Communications senior managers

Top-level support is often most valuable when it is highly visible. Perhaps the most useful role senior management can take on behalf of PSM is to endorse it explicitly—both inside the company and externally. Senior managers active participation in communications about PSM lends cred -ibility and generates awareness of PSM as a company priority in ways that not even the most dedicated staff team can achieve. 

What we need now. Discuss need for visible senior management support to assist in winning employee buy-in. Outline plans for communicating the PSM system as part of installation, emphasizing the need for management s input and endorsement. 

Explicitly ask for their support and the resources needed to move forward with the project. You should inform everyone of progress by widely communicating a summary of the material you presented to senior management and the outcome of the meeting. With this completed you are ready to move to the next stage of the project developing a detailed plan. 

Once the plan is complete, you will almost certainly need to submit it for final approval. Your company probably has well established approval processes. Make sure to understand these and adequately brief anyone who may present your project to project review committees or board meetings on your behalf. When preparing your plan for approval, it is important to briefly reiterate the history of the project. Although you have thoroughly prepared senior management through your various communication and consultation exercises, they will not recall all of the relevant background. 

Structure and responsibility. These are concerned with ensuring that there is a senior manager with overall responsibility for the programme and that the responsibilities of other staff are clearly identified and communicated. These individual responsibilities should fit with the overall policy and objectives. 

Communication is also an essential feature of achieving employee buy-in. It is important to ensure that mechanisms are in place for two-way communication, i.e. that employees also get an opportunity to comment, provide feedback and make suggestions to senior management. In addition to top-down communication it is also essential that procedures are in place for communication to the wider population, which includes stakeholders and the public, regarding the organization s environmental policy and performance against stated objectives. 

The facts of the case and question and answer documents should be prepared. Key members of such a team are therefore the medical director, or a designate, senior managers who are able to quickly implement actions, a legal adviser if appropriate, and a member of the public relations/communications department, who knows how to communicate the team s outputs effectively. 

It should be emphasized, however, that awareness in industry is not only an issue for individuals. Awareness of individuals is heavily influenced by social factors such as communication and cooperation with other key-actors and by (formal or informal) corporate incentives. Ultimately, awareness in industry is mainly a collective awareness. The collective awareness in a company is greatly dependent on (but also reflected by) the existing corporate culture. The corporate culture is known to reflect the real core values of a company (which is not by definition the same as the official core values such as presented in senior management statements ) on what is being rewarded or not in everyday practice, on subjects and issues that can be addressed or instead are offlimits, and on missing elements in the awareness of managers and employees. 

Communicate with all buyers and decision makers, including senior management. Make sure the customer knows who you are. Selling products and services requires communication. 

J. Stewart Witzeman, Eastman Chemical One of the problems I have observed with external research programs is that the manager is often fighting internally because the R D community sees it as competitive and because it is often seen by senior management as one of the first things to cut in tough times. Do you have any best practices on how companies are able to maintain continuity in these sorts of programs ... 

Policies define the general principles and philosophy that are required within an organization. Each company should have written and approved validation policies that communicate the expectations of senior management for the execution of a validation project. 

The completion of the project is followed in Project Management terminology by the Closeout. It represents the formal end of the project when the deliverables, the WHAT of the project have been delivered. Again, this should be widely communicated, and all those contributing to the success of the project formally thanked by the sponsoring senior manager. Formal reward is in order depending on the company s attitude to remuneration and performance related pay. 

Crisis management will be required where a computer virus has manifested itself causing a computer system malfunction. Senior management should be kept informed of the incident and corrective actions being undertaken, and the wider user community should be warned of incident to reenforce vigilance. 

Number of communications from senior management to the general workforce promoting/discussing process safety X... 

Successful corporate leaders have found ways to break down the walls of functional silos that inhibit accountability and communication. Their senior management... 

Senior Manager, Global Medical Affairs, Nephrology Medical Communications, Amgen, Inc., Thousand Oaks, California... 

Communicate the objective, inciuding the support of senior management, to everyone involved, especially the IT department. You will need their help ... 

Are assessment results communicated to senior management for their use in making informed determinations Do managers routinely use feedback tools, such as performance indicators, reviews, debriefs, and lessons learned ... 

Corporate environmental policies require the commitment and resources of senior management. These policies often focus on actions that can prevent, eliminate, reduce, reuse, and recycle, respectively. These policies should be incorporated into aU employees practices and performance evalirations. Communication of environmental policies and information is integral to the success of the policies. Setting viable goals from corporate environmental policies is the subject of the next section. 

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