Best Practices

These tip sheets cover a wide range of employee communications challenges. What we’ve learned working with other companies might provide insight for yours.

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Benchmarking universe

RIGHT SIZING

How do you communicate a re-org in a way that’s respectful of employees? First of all, don’t call it right-sizing.

Benchmarking universe

BAD CONTENT

Before you decide a communications channel is broken, evaluate the quality of the content that’s flowing through that channel.

Benchmarking universe

GLOBAL EMPLOYEES

Use internal communicators is to make the world a little smaller by connecting employees across geography.

Benchmarking universe

WHAT ENGINEERS WANT

To engage engineering talent, give them problems to solve, smart colleagues and no two days alike.

Benchmarking universe

HUMANIZING THE CEO

See five ways to help build human connections between employees and the CEO — ultimately building trust.

Benchmarking universe

TONE OF VOICE

The writing in a lot of well-intentioned internal communications comes off as unnecessarily patronizing.

Benchmarking universe

BENCHMARKING

When developing a benchmarking study, consider these five ways to define the universe you want to explore.

Best Practices: HR Communications

HEAD COUNT

See these five advantages of bringing in an agency for internal communications rather than adding head count.

Best Practices: HR Communications

EMPLOYER OF CHOICE

See these five counterintuitive elements of a company employees won’t want to leave.

Best Practices: HR Communications

BETTER MANAGERS

See these five ideas to help develop the sort of managers employees love working for.

Best Practices: HR Communications

YEAR-END PROJECTS

See five projects for a stronger culture or improved employee communications in the coming year.

Best Practices: HR Communications

FIRE HOSE EFFECT

See these five tips for not overwhelming employees with too much communication all at once.

Best Practices: HR Communications

STRESS AND ANXIETY

Communicate the EAP benefits that could help employees manage record-high levels of stress and anxiety.

Best Practices: HR Communications

CASCADING COMMS

Make cascading information to frontline teams easier for managers by equipping them with communications tools.

Best Practices: HR Communications

TOWN HALLS

See these five Dos and Don’ts to increase engagement in all-hands meetings for global, remote, hybrid and on-site audiences.

Best Practices: HR Communications

GEN-Z REMOTE EMPLOYEES

Without much face-time in the office, younger employees may be missing out on some subtle but important learning.

Best Practices: HR Communications

DEI COMMUNICATIONS

Making internal communications more inclusive is an ongoing process. Here are five suggestions to help you progress on that journey.

Best Practices: HR Communications

Well-Being

The pandemic expanded our definition of employee wellness programs to include mental, social and financial wellness.

Best Practices: HR Communications

Change Communications

Help employees accept change management initiatives by avoiding these common mistakes in communicating change.

Best Practices: HR Communications

Intranet Wish List

Whether you’re updating your intranet on SharePoint or SaaS platform, this list will help you think about some features your employees might need.

Best Practices: HR Communications

Hourly Employees

If recruiting and retaining frontline workers is a priority for your company, be sure you’re not making these common mistakes.

Best Practices: HR Communications

Employee Stressors

Help managers be aware that employees may be dealing with under-the-surface stressors that are effecting their performance at work — as well as retention.

Best Practices: HR Communications

Open Enrollment

These communications are notoriously dense, confusing or just plain dull. Here are five tips for making them more enticing.

Best Practices: HR Communications

Recognition

Everybody loves applause, but not everyone prefers the same mode of recognition. See five different ways to show appreciation for employees.

Best Practices: HR Communications

GHOSTWRITING

We try to avoid ghostwriting in favor of other formats, but when it’s absolutely necessary, here are five ways to do it better.

Best Practices: HR Communications

Evolving Values

Although we hope our values are long term, there are milestones or situations when it might make sense to update the language.

Best Practices: HR Communications

hybrid engagement

Without the physical proximity of the office, we have to intentionally build human connections remotely.

Best Practices: HR Communications

Frontline Retention

Help your frontline employees see your company as the place they can build a long-term career.

Best Practices: HR Communications

CHANGE BURNOUT

Change is constant in many organizations. Here are five ideas for making change initiatives less stressful for employees.

Best Practices: HR Communications

CEO COmmunications

CEOs and your other big cheese executives may not have time to write their own articles or other communications to employees.

Best Practices: HR Communications

Messaging

The language of the employer brand should reflect the emotional experience of what employees love about your company.

Best Practices: HR Communications

EMPLOYER BRAND LANGUAGE

The language of the employer brand should reflect the emotional experience of what employees love about your company.

Best Practices: HR Communications

HYBRID ENGAGEMENT

There was an expectation that hybrid work would be bad for employee engagement, but here are five ways it could be improving it. 

Best Practices: HR Communications

PODCASTS

Podcasts harness the power of the voice — not unlike FDR in his Fireside Chats.  See five ways to use podcasts in this Best Practices one pager.

Best Practices: HR Communications

CULTURE

Members of the executive team may feel they have a handle on the culture, but they sometimes have an insular experience.

Best Practices: HR Communications

MANAGER TOOLKITS

Communications toolkits not only make managers’ jobs easier. They also increase employee buy-in for major change, leadership vision and new initiatives.

Best Practices: HR Communications

GEN Z TO BOOMERS

Multiple generations in the workforce mean you may need to tweak your technology mix and internal communications channels. 

Best Practices: HR Communications

GLOBAL WORKFORCE

Unite employees in locations around the world by avoiding an America-centric approach to internal communications.

Best Practices: HR Communications

HR Communications

Improve readership of benefits materials and other HR comms by making it easier for employees to glean what they need to know.

Recognition Programs

Recognition Programs

Recognition programs create a strategic opportunity to drive very specific behaviors — related to values, safety and other corporate objectives.

Best Practices - Content Manager Toolkit

Internal Communications kit

Give people who don’t write professionally the tools to keep their internal communications consistent and on brand.

Best Practices -Printed Newsletter

Printed Newsletters

Print still provides a powerful channel for manufacturing, retail and other industries with non-wired frontline employees
Best Practices -Printed Newsletter

Open Enrollment

Simplify and humanize open enrollment communications to help employees make their elections more easily.

Best Practices - Writing for Internal Comms

Writing for Internal Comms

Watch out for these five common mistakes when writing for employee audiences.
Best Practices - What Employees Want

What Employees Want

If your company provides any of these five advantages, be sure to include in your employer branding.
Best Practices - Employee Retention

Employee Retention

Consider these simple tactics to reduce quit rates while you’re working on larger, more time-consuming initiatives.
Best Practices - Remote Videos

Remote Videos

Try these five tips for shooting remote employees via Zoom or Teams to help them put their best faces forward.
Best Practices - Photo Library

Photo Library

Original photography of actual employees is a huge advantage over stock shots. Here’s how to build a flexible library.