Employee communications is critical to any organization regardless of its size. It is through internal communication campaigns that employees are kept in the loop about key issues and concerns affecting the company. By communicating to employees, management can help the personnel to fully understand their roles and how they can contribute to the achievement of corporate goals.
As today’s workforce keeps on getting younger, corporate communicators are now faced with the challenge of attracting the attention of and engaging the Millennials. These are the members of the so-called Generation Y, who grew up in front of PC screens and more recently, smartphones and tablets. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics says that as of the end of 2015, these young workers now comprise the largest generation in the country’s workforce.
Creating employee personas can help to better understand how to communicate effectively with people from different generations.
But by implementing the following employee communications best practices, internal communication experts stand a better chance of connecting and engaging with their younger colleagues:
1. Being more visual
Compared to the older generation of workers, Millennials are more visual. One study conducted by international marketing consultancy firm Albing International showed that more than 3 out of 4 young people consider themselves ‘visual learners.’ Chances are, the young workers in a company prefer to look at infographics than read a lengthy newsletter article.
Thus, being more visual in the workplace is one of the employee communications best practices that corporate communicators should try to achieve. The use of communications tools such as videos, live hashtag walls, and team photos can better communicate information such as breaking news, sales and marketing metrics, among others, to a younger group of workers.
2. Inspiring action
While it is a must to inform about the entire organization about issues affecting the company’s operations, the internal communications team should not overlook perhaps the more important facet—involving, motivating, and inspiring the employees.
After all, the main purpose of internal communications campaigns is to engage the employees so that they can be more productive at work. Highly engaged and motivated employees are innovators in the workplace who can contribute better to the achievement of corporate goals.
As such, any employee communication campaign should have calls-to-action in their messages. For example, a paperless office campaign must not only cite the benefits of thinking twice before printing a document. It should also cite paper reduction solutions that employees can follow or practice.
Even giving rewards to teams or individuals for accomplishing certain goals can be considered as an effective means to inspire action among the employees.
3. Encouraging the use of social media
Millennials love social media in the same way that moths are attracted to light. According to the American Press Institute, Millennials use social media for news and information. In a survey, 88 percent of Millennials say that they get news from Facebook, while 83 percent from YouTube and 50 percent from Instagram.
Instead of resisting the use of social media in the workplace, internal communicators should fully embrace it and recognize its potential as a tool to connect to the younger workers. This is one of the employee communications best practices that corporate communicators should not overlook.
There are many ways to integrate social media in an internal communication campaign.
One way would be to encourage employees to share photos of them working and having fun in the office. These images can be shared on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. They can then tag the company’s official social media account. This is a great way to boost employee engagement and morale.
By implementing these three employee communications best practices, internal communicators should be able to reach and engage the younger generation of workers in the organization.
