Many companies are developing on-the-fly return to work plans and making unprecedented decisions regarding whether to keep all or part of their workforce working remotely. Due to these circumstances, it is easy for communications teams to get bogged down on what to communicate and how to communicate with their teams.
Updates regarding the pandemic response may be sent by email, but the forms that employees need to complete are located on an intranet platform. Meanwhile, one team is keeping in touch on a Slack channel, while another is connecting using Microsoft Teams. With so many different ways to share a message, the focus on ensuring that the message is consistent and engaging with the intended audience can become lost.
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Creating an integrated medium for workplace communication can empower communications teams to shift the focus back to message consistency. This must be responsive to the intended audience. Finally, measure the results to ensure future success.
Consistency
Regardless of how the message is delivered, it is highly important that the message be consistent. This commitment to clear messaging builds an environment where the employees feel confident that they are a meaningful part of the company’s brand.
An employer brand loyalty is further strengthened when employees have a consistent mechanism through which they can provide feedback and insights. Many employees want to contribute to the company’s mission, vision and values. Those who continuously participate in their company will also constantly participate in their work.
An organization must build confidence with consistent key messages. Employees will feel more satisfied and engaged because they better understand how they fit into the big picture. This avoids a situation where employees feel that they are simply cogs in a tangled, inconceivable machine.
Audience
For messaging to be effective, it also needs to be tailored to its audience and respond dynamically to feedback. Employees are reassured when they have clear and consistent messages coming from leadership. Even so, this reassurance is further reinforced when they are receiving the same messaging from peers.
One of the ways that organizations can ensure that key messages are in-touch with audience needs is to have brand ambassadors. When operating at a peer level, these individuals can reinforce the message and receive real-time feedback.
Propping up the message from the top and at a peer level can ensure that strategic communications are evolving with change. Maintaining a consistent overarching mission, direction and voice will have your audience eager to learn more.
Results
Knowing whether a communications strategy is truly working can be challenging for an internal comms team to determine. Responsiveness to audience feedback is one such mechanism.
Solely relying on a single mechanism has its limits. One big drawback is that the people speaking up can only provide a limited viewpoint. A lot of relevant information will slip through the cracks.
Access to quantitative measures of success can be a significant enabler of refining messages and how they are delivered. Leverage tools such as employee engagement surveys, back-end data from social media platforms and intranet analytics. Employee newsletter click throughs, turn-over rates and productivity data can all be useful quantitative measures as to whether these campaigns are achieving the desired results. Important information is out there regardless of the communication medium.
For workplace communications to cover these bases with their messaging, the distribution medium has to be done right. Streamlining communications media can facilitate ease of messaging consistency. Use a powerful content builder like backstitch Studio to reach your diverse audience and measure key results.
