In this episode of the HR Mixtape, host Shari Simpson sits down with Alejandra Ramirez, an internal communication strategist at Ready Cultures. They delve into the critical role of internal communication in enhancing employee experience and driving organizational culture. This conversation is timely as companies increasingly recognize the importance of strategic communication in fostering trust, boosting productivity, and facilitating sustainable cultural change.
Listener Takeaways:
-
Learn how to bridge the gap between strategy and action through effective internal communication.
-
Discover why understanding your audience is essential for crafting impactful messages.
-
Explore strategies for measuring communication effectiveness, even with limited resources.
Hit “Play” to gain insights that can transform your internal communication approach and elevate your HR practices!
Guest: Alejandra Ramirez, Internal Communication Strategist, Ready Cultures
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:02):
You're listening to the H.R. Mixtape. Your podcast with
the perfect mix of practical advice, thought-provoking interviews, and
stories that just hit different so that work doesn't have to feel,
well, like work. Now, your host,
Joining me today is Alejandra Ramirez, internal communication strategist
at Ready Cultures. Alejandra is a veteran culture builder with
(00:25):
nearly two decades of experience transforming organizations through
strategic communication, which builds trust, boost productivity,
Alejandra, thank you so much for jumping on the podcast with me today. Thank
you for having me. I'm excited to chat. So I think this
(00:46):
is such an important conversation around communication,
especially internal communication. I know that
we who sit in HR often have to sit in this role
if we don't have a comms team to help us out. So let's start
with you and your title, internal communications strategist.
(01:07):
To me, it means making sure that internal
communication is a strategic pillar of
a business's strategy. I think very often businesses
are all about, okay, what's our strategy? What's our mission? How are we
going to, what are our values or what are we trying to accomplish? And
forget that communication is kind of the
(01:29):
tool or the essential piece to getting that information out.
And so I see myself as someone who can
help build that strategy into whatever
other initiatives a company might be doing. I recently
actually have also been called a chief dot connector. And I
started using it because I found that so many
(01:50):
problems I was solving weren't about missing info, but really
about people not knowing how it all fit together. And so, you
know, I've had conversations where people say, I didn't know
that was happening. And so That's another sort
of element of what I do. It's connecting those dots and communicating them
(02:11):
Well, and that's so important because you're right, not everybody in the organization
has the same vantage point. So having somebody that can
connect those dots, like you said, can really help bring that
to life. As you've thought about the role of internal
communications, you know, I know that it's more than just sending
messages or company updates. It's more complex than that.
(02:32):
Define it as the bridge between strategy and action,
meaning if you have a goal that you're trying to accomplish, whether
it's something like rolling out a new tool or system at a company, maybe
it's a new HR, you know, hiring platform
or whatever it may be, the internal comps piece bridges
that so that the employees or that the people involved in
(02:54):
making that project a success know exactly what
they're doing, why it matters and how it affects them directly. And
so to me, updates don't you know,
updates are, it's not just about information flow, it's about creating alignment.
Right. And so when it's done, well, it shapes that behavior, it
builds trust, and it supports execution of whatever that initiative
(03:17):
How do you find that alignment across departments? And
the reason I ask is because if you're in a larger organization, right, you
might have many people who feel like they should have their hands
involved in internal communications. Everybody from your
HR team to your marketing team to maybe some of your business leaders
or even your finance department if it's if it's something that's really linked to
(03:38):
a strategic initiative that they have. How are you navigating that
and making sure that you are connecting those dots, bringing in
those inputs, but also really still owning what that
Yeah, that's a really great question. I feel like, so I will say
internal or just communication generally is everyone's responsibility at
a company, right? Because communication is how everyone interacts on
(04:01):
a given day. It's not just an email. It's It's the actions you
take. It's the it's all those different touch points. And so it certainly is
everyone's responsibility. But to your point, you know, how does someone in
internal comms or how does someone who's owning that element of it, kind
of keep it moving forward and avoid any
confusion. And where I see communication breakdown most often
(04:21):
is between teams or departments is in those gray areas where ownership is
really unclear, or everyone assumes someone else has shared the message.
