Know your Audience

BY Maria Hoyle (HRD)

So you’ve been churning out emails, company-wide updates, videos, newsletters and the occasional cute meme – but is anyone paying attention? Engagement remains lacklustre, employee energy is low, targets are missed, and everyone seems disconnected. Yes, your internal comms needs a facelift – but where to begin?

Evelyn Jackson, CEO of creative agency Corporate Crayon – which helps businesses grow through workplace motivation – says the key to communicating in a way that engages your people is knowing and understanding your audience.

“Communication is about more than information. Often, it’s about what your people need from you rather than what you want to push out.”

Creating an internal comms strategy that resonates with your employees matters why? Because good communication significantly influences how connected your people feel to your organisation, and that sense of connection in turn fuels employee energy.  Boost employee energy, and you’ll have employees who are inspired and motivated to do great work, says Jackson.

The 3 steps

So how do you go about designing this clear, engaging, employee-centric comms strategy?

Think of it as similar to how you’d communicate with your customers, says Jackson. Think about who they are, what they need to hear, and how they want to hear it.

First, go back to basics – think clearly about the purpose of your communication. What are you trying to communicate and why? And consider the medium-term plan, not solely reacting to what’s needed now. What is the reason you communicate with your people at all; what is the call to action? Connect with them meaningfully and they will act.

Secondly, recognise that everyone is different and tailor your message accordingly. Who is your audience, what do they want out of the company, what are they motivated by? How do they like to absorb communication? Before creating any content and pushing it out, develop a clear picture of your people.

Understand what the different people in your business need to know, and shape your communication to suit each group. Because in the age of information overload, company-wide emails now rarely have a place. The underlying message you send every group may be the same, but depending on whether you are talking to your finance department versus, say, your marketing department, the formality, tone and presentation might look completely different.

Thirdly, think about the execution. For maximum impact, your communication should tell a story, and be visually branded in a way which engages the user and is memorable. If you are using video, make them short, sharp and complement them with other content.

However, while digital platforms will play a major role in any comms strategy, one-on-one personal interaction remains invaluable. People trust and are inspired by other people, says Jackson. So training your leaders on how they can communicate is incredibly important too.

Knowing who your audience is, what they need, and packaging your messages accordingly will reap big rewards – especially in terms of employee energy and performance.

Internal communication has never been more important. Understand your target, and your people may well exceed the ones you set for them.

For more about Corporate Crayon, go to corporatecrayon.com.