Reaching, engaging and motivating employees so they do their best work and help your company succeed requires effective employee communications. Below, you’ll find a high-level overview of some of the benefits of employee communications and reasons to implement an internal program.

The Power of Communications

Consistent, sustained and honest communications programs enhance productivity and help everyone understand the big picture and their critical role in achieving corporate results. They also:

• Drive higher morale and retention
• Reduce absenteeism
• Improve customer service
• Increase sales

Communication drives business performance by encouraging feedback and participation in the business process while helping people deal directly with strategic issues of change, new technologies and continuous improvement. It also creates behavioral changes from managers to employees to customers.

How it Works

• Models positive behaviors
• Recognizes and celebrate individual and team accomplishments
• Opens channels for honest dialogue
• Provides a platform for key messages
• Projects a receptive, open image (management cares about your ideas)

The Towers Watson 2012 Communications and ROI Study shows:

• Companies that are highly effective at communication are 1.7 times as likely to outperform their peers.
• Companies that communicate a “we’re all in this together” attitude are more likely to keep employees engaged.
• Communication needs to happen at all levels of the company

Why it Works

Why do organizations with effective employee communications get these results? There are a number of reasons, a few of which include:

• Employees are more connected to the business and understand how their actions support it
• New hires get connected faster
• People take ownership of problems, changes and business challenges

What are Effective Communications?

Effective communications can meet a number of objectives, including:

• Help employees understand the business
• Provide financial information and objectives
• Leadership demonstrated by management during change
• Align employee action to customer needs
• Educate about culture and values
• Explain and promote new programs and policies
• Integrate new hires quickly
• Provide information on the value of total rewards programs (pay, bonuses, profit sharing, benefits)

Employee communications should start with a solid foundation, build to a strategic level and result in behavior changes. Wherever possible, it should be a two-way process.

Building an Effective Program

Building an effective employee communications program requires a range of practices. At a high level, these practices include:

• Develop a formal process (objectives and metrics)
• Get management involved from the beginning
• Seek and use employee feedback
• Integrate total rewards (pay for performance, benefits, contests, profit/gain sharing)
• Leverage technology where feasible