And so for internal comms by acting as a translator and
a connector across those groups and bringing it back to what
are the goals and the outcomes that we're solving for so
that we can work towards that as a team and not make it
(04:43):
about, well, I have to do this or this is not my job or whatever
it is and helping keep that messaging human, helping keep it
clear to how it solves whatever goal they're trying to accomplish
All right, let's talk strategy and execution for a second. as
you sit down to work on an internal comms, document,
(05:03):
email, whatever you're putting together, walk me through
kind of your process for somebody who maybe who's never done this before,
taking a strategic approach to internal comms compared to,
you know, somebody who's just like, I gotta get it out the door. Walk me through what
Yeah, so what is the most essential elements of
what I do is answering What
(05:26):
seem like basic questions but often people forget to answer
is understanding what it is we're communicating, why
it's important, and how it's going to be handled by
the people that you're communicating it with, right? And so I have this framework I
call the 3-H framework, head, heart, hands, right?
So logically, does it make sense? You know, emotionally, does
(05:48):
it connect? from an action perspective, does
it give clarity around what's expected of those individuals receiving the
message? So that's the initial piece that I
always try to answer. So when I'm working with leaders in HR,
or maybe across an organization, CEOs even sometimes,
those are my first questions to them. Because if they can't answer that,
(06:11):
we don't have a clear piece or
strategy to execute on. The other piece I
look at is the channels through which the information is being
communicated because you can have the world's best strategy and
the world's best message, but if you don't have channels that touch
your different audiences in a way that reaches
(06:31):
them, it's going to go nowhere. So assuming
that just sending an email is going to get you the action and
reaction that you need is not going to work. And so what
works at one company may not work at another. So understanding the
individual employees and how they receive information best is
really, really important. Which brings me to the next point is
(06:52):
I look at, assuming it's available because many companies don't
do this, and that's where I can also help sort of solve for that, is looking
at any feedback from prior communications and looking at
the engagement, which people in HR are very familiar with
the importance of engagement and internal comps play such a big part in
that because Understanding the engagement
(07:13):
and how employees are
receiving messages and providing feedback helps with
any future messages and adjusting and tailoring to make sure
that it's landing. Maybe it's a video and a text instead
of an email, or maybe there's a Slack channel that gets created. So
I look at sort of that holistic ecosystem as opposed to
(07:33):
just the message to make sure that it all lands and works together
You mentioned measuring the impact. How do you go about that?
I mean, obviously, we have things like engagement surveys and those types
of things. And we can ask questions around communication methods. But
you yourself, as you think about highlighting your
(07:55):
work and showing your own metrics and bringing your data to the conversation. What
are some of the key metrics that you are paying attention to or that you're watching
to adjust as you move forward based on what
That's a really great question and it's, I would say
there's qualitative and quantitative things I look at. So seeing
(08:15):
if people are even replying to the messages, right? So if
an email goes out, are people responding with more questions than,
hey, this was great? That's something we might want to address
and say, okay, maybe we need to send a clarification email because
we're getting a lot of questions about this one point. Looking at
metrics, what are the open rates of an email, but are
(08:35):
they also clicking on the link that we sent that's really important to click on?
