Boosting the Effectiveness of Your Employee Communications

It’s a constant challenge for many organizations: finding ways to ensure that their employees have the information they need not only to do their jobs, but to boost their engagement and loyalty and to serve as effective brand ambassadors. I was asked recently for my “top tips” on how companies, large and small, can improve their employee communication efforts. These were my top three recommendations:

1. Think very carefully about the “staging”/order of communications. One of the common missteps I see in internal communication is sending out a broad message (e.g. to all employees) without first informing managers. Those managers are then frustrated because they don’t have answers to employee questions and then appear “inept.” So, make sure to list all audiences who need to hear the message, and then make sure to stage the message in the proper order, in terms of who needs to know what, when.
2. Provide consistent talking points in a “media kit” format, which could be delivered electronically to audiences (e.g. managers) who need to inform others about an issue and could include background information: FAQs, PPT slides or other collateral, supporting information, etc. This helps to ensure that a consistent message is being shared across multiple audiences and also helps to support often overburdened managers and other staff charged with communicating these types of messages.
3. Provide the means for two-way communication to take place and also a method whereby what is learned can be synthesized, shared and, as appropriate, acted upon. A lot of rich input and information is lost because a) it’s not sought in the first place, b) there are no means for those hearing or receiving the information to share it in some formal way, or c) the input is not acted upon. Putting actionable feedback loops in place can go a long way toward ensuring that employees’ issues, concerns, comments, etc. are effectively addressed.

These are the “big rocks” — there are, of course, many other considerations that go into ensuring that employee communications will help to support a company’s efforts. What would you add to the list?

Recommended Reading:

The Everything Guide to Customer Engagement

Author: Linda Pophal

Linda Pophal, MA, SPHR, is owner/CEO of Strategic Communications, LLC, and a marketing and communication strategist with expertise in strategic planning, B2B content marketing, PR/media relations, social media and SEO. Her background as a freelance business journalist, advertising copywriter and corporate communication professional provides the foundation for understanding how to produce and use high-quality, personalized content to inform, motivate and engage audiences. This, coupled with expertise in online marketing, SEO and social media, serves as a foundation for working with clients to find the most cost effective combination of traditional and digital communication tactics to get the results they're looking for. Linda is accredited through the American Marketing Association and is a member of the Association of Health Care Executives, the Society for Human Resource Management and the Association of Health Care Journalists. View all posts by Linda Pophal