How do you reach your employees across different platforms?

Understanding what platform is more engaging with your employees is probably better than anything else. To a certain extent you want to understand your workforce to improve Comms, but I think it's important to set the tone and expectations around Comms first, unless you're confident the audience understands and are engaged already of course.

I want to start by saying Internal communications is a critical business function. And yet many, many companies don’t invest enough resources or budget for this function - largely because it appears ‘easy’. However, the impact of a well developed internal comms plan and execution can be exponential. Yes, engagement is affected, but so can sales operations, innovation, collaboration, product development, recruitment, and so on. While you can ask employees which vehicles or formats they prefer, in my experience, it’s like asking people how they want to get their advertising. It’s much more about determining what people need to know and what they want to know and finding the best way to deliver it.

Being a fully remote organization means there are lot of channels we use regularly - Slack, Google, Zoom, email, phone, text, and more. I recently heard that it takes about 13x to get a message across in a remote work environment which at first seemed really high, but this week I experienced it myself, where a message didn't fully sink in until it came across a few channels. While it wasn't exactly 13x, it definitely opened my eyes to how different people consume information in these channels. There isn't a communications formula for every message, but at a minimum, knowing your audience may need a few touch points can help you get your message across.

Reach employees across different platforms by: Utilizing Multiple Channels: Use email, intranet, messaging apps, and social media for communication. Centralizing Information: Create a unified portal where employees can access updates and resources. Tailoring Messages: Customize content for each platform’s audience and format. Encouraging Interaction: Use interactive tools like polls and forums to engage employees. Regular Updates: Maintain consistent and timely communication across all platforms. This ensures broad reach and effective engagement with diverse employee groups.

To effectively reach your employees across different platforms, it’s essential to understand the generational diversity within your workforce. Each age group may have distinct preferences for communication. For instance, Millennials and Gen Z might respond better to messages sent via social media or chat apps, appreciating quick and visually engaging content. On the other hand, Gen X and Baby Boomers may prefer emails or newsletters that provide detailed information at a slower pace. Tailoring your communication strategy to fit these preferences not only ensures that your messages are received and understood but also demonstrates respect and consideration for the diverse needs of your employees, fostering a more inclusive workplace culture.

People & Culture leaders are grappling with remote and hybrid workplaces and how to connect across various platforms. We message each other on Slack to get on a Google Meet to switch to a Zoom to read a Notion page to take notes in a Google Doc to update a Miro Board to ideate in a Fig Jam to put back into a Slack :) All in a day's work. We definitely don't have it all figured out because we use a lot of platforms, but one thing I know is that platforms like these can help your employees stay connected and productive in a remote work environment, and its important to align on how / when / why we use all these cool tools.

I would employ a multi-channel communication strategy tailored to diverse preferences. Utilizing a combination of email, internal messaging systems, and collaborative platforms ensures broad coverage. Incorporating regular video conferences, town hall meetings, or webinars caters to visual and auditory learners. Leveraging social media and company intranet platforms ensures information accessibility. Consistent and concise messaging, along with interactive elements like surveys or forums, promotes engagement. Flexibility and adaptability in communication methods are key to effectively connect with a diverse employee base.

Your audience should be the focus of any communication. There are many ways for companies to communicate: social media platforms, email, chat, video, phone calls, etc. Tailoring messages to each of these ensures better engagement and connection. Effective managers can more easily determine their team’s preferences and adapt their ongoing approach to foster better communication within the team and a broader connection to the company.

Two major things here: 1. Understanding your audience's preferences is key, yet failing to recognize their evolving nature is a common oversight. Regularly reassess and adapt your communication strategy to keep pace with changing needs. 2. Ensure message consistency across platforms to bridge the gap between preference and necessity. This adaptable, inclusive approach boosts engagement and fosters a culture of adaptability.

As a founder and CEO of the company that sells the exact tool that solves this problem, I think it's always about simplifying communication to get things done without all the fuss. There are plenty of methodologies or frameworks to set comms around your projects or organization. Yes, you need to keep the audience in mind. Yes, the message should be targeted. But the most important thing is to organize all communication in one place for easy access. And, while preferences matter, who wants to spend ages crafting lengthy emails just to give a simple task update? Not me, and I bet not your employees either. With ProofHub, teams can trim away the unnecessary stuff and focus on what really matters.

I’m a big believer that you need to meet your employees where they are. If your team is on Slack all day, use Slack. If your team is highly engaged on a weekly all-hands, use that meeting time. If your team is religious about inbox hygiene, email them. Often times, we think of corporate communications as being incredibly formal and therefore over-engineer where we should communicate. In reality, we should simply go to where the people are.

