Communicate with impact: Elevate your Recognition and Rewards Programs with 4 simple tips

Time and time again our assumptions and biases get the best of us when it comes to communications, especially in an ever-changing environment and lack of spare time. From my experience, common assumptions organisations make across various industries are:

• Managers only need to be informed once to be aware of the program.
• It is the Managers responsibility to drive engagement.
• We don’t want to over-communicate with staff, they get too many emails.

This, therefore, causes hesitancy by HR professionals to spend enough time thinking about the communications plan and best practice techniques. As a result, this will most likely cause the program to fall short simply due to a lack of awareness of the program and a lack of understanding of how to participate. Being involved in onboarding new clients, launching new engagement programs or implementing solutions to maintain or lift engagement, its success strongly relies on a clear, consistent, creative and thought-out communications plan which will undoubtedly increase the likelihood of success.

When first planning out the communications plan, it is important to take a step back and think about your most important audience group….your leaders. I’m not just talking about your middle-level leaders, but all levels of leadership. Leading by example needs to come from all levels of leadership to ensure the message trickles down the hierarchy. If executives aren't behind the program, then Directors aren't behind it, then Managers aren't behind the program and so on. It is the leaders who will largely be responsible for keeping the Rewards and Recognition program top-of-mind with lower-level leaders and employees, which as a result will ensure positive behaviours are repeated by all staff. But this won’t happen by itself. When developing a communications strategy, it is vital to think about how communications (offline and online) can turn your leaders into Program Success Managers.

Producing Program Success Managers translates to leaders stepping up and going above and beyond in ensuring your recognition and Rewards initiatives align with your objectives and core values while creating a high level of engagement. They become advocates and supporters, saving HR professionals time and effort. To create a successful program, all starts with communicating the why.

Leadership Engagement - Its starts with the WHY 

You may have heard of the phrase “it starts with the why,” which became famous in Simon Sinek’s TedTalk speech. If you haven’t seen it, I’m sure you will be inspired! Simon explains why success is tied to the leader's ability to tell their teams what to expect and why it matters, which is dependent on the leader's ability to know the WHY. Humans need to have a meaningful reason to get behind a strategy or a key message. It is all about understanding the benefits and how to get there. This is where your communication techniques play a key role in keeping leaders understanding the WHY.  

Inform and educate Managers so they become your Program Success Managers 

The stakes are high not only when launching a new employee engagement initiative but maintaining engagement. Lack of clarity among leaders can promote apathy at best and disillusionment if things really go off the rails. That is why the formulation and delivery of effective communication plans are critical, especially when targeting leaders. When formulating your communications plan with the aim of creating Program Success Managers, think about these key elements.  

Early Engagement 

• Commit to a pre-launch communication plan. 
• Let your leaders know what’s coming, why, and what’s in it for them. 

Smart Engagement 

• Implement a comprehensive, strategic launch plan. 
• Provide leaders with the tools they need to help their team members make the most of the program. 

Ongoing Engagement 

• Develop a continuing communications plan marked by frequent, tactical messages. 
• Keep managers in the loop about program changes, additions, and results. 
• Keep educating and informing leaders on the positive impact they can have by engaging in the program (helping them become better leaders and produce stronger teams). 

Following these three elements can push you in the right direction in giving you the best chance to educate, engage & create enthusiastic leaders that will strive to make the program a success.  

Once you have created a communications strategy with your leaders in mind, it is also important to discuss communication best practices. Keeping in mind your communication capabilities and the dynamics of your audience, here are four communication best practices to take into consideration.        

Best practice 1: Build in frequency 

Jen Jackson, Communication & Engagement expert from Australia put it simply, “Consistent trumps comprehensive.” 

The Spotlight Effect in behavioural economics terms is where we overestimate how much attention others are paying to us. We commonly assume we have a captive and engaged employee audience, but your participants aren’t paying as much attention as you think.  

Research shows that it takes 3-7 times for a new message to take hold in a person’s memory. For a truly effective program, you need to plan several messages in several different formats because people internalise information in a variety of ways. Mix up the type of communications, from digital, written, visual and aural methods in your campaign to maximise attention.  

Best practice 2: Make it relevant 

To get the most out of any communication, it needs to have a relevant message tailored to that audience. This is extremely important considering individuals from different departments, teams, locations and leadership levels have different expectations, objectives, knowledge bases and cultures. Try thinking about the type of questions your audience would be thinking about when they receive important communication.  

• What’s in it for me? 
• Why do I need to know this? 
• What am I getting out of this? 

Relevance also refers to how your audience frames the information you are communicating. One common and effective principle to apply is ‘Framing Effect’. Simply put, the framing effect is a cognitive bias where people decide on options based on whether they are presented with positive or negative connotations. The more positive the message, the more likely you will get their attention. For example, showcasing the rewards they can potentially earn.

Framing your communication requires you to understand the context, do sufficient research, and frame your messaging while keeping the key behaviour you desire to drive in mind.

Best practice 3: Keep it simple 

People make about 48 decisions per minute. People are bombarded with emails and all sorts of communications therefore are more likely to skim through what they feel is not relevant.  

When asking them to make decisions about participating in your program, make it as simple as possible and limit the number of choices and actions presented. Choice Architecture refers to the challenge people have when presented with too many choices. Too many choices or actions often overwhelm people. Ensure your communications are helping people make the best choices and call to action by limiting the options. 

If participants don’t understand what you want them to do, they’ll most likely do nothing. Focus on one communication piece - one message. Keep the calls to action simple so that critical elements are easy to understand and act upon. 

Best practice 4: Creativity  

Vividness, a behavioural economics term, explains that people remember things that are graphic or dramatic. The size of fonts, colour, imagery, and placement play a critical role in highlighting the key takeaways of your communication. In today’s context, given the amount of information flowing in from all sides, try to take a ‘less is more’ approach. Crystallize your key points in a crisp manner using just the right words, symbols, and spacing.

By getting attention through vivid communication, employees are more likely to notice, read and remember what is being conveyed.