Signs That Your Internal Communication Strategy Needs Some TLC
Are you feeling as if it’s harder than ever to connect and communicate with your team? The COVID-19 pandemic certainly disrupted employer-to-employee communication for many organizations. In fact, in today’s virtual working world, employers are struggling to communicate with their teams more than ever before. Why?
If we look back to when the disruption hit in 2020, many employers lacked the tools and processes to support employees as they quickly transitioned to new methods of communication that were required during the pandemic. Without a plan to boost remote communication, many organizations experienced lower productivity rates, higher turnover rates and lower employee morale.
As we move forward in 2021, we can see that strong internal communication is one of the key ingredients you need to improve employee engagement. But how do you know if your internal communications strategy is working or not? Let’s examine!
6 Signs your Internal Communication Strategy Needs Some Help
Below are the signs to look out for to see if your communications strategy needs a little work to help you better engage employees!
Sign #1: You’re Getting a Lot of Questions
Getting questions is part of the job, right? Of course! But when you start to get the same questions from different employees, this is a clear sign of miscommunication or under-communication in a particular area.
The good news is that your employees are waving this imaginary sign above your head that says “Do this!” It’s clear as day! You will know the exact subject that needs help and where to focus your time. Score!
Try this: Whether the questions are related to benefits, COVID-19 safety, training, or how to use Slack, Zoom, or other communication tools, track the type of questions and the number of questions you get in a week or in a month. With this data, choose a few topics to focus on and build an on-demand response that you can send to employees. On-demand means that the employee can access this information anytime and anywhere. Think about videos or a write-up on your Intranet.
Sign #2: Turnover Rates Are Increasing
Generally, when employers see higher turnover rates, it’s likely due to ineffective communication surrounding purpose and impact. And, this pandemic has not made it any easier to communicate to employees about the purpose of their work and the impact they are having on the company as a whole.
When you implement a successful communication strategy, employees are more connected to the company’s purpose and can easily see the impact they provide.
If turnover rates are on the rise, it’s important to look at the intangible reasons your employees are unhappy. The tangible items get them in the door -- like your benefits package, the number of vacation days or monthly lunches. But it’s the intangible items that keep your employees on the bus. Intangible items can include a number of things:
Growth and development opportunities.
The freedom to voice opinions.
An understanding of what value they bring to the company.
Participating in a true team environment.
Frequent communication with managers.
Transparency between leaders and employees.
Today’s employees aren’t just looking for a paycheck. It’s about developing a Total Rewards (TR) strategy that supports the entire person!
Try this: Assess where you fall in these four below categories and create a plan to focus on one or all if you fall short.
Purpose. This is the “why” of your company. If employees feel that their work is contributing to a greater purpose, they will feel happier, healthier and more focused on the work. Do your employees know and understand the “why” of your company and why it exists?
Impact. If employees are asked to invest their lives and give their professional potential to your company but never see the impact of their work, they will lose motivation. They will lose drive. They will start to think, what’s the point? Do you have a process in which employees are assessed on their individual impact to the company? How often is this communicated to them?
Growth. Your employees have a world of options available to them. No longer are we confined to the city in which we live to work. This means your company isn’t just up against local competitors for top talent, you are up against companies in other states; even other countries! If you don’t present new and exciting opportunities for employees, they will outgrow your company. What growth opportunities are available to your employees? How many employees are taking advantage?
Connection. To have a successful relationship with your employees, you need to create a sense of belonging and have solid communication. This is extremely difficult if your employees are spread across the country. So, get creative! Find ways to connect with everyone over Zoom to have fun contests, games, trivia, or team-building exercises. If you asked ten different employees what the culture is like at your company, would they provide the same answer?
Sign #3: Productivity Levels Are Falling
Believe it or not, effective leadership and communication can help build up productivity. Think about it. When you have a clear and concise vision, and the team fully supports the vision, you’re able to work efficiently and effectively.
Now, think about this scenario. Your company hasn’t discussed any individual or company-wide goals with employees, your employees keep seeing stories in the news about your industry being in trouble due to the pandemic, and your leadership team is keeping employees in the dark. What do you think your employees are going to think about? Yeah, whether they will even have a job tomorrow! These thoughts can be detrimental to any employee’s productivity.
Providing clear and transparent information to your employees on all issues (ones that directly impact them and directly impact the company/industry) will help employees focus on their work and continue to perform at a high level.
Try this: Next time you notice a downward trend in productivity, ask your employees to reiterate back to you what they think is expected of them. You’ll be surprised how much you’ll learn from this small but mighty exercise.
Sign #4: Hearing Rumors Swirling
This is a big one! At the very start of this pandemic, I often told my fellow business leaders and HR friends that employees aren’t going to remember exactly what takes place during this time, or exactly what you did, but they will remember how you made them feel.