Or are people downloading the materials that we've sent? Looking
at attendance, right? A big part of internal comms is
helping communicate any upcoming webinars or trainings for whatever the
tool is that's being rolled out. That's the example I keep falling back on. Attendance
rates, are people attending town halls? And again, having
(08:57):
an infrastructure in place that receives and allows for
people to submit feedback on an ongoing basis helps you
look at it over the long term and see are people engaging
or are they not? And working closely with HR on this is
really important because, you know, internal comms and employee
engagement work very well together. They rely on each other and looking
(09:18):
at those key metrics that give
you a sense for how the engagement is and
where the sort of questions arise are really, really
important to help and guide any future communication or adjusting existing
What do you say to the smaller team or
the smaller HR department even who is handling this
(09:41):
all on their own? Maybe they don't have the tools that you mentioned where
they can track things like open rates and downloads. What are some
of the qualitative stuff that they should just kind of be aware of
and start to watch as they evolve their internal comms teams
So I've actually come across this issue. I have come
(10:01):
across it when I worked in house at certain companies and then also just
working with clients. And I would say, you know,
to the extent possible, if there is an opportunity to
make a case and build a budget for a tool that helps with that.
I would say at least start to try to build that business case. But
until you have a tool like that, I would recommend just familiarizing yourself
(10:23):
with the different groups that you're communicating with, right? Have
regular check-ins and say, hey, you know, how is, what have
you heard on your team about this thing that we're rolling out? Is there anything that
maybe doesn't make sense? Really understanding the different people
that, that the stakeholders that are sort of affected by
this, And building that trust is
(10:44):
really helpful because it creates that open avenue of communication. So
it's not a one-way communication, but that two-way that
is so essential. And I would say really prioritize that because
those are those areas moments where you
get the most insight without them even realizing
it. Because you may say, hey, let's grab a coffee this month. How have you been? What's
(11:05):
going on? And that's where people drop those little nuggets that
help you connect the dots and sort of solve for those
pain points that maybe you otherwise wouldn't be able to know about if you don't have those
As you've worked with clients and in your own role over the
years, what are some big mistakes and
or things to avoid that you see or you keep encountering that
(11:28):
you're like, man, I wish people wouldn't do this or I learned from this because I
did it the wrong way one time as we think about these communication channels?
I would say assuming that people
can read your mind is a big mistake people make. It's
easy to be in your own head and see things from your perspective. And
when you're so in it, you know everything and
(11:49):
so you assume everyone else does. And so what I
find is the biggest mistake people make is just, yeah, assuming
that people are going to read your mind and looking at it from the
perspective of someone who is very knowledgeable on the topic, which goes back
to that framework I use and why I use it as part of my strategy, which is
you know, answer these questions because these are the baseline questions
(12:11):
people are going to ask and make sure that if you can address those clearly,
then you're in a good place. And if you can't, then, you know, also
consider addressing it with smaller groups. And that's actually
another mistake people make. I find that sometimes they will, you
know, plan some big communication and just blast it out however they
blast it out. Instead of testing it, right, start
(12:32):
with a smaller group. Maybe run it by a few colleagues and
say, hey, does this make sense? And that helps with that idea
of, you know, when you work in a silo, it's easy to miss those those
Do you take any approaches when you're physically writing
the communications that are some of the things that I've learned
over the years? For example, make sure that your communication is written
(12:55):
at a fifth grade level. Do you do you take any of those approaches?
