HR MANAGER S GUIDE TO EFFECTIVE INTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS

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1 HR MANAGER S GUIDE TO EFFECTIVE INTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS

2 OUTLINE: What is effective internal communication? And why is it important for your organisation? In this guide, you will learn: 1. The benefits that can be achieved from good internal communication 2. What techniques you can start adopting today 3. The best tools and technology you can use 4. How to measure the effectiveness and act on the results

3 INTRODUCTION It s no secret that happy employees are more engaged and therefore more productive, producing better business results. An internal communications plan is vital to the smooth running of any organisation. Keeping employees engaged and invested in your company will significantly improve your bottom line, but this is where so many organisations let themselves down. According to Gallup, only 13% of employees worldwide believe their leaders are effective communicators. The truth is, poor internal communications costs business. A recent study from Ultimate Software revealed that 75% of employees would stay longer at an organisation where they were listened to and had their concerns addressed. Effective managers understand the importance of improved communications, both for the benefit of your employees and your organisation. As experienced internal communications professionals with almost thirty years experience providing creative solutions for the industry, we understand what works and what doesn t. Read on for expert advice from 20/20 Productions. HR Manager s Guide to Effective Internal Communications

4 Step 1 planning Most managers understand in theory that internal communications are important. But where many fall down is failure to adequately develop their communications strategy. Effective internal communications do not come about through guesswork or haphazard implementation. All aspects of employee communication, from timing to medium, should be planned out in advance.

5 Here s our advice for perfecting your internal communications plan: Research Do your research. A good idea is to try to understand who your employees are, and how they consume information. Different audiences tend to have different communication preferences. For example, tech-savvy younger professionals tend to prefer digital communication through online platforms. Questions to consider include: What is the age demographic? Is yours a team of technology natives or novices? These are important questions to understand from the get go, as they will impact your strategy significantly. If you can, find out more about how companies, similar to your own, are communicating with employees. Is it effective? If so, emulate it. If not, try to understand why, and implement changes within your own organisation. Plan Fail to prepare? Prepare to fail! A communication strategy should be intricately, planned. An ongoing list of employee update information and timings should be at your disposal. Key dates, mergers, policy changes if you know about them in advance, factor them into your communications plan. Being unprepared is a sure-fire way to spark rumours and panic when even the most minimal changes come into place. Similarly, if there s something you would like your employees to start doing, set clear targets. For example, if you re sending newsletters, you could set your sights at a 15% open rate increase in 6 months. If you meet your target, great you know you re onto a winner. If you don t, this is also a fantastic learning opportunity try to work out what s going wrong. Fundamentally, it is important to make a plan and stick to it. An unorganised approach to internal communications is inefficient and ineffective. Don t let your strategy slip throughout the year, as this will only negatively impact your employees and your organisation. Collaborate You may be in charge of the internal communications strategy, but that doesn t mean you have to be wholly responsible for its implementation. Get the whole company involved! Where possible, involve employees in the implementation of your communications plan. This in itself is a good exercise in engagement and collaboration key motivators in productivity and staff retention. Involve junior team members early by enlisting their help and making sure they know the effects of their role on the company. By involving junior members of staff, you re making them more aware of the company s operations and getting them acquainted with more members of staff. This will help them to feel fully integrated into the team a desired effect of any good internal communications plan. Engage Using the same communication methods over and over again can reduce engagement. Try out new and interesting ways of delivering your message. A great example of this is video. You can communicate a new business announcement through a short film or animation to create an engaging update that employees won t just want to ignore. But this is just one idea use your imagination, or bring in a production team who can deliver your communications creatively. You can deliver messages with an exciting event, an immersive experience or even through interpretive dance! As long as what you want to get across is conveyed effectively, you can use any medium the more creative the better. HR Manager s Guide to Effective Internal Communications

6 Survey Your employees know which communications work for them and which don t, so ask them! Consult your employees ahead of time about what they like and don t like about current communication practices. Ask them what changes they d like to bring about, and if you see a trend, decide whether you can work this into your communications plan. A survey can be conducted via an online poll, or at the end of a company-wide meeting with an anonymous ballot box. Learn There is no point in making decisions on internal communications if you don t then measure the results and act on them. After the survey is complete, take on those results and make thought-out changes. Your employees will absolutely thank you in the long-run by being more invested in the company and therefore more productive. We discuss this in more detail in the measurement section.

