I suspect I’m not alone in noticing that employees live in a cacophony of content. They have dozens of tabs open in their browsers and pages upon pages of inbound e-mails, and plenty of research shows they’re behind on reading—and that’s just with respect to their day-to-day work. Internal HR and business operations content simply adds to this already sizable pile, and it’s unfortunately not uncommon for employees to receive redundant—and sometimes contradictory—communications from various internal departments.
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If it feels difficult to get and keep employees’ attention, that’s because it is: The production and consumption of content is shortening attention spans. In fact, one study found that the modern employee has the attention span of a gnat (due largely to digital distractions), checks his or her e-mail 74 times a day, and spends 28% of the workday reading and answering e-mails. While your mileage may vary, this seems about right, doesn’t it?
That’s a challenging barrier for employers to break through. But I suggest that employees can be persuaded to stop and listen if you have a message that resonates and communicates value.
Content Without Value Is Just Noise
Are you offering a new perspective, insight, or point of view? Or are you just repeating what others have already said? Unless your communication directly provides value to the recipient, it’s not worth sending. It takes discipline, but it’s worth it: You can’t break through the noise unless you rise above it.
Successfully capturing employee attention is well served by embarking on a unified, coordinated approach to communications. The following five points may help you formulate a plan that works well for you, your organization, and the employees who make it special:
1. Speak to Employee Priorities
Communications shouldn’t just be about what leadership wants to say. Let’s also take the audience’s priorities into account and address those priorities. This can be particularly difficult when communicating change. It’s easy for leaders to forget that, although they have been discussing the change for months, this is their employees’ first time hearing about it. If employees don’t understand the reasoning for a change, it quickly becomes a barrier to company adoption and commitment.
Be concise and clear when announcing change. Leaders should emphasize their rationale and transparently answer employees’ questions. If something hasn’t yet been finalized, say so. You can then follow this with more detailed messaging.
2. Build Consensus Among Stakeholders
Taking the time to get buy-in early saves time later on and helps you avoid an incongruous message that screams “fake” to your employees. Whether it’s in a leadership team meeting, a Slack group, or a committee huddle, find a way to coordinate various stakeholders in the overarching story and message development.
Start by mapping your message with an eye on clarity and cohesion. Then secure solid leadership buy-in, and stress the importance of an appropriate messaging cadence that allows for optimal processing and retention. Once again, the message may seem like old news to leadership, but it will be a lot for employees to take in.
3. Think Like a Journalist
Any copy or creative design that doesn’t live in service of a message needs to go; it is noise, and it’s keeping employees from latching on to the meat of your message. Don’t be afraid to trim that fat. It will keep your communication concise and help you demonstrate authenticity.
When designing corporate communications, think about both the skim and the deep dive. As with a newspaper article’s eye-catching lead, effective employee communication front-loads valuable information first. That can be followed up with more depth and detail for those with the time and interest.
4. Design for Dialogue
Internal communications are often diluted by a “too many cooks in the kitchen” effect. When leaders give a one-off order to communicate something to employees and when no time or space is created for thoughtful messaging, employees receive a bland, watered-down message that ends up communicating nothing.
A thoughtfully designed communications plan and cadence can help marshal messages. By being concise and giving employees a choice—even if that choice is just to provide feedback—employees gain more pride and autonomy, and they’ll feel valued.
5. Close the Feedback Loop
Positively engaged employees want to know that their voices are actually being heard. Enabling this requires courage and authenticity, particularly with respect to sensitive issues and addressing employee concerns.
Acknowledging that you truly hear your employees is powerful. Let them know the steps you’re taking to address their specific concerns. Even if you can’t offer a fully formed plan, you can show employees that leadership has listened and is working to address those issues.
At the end of the day, content is just noise unless true value is provided. By demonstrating immediate relevance to employees, your message can rise above in a way that engages employees, secures buy-in, and incites them to action. When you add value to recipients and when there truly is “something in it for them,” you may well find that these shortened attention spans get longer.
Rod Mickels is the cofounder and CEO of InVision Communications, an engagement agency that provides best-in-class business communication solutions, designing and bringing to life business-critical engagements such as sales meetings, user conferences, employee engagement campaigns, product launches, and more. Along with cofounder Drew Hagen, Mickels has guided InVision since 1991, growing it from an event production company to its position as a trusted partner to many of the strongest, most dynamic brands and businesses in the world.