Why employee communications, engagement fail as companies grow

Everyone from business owners to human resource professionals and benefit managers are tuning into the conversation about employee engagement. It’s hard to ignore the evidence connecting an engaged workforce to a company’s profitability, benefit costs, and employee satisfaction, so we’re all looking for the best ways to communicate with employees and retain top talent. Yet there’s not a one-size-fits-all solution to engaging a workforce, especially when you consider the changing dynamics of a growing company.

GuideSpark expanded from 20 to 200 employees in just a couple of years, so I have personally experienced the communication growing pains of a young company. I also hear from our clients – some really large and diverse organizations – about their communications challenges. I think it’s fair to say that HR leaders across the board share the common goals of reaching employees at the right time and place and increasing participation in the myriad programs and services they provide. But companies on the rise tend to confront some particular roadblocks, like hiring groups of new employees, establishing new processes, and promoting an evolving culture. It’s hard to focus on internal communications. The good news is that if they start early with effective communication behaviors, they can take those with them as they grow.

Also see: When one-size-fits-all benefits communication fits no one

So how can HR and benefit managers take control of important information and effectively communicate it? It starts with recognizing when the informal, word-of-mouth communication just isn’t cutting it anymore.

When you have 20 employees, it’s relatively easy to get everyone into a room and say what you need to say. But once you have more people on board, juggling different schedules and even remote locations and job functions, trying to reach everyone at the right time with the right message becomes futile. I’ve seen larger retailers and restaurant chains struggle with the telephone game: the HR rep gives information to a regional manager, who shares it with the store managers, who send it along down the line … and who’s to say whether the original message arrived intact?

If maintaining consistency isn’t hard enough, it becomes clear that not every message applies to every person anymore — or there may also simply be too much information to share (I’ve seen five-page emails from HR!). What starts happening is that the real, actionable message gets lost in the clutter or the information tends to get too generic and loses relevancy. As the receiving group gets bigger and bigger, you’ve got to consider who  you’re targeting, what they need to know, and what action you’d like them to take. You can’t send everything to everyone and expect results.

Also see: Inspire a culture of employee appreciation

Think about communicating a new health plan option to a large group of employees — it might be easy to create one, long message and email it to everyone, but it might not truly reach anyone. Enrollment goals fall short when key points get lost or the message itself fails to connect with the employee. When you think of engagement in terms of ROI, it’s worth the time it takes to thoughtfully compose messages for distinct audiences and make sure you’re reaching them through the right channels.

As a company grows, the task of communicating becomes harder to manage. There are more messages to craft, more employee segments to target, and in this day and age, more modes of communication to use. Growing companies may have small, busy HR and benefit teams. New positions get created and responsibilities shift. Benefits administration becomes more complex. All of these things can stand in the way of employee engagement in a very real way, and at a critical time in the company’s evolution. Communicators need to get their hands on the technology tools that make it easy for them to share information, save time, and respond to changing workforce needs.

That’s why it helps to use scalable solutions like mobile, video, and social, because these allow internal communicators to be as efficient as possible — even with a moving target. They’re ideal for right-sizing messages and delivering them to diverse populations, literally around the clock. Additionally, multimedia helps you communicate your company culture through tone and style, something that’s hard to do through traditional communications like email. The old and tired paper- and text-based communications also lose effectiveness quickly, especially when competing with trendier consumer-oriented communications employees enjoy in their personal lives. This is especially true for the millennial generation who expect multimedia to be a part of their workday.

Also see: Why ‘one-size-fits-all’ benefits communication doesn’t work

When it comes to finding the best way to reach and truly engage employees today, companies in all stages of growth must anticipate change and experiment with different modes of communications to find the right balance for their workforce. Communicators at a growing company need to remain flexible to a rapidly changing environment, and find innovative solutions that can grow with them — solutions that can take employees and the organization to the next level.

Keith Kitani is CEO of Guidespark, an employee communication and engagement company.