For many organizations, a natural response to addressing these fundamental questions is the good ol’ reliable FAQ. And the FAQ does provide a vehicle for addressing employee questions. However, we encourage our clients to include the answers in the majority (if not all) of their HR communication. It might be a paragraph in your announcement letter titled “Why this is important to you” or a repeating graphic in your brochure called “Employee Impact.” Acknowledging the personal impact and offering answers and assistance (when possible) is critical to developing and sustaining your organization’s credibility with employees.

What’s in it for you?

It’s important for HR to acknowledge the possible impact any change may have on employees and their families because you’ll have:

• Fewer angry employees. Okay, anecdotal evidence says that 20% of employees are unhappy, no matter what you do. But that means the other 80% can still be influenced.
• Fewer surprises. Who likes answering those unexpected, “put you on the spot” questions? They come from all levels of the organization–execs and entry level employees.
  If you think about the possible employee reactions and have a response prepared, you’re less likely to be caught off-guard.
• More credibility. When an organization doesn’t talk honestly about the impact of a change (positive and negative), the majority of employees won’t trust what you tell
  them now or in the future. It’s okay and even advisable to find the positives in any change, but ignoring the negatives impacts how employees will view the HR department and the organization.

Need help answering this question for your employees?

Give us a call or drop us an email. We specialize in developing key messages for employee communication!

As individuals, it’s easy for us to take out a copy of 14,000 things to be happy about*, read a few lines (or pages) and regain some balance to our perspective. It may be harder to find things to balance your organization’s messaging, but it can be done. For example, when one of our clients was facing the first lay-off in its history, we helped craft messages and provide assistance to departing employees: from EAP counselors to health insurance comparisons to Small Business Administration connections. We encouraged departing employees to consider all their options
with the goal of helping them move forward after they left employment. And just as importantly, we signaled to the remaining workforce that the organization was not a greedy ogre but a caring and compassionate employer.

Have organizational challenges to explain? Contact us – we’re available to help you find the balanced approach. Have a challenging day? Some things to be happy about:

day lilies blooming

hugging your kids

chicken fajitas

standing up for yourself

calling your mother

afternoon naps

dinner sizzling on a backyard grill

coming home after a week at sleep-away camp

a sense of accomplishment

softly snoring dogs at your feet

scents from an herb garden carried on a summer breeze…

*14,000 things to be happy about. By Barbara Ann Kipfer

It occurred to me when I started to write this post that a similar process applies for employers considering their brand—specifically, their employer brand. For most employers and their HR departments, the branding journey begins with their external brand. But is the name and face a company designed for their customers, potential customers, competitors and business partners, truly reflective of who they are as an employer? Or is there more to the story?

Employer branding allows an organization to tell their employees and potential employees (and maybe their competitors’ employees, too) what they value, what they expect, how employees grow, how they support work/life balance and how they reward.

At the episodes’ end, the celebrities shared what they had learned on the journey and how the experience had changed the way they viewed themselves. In each case, the person’s physical appearance didn’t change, but each image was enhanced with new depth. While an employer’s image may be enhanced with a new typeface or an additional corporate color, employer branding really answers the question “Who do you think you are?”

Ready to explore this question? We can help.