Yes, corporate communication is a little different than, you know, hey, I'm putting out a
I'm big on keeping the messaging human, right? And
you want to translate for sort of the largest group,
right? And having a background in working
(13:16):
with law firms, right? Law firms, they have a lot of jargon and
legalese. And so, you know, the same happens if you're working with
engineers, right? And so as a communications person,
it's really important, A, to understand the business and
what it is you're trying to communicate. And B, taking that
language and translating it so that everyone else
(13:37):
can understand it, and vice versa. And that's why one
communication doesn't, it's not a one size fits all. Because
if you're communicating to the engineers who are much more, you
know, you know, structured in how they communicate, that message may
need to be delivered differently than a message that goes to the HR
team or to the operations team. And so understanding that it's
(14:01):
And you just touched on something that I think is really important in that when
we think about communications, when you're taking
that, when you're not taking a peanut butter approach to it, it
gives you the opportunity to craft things that are going to be
more impactful for each So I think about when you're rolling out
performance management for the year, right? You can create internal comms
(14:22):
that are geared towards employees and to managers and
to director level. And you can think about how each
one of those groups might need a little bit of tweak on the information. How
do you map that out? I'm curious from a process
perspective, how do you look at that and decide, hey, I
need maybe five communication templates for this one piece
(14:44):
of content compared to, yeah, this one message will
Yeah, leaning into curiosity and asking questions usually helps
yield that sort of those answers. Because
if you put yourself in the shoes of the people you're communicating with and saying, well,
why is this the case? Or how is this the case? And understanding those
(15:05):
different nuances in the questions based on the different levels or
groups that you're communicating with helps. And
remembering also, I mean, and this does vary by size
of company, right? You know, if you have 200 employees versus 1000 employees
or more, you know, it's going to vary. Relying on your managers, right,
is really important, because that relationship between
(15:28):
the manager and the employee is a huge make or
break. And so Asking the managers directly,
like what are the things that your teams always, you know, are feeling frustrated
about or, you know, how do you find that your teams communicate is
really helpful. And I would say, you know, build
on it every time. So anytime you have a new communication, look back on, well,
(15:50):
what worked or didn't work the last time. And that's why those, that feedback and
the stats that we talked about is so important because looking
at past examples and iterating and growing and evolving it
So if you were stepping into an internal comms role for
the very first time, you've never done it before, what's
the advice that you give that person for them to be successful their
(16:14):
Do a lot of listening. Don't assume and really
try to reach out to as many people as you can to just kind of
put your name out there and say, Hey, I really want to understand what you
do. You know, why is this important? And try
to really then take that information and try to
find those overlaps between teams
(16:36):
and try to find where those breakpoints are and then create an
initial strategy, you know, through an audit, right? So
as part of your listening, you want to create an audit that sort
of understands, okay, what are the types of communications that the company
I just joined already sends out, and almost do. essentially
your own mini audit and inventory of, okay,
(16:59):
we know that the CEO sends a monthly email about this
topic. And we know that there's five newsletters that go out on
these different topics. And we know, and understanding that
landscape is essential to then either
adjusting or, you know, continuing to advance that. So
First 90 days are so essential to listen, to get that feedback
(17:21):
and to understand the landscape. And then after that,
I love the audit suggestion. I've mentioned this on the podcast before.
Many years ago, we did a project where we
re-looked at our onboarding, our new hire orientation point
in time. And we came to find out that, you know, our
(17:43):
candidates were getting about 25 emails in
the two weeks before they started. And all good
intended, right? They all had important information in them. You
know, some were from the system, some were from manager, the recruiter, you
know, the HR department. And it was just, we were unaware that
this person or these candidates were getting inundated with this type
(18:04):
of just barrage of communication and no one source of
truth to know, like, hey, it's the day before I start, which email do I
need to go back to? Because we know you're prepping, right? You want to go back
and look at that information. So completely agree. I think that's
a fantastic way to approach it. And it's going
to give you that visibility that you talked about, because you're
going in kind of with this mindset of I'm gathering information, which
(18:27):
I think can disarm people. if they're not familiar with
you, you know, if you say, hey, I want to listen, I want to understand, I'm going
to take some notes so that I can wrap my head around it. So, such good advice there.
You know, as we kind of wrap our conversation, what's one
habit or mindset shift that you really think if
people that are sitting in this space can make that it
(18:48):
will help them be able to collaborate better and
That's a really great question. So many things come to mind. So
I would say a really good habit and mindset to
have is to go in with an open mind and
be willing to learn from others and not assume
that you know everything. People want to help you. Your
(19:11):
role isn't to just tell people what to do. It's to understand what
they're trying to accomplish and then take that and turn it into
that final message that helps turn that goal
into actionable strategies. So really having that mindset
of how can I help you? What is it you're trying to solve for?