What does this have to do with communication? Everything! We often find that employers hold back information or fail to communicate if it’s bad news, or even just not-so-great news. But the truth is, if you want to build a workforce of trust and deepen that employer-to-employee relationship, then you have to be transparent and willing to communicate the bad news.
Employers that can gracefully communicate the not-so-great news and still get employees on the same page and engaged in what you’re saying and doing will ultimately build a culture of trust that not only employs people, but inspires people. And that’s how you keep your best people on board and get through the trying times of a pandemic.
So, the next time you hear a rumor or office gossip about your company, take it as a sign that something needs to be addressed right away and get leadership involved immediately.
Try this: How do you prevent rumors and office gossip, even the virtual kind of office gossip? Get ahead of it! Create a communication plan that outlines what will be said, who will say it and how frequently you will share and distribute that message. (Hint, it takes approximately seven times for someone to hear a message before it will sink in and resonate.)
Sign #5: Lack of Engagement in the “Fun Stuff”
If you find that the events or meetings that would usually get your team excited and engaged have lost their mojo, it may be time to reassess what’s actually going on. Yes, it’s very easy to blame virtual burnout on low attendance at non-mandatory company events. However, there could be some other underlying causes.
What type of fun events are you putting on to allow your employees to connect on a deeper level? Let’s be frank, it’s not as fun meeting virtually as it is in person. We are social beings who crave social interaction, so it could be as simple as incorporating a more unique virtual event.
Some ideas to spice up your events!
A virtual class. Check out TeamClass - they ship the ingredients and you get to make cupcakes, bake a pizza, taste whiskey and more!
Game night! Include the team’s families in this virtual game night event with HOST.
Bring in a virtual motivational speaker. This can give your team the pep in their step they need.
Giving employees a day off to volunteer for a local organization they love. We’re all tired of being stuck in the house, so give your employees the opportunity to get outdoors. Many organizations such as animal shelters, women’s shelters, etc. need help during the pandemic. Encourage employees to find out where help is needed in their area! Plus, it allows your employees to reset and recharge and come back to work in a better mindset.
What time of day are you asking for participation?
Generally speaking, many employees aren’t working from home by themselves. They’re trying to get work done at home with their family or roommates around, which means they could be getting pulled in a lot of different directions throughout the day. If you are going to plan a fun event, try to do it during a time that is most convenient for employees. If that’s not an option, consider an event that gets the entire family involved like a virtual game night.
Sign #6: Low Enrollment Rates in Benefits
Wondering why employees aren’t enrolled in that amazing retirement match you offer? Or, the HSA that offers phenomenal savings?
The likely culprit is not enough communication around those awesome benefits! When it comes to benefits, communications need to be frequent, relevant and to the point. You’re offering amazing benefits to your employees. You’re likely spending a lot of money on these benefits. But, all of that hard work and money will go unappreciated unless you’re telling your employees ALL the time about their great benefits.
Don’t just communicate during Open Enrollment time or new-hire orientation. Celebrate those benefits all throughout the year because your employees use their benefits all throughout the year!
Try this: Commit to talking about one benefit per month. Send out an email, a video, a text, etc., and just focus on one benefit every month. Bonus tip! Tell a story about someone’s success story using that particular benefit. (Use fictitious names of course for privacy reasons!)
For example, talk about how Mary saved more than $100 by going generic with her prescription. Or, how Frederico earned an additional $2,000 toward retirement by participating in the 401(k) company match.
Put Your Internal Communication Strategy Into Action
If you’re struggling with any of the areas we identified above, take it one step at a time. Define the problem with your internal communication strategy and take these steps:
1. Discuss the problem or challenge with your HR team and/or leadership. Pssst! You can even discuss these challenges with your vendors. If your vendor is a true partner, they will jump at the opportunity to support you and your goals.
2. Develop a plan of action. Things to consider are:
The message: WHAT will we communicate?
The medium: HOW will we communicate?
The frequency: WHEN will we communicate?
The influencer: WHO will communicate? (This doesn’t always have to be your CEO or someone in leadership. Consider an employee. Think about the employees that are truly internal advocates that other employees go to for support and advice.)
3. Execute! Take all the details from step 2 and put that plan into action. And remember, communication is living and breathing. It’s not just a “one-and-done” type thing. It’s not uncommon for communications strategies to be a few months long to be the most successful.
4. Assess and analyze. How did the communications strategy go? Are there things that went well that are worth repeating? Great! Be sure to notate that! Are there things that didn’t go so well? Great. Be sure to learn and not repeat.
We would love to help you out with more tips to support your internal communications! Why don’t you become a B28 Insider? Just drop your email in the sign-up box below. We’ll start sending you awesome material to help you strengthen communication with employees.