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23 Mar 2016
by Debra Corey

Debra Corey: Five steps to make your HR communications effective

We all want our outstanding employee communications that enable us to engage effectively with the workforce. And there are some small changes to make to your approach to communications which will make a difference.

  1. Start with your objectives
    Decide ‘why’ you are communicating to your employees and ‘what’ you are trying to achieve in your communications. I know it seems obvious, but I’ve seen too many times when companies jump right into the ‘how’ and forget about the ‘why’ and ‘what’.  If you don’t answer the questions ‘why’ and ‘what’, how will you know if you’ve been successful?
  2. Think of your audience
    It is critical to understand your audience, taking the time to pull together data to help you develop your communications strategy and plan, your approach to content, and which medium(s) will be most effective. It’s important to understand how they differ and how their needs change by generation, gender, role, for example, especially when we have such diverse workforces.   Use this to create a multidimensional approach to your communications, and you’ll achieve an impact with your entire audience.
  3. Create a little magic
    I’m a big fan of creating 'magic' in communications, which as my colleague Lisa Turnbull explains so well: "It’s that extra special ingredient that you add to your communications mix to make it stand out." Communications with 'stickiness', get your employees to your communications and keeps them there.  By sprinkling a little magic you have a much better chance of achieving this.
  4. Be prepared
    Just like a scout, it’s important to be prepared with your communications. This means including in your preparations, investigation (pulling together data), allies (bringing together the right business partners) and planning (creating a robust communications plan).
  5. Create a return on investment 
    It’s important to present your employees with a return on investment (ROI) through your communications. If they’re going to take the time to engage with your communications they need to get something in return. Consider the guiding principles of content – making your communications valuable, relevant and consistent.  By doing this your employees will get something in return, an ROI for them, and of course the company will get a ROI because your communications will be effective.

These steps are taken from the IMPACT communications model, more details about which can be found in: Effective HR Communication: A Framework for Communicating HR Programmes with Impact

This article was provided by Debra Corey, group reward director at Reward Gateway and author of Effective HR Communication: A Framework for Communicating HR Programmes with Impact

Debra Corey, reward director, Reward Gateway

 

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