Key Messages
Creating An Effective Internal Hr Communication Campaign: What You Need To Know About Impact, Asking Why, And Kiss Principle
In order to have an effective HR communication campaign, it is essential to learn the techniques needed to effectively reach and engage your employees.
Companies are often extremely mindful of how they communicate with customers, but not so much when it comes to their own employees.
This is a mistake as effective communication with employees keeps them engaged and loyal.
Human Resources is traditionally focused on contracts, pension schemes, training and recruiting, but not enough on how to communicate all this in a way that encourages your team.
In order to achieve this, you need to understand the concept of IMPACT; the importance of asking questions such as “why?”; and also following the KISS rule: Keep It Simple, Silly!
With these techniques in mind, you can create an effective HR communications campaign that both you and your employees will benefit from significantly.
Hr Communication Is Essential For Building Trust And Engaging Employees In The Workplace
HR communication is a key ingredient to the success of any business, both in terms of reinforcing company culture and values, as well as building trust and engagement with employees.
Indeed, humans are social beings, so when employers interact with their employees through effective HR communication it can have positive impacts on company performance.
In order to have your message resonate with employees, you need to grab their attention by making it interesting – like the audience of a play.
For example, if one of your core values is “we have fun at work” then you need to back it up with concrete ways that make this felt throughout the organization – such as fun branding or using slogans.
But HR communication isn’t just about having fun – it also needs to cover more serious matters like benefit plans and new policies.
Here, communication needs to be both informative yet engaging; presenting technical information in an accessible magazine format makes sure that employees retain the information provided.
How To Get Employees Engaged Through Effective Hr Communication
Having effective communication with your employees is key to a successful workplace environment.
When it comes to HR communication, the main objective is to create a shared meaning amongst employees and provide them with a call-to-action.
Merlin Entertainments provides an excellent example of how to do this – they created their own campaign titled “For the Love of Fun” and supplied each team leader with boxes containing “Fun Goggles”, a “fun-o-meter”, and an informative film that explains the concept of maximizing fun in the workplace.
By providing their staff with tangible objects such as these, it encourages employees to take action towards achieving the desired message put across by the company: having fun in a work environment.
The company leaders also communicate their message through videos and meetings, which helps employees gain commitment from what they are being asked to do.
This not only makes sure that everyone is on the same page, but it also ensures that every employee fully understands what is expected of them for successful completion of tasks.
Overall, effective HR communication strives to achieve a shared understanding between employers and employees in order to create productive working relationships and promote company objectives within a meaningful way – ultimately, inspiring people to take action!
Collect Valuable Information To Enhance Your Hr Communication Campaign
No successful HR communication campaign is complete without the proper data.
Before launching any campaign, it’s essential to collect relevant facts from the right people by asking the right questions.
This will help you ensure your strategies align with the needs and expectations of your employees.
The author was recently preparing a new benefits program when she sent out a survey to her colleagues about how they wanted to receive news about new benefit opportunities.
To her surprise, most people answered that they preferred e-mail notifications.
This was helpful information that allowed her to structure the campaign accordingly.
When it comes to getting valuable information from your employees, start by using open-ended questions – those that can’t be answered in just one word – and dig deeper by asking “why?” up to five times, until you get to the root of an employee’s opinion or motivation.
Asking The Question “Why?” Leads To Success In Hr Communications
Whenever you’re preparing an HR communication campaign, it’s important to always ask yourself “why?” before making decisions.
Doing this allows you to set a clear goal and make sure that you stay on track.
For example, British insurance company Liverpool Victoria wanted to launch an interactive online campaign that would foster innovative collaboration between its employees.
So they asked the question “Why are we launching this new campaign?” The answer? To get their employees to use the platform in order to generate fresh ideas.
This allowed them to develop a plan of action with a specific objective and a timeframe for evaluating its success – which turned out to be 11 percent of their employees using the online platform every day and 17 percent every week.
It’s also good practice to keep asking “why?” as you move forward so you stay focused on the goal and don’t get sidetracked by challenges or obstacles.
For example: let’s say your company has a manufacturing site and wants to introduce a new system for recognition among its workforce.
You decide to set up a local intranet, but realize it isn’t being used because there is no access during work hours, confusion about how it works, etc.
If here you stopped and asked why again before moving forward, you’d realize that going beyond developing a form for submitting recognition won’t help your overarching goal – which is encouraging coworkers to communicate with each other about recognition.
Instead, you could implement kiosks where employees can login during work hours; offer hands-on training classes focused on usage of the site; or create reminders about access outside the usual working environment – more effective strategies than just having one-way communication
Finding The Right Medium For Effective Hr Communication
When it comes to effective HR communication, you want to make sure that the medium you choose is the best one for your message and your audience.
To do this, it’s important to consider both the message you want to convey and who you’re conveying it to.
For example, if you’re trying to get employees interested in a complex retirement program, visual storytelling might be a great solution.
This would involve adding images and graphic designs to explain the various options and provide an intuitive interface so that people can easily find the program that suits their needs.
Alternatively, if your aim is to engage younger employees with a voluntary benefits program, an internal social media platform could be a better fit.
This would allow employees to post comments about their experiences with different insurance products and investment opportunities while building excitement around them as well thanks to word-of-mouth conversations.
No matter what kind of HR communication campaign you’re planning, choosing the right medium is key.
By considering both your message and your audience carefully, you’ll be more likely to select the medium that will most effectively spread your message!
The Raci Model Ensures That You Don’t Miss The Little Details Of Successful Communication Plans
Building a good project plan is essential to achieving your communication goals.
Without a plan, you may miss important details and end up with embarrassing mistakes like the author of the book did when they were promoting their company’s benefit plans.
The team created videos without realizing that the computers at the different locations didn’t have the right software to play them!
