Effective communication is crucial for any organization, but many companies overlook the importance of how they communicate internally with their own employees. While businesses often put significant effort into customer communication, employee communication tends to be an afterthought. This is a major oversight, as strong internal communication is key to keeping employees engaged, motivated, and aligned with company goals and values.
In her book "Effective HR Communication", Debra Corey provides a comprehensive guide for HR professionals and business leaders on how to develop and implement impactful communication strategies for employees. Drawing on her extensive experience in HR, Corey outlines practical techniques and frameworks for crafting messages that resonate with employees and drive desired behaviors and outcomes.
The book emphasizes that HR communication should be approached with the same level of strategy and creativity as external marketing campaigns. By treating employees as an "internal customer base", organizations can develop communications that inform, engage and inspire their workforce. Corey provides actionable advice on everything from setting communication objectives to choosing the right mediums to measuring effectiveness.
Throughout the book, Corey uses real-world case studies and examples to illustrate key concepts. She also introduces helpful models and frameworks, like the IMPACT model for planning communication campaigns. Whether you're looking to improve how you communicate about benefits programs, company values, or organizational changes, this book provides a blueprint for more effective HR communication.
The Importance of HR Communication
Building Trust and Engagement
Effective HR communication plays a vital role in reinforcing company culture, building employee trust, and improving overall engagement. As social beings, humans rely heavily on communication in all aspects of life - and the workplace is no exception.
When it comes to communicating with employees, Corey suggests thinking of them as an audience you need to captivate, much like theatergoers at a play. If you want employees to embrace and engage with your message, you need to grab their attention and hold their interest. Simply stating company values or policies isn't enough - you need to bring them to life through your communications.
For example, if one of your company values is "we have fun at work", you need to back this up with actions and communications that truly embody that spirit. This could mean creating fun branding, using engaging slogans, and finding creative ways to establish a fun-loving communications campaign. When employees see these efforts, it shows them that your stated values are more than just words on paper.
Effective communication is also crucial for conveying complex employment matters like benefit plans, organizational changes, and new HR policies. These topics are often highly technical and can easily confuse employees. Rather than relying on dry memos or dense paperwork that employees will likely just file away, Corey encourages finding more engaging ways to present this information. For instance, you could create a magazine-style format that communicates the details in a clear and visually appealing way.
Beyond simply conveying information, strong HR communication helps build trust between employees and the organization. When employees trust their employer, they are far more likely to go above and beyond in their work. Research backs this up - a London Business School study found that companies with high levels of employee trust regularly outperformed competitors by 2-3%.
To nurture trust through communication, Corey recommends providing channels for employee feedback and taking suggestions seriously. Being open and transparent in communications also goes a long way in building trust.
Creating Shared Meaning and Driving Action
The ultimate goal of effective HR communication is to create shared meaning around key messages and drive employees to take desired actions. It's not enough to simply broadcast information - you need to ensure employees truly understand and internalize the messages.
Corey gives the example of telling employees "We want people to have fun at work." This vague statement could mean very different things to different people. To make it more concrete, she highlights how Merlin Entertainments launched a "For the Love of Fun" campaign. They sent boxes to team leaders containing a film about maximizing fun at work, along with "Fun Goggles" to help employees literally see the world differently and look for new ways to have fun. They also included a "fun-o-meter" for measuring levels of fun. These creative elements helped bring the concept to life in a tangible way.
Another key aspect of successful HR campaigns is having a clear call-to-action - something specific you want employees to do. This could be registering for a new benefits program, embracing a company value, or adopting a new process. To drive action, you first need to ensure employees understand, accept, and commit to the underlying message.
At Merlin Entertainments, company leaders promoted the idea of a fun workplace through videos, meetings, and by modeling fun behaviors themselves. This multi-pronged approach helped gain employee buy-in and commitment to the fun-at-work concept.
Understanding Your Audience
Collecting Facts and Insights
Before launching any HR communication campaign, it's crucial to gather information about your audience - your employees. As Corey notes, Albert Einstein said that if he had one hour to solve a problem, he'd spend 55 minutes defining the problem and only 5 minutes solving it. The same principle applies here - taking time upfront to understand your employees will lead to more effective communication.
Corey recommends using surveys and questionnaires to collect valuable data about employee preferences and needs. For example, when preparing a campaign about a new benefits program at a previous job, she sent out a questionnaire asking employees how they preferred to receive news about benefits. While she expected people would want fewer emails, the results showed a strong preference for email communication. This insight shaped the campaign strategy.