7 Step 2 - tools and technologies So you ve got the planning covered, but is the implementation feeling a bit daunting? Have no fear, tech and tools for the internal communications industry are here to help. Where possible, when there s something you need your employees to know, avoid traditional large-scale meetings where all attendees do is sit and listen in a crammed conference room. People tend to lose concentration, resulting in misinformation-spreading. The amount of preparation that goes into planning these sorts of meetings is not worth the return. HR Manager s Guide to Effective Internal Communications

8 Instead, enlist some tech help. Here are some of our favourites. Video Video is an ideal tool for effective communication with employees. It s not a new medium, but it remains one of the best. Done right, it takes less time to communicate key information to staff members. It can be orchestrated to perfection, looks visually beautiful and is an all-round great communication device. You won t have to risk compromising your brand s aesthetic, values or style no one is going to say the wrong thing on the night. People also have far more time to watch a short video than they do to attend a large meeting. More and more employers understand that company culture, values and forecasts can be communicated quickly and innovatively via video. This saves time and inspires rather than bores your team. Videos can be sent around to be viewed in their own time, or used as part of a company wide meeting. By using a stimulating visual it will keep the attention of the audience longer than one person talking. But, take heed: if you re going to use video, make sure you bring in the professionals. Poorly made videos can quickly become the joke of the company it just takes one cringe-worthy clip to impact your company s credibility. Some things are really best left to the professionals. Digital signage Although newsletters have proven to be highly effective in some organisations, they just don t work in others. If newsletters aren t your employees thing, it s more likely the case that your finelycrafted updates are being missed. You can change this by having clear, digital signage that can update your team in real time. Depending on logistics and company size, these can range from single screens somewhere visible in the office, to multiple screens in various locations including foyers and communal areas. Don t go overboard with your messaging however adding more than two or three key messages per slide can contribute to the problem that the signs were supposed to solve! The benefit of digital signage is that you can send updates in real time. Messages can be updated quickly so there s no need to overload the screen with too much information. Take a look at Smoke Signal to find out more. Digital signage can also be used to display feedback from your employees. If they want to share their thoughts publicly with the whole team or company, this can be easily done using digital signage. Think of it as a communal notice board in the 21 st century! Interactive tech How can you make sure that all of your employees are on the same page when it comes to company policy, culture and values if much of them are never in the same place? This is a problem that many HR and internal communications managers are having to address as more of the workforce embraces flexible, agile and remote working. Creating digital spaces for collaboration is vital. When you ve got the right tech, physical location shouldn t be a boundary to success. Companies are now working with developers to provide desktop and mobile apps that facilitate cohesion. If you opt for tech solutions, make sure they meet the specific requirements of your company. If you keep it simple, with a tailor-made, simple and straightforward piece of tech that meets the specific needs of your company, you ll be well on your way to keeping everyone together, even when they re apart. Good examples include Asana, Slack and Zoho. If your requirements are more specific, contact a developer who can tailor-make apps to your specifications.

9 Step 3 implementation Ensure consistency of communication. The purpose of internal communications is to keep your employees up to speed and invested in the business. It is important that employees understand how their role impacts the overall success of the organisation. Increase staff buy-in by being open and honest about results and performance of the business, on all levels across the organisation from Senior Management to your more junior employees. HR Manager s Guide to Effective Internal Communications

10 Understand the right platform for your employees The chances are, different members of your team will prefer to be communicated with in different ways. Whether that s through , live events, text, WhatsApp, video message, Slack, or a good old-fashioned phone conversation, you ll need to ensure you tailor your method of communication accordingly. We ve seen an uptake in chat apps with a business focus such as WhatsApp and Skype for Business, which are increasingly popular with the younger workforce. Understand what platforms your employees are most engaged on and ensure that you communicate with them that way. It s more time consuming in the short term, but the results will speak for themselves. Experiential perks In recent years, it has become clear that millennials place a higher value on experiences than any other generation. So, with millennials set to make up over 75% of the workforce by 2025, it makes sense that more organisations will reflect this in their internal communications strategy. When you want your teams to know how much you value them, show them. Don t tell. Engage employees by putting on a unique event for them. Think outside of the box. Millennials value unique experiences. With a bit of creative thought, your workforce will be telling all their friends about the benefits of working for your organisation. Face to face still matters In the current tech savvy climate, it can often be forgotten that human contact is still fundamental to employee engagement, and therefore productivity. Organising away days, weekly team meetings, a businesswide conference, or one-to-one meetings with line managers is fundamental when it comes to internal communications best practice. That doesn t mean your communications have to be boring you can still bring in ways to engage your employees, such as animated slides and videos. Empower your managers Ultimately, it s your senior team that is responsible for delivering internal communications across your organisation, but research has found that this group are only poor or adequate communicators. Buck this trend in your organisation and help them become more effective communicators. Provide them with the right training and support and empower them to deliver your message to your most important stakeholders, your employees. Giving a role to non-management level employees when it comes to taking responsibility for internal communications can achieve staff buy-in and support as well.

