A wide range of small businesses rely on employees who don’t happen to sit behind a desk in the home office. They are known as “non-desk” workers and can be off-site sales staff, delivery personnel, drivers, IT technicians who work in the field—the type of people who, in a recent survey, claim they don’t get enough information from the top to do their job.

Anne Fisher, a contributor to CCNMoney, reports on this recent survey of “non-desk” workers at U.S. firms with over 1,000 employees. Many of these employees deal directly with customers, so their views are worth considering. According to the survey:

• Eighty-four percent of respondents said top management doesn’t share enough information.
• Seventy-five percent said they aren’t told enough about changes in policies and company objectives.
• Seventy-four percent said they want more “consistent” messages from senior management.

“Some supervisors are better communicators than others, so important messages can get lost in translation,” says Elizabeth Cogswell Baskin, CEO of Tribe, Inc., the communications consulting firm behind the survey. “Some employees get the word about big changes before others do, simply because some bosses haven’t told their people yet.”

Many of the same characteristics enabling companies to prosper are the same characteristics stifling the introduction of new ideas. Most businesses still value control, predictability, reliability and continuity over innovation and creativity.

In today’s marketplace, small-scale innovation (tweaking cost-structures, logistics and customer service) won’t result in impressive growth. So says John Carter, Principal of TCGen, a vigorous proponent of corporate innovation. The only way to unleash creativity within your organization is to develop what Carter calls a “Culture of Innovation.”

Recently I wrote about how inbound marketing is a great digital tool for marketers to attract an audience, convert prospects, and close leads. Another compelling feature of inbound marketing is how quickly you can alter your execution and drive results.

Inbound marketing evangelist Mike Lieberman, a contributor to Marketing Pilgrim, outlines specific actions businesses can take both now and over the long run. As co-founder and president of Square 2 Marketing, Lieberman is firmly convinced when it comes to inbound marketing, “the longer you do it, the better the results.”

He shares ways to drive results with inbound marketing.