And learning as opposed to just telling is
(19:35):
I love that level up idea. And if you can
come to your management team and they see you as somebody who's
helping them execute in an excellent way, you're
definitely going to win in this space. So such good advice. Thank
(19:56):
I hope you enjoyed today's episode. You can find show notes
and links at TheHRMixtape.com Come back
You're listening to the H.R. Mixtape. Your podcast with
the perfect mix of practical advice, thought-provoking interviews, and
stories that just hit different so that work doesn't have to feel,
well, like work. Now, your host,
Joining me today is Alejandra Ramirez, internal communication strategist
at Ready Cultures. Alejandra is a veteran culture builder with
(00:25):
nearly two decades of experience transforming organizations through
strategic communication, which builds trust, boost productivity,
Alejandra, thank you so much for jumping on the podcast with me today. Thank
you for having me. I'm excited to chat. So I think this
(00:46):
is such an important conversation around communication,
especially internal communication. I know that
we who sit in HR often have to sit in this role
if we don't have a comms team to help us out. So let's start
with you and your title, internal communications strategist.
(01:07):
To me, it means making sure that internal
communication is a strategic pillar of
a business's strategy. I think very often businesses
are all about, okay, what's our strategy? What's our mission? How are we
going to, what are our values or what are we trying to accomplish? And
forget that communication is kind of the
(01:29):
tool or the essential piece to getting that information out.
And so I see myself as someone who can
help build that strategy into whatever
other initiatives a company might be doing. I recently
actually have also been called a chief dot connector. And I
started using it because I found that so many
(01:50):
problems I was solving weren't about missing info, but really
about people not knowing how it all fit together. And so, you
know, I've had conversations where people say, I didn't know
that was happening. And so That's another sort
of element of what I do. It's connecting those dots and communicating them
(02:11):
Well, and that's so important because you're right, not everybody in the organization
has the same vantage point. So having somebody that can
connect those dots, like you said, can really help bring that
to life. As you've thought about the role of internal
communications, you know, I know that it's more than just sending
messages or company updates. It's more complex than that.
(02:32):
Define it as the bridge between strategy and action,
meaning if you have a goal that you're trying to accomplish, whether
it's something like rolling out a new tool or system at a company, maybe
it's a new HR, you know, hiring platform
or whatever it may be, the internal comps piece bridges
that so that the employees or that the people involved in
(02:54):
making that project a success know exactly what
they're doing, why it matters and how it affects them directly. And
so to me, updates don't you know,
updates are, it's not just about information flow, it's about creating alignment.
Right. And so when it's done, well, it shapes that behavior, it
builds trust, and it supports execution of whatever that initiative
(03:17):
How do you find that alignment across departments? And
the reason I ask is because if you're in a larger organization, right, you
might have many people who feel like they should have their hands
involved in internal communications. Everybody from your
HR team to your marketing team to maybe some of your business leaders
or even your finance department if it's if it's something that's really linked to
(03:38):
a strategic initiative that they have. How are you navigating that
and making sure that you are connecting those dots, bringing in
those inputs, but also really still owning what that
Yeah, that's a really great question. I feel like, so I will say
internal or just communication generally is everyone's responsibility at
a company, right? Because communication is how everyone interacts on
(04:01):
a given day. It's not just an email. It's It's the actions you
take. It's the it's all those different touch points. And so it certainly is
everyone's responsibility. But to your point, you know, how does someone in
internal comms or how does someone who's owning that element of it, kind
of keep it moving forward and avoid any
confusion. And where I see communication breakdown most often
(04:21):
is between teams or departments is in those gray areas where ownership is
really unclear, or everyone assumes someone else has shared the message.
