Mobile apps have laid an irreversible groundwork for the way we digitize business, consumption, entertainment and unique user experiences all across the world. They bring convenience to our collective fingertips and knowledge at a moment’s notice. Apps can transform the way we create, play, perform, produce and learn. 

Slowly but surely, apps are also weaving their way into the workplace; starting to be seen as valuable strategic tools for employer-to-employee communication and enhancers of the entire employee experience. 

Are you wondering how you can (and why you should) use these digital game changers to your advantage? Look no further, People Managers. There’s an app for that. And you can even create it yourself. 

Here Are The Top 5 Reasons to Up Your Employee Communications Game With an Internal HR App: 

Tags: What's Trending, Employee Communications, communication strategy, Marketing Mindset, Marketing, Employee Marketing, technology

When it comes to planning for their retirement, how “in the know” are your employees? According to the American Benefits Council, more than 100 million Americans are contributing a combined $5.7 trillion in assets to 401(k) and other defined contribution plans and 97% of these plans use personalized communication to participants. Are your employees getting the message? 

Soon-to-be retirees are a growing workplace population that’s known to sneak beneath the HR radar. As many companies tailor their retirement communications to recent grads and employees new to the world of payroll contributions, this subset is left wondering how to actually utilize their funds. It’s important not only to include them in retirement planning communications, but to craft the kind of messaging that helps them make confident, well-informed decisions about how to retire. 

With more generations coexisting in the workplace than ever before, a pointed strategy for retirement benefit communication is an essential way to ensure informative enrollment and exit at every level. From recent grads carrying student loan debt to seasoned professionals about to sign out for good, a comprehensive communication tool provides a certain kind of inclusivity often overlooked by today’s HR teams. 

Tags: What's Trending, Employee Communications, communication strategy, Marketing Mindset, Marketing, Employee Marketing, culture, retiree communication

For some, “digital transformation” is a buzzword that’s synonymous with “disruption.” It’s the onslaught of perplexing technological processes designed to disturb their workflow and alter their contribution to the organization.

For others, digital transformation is an opportunity. It harnesses the power of technology to achieve greater efficiencies in operations, enhanced experiences for employees and customers, and the ability to access to more innovative markets and constituents.

For your employees, digital transformation is likely some combination of these two sentiments. And the conflicting mindsets can make it difficult to carry out a strategic vision and craft the kind of messaging that resonates across the organization.

Tags: What's Trending, Employee Communications, communication strategy, Marketing Mindset, Marketing, Employee Marketing, digital

Karen Scattergood

I recently had the pleasure of attending the 2019 SHRM NYC Conference #ExceedingtheVision where the focus was on disrupting the HR world in a positive way that embraces company culture.

Company culture has long been a subjective concept that was often defined by whether or not your company allowed for casual Fridays. With work-life balance and flexibility being key in the modern-day workforce, culture is becoming less of a unicorn and more of a must-have for companies to attract and retain top talent. And with sites like Glassdoor paving the way for employees to speak about you as an employer, a positive culture is good PR and good business.

Tags: internal communications, effectiveness, communication strategy, Marketing, culture

Setting End Goals - Do They Measure Up?

Great communication is all about being adaptable to change. Your communication plans should be constantly evolving based on the current needs of both the business and your employees. As your workforce becomes more multi-generational and you adapt to changes in technology, it’s increasingly important to reconsider how to best communicate with your employees.

Just as with any business plan, your communications should have objectives. Those communication objectives should align and support your business objectives. Goal-setting allows you to see where you are coming from (giving you a benchmark for comparison), assess your progress by checking off your target objectives, and finally, to evaluate your overall success by comparing your end results to your benchmark.

Tags: internal communications, measurement, effectiveness, communication strategy, Marketing, analytics

While Open Enrollment is the perfect opportunity to provide an overview of benefits, it’s also important to reinforce just how much value there is to all the benefits your company offers! Salary may be the big-ticket item, but there are other, often overlooked, components that add to an employee’s overall income.

Tags: internal communications, communication strategy, Employee Marketing, total rewards, 2019, compensation statement

Congratulations... another Open Enrollment is in the books! As benefit communicators, we understand the time and energy it takes to complete a successful Open Enrollment campaign — and to get it just right. While you are probably ready to take a much-needed break from thinking about employee benefits communications, we encourage you to take this time to reflect and optimize your communication strategy.

Tags: Employee Communications, Open Enrollment, internal communications, communication strategy, Employee Marketing, 2019

How Ocean Spray embraced its evolution to online communications.

Tags: Employee Communications, internal communications, communication strategy, print, digital

These days, everybody wants to go “green,” so when it comes to employee communications, companies—ever mindful of wasting paper (and the perception that invites)—think that digital is the thing to do; it’s environmentally friendly, and it can often be (or at least seem) less expensive.

Tags: internal communications, effectiveness, communication strategy, Marketing, print, digital

You know your company spends a lot of money on benefits. The cost of insurance alone is about $17,000 per employee, on average. And that doesn’t count well-being programs and other benefits like FSAs and HSAs, total compensation, and retirement accounts.

Tags: Employee Communications, internal communications, communication strategy