Implementing a social intranet software helps offer better reach when communicating with your employees. This software helps create a common forum that develops a sense of connectedness and belonging. Not to mention, choosing this software helps enhance internal communication, builds a strong network, promotes open collaboration, and aligns employees with your company culture.

This isn't glamorous work. BUT, being clear on which channels are used for what messages can actually be liberating. For instance, 1:1 conversations on performance or personal matters should be face to face or video. Whereas brief exchanges can be text. And then Teams is NOT the place for disagreement – save that for a meeting where you can discuss properly

When you're talking to your employees, it's important to pick the right way to reach them. Different situations need different ways of communicating. Like sending emails for important news, using chat for quick messages, having video calls for team meetings, and using the phone for personal talks. The trick is to match how urgent, personal, or interactive your message is with the right platform.

Once you decide the appropriate platforms to communicate, document them, and ensure where possible you stick to those approaches, UNLESS they're not working. For example if you've decided important announcements must be shared via email and half your workforce don't know about them, change it up. If they are engaged, it's working, so make sure you stick to it.

While you must use cross channel comms (with optimally tools like Viva Amplify) there are some key things to know. 1. Engage Employees in Platform Selection: Involving employees in choosing communication platforms ensures the methods align with their digital habits and preferences, enhancing message reception. Especially if you meet them in tools they already use like SharePoint, Teams, & Email. Establish Clear Usage Guidelines: Define how and when to use different platforms to create a coherent communication ecosystem, ensuring messages are effectively received and understood. Prioritize Digital Fitness & AI Training: Implement training on excellence and AI best practices to improve communication impact, targeting and inclusivity.

The approaches mentioned here feel like we're expecting a lot from employees instead of making it easy for them. What are we communicating via email or chat that we are expecting employees to retain six months down the line? And how do they find that information again? If the communication is truly important, then we find a place for all important communications to live, like an employee experience platform for example, and then drive people there through email, chat, conference calls, etc. WTW's Embark employee experience platform could be this backbone of support for your organization.

It's true that everyone has different preferences, and that different platforms and channels are better suited for different goals. That said, it generally takes multiple exposures to a given message for it to take hold. With that in mind, I tend to approach communications by creating different, channel-appropriate messages across multiple channels and platforms to scale the exposure. This may vary from engagement to engagement, but it's key to consider the variety of contexts your audience is working within and the impact of repeated exposure (along with the advantage of different formats).

Incorporating insights from 'Smart Brevity' (book), I've refined my communication approach. I focus on concise yet comprehensive messages, maintain a regular communication schedule, and use straightforward language while avoiding jargon. I strive for clarity and consistency. By respecting employees' time and delivering only relevant information, I can improve understanding and trust among team members.

Try using BLUF: Bottom Line Up Front It's a military term to mean, say the MAIN THING FIRST. Then, add explanation. This for me is really important. If you're updating people on a policy or project, say the change first. Then give the reason second.

When talking to your employees on different platforms, it's important to be clear and keep things the same. This means sticking to a plan, using simple language everyone understands, and not sending too many messages. Doing this lets you ensure your employees know what to expect and trust what you say.

onsistency and clarity are foundational to effective communication across any platform. It involves adhering to a structured schedule, employing language that everyone understands, and steering clear of jargon or vague terms. Respect for employees' time and attention is paramount, avoiding unnecessary messages that could distract or overwhelm. By maintaining consistency and clarity, trust and credibility naturally flourish within the team. This approach not only enhances understanding but also fosters a cohesive work environment where communication is transparent and impactful.

Allow opportunity to reply in an appropriate forum - it might not be the same forum you communicated the initial message. For example if you send a group email, you might not want people to reply to group email you could suggest they msg privately in return. If you don't set those expectations, expect the unexpected!

Depending ont the platform, feedback can be suitable. A thread is a good way to have feedback on a digital platform. But email group replies can be exhausting. Likewise, informal channels like WhatsApp groups are really good for surfacing issues

Beyond the obvious stuff of encouraging the interaction and feedback in a direct way I recommend... 1. Emphasizing and matching platform strengths with team needs and making every interaction actionable for greater cohesion and motivation. 2. Tailor communication platforms to the group's preferences and work style. Example: Visual for creative teams, text-based for analytical roles—enhances engagement effectiveness. 3. Actionable Feedback: Beyond encouraging interaction, ensure feedback leads to visible actions. If there is no follow up, transparency or a connection you will see interaction and feedback drop off over time. Genuine appreciation and response to input foster trust and motivation.