And so for internal comms by acting as a translator and
a connector across those groups and bringing it back to what
are the goals and the outcomes that we're solving for so
that we can work towards that as a team and not make it
(04:43):
about, well, I have to do this or this is not my job or whatever
it is and helping keep that messaging human, helping keep it
clear to how it solves whatever goal they're trying to accomplish
All right, let's talk strategy and execution for a second. as
you sit down to work on an internal comms, document,
(05:03):
email, whatever you're putting together, walk me through
kind of your process for somebody who maybe who's never done this before,
taking a strategic approach to internal comms compared to,
you know, somebody who's just like, I gotta get it out the door. Walk me through what
Yeah, so what is the most essential elements of
what I do is answering What
(05:26):
seem like basic questions but often people forget to answer
is understanding what it is we're communicating, why
it's important, and how it's going to be handled by
the people that you're communicating it with, right? And so I have this framework I
call the 3-H framework, head, heart, hands, right?
So logically, does it make sense? You know, emotionally, does
(05:48):
it connect? from an action perspective, does
it give clarity around what's expected of those individuals receiving the
message? So that's the initial piece that I
always try to answer. So when I'm working with leaders in HR,
or maybe across an organization, CEOs even sometimes,
those are my first questions to them. Because if they can't answer that,
(06:11):
we don't have a clear piece or
strategy to execute on. The other piece I
look at is the channels through which the information is being
communicated because you can have the world's best strategy and
the world's best message, but if you don't have channels that touch
your different audiences in a way that reaches
(06:31):
them, it's going to go nowhere. So assuming
that just sending an email is going to get you the action and
reaction that you need is not going to work. And so what
works at one company may not work at another. So understanding the
individual employees and how they receive information best is
really, really important. Which brings me to the next point is
(06:52):
I look at, assuming it's available because many companies don't
do this, and that's where I can also help sort of solve for that, is looking
at any feedback from prior communications and looking at
the engagement, which people in HR are very familiar with
the importance of engagement and internal comps play such a big part in
that because Understanding the engagement
(07:13):
and how employees are
receiving messages and providing feedback helps with
any future messages and adjusting and tailoring to make sure
that it's landing. Maybe it's a video and a text instead
of an email, or maybe there's a Slack channel that gets created. So
I look at sort of that holistic ecosystem as opposed to
(07:33):
just the message to make sure that it all lands and works together
You mentioned measuring the impact. How do you go about that?
I mean, obviously, we have things like engagement surveys and those types
of things. And we can ask questions around communication methods. But
you yourself, as you think about highlighting your
(07:55):
work and showing your own metrics and bringing your data to the conversation. What
are some of the key metrics that you are paying attention to or that you're watching
to adjust as you move forward based on what
That's a really great question and it's, I would say
there's qualitative and quantitative things I look at. So seeing
(08:15):
if people are even replying to the messages, right? So if
an email goes out, are people responding with more questions than,
hey, this was great? That's something we might want to address
and say, okay, maybe we need to send a clarification email because
we're getting a lot of questions about this one point. Looking at
metrics, what are the open rates of an email, but are
(08:35):
they also clicking on the link that we sent that's really important to click on?
Or are people downloading the materials that we've sent? Looking
at attendance, right? A big part of internal comms is
helping communicate any upcoming webinars or trainings for whatever the
tool is that's being rolled out. That's the example I keep falling back on. Attendance
rates, are people attending town halls? And again, having
(08:57):
an infrastructure in place that receives and allows for
people to submit feedback on an ongoing basis helps you
look at it over the long term and see are people engaging
or are they not? And working closely with HR on this is
really important because, you know, internal comms and employee
engagement work very well together. They rely on each other and looking
(09:18):
at those key metrics that give
you a sense for how the engagement is and
where the sort of questions arise are really, really
important to help and guide any future communication or adjusting existing
What do you say to the smaller team or
the smaller HR department even who is handling this
(09:41):
all on their own? Maybe they don't have the tools that you mentioned where
they can track things like open rates and downloads. What are some
of the qualitative stuff that they should just kind of be aware of
and start to watch as they evolve their internal comms teams
So I've actually come across this issue. I have come
(10:01):
across it when I worked in house at certain companies and then also just
working with clients. And I would say, you know,
to the extent possible, if there is an opportunity to
make a case and build a budget for a tool that helps with that.
