Paul Barton ABC | Paul Barton Communications

https://worldatwork.org/workspan/articles/five-steps-to-communicate-an-employee-engagement-survey

Five Steps to Communicate an Employee Engagement Survey

Communicating your employee engagement survey is just as important as the survey itself because it affects survey participation and the perception employees have about your organization.

Click on the link above to read the full article published by World at Work.

For more information on how we can help your company design, conduct, and analyze large-scale employee surveys, contact us.

Dealing with emailing? Here’s how to keep it short

22 Jul , 2019 No Comments

By Sue Horner
Guest Blogger

Smart communicators use multiple channels to reach employees, and email remains a constant for most workplaces.

But dealing with the “excessive volume” of communications is a challenge for companies around the world, according to State of the Sector 2019 – Digital Channels, from Gatehouse and Gallagher Communication. The report says despite all that effort, employee understanding of how they contribute to strategy or why leaders make the decisions they do is low.

So how can communicators improve understanding with email? A 2018 report by PoliteMail analyzed three years’ worth of data and nearly 200 million internal emails. The results show that shorter and more frequent email works best.

You can keep your emails short by linking short summaries to longer explanations on your intranet or elsewhere. Break up the text and make reading easier by pairing the writing with pictures, infographics, and other visual elements. And focus on these steps to make the language easy to read:

Use short, everyday words of one or two syllables, such as “use” instead of “utilize.” Messages at the simplest end of the Flesch Kincaid Reading Ease scale outperform those written at the middle level.
Use short sentences averaging fewer than 14 words. A classic survey by the American Press Institute found that readers will understand 90 to 99% of sentences of nine to 14 words. The more words you add, the less likely readers will understand your writing, if they even read it. The Hemingway App is a handy way to check for long words and sentences that are hard to understand.
Use short paragraphs. Aim for one main thought broken into just two or three sentences. New thought, new paragraph.
Cut out unnecessary words, like “very” and “Due to the fact that.” Also avoid redundant words, like “close proximity” and “end result.”
Use the active voice. It takes fewer words and is more energetic to use the subject-verb-object format: “The award recognized the effort” rather than “An effort that received recognition with an award.” If you can add “by zombies” after a sentence and it makes sense, you’re probably looking at the passive voice: “It was decided (by zombies).”
Avoid jargon, buzzwords, and acronyms, which may be confusing or hard to understand.

Be kind to your readers. Making the language easier to read saves them time and effort, and they’ll be more likely to understand and remember your message. And as Norman Nielsen Group VP and researcher Hoa Loranger says, “No one has ever complained that a text was too easy to understand.”

* * * * *

ABOUT OUR GUEST BLOGGER
Sue Horner is an award-winning writer and owner of Get It Write, where her specialty is warm and friendly writing for overworked corporate communicators. When she’s not writing, she’s probably reading or playing Words With Friends. Connect with Sue: Facebook | Twitter | LinkedIn | Get It Write blog

The Role of Video in Internal Communications

08 Jul , 2019 No Comments

Tom Hopkins
Guest Blogger

Video is a highly effective way to communicate with staff about changes across your organization, event updates, business successes, and company objectives. Therefore, it’s no surprise that 93% of internal communications professionals believe video is an important tool for what they do.

Why Use Internal Communications Videos?

Study after study has found that video is more engaging than many other forms of communication. This is because it is a more digestible way to convey complex messages and it appeals to a variety of learning styles. In fact, employees are likely to retain 95% of a message when they watch a video.

How Is Video Used in Internal Communications?

Over the years, organizations have found a myriad of ways to use video in their internal communications. Video is a great way to quickly raise awareness of important issues or changes. What’s more, it has also been found to be a cost-effective way to educate staff — whether it’s for onboarding new employees or supplementing existing health and safety training. For example, between 2010 and 2013, the IRS reduced training costs by 83% simply by switching from in-person meetings to video training.

Choosing the Right Video Style for You

The type of video you choose will depend on your goals. If you are looking to create educational content, then a how-to or explainer video will be ideal. For a more interactive training session, you should consider using internal webinars. For real-time news and updates, try setting up live streaming so employees around the world can gain insight into important company events.

Are Internal Communications Videos Expensive?

Implementing an internal communications video strategy can be as expensive as you want it to be. If you are short on time and want to produce high-quality content, then you may want to approach a professional video production company. However, for those on a budget, the abundance of free software and ever-improving mobile technology means that it has never been easier to produce a decent quality video yourself.

Discover More About The Role of Video in Internal Communications

If you are interested in learning more about how to leverage video as part of your organization’s internal communications, then you may want to take a look at the infographic below from the team at One Productions.

* * * * *

ABOUT OUR GUEST BLOGGER
Tom Hopkins is the Managing Director of One Productions – a video production company based in Dublin, Ireland.