There are a lot of technology platforms available today that will help you communicate with employees. There are so many different options you can use from social media to benefit administration systems, intranets and mobile apps. There is a lot to choose from. Many of them are very good at helping you get your message to employees. But not matter what technology platforms or channels you use to deliver the message you still have to craft your message. It’s why at the very basic level, employee communications is essentially good content.
It’s the message, the content itself that speaks to employees. It’s what will get their attention. It’s what will inform them. It’s what will engage them. You have to focus on creating succinct, visually appealing content that gets to the point quickly. At the end of the day employee communications is all about reaching employees with the right creative message in the right environment at the right time.
Content is often the first interaction an employee has with HR and the executive team.
Think about your onboarding process. What is the employee going to do on their first day? They might get a welcome message from the CEO in a video or text format via email. They may login to the intranet or other systems for the first time and have to take a mini-course on the company and its processes.
They will be consuming your messaging and content throughout the onboarding process. The content you create is really what will create the employee’s first impression of the company, it’s culture and you. So when you create a welcome email, film intro videos about your company, or materials about the benefits you offer – all of it needs to be top notch as it’s your first line of impressionable materials.
Content is the voice of your brand.
Your content is a continuous touch-point with employees. Content is a reflection of the company, the executive team and of course you. Every piece of internal communication represents the company and is a reflection of the brand. That’s why brand style guides can be so important. Brand style guides can help any member of your team (or those you outsource content creation to) craft content in a way that uses the preferred voice and style of the brand. Content is a part of your corporate image. Quality content will reflect well on the brand and subpar content will reflect poorly.
Quality content adds value to the employee experience.
If you want to build trust and authority with your employees, content is a great way to do that. When you directly share information on relevant topics to employees you start to foster a relationship where the employee knows they can depend on your for good information. You can talk about company culture and processes, industry trends, benefits news and more.
Employees are knowledgeable.
Employees know the difference between good and bad content. They see it every day as a consumer. So the content you create can’t be generic. It has to address the specific needs and interest of the employee. As you add value with quality content you boost employees knowledge, overall understanding and their outlook of a company who is helping them move forward with their personal and work goals.
It helps you understand your employees.
This last point will really work when you par great content with technology and analytics. You can monitor how your employees engage with your content. With the right technology platform and analytics you can monitor the experience employees are having with your content. By doing so, you can understand how to better serve them every day. You can map out the employee experience to control when and how employees see certain content and even how they engage with it. It will help you strategically place calls to action, showcase relevant information and even set individual learning paths for employees.
When you understand that good content matters you can implement a strategy that can take your content from informative to insightful. This can give your internal communications an edge because good content fosters a strong ongoing relationship with employees.