By Dan Spedaliere
Production Director
When Employees Are “Too Busy” For Internal Comms
Local Wisdom CEO Pinaki Kathiari moderated a Rapid Fire panel at this year’s Advance Learning Institute’s Strategic Internal Communications Conference, held late January in San Francisco. Together with the panelists, Kathiari tackled three of the biggest questions facing internal communicators today.
Couldn’t make it? Never fear! This blog series will break down the top tips from panelists Jessica Brubaker, Initiative Communications Lead, McDonald’s USA; Simon Liang, Internal Communications Manager, PagerDuty; Sarah Wice-Courtney, Director of Communications and Public Relations, St. Elizabeth Healthcare; and Lindsey Blakely, Senior Manager, Internal Communications, WalMart Media Group.
The first question posed was:
How do we communicate with staff who say they are
“too busy” working to pay attention to internal communications?
Here’s what the experts had to say.
Make it fun
Utilize clickbait subject lines and calls to action. Throw in some images, memes, and puns. Have a creative name for the newsletter to get chatter started. And, use “sound bite” writing to make it easy to scan.
Cut the fluff
Often, when employees say they’re too busy, what they’re really saying is that they need help prioritizing. Try to avoid explaining everything from idea to implementation, and only communicate what people really need to know to do their jobs. Consolidate communications to avoid inbox overload.
Keep it relevant
If you have the capability to do so, segment your contacts to send targeted emails. Why send an organization-wide communication that only applies to half? Try filtering contacts by location, service/business line, or even senior leadership to make sure employees only get what they need.
This is the first in a series. Stay tuned for future installments.
