Effective HR Communication Book Summary - Effective HR Communication Book explained in key points

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Effective HR Communication summary

Name: Effective HR Communication
Rating: 4.1 (20 reviews)
Author: Debra Corey

Debra Corey

A Framework for Communicating HR Programmes with Impact

4.1 (20 ratings)

27 mins

Topics

Skills Hiring Effectiveness

Table of Contents

Effective HR Communication
Summary of 11 key ideas

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Key idea 1 of 11

What’s in it for me? Learn techniques to achieve the effective HR communication you need and your employees deserve.

Most companies are very mindful of how they communicate with customers, but when it comes to their own employees, communication with them is not usually as ambitious or carefully planned.

This is a mistake because just as communication with customers keeps them engaged and loyal, the same is true for communication with a company’s employees.

Human Resources, or HR, is traditionally focused on contracts, pension schemes, training and recruiting, and less on how to communicate all this work in a way that encourages employees to interact and get the most out of their relationship with their company. So, let’s look at how an effective HR communication campaign works and how to go about creating one.

In these blinks, you’ll learn

What IMPACT has to do with communicating effectively;
why the question “why?” is so important; and
why you should learn to KISS.

HR communication is key to reinforcing company culture and values, building employee trust and improving employee engagement.

We humans are social beings, and communication plays a significant role in our day-to-day lives.

This is precisely why HR communication constitutes such an important part of a business’s success; it is central to how employers interact with their employees.

When communicating with employees, you can think of them as the audience at a play: if they’re going to embrace and engage with the play, you’ll need to grab their attention and hold their interest – otherwise, they’ll just fall asleep in their seats.

So, if one of your company values is “we have fun at work,” you need to back this up with actions that truly communicate your message. Create fun branding, use slogans and get creative with different ways of establishing a fun-loving communications campaign. This will help employees see that your message and company values are more than just words on paper.

Communication is also vital to conveying the serious and complex matters of employment, such as benefit plans, reorganizations, and new HR policies.

Since matters like these are often highly technical and confusing, employees usually do nothing more than glance at the paperwork and file it away.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. Why not present this information in a way that’s both informative and engaging? How about displaying the information in a magazine format that communicates the details in a clear and accessible way?

Effective communication should also engage employees and build trust. After all, when employees trust the people they work for, they’re far more likely to push themselves to get the best possible results.

In a London Business School study from 2014, companies that reported high levels of trust regularly outperformed their competition by two to three percent.

That same year, a study by the Institute of Leadership and Management found that honest and open communication was key to building trust in the workplace.

So, nurture a feeling of trust by providing ways for employees to give feedback and taking their suggestions seriously.

The objective of effective communication is to create a shared meaning and a call-to-action for your employees.

You might think that effective communication with employees is easier said than done, so let’s take a closer look at the ways you can get your employees engaged.

What effective HR communication does is take the company’s messages and share its meaning with the employees, such that they truly understand and embrace the messages that the company wants and needs to promote.

Collect the facts prior to a campaign by asking the right people the right questions.

When describing how he would use one hour to solve a problem, Albert Einstein said that he would first spend 55 minutes precisely clarifying the question. Once the problem was crystal clear, he would only need five minutes to come up with an answer.

Businesses should use a similar approach: first collecting valuable information about their employees to help them communicate more effectively.

Before you start to communicate, ask “why?” to set a clear goal and direction.

When you’re preparing a new HR communication campaign, constantly ask yourself “why?” when you’re making decisions – this way you can set a clear goal and make sure you stay on target.

Every campaign should have a clear goal, so the first “why?” should be: “Why are we launching this new campaign?”

Use a medium that best suits your message and your audience.

As Walt Disney once said, “You can design, create and build the most wonderful place in the world. But it takes people to make the dream a reality.” The same is true for your HR communication, because if you don’t select the right communication vehicles, or media, you’ll never be able to entice your employees to focus on your message, let alone do anything with it.

The good news is that nowadays there are many media to choose from. Gone are the days when the most exciting thing you could do was design a fancy poster or send out an email. Now you have options like the company intranet, social media, webinars and text messages. The bad news, and the flip side, is that with all this choice, how do you decide which one is right?

Good project planning will help deliver your communications on time and in the right way.

Even if you think your communication is so great that it couldn’t possibly fail, it very well might if you don’t put a proper plan together. A good plan will make sure you don’t miss those small but important details.

During one communication campaign, the author and her team spent days working on a video explaining the different benefit plans that the company was offering. But after they sent them out to all the different locations, they discovered that the company computers didn’t have the right software to play them. So when the employees tried to watch the videos, they could only see the images without any audio.

Having allies for communication projects is important, but you need to find the right ones.

One of the most celebrated teams in sports history is the 1980 United States Olympic hockey team, a team of amateur players that managed to defeat the four-time gold medal-winning Russian team.

The secret of the US team’s success was that they had a diverse lineup of players who added their own different and unique skills. And this is exactly what you should look for when you put together a team of allies for your next communications project.

For effective content, make it valuable and relevant for your employees, keeping messages simple and sticky.

To reach your employees and truly connect with them, you should invest a lot of time and effort into the content you create for your HR projects, ensuring that it’s valuable, relevant and “sticky.”

A good mindset is to think of employees as the customers you’re trying to win over with your HR “products” and to see yourself as the marketing expert who’s pitching the product.

Prioritize your messages, making sure the most critical ones come first.

People today are constantly bombarded with information from a variety of sources, so don’t assume your audience will take the time to read more than the first few sentences of the message you’re hoping to deliver.

With this in mind, it’s always important to prioritize and highlight the essential parts of your message. This can be tricky since the subjects that HR deals with are often full of complex details, but it’s your job to be highly strategic and identify captivating details that will best highlight the value of what you’re promoting.

Test the effectiveness of your communication campaign frequently to ensure you stay on track.

When it comes to HR communication campaigns, there’s no autopilot that would allow you to sit back after launch. Instead, you have to remain on top of things to adjust as needed.

A good method for this is to conduct regular tests along the way that are designed to show how you’re meeting your goals.

Use the IMPACT model to create an effective communications campaign.

As we wrap up this book-in-blinks, let’s review all the tools we’ve covered that will allow you to communicate more effectively with employees.

To help you remember each tool, just think of the acronym IMPACT: Investigation, Medium, Planning, Allies, Content and Testing.

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What is Effective HR Communication about?

In today’s competitive environment for talent, effective communication is crucial for showcasing human resource programs in a way that will help attract, retain and engage key talent. Whether introducing new HR programs or re-launching existing ones, the IMPACT communication model presented in these blinks will help deliver your messages so that employees understand, appreciate and take action on them.

Best quote from Effective HR Communication

Communications which are open and honest will help build trust, as will leaders and management being visible and accessible to employees. – Helen Wright, Head of Communications at Great Place to Work

—Debra Corey

Who should read Effective HR Communication?

HR professionals who want to improve their communication toolbox
Communication specialists who want to learn a new model for communicating effectively

About the Author

Debra Corey is an award-winning global HR director and communication specialist with 30 years of experience. She has launched outstanding communications for companies such as Gap, Honeywell, Merlin Entertainments and Reward Gateway, and is also a sought-after instructor and speaker on the topic of communication and human resources.

Categories with Effective HR Communication

Corporate Culture

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