Business leaders are committing more resources than ever to hone their employee communication strategy. And a big part of that strategy includes communicating policies to staff. To foster greater employee adoption, consider these tips when planning how best to introduce new policies to your workforce.
Know your audience
Take stock of who in your organization will be affected by a new policy and what secondary groups of your workforce will benefit from knowing the policy change. Once you identify your audience, determine the best communication method. A companywide email may be best to communicate a general shift in policy that impacts all employees. But other channels might make sense based on the scale of the policy change and the size of your audience. In addition to leveraging email and internal communication tools, consider departmental townhalls and dedicated time during all staff meetings to educate your workforce on policy changes.
Get to the point
Organizational policies don’t have to be communicated in a novel format. We all want to protect our employees’ time, so be direct and get to the point when communicating a new policy. One of the greatest barriers to achieving widespread employee adoption of new policies is when those policies are presented in a confusing, convoluted or contradictory manner. Employees will want to know clearly and concisely how this policy will change their day-to-day life. Provide that guidance upfront.
Provide adoption support
Following the policy introduction, provide employees access to resources to help them better understand the context that brought about the new policy. Full scale policy adoption may best be supported by additional communication efforts or interactive modules detailing policy making protocols, employee expectations and employee consequences for failure to adhere to company policies. In addition, identify a group of employees to help champion the new policy as advocates and serve as a model of early adoption. Policy influenced by legislation or a change in industry standards may alter workflow, so it will be important for employee advocates and senior management to be able to speak to the rationale behind the change. Equip key personnel with this information and always err on the side of transparency.
Be prepared to follow up
Now that the new policy has been announced, welcome feedback through an anonymous online survey or in a moderated small group discussion to better gauge employee acceptance. Encourage employees to engage with organizational leadership or policy planning personnel to voice questions and concerns regarding the new policy. The goal is employee adoption of the new policy, so be sure to keep the lines of communication open.
Contact us to learn more about these tips and how PartnerComm can help boost your organization’s overall employee communication strategy.