Spread the Word

It can be quite an undertaking to help employees make the connection between their efforts and the rewards your company offers. Many times it’s a more elusive challenge to make your own company’s message stand out and win employee buy-in, especially if participation in the program is more of a personal choice than a requirement.

In an internal program, you’re trying to motivate employees by aligning them with your company’s vision, along with team and corporate goals and business objectives. What’s the best approach? Here are some tips to help you get started.

ROI: Make It More Than Numbers

Employers who are looking for solid ROI for their program often pin success solely on response rates or sales figures. Assessing a program’s ROI should start with fostering employee engagement. Employee engagement often stems from a deliberate and thoughtful communication strategy centered on targeted, consistent messaging, delivered via various media to meet the unique needs of employees and that tie into the company culture. Engagement is driven by communication that ensures participants understand the program, know where they can find additional information, realize what’s in it for them, and discover how to be more successful.

Assign Ambassadors

In an internal program, one of your most effective communication strategies is to enlist the assistance of management as “brand champions” or “ambassadors” throughout the company. After all, in many cases, it is the front-line supervisor who can put a face to the program and talk it up, and whose interactions with their employees help personalize the program experience. Ambassadors can serve as the persuasive and common communication links who are able to reach targeted audiences and personally share program updates and results.

Count On Measurement

When you’ve made a significant investment to implement the program, you have to know if the program communication is getting results: Is participation increasing? Have sales results been positively impacted? That said, a fundamental element of your communication strategy should include measuring the results—and ongoing performance—of your program.

Move the Middle

In most companies, the middle majority of your targeted audience has the potential to make the biggest impact on your organization’s performance. Consider a productivity-based initiative that will leverage your top performers while you manage, motivate, and reward this critical audience. When your middle moves forward, so will your company.

Repetition Is Key, Repetition Is Key

From consumer mailings to corporate campaigns, what does it take to get through to people? The message you communicate as part of an internal performance improvement program needs to be consistent if it is to resonate with employees and compel them to take action. For example, ITAGroup designs communications with the 3-5-10 frequency rule in mind. This states that communicating three times will get a message heard; five times will get it understood; and 10 times will get it acted upon. If you are not communicating 10 times during a program, you are underutilizing the opportunity.

Create a Complete Program

All of these elements are needed to give your company the best chance at a successful internal performance improvement program. Behind every program, you’ll find an underlying communication campaign that takes a big-picture approach, which means aligning your employees with corporate initiatives, discovering what motivates them, finding ways to consistently reach them, and employing an ongoing approach to measure your program efforts. It is through effective communication that real change begins to happen.

Maura Rombalski is the manager of marketing communications at ITAGroup, a leading full-service performance improvement company. Visit www.itagroup.com, e-mail ideastoaction@itagroup.com or receive daily news at www.Twitter.com/ITAGroup.

Originally published June 1, 2010

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