Time and time again, effective communication stands as the cornerstone of a thriving company culture. As an HR professional, you understand the unavoidable challenges that come with retaining top talent. But, you also know that to keep your employees engaged, it’s critical to execute ongoing communications that keep them up-to-date and informed.
The best way to consistently communicate with your employees? Implement a year-round employee communications calendar.
Why Year-Round Employee Communication is Important
Building trust and engagement among employees is an ongoing process that requires consistent communication. A well-executed communications calendar fosters a working environment where employees feel informed and valued. This, in turn, positively impacts morale and retention rates.
Additionally, implementing a strategic communications plan can help employees maximize their benefits by reinforcing quality incentives, highlighting international pharmacy programs and promoting wellness initiatives.
According to Trade Press Services, 85% of employees stated they’re most motivated when their company offers regular updates and internal communications. We’ve always heard that communication is key. And, in the case of employee retention and satisfaction, that saying rings true.
Key Components of a Year-Round Communications Calendar:
To craft a successful communications calendar, it’s essential to segment your calendar, highlighting relevant topics you want to focus on monthly. This allows you to align your communications with key milestones and events throughout the year.
When planning out content for the upcoming year, if you ever feel stuck or aren’t sure what to include, simply think through what is relevant to your employees at that point in the year. Here are some common messaging themes that could fit into your employee communications calendar:
- Upcoming Holidays
- Open Enrollment
- Quarterly Updates
- Wellness Initiatives
- Share Benefits Resources
Additionally, you’ll want to clearly understand the message you’re communicating and which communication channels you will leverage. To ensure your message is communicated in an effective and engaging way, we recommend leveraging text messaging, email, video, webinars and even your employee benefits website. Knowing the best way to communicate with your employees is equally as important as the message you’re conveying.
Below is an example of how your employee communications calendar could be outlined.
Successfully Executing Employee Communications
For HR professionals, creating and managing a year-round communications calendar may seem like a daunting task. But, with the help of technology and automation in simplifying the scheduling of communications, you’ll find keeping up with your employee communications calendar is easier than you ever imagined.
A lifesaver for maintaining your employee communications calendar will be to leverage automation tools for social media posts and emails. Using the built-in scheduling feature on most social media platforms, as well as email and text automation, you’ll be able to pre-write your messages ahead of time and schedule them to deploy based on your communications plan.
When you leverage social media and automation tools to communicate with employees, you’ll also gain access to key data and statistics that will shed light on how well your communications are received. Look at data points such as Open Rates and Click Through Rates for emails, and Reach, Impressions and Likes on Social Media platforms.
At Totem, we help our clients manage their employee communications calendar – from drafting and deploying communications to leveraging surveys and employee inquiries to adjust messaging as needed. It’s just one of the ways our team strives to be there for everyone.
The more you know about your employees and how they receive your communications, the better equipped you are to refine your employee communications calendar to create and share content that will resonate with employees.
A well-crafted, year-round employee communications calendar is not just a tool; it’s a strategic asset for HR teams. Organizations can consistently and strategically communicate to employees throughout the year to increase employee engagement and satisfaction.
As an HR professional, your commitment to prioritizing communication will lead to a more connected, motivated and loyal workforce. Craft your calendar, foster communication and watch your organization thrive.
For more information on how to foster employee engagement within your organization, reach out to our team today. We’d love to hear from you.