11 Step 4 measurement Measurement should be a part of your internal communications plan from the get go. Failing to find out whether an internal communications strategy has worked is a trap that too many fall into. You might develop an incredible strategy and implement it with perfection, but this has little significance if you don t know how well it s worked. Regular monitoring is essential. If your employees aren t getting anything out of the effort you re putting in, you need to know, so that you can change tact, sharpish. Measuring the success of your communications will help you understand how to best communicate with specific teams within your organisation, what motivates them and what discourages them. HR Manager s Guide to Effective Internal Communications

12 Ask and survey There are several ways to ask your employees how things are going from a direct approach to anonymous reporting. Asking employees through face-to-face meetings is often beneficial, especially if you can convey that you have their best interests at heart. Demonstrating that their opinion matters is a good way to get someone on side. If you re going for the direct approach, take the time to ask employees at one-toone meetings how they hear about company updates and whether they understand your organisations core values. It s true however, that, due to multiple factors, many employees simply may not feel comfortable being open with their opinions. Don t rely on direct feedback to measure the results of your strategy, as this may return skewed data. Instead, opt for anonymised surveys ideally online. Your surveys should be truly anonymous, and this should be clearly conveyed to anyone filling it out. In your survey, make sure to ask questions that will return relevant data. It might sound obvious, but if you want to know how one part of your plan in particular is performing, be specific. If you want to know how well your ed newsletters are being received, don t ask about communications in general. It s sometimes difficult to get people to respond to surveys, especially if they are busy. Make the survey as easy as possible to access, and send out reminders. You can do this by sending out desktop pop-ups. You can also offer incentives for filling out the survey, such as the chance to win vouchers or an extra day off work. If you keep your survey at the front of people s mind, you ll likely see an increase in responses. Look for successes based on recent campaigns If you ve recently launched an internal communications campaign, think about how you can measure its success. If you ve launched new digital signage in communal areas, spend some time monitoring how many people stop to look at it, and how many walk straight past. If you ve launched an employee engagement initiative, for example a family day out, look to see how many people have signed up. Track the open rate and clicks of e-newsletters with company updates. Look to see if everyone looks engaged at update meetings are a lot of people participating, or just a select few? If the results are disappointing, consider what you can do to improve them. There is no perfect internal communications formula what works for one company may not work for another, but with a bit of trial and error you should be able to work out what is right for your teams. Look for collaboration If your company has several agile or remote workers, and are using tech to accommodate this, look for evidence of collaboration. You can monitor (public) chat spaces and check to see if the software is being used as planned. You need to know whether people are actually working together, or if each worker operates within their own bubble. If employees do not truly feel part of a team, they are less likely to have loyalties to that company, and will find it easier to leave. If you don t see evidence of collaboration, look to see whether you can improve the tech you re using, or even replace it entirely. Show how you act on feedback Don t let your employees become disillusioned. If you re asking for feedback, demonstrate how you act on it! Send s, put it on signs, shout it from the rooftops! Just show that you ve done it! This is perhaps the most important step in the measurement of your internal communications strategy learn from your findings and act on them.

13 OUR FINAL THOUGHT Planning, delivering and managing a successful internal communications campaign can be make or break for your company. Engaged, informed and productive employees are the backbone of any organisation, and when disillusionment or misinformation spreads, business standards and therefore results quickly decline. Internal communications should not be treated as an afterthought, but rather as a fundamental aspect of company operations. Time, energy and funding should be invested into your internal communications for the getgo. That said, good internal communications don t have to cost the earth, provided you have the fundamentals covered: know your employees, plan your communications effectively, keep your employees informed about your business values and practices, listen to their feedback and act on the results. If you d like to work with a team who can help you deliver effective, creative and engaging internal communications solutions, get in touch with 20/20 Productions! 2020productions.com hello@2020productions.com