Like the writing that runs through rock, it shouldn’t matter where you choose to examine your communications; the brand message must prevail throughout, clearly and consistently.

Research conducted by the Global Survey of Employee Response revealed in 2006 that 82 per cent of employees agree that communications should explain the company’s vision, and 87 per cent want to be shown how they fit into the company’s vision. The important thing to remember is that employees aren’t just receptive to aligning themselves with the business vision and values at the attraction, recruitment and on-boarding stage – people always want to feel a sense of belonging, that they have an active part to play in the organisation they work for.

There are numerous opportunities to communicate with your employees every day, all of which have their own agenda, purpose or required action. These internal communication touchpoints occur at all stages of an employee’s lifecycle, at all levels of responsibility and within all areas of their daily working lives.

It is vital to make sure that the grand sum of all these different threads of communication complement one another and form part of one overarching, unified employer brand message.

Tips for delivering a unified employee communications strategy

- Tone of voice: every brand has one. Having a document which outlines the employer brand tone will act as a bible to all internal communicators to help focus messages
- Employer brand champion: make sure everyone knows who is the main port of call for all employee communications queries
- Keep communicating: to keep employees ‘on message’, you must keep up a consistent flow of communication to ensure your staff are never left in the dark
- Be careful what you say: erratic, sporadic, poorly aligned or complicated messages will confuse employees and could create anxiety. Communicate with purpose and as plainly as possible
- Be organised: structure a calendar of proposed employee messages so that you can identify any potential communication clashes well in advance and adjust your plan accordingly
- Remember why you are communicating in the first place: your message may be regarding rewards, but the primary reason you are offering rewards in the first place is to drive employee engagement and therefore improve employee productivity. Always bring communications back to their commercial roots
- Build meaning: infuse purpose and values into your communications strategy to foster a culture of enthusiastic employee participation
- Earn manager buy-in: the penetration of brand values throughout the organisation is key, and manager buy-in is essential to achieve this. Your communications strategy must empower managers as well as inform to inspire them to champion the brand to employees

Source: Living the Brand, Nicholas Ind, 2008

Caburn Hope

www.caburnhope.co.uk

It’s not just the advertisers who are willing Christmas to come earlier year after year – your employees become distracted weeks before the big day, and it is imperative that you start to plan now for that final push to achieve end of year results for your business and smooth the way to an efficient New Year.

A 2007 survey* estimated that around one third of employees – that’s approximately 9 million people – start winding down for the holidays from the 14 December, a full week and a half before the festive season officially begins. Productivity plummets, and one in three people state that they will come in late at least once during this period while one in five say they plan to throw at least one sickie.

Ironically, now is the time you should be upping communications with employees to deliver that last burst of energy before welcoming in the New Year to ensure that everything is properly in place for the next financial term. If you’re not careful, you could lose up to four weeks of productivity over the Christmas period, meaning that nearly one twelfth of the year is frittered away on festive cheer rather than bolstering your bottom line.

The important thing to remember during this period is that you cannot afford to lose sight of what needs to be achieved in 2010. Starting to position the business a full six weeks before Christmas through messages which provide clarity and direction will drive staff motivation and accelerate the work flow into the New Year. Reviewing what has gone well for the company as well as lessons learned can illustrate how the employees’ input directly corresponds with the organisation’s overall achievement.

By now you should know how well you anticipate the company to have performed this year, and can be passing onto staff exactly how this will affect any expected bonuses and pay increases. Telling people as soon as possible – whether it’s good news or bad – will drive motivation, build trust and foster respect. People don’t like surprises (well, definitely not the bad ones), so the sooner you can inform staff of any information that impacts on them the better.

Don’t leave it until 2010 to start talking about 2010 – put some well placed communications plans in play now for a successful year ahead.

*     Teletext holidays 2007

www.caburnhope.co.uk

Banish the cynics

Empowering employees to thank each other directly in an official way is a recognition scheme’s best weapon against cynicism in the workforce. By giving employees and line managers a stake in the process, you will go a long way to banishing rumblings about management favouritism or recognition being dependent on what employees’ futures may be.

E-cards, an intranet Wall of Fame, or simply a sincere letter from a line manager are all excellent low-cost ways to achieve this.

Change the criteria

You must remember that you will not be the only company taking tentative steps with expenditure at this time. When it’s nigh on impossible to meet sales targets, is it fair to keep this as the main criteria for bonuses? I would suggest that, as long as it’s communicated clearly, it is perfectly acceptable to ‘move the goalposts’ to make targets more achievable and relevant. It is better to reward individuals for improved efficiencies, dealing well with an increased workload or proposing a moneysaving idea for the company, rather than not being able to reward them frequently – or at all.

Practicalities

If you do nothing else, make sure recognition can be delivered quickly and make it tangible. This means employees do not need to wait for recognition and they have something tangible and valuable they can keep, proving they have been recognised and thanked for work well done.

For a truly effective recognition scheme, even during times of economic difficulty, be consistent and have a long-term vision for where you want it to go. Aim to embed a culture of thanks company-wide through joined-up communications and enforce a policy of absolute inclusivity – don’t allow it to become a fad.

Research source:

The Time for Employee Recognition and Reward Programs is Now, Recognition Council, 2009

Caburn Hope

www.caburnhope.co.uk

I read a rather contentious piece on Timesonline which not only alleges the demise of the HR department, but asserts that we should be happy about it.

HR teams are “the ‘people people’ who ensure that companies adhere to minimum wage requirements, rules relating to diversity, gender, sexual orientation and so on and generally try to prevent businesses being sued to death”, claims The Times. The amount of money spent on the HR function “seems to far outstrip their contribution to the world”, and the columnist has “never really understood the point of human resources departments”.

An interesting comment from a person who openly admits that he himself has never dealt with an HR department, which makes me wonder whether he is qualified to comment on this arena. But taking this argument at face value, I must disagree.

The nature of the Human Resources role has seen a steep evolution over time from a largely administrative purpose to a position which is core to a company’s failure or success. HR departments should be a key driver of employee engagement through a carefully crafted mix of communication, learning and development, benefits and reward and performance management.

Research shows that employees are far more actively engaged when they are frequently communicated with, a principle duty of the HR department. Mercer found in 2006 that when communications are viewed as excellent within a company, 74 per cent of employees are committed to their organization versus 34 per cent of employees when communications are viewed as poor.

Moreover, Gallup cites that the cost of disengagement to the economy in 2008 was between £59.4bn and £64.7bn.

The crux of the matter is that when HR gets it right, their role has true value and function through commercial thinking and proactive communications initiatives. Perhaps it’s more a case of businesses not wholly embracing the benefits and potential of human resources rather than the lack of its purpose as The Times suggests. It is my opinion that if HR departments are being called upon to prove their worth, now more than ever is the time to push the importance of measurement.

It is crucial for HR professionals – and HR suppliers such as ourselves – to provide statistics which prove that the role of human resources provides a meaningful function that generates a greater return on human capital.

Caburn Hope

www.caburnhope.co.uk