When staff engagement surveys roll in, one message is nearly universal: improve communication. Too often, that leads to a flood of new emails or revamped intranet pages – well-intended but misguided fixes. What employees actually want isn’t more communication; it’s better communication. Following are five ways to rethink and retool internal communication.
Ditch the sales pitch
In written communication or major organization-wide meetings, most organizations can’t resist the temptation to tell staff how great the company is, including some version of the “people are our most important resource” line. Today’s employees will judge how great the company is or isn’t through their own experience on the job. Platitudes have never been very effective. Our current workforce may actually find them offensive if they reveal that the organization isn’t in touch with frontline staff’s day-to-experiences, feelings and real needs.
Think of employees as one of your most important customer groups
Most successful organizations have developed effective, consistent strategies to attract and retain customers for their products and services. That same thinking and discipline should be applied to human resources strategies up-and-down the organization. Consumers of your services have choices, and so do your employees.
Stay close to how frontline staff are feeling
Most organizations conduct some type of employee engagement survey … every year or two. But today’s workforce issues are moving way too fast to only check in occasionally. Plus, a quantitative survey should be only one of the lenses through which you view staff engagement.
A qualitative research approach – like Stamp & Chase’s Experience Snapshot – provides a different, often richer view that goes beyond the numbers in a traditional engagement survey. Focus groups with frontline staff and managers can uncover the “why” behind the data, revealing context and nuance that numbers can’t capture. To get the most value, these sessions are best facilitated by an experienced outside professional who asks the right questions and can assure anonymity to help employees feel comfortable speaking candidly about their experiences and feelings.
Finally, leadership at all levels have a responsibility to stay close to staff and encourage open, transparent dialogue through regular leadership rounding, huddles, and interactive team meetings.
Develop a diverse media strategy for internal communications
Smart marketers know that the best media strategies usually include multiple channels – broadcast, online, print, and point-of-sale – to reach different audiences in different ways. Smart internal communication strategies use the same principle. A strong strategy blends diverse channels such as town halls, leadership rounding, video segments, and inclusive staff meetings alongside online and print updates. Each offers different advantages to achieve different goals or deliver different messages. Together, they form a well-rounded toolkit that helps messages land and stick.
Help frontline leaders be better communicators
Research shows that employees’ preferred source of information is their direct supervisor. That means communication isn’t just a nice-to-have leadership skill, it’s essential. Yet too often, it is assumed that a manager is naturally an effective communicator. Smart organizations recognize the central role that frontline leaders play in staying connected and communicating effectively with staff. An investment is their success as communicators is key to increasing staff engagement and the success of individual work groups.
How managers connect with their employees has to be at the heart of any comprehensive internal communication plan. This often-neglected communication channel is especially important because it is efficient, flexible, responsive – and the way that employees actually prefer to stay informed and engaged.
Whether companies choose to communicate to or with employees makes all the difference in how effective their efforts will be in boosting engagement and retention. Equipping frontline leaders with the skills and support they need to listen as much as they speak is at the heart of any successful communication improvement effort.