Employee engagement: Do you walk-the-walk?

Experience tells us that to increase motivation, improve engagement and drive change, internal comms campaigns have a vital role to play in one thing – giving people a reason to believe.

"If you’ve got a message to deliver, show you’ve got that authenticity, show you mean what you say and can be believed, your people will react to you in a constructive way. Get that right and your comms will work." Keith Noble, Director.

By giving employees a reason to believe that change is needed, you can create campaign work that:

• Improves employee engagement
• Increases motivation
• Drives necessary culture change

Seeing is believing

Our experience of working alongside clients has shown us that a number of vital ingredients are needed to make internal comms believable:

From above

• The buy-in from senior management and execs who are seen to walk the walk, as well as talk the talk
• Respected advocates within the business who have the ability to positively influence others
• Not constantly reinventing the wheel – (otherwise known as ‘initiativitis’) that has people reaching for the off switch

From the shop floor

• Evidence that staff have been listened to, heard and understood
• Clear proof that whatever change is communicated, it’s going to make life better for people
• Realistic goals that people can believe are achievable

From the comms team

• A consistency of message through all mediums, whether written or spoken
• Clear, simple and meaningful messages that people can understand
• Highlighting complacency – what happens if we think change isn’t important?
• Highlighting consequences – what happens if we don’t change?
• Highlighting personal responsibility – what is the role each person needs to play in change?

A common purpose

Trust plays a major role in the success of any internal communications campaign. Therefore, it’s vital that messages are aligned to and consistent with the business vision and values that employees already relate to.

Increasingly, we see that business ethics are coming ever more to the fore. And we know that candidates are seeking workplaces where they can intertwine their?beliefs?with those of the company, so they can work together on a common vision of purpose and success.

"Job seekers want to be paid fairly but they too want to work for a company whose values align with their own and whose mission they can fully get behind." Christian Sutherland-Wong, Glassdoor President and COO.

As companies look to attract and recruit top candidates, as well as retain their existing employees, the role that internal comms plays in shaping and building a culture that unites people around a common cause becomes key.

Increasingly, today’s employees want to feel that they’re making a difference within their companies. To achieve this, they need to feel empowered, engaged, valued, and heard. This means a level of listening and reflecting back has to be in place at the outset of designing and developing any internal comms campaign.

Need some help and support with your employee engagement challenges? Contact us