the troops, some very elaborate. I didn't see it, but the one in which he and his execs dressed up in Star Fleet uniforms is legendary.

I could go on, but why? The key concept in all these misadventures is arrogance -- although at least Treybig believed in treating people well.

If you have anything useful to post, post it, other than that, dont

We get quarterly meetings of the whole company with the CEO and other senior management. They answer even the nastiest of questions completely. If they don't, you can ask for detail in the area they skimped on, and they'll answer. Really. It feels very strange, but actually kinda good. They expect us to want to know what's going on, and to ask questions, even if they're inconvienient.

They sometimes generate fancy documents which are apparently offset printed and expensive, which are distributed to the employees before they're made public, as far as I can tell. They want us to know what's what. We get press releases too, so we know what's been made public, again. Very consistant.

We've also been known to get serious bonuses for the successful ends of major projects, as well as yearly bonuses, though those last aren't guaranteed by any means. This is honestly the best place I've ever worked, though I'm not saying it's perfect.

I'm with denim... they give us lots of information...

I could walk up to the president in the hallways and he's happy to speak with me. Not that I'm special, but anyone can approach him.

When I was at Saatchi and Saatchi they made a Lessons from Geese video...

sure it was hokey but still, when I thought about the fact that they went through the trouble to do it...and then present it as part of orientation it means that they have some sort of care since usually orientation can sometimes just be "here's where you'll work, and you start tomorrow at 9am."

here at MTV we got one that was with Andrew Shue and a number of Melrose Place actors that went over our benefits plans.