I would say at least start to try to build that business case. But
until you have a tool like that, I would recommend just familiarizing yourself
(10:23):
with the different groups that you're communicating with, right? Have
regular check-ins and say, hey, you know, how is, what have
you heard on your team about this thing that we're rolling out? Is there anything that
maybe doesn't make sense? Really understanding the different people
that, that the stakeholders that are sort of affected by
this, And building that trust is
(10:44):
really helpful because it creates that open avenue of communication. So
it's not a one-way communication, but that two-way that
is so essential. And I would say really prioritize that because
those are those areas moments where you
get the most insight without them even realizing
it. Because you may say, hey, let's grab a coffee this month. How have you been? What's
(11:05):
going on? And that's where people drop those little nuggets that
help you connect the dots and sort of solve for those
pain points that maybe you otherwise wouldn't be able to know about if you don't have those
As you've worked with clients and in your own role over the
years, what are some big mistakes and
or things to avoid that you see or you keep encountering that
(11:28):
you're like, man, I wish people wouldn't do this or I learned from this because I
did it the wrong way one time as we think about these communication channels?
I would say assuming that people
can read your mind is a big mistake people make. It's
easy to be in your own head and see things from your perspective. And
when you're so in it, you know everything and
(11:49):
so you assume everyone else does. And so what I
find is the biggest mistake people make is just, yeah, assuming
that people are going to read your mind and looking at it from the
perspective of someone who is very knowledgeable on the topic, which goes back
to that framework I use and why I use it as part of my strategy, which is
you know, answer these questions because these are the baseline questions
(12:11):
people are going to ask and make sure that if you can address those clearly,
then you're in a good place. And if you can't, then, you know, also
consider addressing it with smaller groups. And that's actually
another mistake people make. I find that sometimes they will, you
know, plan some big communication and just blast it out however they
blast it out. Instead of testing it, right, start
(12:32):
with a smaller group. Maybe run it by a few colleagues and
say, hey, does this make sense? And that helps with that idea
of, you know, when you work in a silo, it's easy to miss those those
Do you take any approaches when you're physically writing
the communications that are some of the things that I've learned
over the years? For example, make sure that your communication is written
(12:55):
at a fifth grade level. Do you do you take any of those approaches?
Yes, corporate communication is a little different than, you know, hey, I'm putting out a
I'm big on keeping the messaging human, right? And
you want to translate for sort of the largest group,
right? And having a background in working
(13:16):
with law firms, right? Law firms, they have a lot of jargon and
legalese. And so, you know, the same happens if you're working with
engineers, right? And so as a communications person,
it's really important, A, to understand the business and
what it is you're trying to communicate. And B, taking that
language and translating it so that everyone else
(13:37):
can understand it, and vice versa. And that's why one
communication doesn't, it's not a one size fits all. Because
if you're communicating to the engineers who are much more, you
know, you know, structured in how they communicate, that message may
need to be delivered differently than a message that goes to the HR
team or to the operations team. And so understanding that it's
(14:01):
And you just touched on something that I think is really important in that when
we think about communications, when you're taking
that, when you're not taking a peanut butter approach to it, it
gives you the opportunity to craft things that are going to be
more impactful for each So I think about when you're rolling out
performance management for the year, right? You can create internal comms
(14:22):
that are geared towards employees and to managers and
to director level. And you can think about how each
one of those groups might need a little bit of tweak on the information. How
do you map that out? I'm curious from a process
perspective, how do you look at that and decide, hey, I
need maybe five communication templates for this one piece
(14:44):
of content compared to, yeah, this one message will
Yeah, leaning into curiosity and asking questions usually helps
yield that sort of those answers. Because
if you put yourself in the shoes of the people you're communicating with and saying, well,
why is this the case? Or how is this the case? And understanding those