When gathering information, it's important to ask the right questions in the right way. Corey suggests using open-ended questions that can't be answered with a simple yes or no. These tend to produce a broader range of insights. She also recommends the "5 Whys" technique - asking "why?" up to five times to get to the root of an employee's opinion or motivation.
It's also critical to gather input from a diverse, representative sample of employees. Include people from different age groups, genders, positions, and locations to get a complete picture. Corey shares an example where she insisted on surveying employees from regional offices, not just headquarters. This additional data significantly changed the overall results and led to a more effective campaign.
Setting Clear Goals and Direction
Once you've gathered insights about your audience, the next step is to set clear goals for your communication campaign. Corey emphasizes the importance of constantly asking "why?" as you make decisions about your campaign strategy.
The first "why?" should be: "Why are we launching this campaign?" Having a clear answer to this question will guide all your subsequent decisions. Corey gives the example of an insurance company that wanted to start an interactive online campaign to encourage innovative collaboration among employees. Their clear "why" was to get employees using the platform to generate new ideas. With this goal in mind, they were able to create a successful campaign that saw 11% of employees using the platform daily and 17% weekly.
Continuing to ask "why?" throughout the campaign development process helps keep you focused on your core objectives. It prevents you from getting sidetracked by challenges or new ideas that don't align with your goals.
Corey illustrates this with a hypothetical example of a manufacturing company wanting to introduce a new employee recognition system. If they encounter low usage of their initial intranet-based solution, it would be easy to pivot to a paper-based system. But by pausing to ask "why?", they might realize this wouldn't achieve their goal of encouraging peer-to-peer recognition conversations. Instead, they could explore solutions like setting up kiosks for intranet access or providing more hands-on training - ideas that better align with their original objectives.
Choosing the Right Communication Mediums
Matching Medium to Message and Audience
With the proliferation of communication channels available today, choosing the right medium (or combination of media) for your message is crucial. Corey emphasizes that the days of relying solely on posters or emails are long gone. Today's HR professionals have a wealth of options at their disposal, from company intranets and social media to webinars and text messages.
However, with this abundance of choice comes the challenge of selecting the most effective medium for your specific message and audience. Corey advises carefully considering both the nature of your message and the preferences of your employees when making this decision.
For example, if employee feedback indicates that a new retirement program is seen as too complex, a traditional printed booklet may not be the best way to communicate about it. Instead, Corey suggests considering more interactive and visual mediums. She shares a case study where a company added a visual storytelling section to their website to explain retirement options. This approach used images and intuitive design to simplify complex details and guide employees through their choices.
Another example Corey provides is from Reward Gateway, a company that wanted to engage their young workforce with a voluntary benefits program. Recognizing that their audience was comfortable with social media, they created a platform on the company website where employees could post comments about their experiences with different insurance and investment products. This peer-to-peer approach not only increased interest in the programs but also helped clarify confusion in a relatable way.
Leveraging Multiple Channels
While choosing the right primary medium is important, Corey also advocates for using multiple channels to reinforce your message. This multi-channel approach can help ensure your communication reaches all employees and accommodates different learning and information consumption styles.
For instance, when launching a new company value or initiative, you might:
- Send out an initial email announcement
- Post flyers or posters in common areas
- Create a dedicated intranet page with more detailed information
- Host in-person or virtual town halls for discussion and Q&A
- Share regular updates or examples on the company's internal social media platform
By using a mix of channels, you increase the chances that employees will engage with and internalize your message. It also allows you to tailor your approach for different segments of your workforce - for example, using mobile-friendly communications for employees who don't work at a desk.
Planning Your Communication Campaign
Using the RACI Model
Effective project planning is crucial for delivering your communications on time and in the right way. Corey emphasizes that even the best communication strategy can fail if not properly executed. She shares a cautionary tale where her team spent days creating videos about benefit plans, only to discover upon distribution that company computers lacked the necessary software to play them with audio.
To avoid such pitfalls and ensure a coordinated approach, Corey recommends using the RACI model. This framework helps clarify roles and responsibilities by defining who is:
- Responsible: The person doing the work
- Accountable: The person ultimately answerable for the work
- Consulted: People whose input is sought
- Informed: People who are kept up-to-date on progress
For example, if you're developing a video campaign to promote new benefit plans:
- The benefits specialist might be Responsible for writing the script
- As project leader, you would be Accountable for the project's completion
- The marketing team might be Consulted on messaging
- The rest of the HR team would be Informed of the campaign's progress
Using this model ensures everyone knows their role and can be held accountable, leading to more efficient teamwork and better outcomes.