For digital engagement, you could implement digital adoption tools and/or in-platform feedback mechanisms to help get data in the flow of the experience. In some cases these tools can also provide users a direct mechanism to report a problem. One thing to keep in mind with such tools, however, is that it misses the opportunity to engage people who are not using the platform currently (perhaps they don't find it relevant, don't like the experience, etc.) so seeking out a variety of perspectives separately will still be important. Additionally, if your platform has social elements like comments - and even for written survey responses - you can implement sentiment analysis techniques to help find common themes in your qualitative data.

To enhance communication across platforms, it's crucial to track its effectiveness. Monitor things like how many people open messages, reply to them, how satisfied they feel, and how involved they are. Ask your team directly for their thoughts on your communication methods. This way, you can figure out what's working and what isn't, and then make the necessary changes to improve.

Focus on identifying and tracking the right metrics that align with your communication objectives. Start by defining what you aim to achieve, such as increased engagement or improved knowledge retention. Select relevant metrics like open rates, click-through rates, and survey participation for engagement, and track the number of employees receiving and acknowledging messages for reach. Use feedback and surveys to gather qualitative data, and assess changes in behavior or performance linked to your communications. Leverage analytics tools to aggregate data from various platforms for a comprehensive view. Regularly review these metrics and adjust your strategies to stay aligned with your goals, focusing on outcomes rather than just outputs.

This step is the most crucial, as feedback is only valuable if it's used to actually implement change. Creating a space for employees to share ideas and suggestions and then leaving them on the table negates any other efforts you made to foster communication with them. As a leader, it's crucial to have the humility to both receive and find ways to incorporate the feedback you're given from your team.

There is a ton of value in having aggregated cross platform analytics (Viva Amplify <3) but here are 3 broad recommendations: 1. Personalized Communication via AI and Analytics: Harness the power of analytics and artificial intelligence to customize messages, ensuring they resonate with each employee's preferences and needs. 2. Agile Feedback Mechanisms: Implement real-time feedback tools, like quick polls and interactive platforms, to gather instant insights and enable swift adjustments to communication strategies. 3. Comprehensive Improvement Strategy: Adopt a holistic approach by integrating data-driven personalization, real-time feedback, and continuous measurement to enhance the effectiveness and relevance of communications.

How you measure and improve can make or break your communication strategy. It's so important to have good, clear goals for each communication and for each communication channel. What are you trying to achieve: - To reach as many employees as possible? - Drive behavior change in some way? If for example, you are communicating the availability of a new benefit, you can measure both things. But which matters more: that you reached 80% of the population or that only 10% of people enrolled? Someone thinking only about REACH in this scenario is missing the point, in my opinion.

Your engagement surveys are very telling. If have changed your work structure, composition, and structure over time, look at your results with fresh eyes. Although surveys are just one "people measures" data source, the quantitative and qualitative themes over time can tell powerful stories; from how many people completed them to what drivers went up versus what went down to specific suggestions for improvement, you have a gold mine of insights waiting to be reexplored.

When I was working in a manufacturing set up, communication and engagement formula that we used was: 1. Entry Comms - When employees enter to punch, there is comms for employees to get the message as they enter 2. Break Comms - Interval movements / Spaces were targeted for comms, to enable interactions on the comms and spreading the message 3. Shop Floor Comms - Important noticeboards in the shop floor 4. Influencer Comms - Key influencers were provided information to be shared with their sphere of influence 5. Meeting Comms - Daily meetings comms templates 6. Comms with follow up ask - All the above comms had something for employees to come back with follow up ask for which HR was ready.

Let’s keep in mind that managers are the linchpin of effective communication within a company. They bridge the gap between organizational messages and individual roles, providing context and relevance. By connecting the dots and tailoring information to each team member's role, managers ensure that communication is not only understood but also actionable, driving productivity and alignment across the team.

To connect with employees on their preferred platforms, start by using what’s familiar. For instant updates and team chats, platforms like Slack or Microsoft Teams work well. Email is key for more detailed information. For quick mobile alerts, texts or apps keep everyone informed on the go. Incorporate Yammer for broader company discussions and sharing. Additionally, using video messages can add a personal touch and boost engagement. Regularly check in with your team to see what methods they prefer, ensuring your communication is effective and inclusive.

Even in small teams, not everyone will love the platform that gets chosen. So it needs to be as effective as possible at delivering the communication and project management or other qualities your team needs. Choose the best platform for the team, not the most popular one necessarily, or the one external thinkers are able to advocate for most.