(15:05):
different nuances in the questions based on the different levels or
groups that you're communicating with helps. And
remembering also, I mean, and this does vary by size
of company, right? You know, if you have 200 employees versus 1000 employees
or more, you know, it's going to vary. Relying on your managers, right,
is really important, because that relationship between
(15:28):
the manager and the employee is a huge make or
break. And so Asking the managers directly,
like what are the things that your teams always, you know, are feeling frustrated
about or, you know, how do you find that your teams communicate is
really helpful. And I would say, you know, build
on it every time. So anytime you have a new communication, look back on, well,
(15:50):
what worked or didn't work the last time. And that's why those, that feedback and
the stats that we talked about is so important because looking
at past examples and iterating and growing and evolving it
So if you were stepping into an internal comms role for
the very first time, you've never done it before, what's
the advice that you give that person for them to be successful their
(16:14):
Do a lot of listening. Don't assume and really
try to reach out to as many people as you can to just kind of
put your name out there and say, Hey, I really want to understand what you
do. You know, why is this important? And try
to really then take that information and try to
find those overlaps between teams
(16:36):
and try to find where those breakpoints are and then create an
initial strategy, you know, through an audit, right? So
as part of your listening, you want to create an audit that sort
of understands, okay, what are the types of communications that the company
I just joined already sends out, and almost do. essentially
your own mini audit and inventory of, okay,
(16:59):
we know that the CEO sends a monthly email about this
topic. And we know that there's five newsletters that go out on
these different topics. And we know, and understanding that
landscape is essential to then either
adjusting or, you know, continuing to advance that. So
First 90 days are so essential to listen, to get that feedback
(17:21):
and to understand the landscape. And then after that,
I love the audit suggestion. I've mentioned this on the podcast before.
Many years ago, we did a project where we
re-looked at our onboarding, our new hire orientation point
in time. And we came to find out that, you know, our
(17:43):
candidates were getting about 25 emails in
the two weeks before they started. And all good
intended, right? They all had important information in them. You
know, some were from the system, some were from manager, the recruiter, you
know, the HR department. And it was just, we were unaware that
this person or these candidates were getting inundated with this type
(18:04):
of just barrage of communication and no one source of
truth to know, like, hey, it's the day before I start, which email do I
need to go back to? Because we know you're prepping, right? You want to go back
and look at that information. So completely agree. I think that's
a fantastic way to approach it. And it's going
to give you that visibility that you talked about, because you're
going in kind of with this mindset of I'm gathering information, which
(18:27):
I think can disarm people. if they're not familiar with
you, you know, if you say, hey, I want to listen, I want to understand, I'm going
to take some notes so that I can wrap my head around it. So, such good advice there.
You know, as we kind of wrap our conversation, what's one
habit or mindset shift that you really think if
people that are sitting in this space can make that it
(18:48):
will help them be able to collaborate better and
That's a really great question. So many things come to mind. So
I would say a really good habit and mindset to
have is to go in with an open mind and
be willing to learn from others and not assume
that you know everything. People want to help you. Your
(19:11):
role isn't to just tell people what to do. It's to understand what
they're trying to accomplish and then take that and turn it into
that final message that helps turn that goal
into actionable strategies. So really having that mindset
of how can I help you? What is it you're trying to solve for?
And learning as opposed to just telling is
(19:35):
I love that level up idea. And if you can
come to your management team and they see you as somebody who's
helping them execute in an excellent way, you're
definitely going to win in this space. So such good advice. Thank
(19:56):
I hope you enjoyed today's episode. You can find show notes
and links at TheHRMixtape.com Come back
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
Ridiculous History
History is beautiful, brutal and, often, ridiculous. Join Ben Bowlin and Noel Brown as they dive into some of the weirdest stories from across the span of human civilization in Ridiculous History, a podcast by iHeartRadio.