What are some examples of innovative media?
Because media preferences vary by country or employee group, many employers use a variety of sources to deliver the same message.
- Wikis: A wiki page on the corporate intranet site provides a one-stop resource for information and is useful for explaining defined terms and knowledge management.
- Blogs and chats: Ghost bloggers can assist executives with daily posts and HR leaders can host online chat sessions about compensation and benefit changes.
- Town halls: Small group sessions allow executives to communicate directly with employees in an intimate setting and answer employees’ questions. Remote employees can attend via webcast and participate by e-mailing their questions during the session. The meeting can be recorded and uploaded onto the company’s intranet, so employees can view the session at their leisure.
- Webcasts: These can be used to deliver information about benefit changes, via a PowerPoint presentation delivered over the Web. Executives can host the meeting or provide the voiceover for the presentation.
- Interactive PDFs: Create an interactive PDF to help employees understand the changes, including links to videos, Web sites and important documents.
What is the investment rationale in social media?
Although many employers cite a lack of funding as a reason for not embracing social media, electronic communication is often more cost-effective than distributing printed materials and the duties can be handled by a few trained staff members. Communication is often viewed as a soft cost that is expendable during a downturn, but driving engagement and higher productivity levels is vital when there are fewer people to do the work. Helping employees to understand the rationale behind difficult decisions and provide feedback enables everyone to move forward together.
What’s the best way to measure the ROI from communication?
Employers can measure clicks and views to see which media sources are generating the greatest employee interest; surveys and focus groups can determine whether employees are embracing the message. Top-performing companies develop a documented communications strategy and assess its effectiveness by benchmarking key measurements, sometimes against other companies.
Although the ultimate litmus test of a company’s ability to engage its employees is its financial performance, many companies track return on sales or top-line growth during a specific campaign to measure ROI. Communication functions need to be held accountable for results just like other departments, because in business, what gets measured gets done, acknowledged and rewarded, and communicating effectively now helps companies to steer their way through to better times.
Rosalind Watson is a communication consultant for Towers Watson. Reach her at [email protected] or (415) 733-4433 or www.towerswatson.com.