Creating a Timeline
In addition to clarifying roles, it's important to create a detailed timeline for your communication campaign. This helps ensure all tasks are completed in the right order and that you have enough time for each stage of the process.
Corey suggests breaking your campaign into phases, such as:
- Research and planning
- Content development
- Design and production
- Review and approvals
- Distribution
- Evaluation and follow-up
For each phase, identify specific tasks and deadlines. Be sure to build in buffer time for unexpected delays or revisions. Also, consider any dependencies between tasks - for example, you can't start design work until the content is approved.
A well-planned timeline not only keeps your project on track but also helps manage expectations with stakeholders and team members.
Building Your Communication Team
Identifying and Engaging Allies
Corey stresses the importance of having allies for your communication projects, but emphasizes that you need to find the right ones. She uses the analogy of a successful sports team, where diverse players contribute unique skills to achieve a common goal.
When building your team of allies, consider including people who can fill different roles:
Endorsers: These are people who support your campaign and give it credibility. They might be senior leaders or respected figures within the organization.
Partners: These are individuals who work closely with you to develop and deliver the communication. They might include subject matter experts or representatives from other departments.
Contributors: These are people you consult at key points throughout the campaign for input and guidance. They might be employees from your target audience or specialists in areas like legal or compliance.
Corey cautions against choosing the wrong allies, sharing an experience where an endorser actually talked down the new HR program instead of promoting it. To avoid this, ensure your allies truly understand and support your campaign objectives.
Leveraging External Expertise
While internal allies are crucial, Corey also suggests considering external expertise for certain aspects of your communication campaign. This might include:
- Communication consultants who can provide strategic guidance and best practices
- Graphic designers or video producers to create high-quality visual content
- Data analysts to help interpret survey results or measure campaign effectiveness
- Trainers to help prepare managers for cascading messages
External experts can bring fresh perspectives and specialized skills that may not exist within your organization. However, Corey advises carefully vetting any external partners to ensure they understand your company culture and can align with your communication goals.
Crafting Effective Content
Making it Valuable and Relevant
To truly connect with employees, Corey emphasizes the need to invest significant time and effort into creating content that is valuable, relevant, and "sticky." She suggests adopting a marketing mindset, thinking of employees as customers you're trying to win over with your HR "products."
One way to make content more engaging is to use themes or metaphors that resonate with your audience. Corey shares the example of Liverpool Victoria Insurance, which launched a campaign to empower employees and generate innovative ideas. They chose a superhero theme, extending it to all aspects of the campaign including a launch party where employees dressed as superheroes and materials designed to look like comic books. This approach made the content more accessible and memorable.
Keeping it Simple and Straightforward
While it's important to make content engaging, Corey also stresses the need for simplicity and clarity. She introduces the KISS principle: Keep It Short and Simple. This involves:
- Avoiding repetition - go through your copy and delete any redundancies
- Questioning each sentence - ask if it's absolutely necessary for conveying your message
- Using active voice and strong descriptive words
Corey also recommends prioritizing your messages, ensuring the most critical information comes first. She suggests using a pyramid structure:
- Start with a short sentence containing the most important piece of information
- Follow with the second most important point
- Then the third most important point
- Only after presenting these key points should you go into more detailed explanations
This structure ensures that even if employees only read the first few sentences, they'll still get the essential information.
Personalizing Your Communication
Another key strategy Corey advocates is personalizing your communication. This goes beyond just adding an employee's name to an email. For example, when promoting a retirement program, you could use custom graphics showing exactly how much each employee would benefit based on their age and years until retirement.
Personalization makes employees feel that the communication is tailored specifically to them, increasing the likelihood that they'll engage with and act on the information.
Testing and Refining Your Communication
Conducting Regular Tests
Corey emphasizes that launching a communication campaign is not a "set it and forget it" process. Instead, it requires ongoing monitoring and adjustment to ensure you're meeting your goals. She recommends conducting regular tests to gauge the effectiveness of your communication efforts.
For example, if your campaign aims to increase understanding and participation in a recognition program, you might:
- Send out employee feedback forms asking specific questions about the program and how to use the recognition tools
- Track usage statistics for the recognition platform
- Conduct brief pulse surveys to measure awareness and attitudes towards the program
If these tests show that employees are still unclear about the program or aren't using it as intended, you know you need to make changes.
