Making Financial Results More Relevant

Employees want to know how the company is doing.

But they don’t want numbers.

Why do employees want to know about quarterly or annual financial results? Because they want to know if anything is likely to change. Will the project their working on be cancelled ? Will their role be eliminated or training budget reduced? Or maybe it will be the flip-side. Will their project be given additional resources? Is there new room for advancement and learning?

Communicating financial results is about painting a picture, not sharing numbers.

The best way to get what you need to paint that picture is to talk to a variety of stakeholders at senior levels to get their perspectives.

Where to start

After getting the highest-level story from the CEO and CFO, book 15-minute meetings with 4-5 other leaders from areas that directly drive business and with at least 1 leader from a support area. The areas will depend on your company’s structure and business but here are some suggestions to get you started.

Business-Driving Areas

Customer service
Marketing
Sales
Product development
Billing
Quality control
Distribution
Community outreach

Support Areas

Human resources
IT infrastructure
Facilities management
Mailroom
Internal communications
Project management office

What to ask

The point of talking to these leaders is to understand the impact of the financial results on their area — in a way that will be relatable to all employees. You’ll be using what they share with you to build examples of what the results could lead to.

Tip: From the start, make it clear to leaders that you’re not asking for specifics. (Unless they are 100% certain those specifics will happen.) Reassure them that your goal is to paint a picture to make the results more meaningful to all employees. You want their perspective.

Sample questions

How do these results affect your major projects?
[for direct customer-facing areas] Will you be incorporating these results in your customer interactions?
Is there any impact on your work with internal stakeholders? (e.g. A boost in resources for a project may mean that HR will have to increase recruitment efforts.)

Weaving it together

Use the input from the various areas to build examples that reinforce the general story that the CEO and CFO have provided. For example, if the high-level story is positive, that there’s good momentum in the right direction or things are on track, offer 2-3 examples of how that translates to “real” work. The same is true for less than positive results. Except, in those cases, you’ll want to use examples that either show that nothing will change (translation: don’t panic) or that if things need to change, it will be for the right reasons.

Remember, employees prefer and respond more positively respectfully delivered truth than to glossed-over pictures.

Get the stamp of approval

Most of the time, you probably don’t need the CEO’s approval before releasing content. Naturally, when it comes to financial results, you do need his/her sign-off. You’ll want to be sure that the perspectives and examples you’ve woven in align with the overall message the CEO wants to send. And, by the way, that message will generally be one of four: