10 Principles of Modern Employee Communications

What is it modern comms pros understand that sets them apart in today’s age? Here’s my take:

1. Your employees have changed.

Technology has deeply impacted the way we interact with information. Think about it, how often do you search for relevant news versus naturally come across that information through your favorite news app, Facebook, LinkedIn or even WhatsApp? These technologies cater content to us based on our preferences, interests, interactions over time, etc… What this means is our expectations as consumers are at an all-time high. 

Still, when most of us get to work every day, we’re back to two main communication channels – email and intranet. While these channels serve a purpose, the modern employee expects relevant information delivered at the right time on their preferred channels and devices.

If companies want to communicate effectively with their employees, they need to recognize that fundamentally, their employees have changed and look to mirror the behavior they already have rather than try to create new ones. That’s a losing battle.

2. There’s no CX before EX.

It’s 2020 and every company is ‘customer-centric’.

Well…to become customer-centric, you gotta first be employee-centric, right? The math is simple, take care of your employees and they will take care of your customers.

How many so-called ‘customer-centric’ companies today put as much effort towards their employees?

It goes like this. There’s the relationship between a company and it’s employees which is then followed by the relationship between those employees and your customers. The point is, great customer experience is founded on a strong employee experience.

3. People trust people (not logos).

When was the last time you made a purchase? Big or small… it doesn’t matter. Would you rather hear what the corporation has to say about that product/service or what real customers think about it? I gotta be honest, I found myself googling ‘best toothbrush’ the other day before buying a new one. That’s a bit much, but the point is that today we have the opportunity to hear from customers and employees instead of the corporation... and we like it. It’s a great thing.

Modern employee comms builds strong, two-way relationships between company and employees which naturally turns these committed employees into true brand advocates. These employees are your best marketing, sales, HR and comms channel.

4. External is also internal.

I recently spoke with a comms leader who told me they use Instagram as an internal comms channel. I was a bit baffled at first but then it all made sense. 95% of their Instagram followers are actual employees and the other 5% are people who potentially would like to work for them one day. Brilliant right?

The bigger point here is that your employees have access to your internal-only content as well as all your external content (think PR, corporate comms). They see everything. Modern employee comms understands this and its impact on the workforce.

5. Measure business impact (even if not asked).

Business leaders don’t even ask for IC metrics. That is the biggest reason why most businesses are not measuring the impact of their communications. 

It’s not the lack of the right technology or IC being behind marketing and other departments. There’s little pressure around metrics on the communicator and often, IC data is given little to no attention.

Show your numbers. (And how they are tied to strategic business goals.)

Probably one of the longest-standing questions in comms – how do you effectively measure it? Metrics such as clicks and likes are important because they give you an immediate indication of success but they are also very short-sighted. There it is. Sorry, I said it.

The trick is to tie your comms to business outcomes. For example, you could have everyone in the company watch a safety video and assume employees now understand what’s required from them in order to stay safe on the job. If your accident-rates are not decreasing, then you actually haven’t had any impact on business outcomes. 

Why are accidents still happening if everyone understands the safety procedures? Well, maybe when there’s a tight timeline employees ignore safety and prioritize getting the job done. Say that’s when accidents happen. 

The data about the video being watched by everyone, combined with actually talking to people, would then help you determine the right steps to impact outcomes. You don’t need another video, you need to get through to employees that their health and safety is more important than a contract deadline.

6. People remember stories.

Delivering a message and getting employees to read it, understand it and remember it are two very different things. Good copywriters understand the importance of using storytelling to craft strong narratives.

There are several frameworks out there for storytelling. When writing just about anything, I like the follow a few simple golden rules from things I picked up here and there over the years: 

#1 The goal of every line is to get people to read the next line (starting with the headline).

#2 Focus on what happens if you DON’T do something versus if you do. Villain > Hero.

#3 Give proof whenever possible. Got social proof? Even better.

#4 Numbers and stats are cool but no one remembers it. Don’t rely on it.

#5 Provide one clear outcome or action from each message. Two will get you zero.

7. Follow the path marketing has carved.

15 years ago, the CEO would ask the CMO ‘Hey, are we doing events? Are we doing a bunch of stuff? Great.’ Since then, marketing has risen to a critical revenue contributing function. That happened when marketing was finally able to prove it’s value which largely happened due to technology. Parallel to this shift, we watched the MarTech space explode and go from 600 to over 7,000 vendors within just a few years.

The idea of delivering the right message, at the right time on their preferred channels and devices and being able to track everything and report on it against business outcomes that we see now in employee comms is really not that different from the story we saw in marketing. Even though, as a marketer myself, I must admit there are more companies that like to think they have figured this out than the ones that actually have, comms can still safely follow the path marketing has carved.

8. Dare to be human.

Forget B2B, EX, CX or whatever it may be. Modern communicators clearly understand that behind every job title there is a person and by humanizing their work, they can better get their message through.

Personally, I look to choose a human face or a personal message over illustrations and messages on the ‘voice of the robot’ anywhere I can. I understand this will not be the right choice for every company. It might make leadership uncomfortable and it doesn’t always scale but still, I do believe there is room at every company to apply this, at least to a certain extent. Do the things that make you slightly uncomfortable. That’s a good thing… and the results just might surprise you.

9. Create corporate content in the voice of the employee.

I recently sat in a session by one of our customers at Smarp talking about how they started writing content for certain niche areas and business units specifically for these employees to share with their networks. Instead of writing a corporate announcement and asking employees to share, they wrote the same message so that it would naturally be coming from the employee. It is more work but they have seen exponentially better results from it.

As you work towards empowering your employees within the company and their networks, it’s important to think relevancy first. Forget internal, external, corporate… think relevant. The more relevant and fitting you make the content, the better it will resonate with your employees and subsequently, their networks. Quality over quantity.

10. Comms is everyone’s job.

It’s true, some of us carry the job title. But really, we’re all communicators. The difference is comms needs to make sure everyone is aligned around the messages that really matter. You and your management team might have the answers to everything but it’s worth nothing unless you can get it across to everyone who needs it to do their job better. 

Should comms focus on the end-user or line managers? Well, both. But modern comms departments understand that things like automation and delegation can help empower others to communicate key messages effectively while freeing up your own time to be… wait for it… STRATEGIC.

I hope these principles spark some ideas as you roll into your 2020. I would love to hear your ideas and feedback on the topic!

If you're interested in learning more about how to communicate effectively with your entire workforce, check out smarp.com.