Gathering Qualitative Feedback
While quantitative data from surveys and usage statistics is valuable, Corey also recommends gathering qualitative feedback to inform your communication strategy. Focus groups can be particularly useful for this purpose. By bringing together a small group of employees and asking open-ended questions, you can gain deeper insights into:
- How employees perceive your communications
- What aspects resonate with them and what doesn't
- How they prefer to receive information
- Any confusion or misunderstandings about your messages
Corey advises carefully crafting questions that encourage discussion and listening closely to the language employees use when talking about your communication efforts.
Leveraging Social Media for Testing
As social media becomes more prevalent in the workplace, Corey suggests using these platforms to test ideas and gauge potential popularity of campaigns. This could involve:
- Posting draft messages or visuals and monitoring engagement and comments
- Creating polls to get quick feedback on different options
- Encouraging employees to share their own ideas or interpretations of your messages
This approach allows for rapid, low-stakes testing and can help you refine your communication strategy before full implementation.
The IMPACT Model for Effective Communication
To tie together all the elements of effective HR communication, Corey introduces the IMPACT model. This acronym stands for:
- Investigation
- Medium
- Planning
- Allies
- Content
- Testing
Here's a breakdown of each component:
Investigation
This involves researching your audience and objectives. It includes gathering data about employee preferences, understanding the context of your communication, and clearly defining what you want to achieve.
Medium
This step focuses on choosing the right channel(s) for your message. Consider factors like the nature of your content, your audience's preferences, and the technical capabilities available to you.
Planning
This encompasses creating a detailed project plan, including timelines, responsibilities, and key milestones. Use tools like the RACI model to ensure everyone knows their role.
Allies
Identify and engage the right people to support your communication efforts. This includes endorsers, partners, and contributors both within and outside your organization.
Content
Develop valuable, relevant, and engaging content. Keep it simple and prioritized, and look for opportunities to personalize your messages.
Testing
Continuously evaluate the effectiveness of your communication through both quantitative and qualitative methods. Be prepared to adjust your approach based on feedback and results.
By following this IMPACT model, you can create comprehensive, strategic communication campaigns that truly resonate with employees and drive desired outcomes.
Case Study: British Telecommunications (BT) SaveShare Campaign
To illustrate how these principles come together in practice, Corey presents a case study of how British Telecommunications (BT) communicated about SaveShare, a new investment opportunity for employees to buy BT company shares at a discounted price.
Investigation
The HR team first investigated the program and recognized that it was complex and needed to be simplified for employees to understand easily.
Medium
They chose an interactive online model as their primary medium, supplemented by personalized emails and instruction pages. This multi-channel approach allowed them to reach employees in different ways.
Planning
The team created a unique and attractive orange-themed design for their campaign, ensuring visual consistency across all materials.
Allies
While not explicitly mentioned in the case study, we can assume BT engaged key stakeholders like finance teams and senior leadership to support the campaign.
Content
When employees visited the website, they found interactive features that showed exactly how different investment packages would benefit their savings. This personalized, visual approach made the complex program more accessible.
To address employee questions, BT also created "Question Time," an online talk show featuring experts who answered submitted questions. This innovative content format provided a engaging way for employees to get more information.
Testing
While the case study doesn't detail the testing process, the results speak to the campaign's effectiveness. Over 90% of employees joined the program during its five-year enrollment period. When a consecutive plan began accepting enrollments in 2014, an additional 9% signed on.
This case study demonstrates how applying effective HR communication principles can lead to impressive results. By simplifying complex information, using interactive and personalized approaches, and providing multiple ways for employees to engage with the content, BT was able to achieve exceptionally high participation rates in their share program.
Conclusion
Effective HR communication is a powerful tool for engaging employees, building trust, and driving desired behaviors within an organization. By treating internal communication with the same level of strategy and creativity as external marketing, companies can significantly improve employee understanding, engagement, and action on important initiatives.
Key takeaways from Corey's book include:
- Understand your audience through thorough research and data collection
- Set clear goals and constantly question why you're making certain communication choices
- Choose the right medium (or combination of media) for your message and audience
- Plan carefully, assigning clear roles and responsibilities
- Build a strong team of allies to support your communication efforts
- Craft content that is valuable, relevant, simple, and where possible, personalized
- Continuously test and refine your approach based on feedback and results
By following these principles and using tools like the IMPACT model, HR professionals and business leaders can create communication campaigns that truly resonate with employees and drive meaningful outcomes for their organizations.
Remember, effective communication is not a one-time effort but an ongoing process of listening, adapting, and improving. By consistently applying these strategies and remaining open to new ideas and technologies, you can build a culture of strong, clear, and impactful HR communication within your organization.