Having a well-coordinated and collaborative approach is key.
The RACI model provides an excellent framework for identifying who should be Responsible for a task, who should be Accountable, who needs to be Consulted and who needs to be Informed.
Good project planning will help deliver your communications on time and in the right way.
When assigning tasks, make sure everyone knows their role and is held accountable for it.
That way, both individual objectives as well as overall team objectives can be met in a timely manner, ensuring success for your campaigns.
Assemble The Right Team Of Allies To Ensure Your Communications Project’S Success
Having allies or team members to help with any communication project is essential.
Just look at the success of the 1980 United States Olympic hockey team.
This team had a diverse lineup of players who each brought their own set of skills, which ultimately made them a winning team.
Likewise, when assembling an ally team for a communications project, it is important that you pick the right players—those who are truly going to support you and your campaign in getting the desired results.
It’s not just the players but also factors such as coaches, personal trainers, marketing teams etc., each contributing to success in their own way.
Also keep in mind that your allies will have different roles in the campaign—some may be endorsers, partners or contributors—so it’s important that you pick those who can best fill those roles.
One example of this is an endorsement gone wrong: where instead of promoting a new HR program, the endorser actually talked it down and encouraged others not to take part!
Choose wisely so that this doesn’t happen to you and your campaign suffers as a result.
How To Transform Your Hr Projects Through Catchy And Concise Content
Creating effective HR content means more than just getting the message out.
It also requires crafting content that is valuable and relevant to your employees.
Liverpool Victoria Insurance demonstrated this well by using a superhero theme for their content, making their project exciting and “sticky.”
In addition to making sure that your content has the right elements to draw people in, you should always remember the importance of simplicity.
Harvard Business School’s Dr.
John Kotter emphasizes the KISS Principle: Keep It Short and Simple.
Go through your project copy with this in mind, cutting anything unnecessary from your sentences so that each one supports the primary point in a succinct manner.
Strong descriptive words also add weight to messages and can help communicate effectively at all levels of an organization.
So when you’re creating your next HR project or communication effort, make sure that it is valuable and relevant for employees, keeping messages simple and “sticky” so they will catch on quickly!
Make Your Hr Communications Strategic And Personal For Maximum Impact
When it comes to HR communication, it’s essential to prioritize and highlight the most important parts of your message.
People are constantly barraged with information and can’t be expected to take the time to read long messages; so make sure you present the crucial points first.
The author suggests using a “pyramid” format where your message starts with a short sentence that contains the absolute vital piece of information that every employee should know- and from there, work down from their three most important pieces of information until elaborating on their details further.
This way, even if people only read the first part of your message they will still understand what you’re trying to promote or inform them about.
Additionally, personalizing this communication is a great way for employees to feel like your campaign was tailor made for them- utilizing images or graphics that show how much they’d specifically benefit by joining your program sooner rather than later!
Test Regularly To Ensure Your Hr Communication Campaign Is Meeting Goals
If you want your HR communication campaigns to be effective, it’s important to test their effectiveness frequently.
That way, you’ll be able to identify areas where improvements can and should be made.
One simple way to do this is by sending out employee feedback forms that ask questions about the campaign and how employees are interacting with it.
If the results of these tests show that the campaign isn’t meeting its goals, then you have the opportunity to make changes and get back on track.
Questionnaires are a great way to determine what kind of changes need to happen; they allow you to better understand employee preferences when it comes to receiving information about new programs or recognition tools.
Some helpful questions might include “Which format would you prefer for information (e-mail or brochures?)” and “What content, themes or media do you find most appealing?”.
Focus groups are also an effective tool when it comes understanding the qualitative data behind your communications initiatives.
All you need is a small group of employees who can provide their thoughts and opinions in response to prompted questions from a moderator.
You’ll listen carefully, take notes, and create strategies that appeal directly towards their needs and interests.
Social media platforms are also becoming more popular for testing ideas and gauging interest in different campaigns.
Ultimately, testing your HR communication campaigns regularly ensures that they remain on track – leading towards reaching their goals successfully.
The Impact Model Helps Hr Professionals Communicate Effectively: A Case Study On Bt’s Saveshare Program
The IMPACT model is a powerful tool for creating an effective HR communications campaign.
First, use Investigation to identify the best ways to communicate with employees and the objectives of your overall communications campaign.
Next, select a Medium which will engage your audience, focusing on both the message and the people who will be receiving it.
From there, you can begin Planning your communications campaign by creating a timeline and mapping out who will be involved in its execution.
Once you have carefully developed your allies (with diverse skillsets and roles) and concentrated on developing content that is relevant to employee needs or interests, you should Test these results to make sure they’re achieving what you intended them to do.
Finally, take a look at how BT handled their SaveShare program as an example of effective HR communication: their interactive online portal did an excellent job at simplifying the complex program for employees while providing visual aids, additional resources (like Question Time), and a unique orange design theme that grabbed attention through personalization.
By using this model combined with other methods discussed here, you’ll have all the tools necessary to create a successful HR campaign that delivers maximum results.
Wrap Up
The Effective HR Communication Book provides a comprehensive view on how to best communicate with your employees to create a more successful and productive workplace.
It emphasizes the importance of establishing meaningful connections with them through honest and effective communication, so that employees better understand your company’s HR programs and are thus more engaged.
Moreover, it encourages adding a bit of “magic” or “secret sauce” to ensure that your messages stand out and become unforgettable experiences for your employees.
This could be through things like LED lights embedded in a poster or a magic mirror where messages appear as they walk by.
Whatever your recipe for success is, make sure you add it into the mix!
To sum up, this book is an invaluable guide on how to create an engaging work environment while effectively using communication strategies that will help make sure everyone understands the HR programs of your company.
