How to Improve HR Communication in the Workplace
Are you a professional who works in HR? If so, then you likely understand the challenges of ensuring effective HR communication.
Either you encounter individuals who are frequently insisting that “you never sent them an email”, or it goes in one ear and out the other.
These miscommunications aren’t malicious in nature, but it’s still incredibly frustrating for you and can be a huge barrier in trying to do your job properly.
Table of Contents
9 Ways to Improve HR Communication in the Workplace
Situations like late replies often cause significant delays in the completion of vital administration, meaning you’re the one who gets in trouble when someone does get paid on time.
This can feel like a never-ending spiral that must be addressed. How? By following a variety of HR communication best practices and using software to support your goals.
1. Encourage Face-to-Face Communication
As a leader in a digital world, it’s easy to tell when your emails have and haven’t been opened. That doesn’t ensure your message was read, though.
If you want to ensure your voice has been heard and receive an active acknowledgement from the people it affects, you should try to speak to your employees directly.
Team meetings are a great space for making relevant announcements and ensuring your HR communication doesn’t get missed.
2. Train Employees in Communication
“Communication is a two-way street.” That’s a phrase we’ve all heard throughout our lifetime and it’s especially true in a workplace environment.
If you are dealing with employees that aren’t able to respond to you and express their true desires, then you need to start puzzling out why.
Despite its importance in all elements of life, many people haven’t been trained to communicate effectively – causing misunderstandings.
3. Act on Employee Feedback
Despite your best efforts, sometimes the problem starts with you.
After inviting feedback and listening to your employees, you might find the main problem with your communication in HR is caused by either:
- The channel you use is too complicated to understand.
- Too many messages are being sent in a short time period.
- Unclear instructions or guidance were provided.
Any of these factors can reduce the impact of your work and lead to ongoing problems with your staff members. Try to avoid these circumstances and address only the most important matters in a clear and concise way.
4. Create an Internal Communications Plan
Regardless of the size or shape of your business, all teams can benefit from having a strict internal communications strategy that sets out the guidelines and encourages everyone to follow the same rules.
Rather than sending an email one day, a text on another, and a message on Microsoft Teams on the last… you should choose what platform works best and stick with it. Consider:
- Where can you reach all of your employees?
- What tone of voice should you use?
- How soon should you send a reminder?
- When should employees respond to HR communications by?
5. Make Internal Process Documents Available
Once you have a plan in place, it makes sense to share it with your employees. Right?
Following the rules of knowledge management, you should start providing internal process documents as standard practice, sharing revisions across your organization and keeping everyone up-to-date.
With information like this that’s vital for the day-to-day success of your workplace, you should have a specific cloud-accessible folder that your team can identify and open should they need a refresher.
Don’t forget to make sure your new employees have access to this asset, too.
6. Utilize Surveys
One of the easiest ways to make communication in HR more effective is to add an interactive element.
Above all else, always encourage people to respond to your message and let you know that they’ve read and understood it.
You could also use things like surveys to make sure the information you have provided has been truly understood. This would give you extra insight into which employees need more support, allowing you to implement change management for HR.
7. Align Employee Goals With Your Business
Progress.
That’s something we all want to make as HR leaders and, thankfully, it doesn’t have to be impossible.
If you want your employees to not only celebrate your communications but action and drive them, then aligning their goals with yours would be a perfect way forward.
For example, as your business grows, you should open up more career opportunities. They know that their hard work will get rewarded, so they’ll be more motivated and open to listening.
8. Focus on Company Culture
When teams are in-sync, your HR communications shouldn’t face any conflict.
This will make a big difference in your effectiveness, so you should aim to invest more in your company culture.
Be sure to organize events that involve everyone and consider ways that you can get the conversation flowing.
If departments are willing to work with each other to produce the best outcome… your job will be much easier. Truly. No more complaints.
9. Adopt a Communication System
Have you had ongoing troubles with communication in HR management?
It can’t go on. You need a solution. Fast.
In a world where there’s so much software out there, you should look at the options that’ll allow you to best track employee responses and measure employee performance.
The top-rated include:
- Connecteam
- Workmates
- Monday
- Staffbase
- PeopleOne
Any one of these could be the answer you need to fast-tracking effective HR communication and make significant improvements across your organization.
How to Improve HR Communication – FAQs
Although HR communication isn’t easy, there are so many great practices to follow that can put you in a significantly better position.
Soon, you’ll be able to run a more efficient organization. Doesn’t that sound like a dream?
Should you still have questions that are burning in the back of your mind, perhaps these answers can provide the insight you are after.
- What is effective communication in HR?
For the most part, it’s when your employees are able to digest the information you provide and remember that you told them it. However, it can also work the other way around so be sure to listen to your team.
- How can I improve internal communication?
The easiest way to ensure your employees have received the information you sent is to use a specific software program – such as implementing HCM – that can track open and response rates. This will give you a clear idea of what you need to address.
- What are the benefits of effective HR communication?
When leaders and teams can communicate effectively, change can be easily introduced across your organization. Employees will feel more supported and less stressed, making them more adaptable and flexible.
Improve HR Communication with Userlane’s DAPs
Should you choose to onboard a new software system in your organization to further your HR strategy, there’s something you need to do first.
To succeed, it’s critical that provide the right training to your team. Otherwise, you’ll simply encounter more issues than before.
Through Userlane’s Digital Adoption Platforms, you can automate employee onboarding onto a new software and quickly get them up to speed with the features available to them.
This way, they can respond to your HR communications, and you can maximize your chance of keeping everyone in the loop.
Want to find out more? Request a demonstration today.
New to Userlane? Take a step in your software adoption journey and join the pool of our happy customers.
