How do you effectively communicate with your employees?
BY Emma Mulroney (Communications Director)
In a (almost) post-pandemic world, the need for organisations to build more meaningful connections with their employees has increased substantially. A 2021 stat from Gallup found that globally, only 20% of employees are engaged at work.
To me that is a daunting stat. However, it is one that we at Corporate Crayon believe can be improved through a strong employee communication strategy – with meaningful connection to your employees at the centre.
To begin, at Corporate Crayon, we recommend breaking it down into these four steps:
Discover what really matters
Connect your employees with your strategy
Create and implement your communication strategy
Review regularly
STEP 1: DISCOVER WHAT REALLY MATTERS
Really get to know your employees and what matters most to them! Consider asking the following three questions:
What motivates your employees?
What are their personal values?
How do they prefer to give and receive communication?
The thing/s that motivate your employees will vary from person to person of course. We recommend aiming to find some commonality across the group. For example, do most of your team feel motivated through collaboration, or is it more about development or even as simple as being recognised for their efforts?
You most likely have a set of company values. Do your employees resonate with these? Even if they do, they will also still have their own set of personal values – so how can you discover what these are, and build meaningful connections through your communication with them?
And finally – how do they prefer to give and receive communication? Are they in an environment where they have access and/or time to read written communications? Do they simply prefer face to face communication? Or would a combination also work, depending on the topic?
At a minimum, start with:
Engagement Surveys
Focus groups
1:1 meetings
STEP 2: CONNECTING EMPLOYEES WITH YOUR STRATEGY
Think about how you can use the information you have already discovered to connect your employees to your organisation’s strategy. How does their role contribute to the ongoing success of the organisation? Why not hold workshops with your employees where you share the company strategy and ask them to assist with ideas on how they could help bring it to life?
“Employees that feel that they add value to the organisation are more likely to be highly engaged employees and put in discretionary effort.”
STEP 3: CREATE AND IMPLEMENT YOUR EMPLOYEE COMMUNICATION STRATEGY
Your employee communication strategy should then be used to connect employees to the work that needs to be carried out, so they are inspired to deliver.
“Helping employees understand how their work connects to the goals of others and the company can improve performance by up to 10%”
An effective communication strategy will increase a company’s connection with its employees and have a positive impact on overall business performance and success.
Timing is everything. How and when you communicate with your employees is crucial to the impact of the message/s. With most organisations globally now working virtually and/or flexibly, effective employee communications are more important than ever.
STEP 4: REVIEW REGULARLY
From our work at Corporate Crayon, we know that it is important to complete these activities on a regular basis. An employee’s needs and preferences can change over the course of time, so best to regularly check in and tweak your communication strategy. Ensuring it is relevant and impactful.
At Corporate Crayon we partner with our clients to support them in developing internal communication strategies that increase employee connection, capability and performance.
Get in touch with us today to explore this topic and let's inspire work that matters.
Written by: Emma Mulroney, Communications Director, Corporate Crayon.
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