hr & hospitality bites 10 february

10 February 2017

Once a week insights, features and interviews forHR professionals in hospitality

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Delivering employee benefits programmes- why internal comms is EVERYTHING!

Bar 1086 Four Seasons Hampshire. © Peter Vitale/Four Seasons. HAM221 Accor Hotels award winning enterprise social network Accor Lounge

Delivering employee benefits programmes- why internal comms is EVERYTHING!

We’d love to be able to attribute that quote to ourselves, butwe didn’t say it. It’s another nugget from Richard Branson.

But we agree wholeheartedly. We assume far too much andeither communicate far too little or just really, really badly.Communication only works when it is understood by theintended person and brings about action, or at least thought.You can communicate all you like, through the most fabulous,shiniest of mediums or ‘platforms’ as we now call them, butunless the person you’re talking to understands what you’resaying and most importantly, wait for it…can communicateback, then you’re probably having a big long, probably quitedraining conversation with yourself.

Organisations spend small fortunes on internal comms. Fact.And do they always work? Nope. Internal comms has come along way, certainly within the past ten years and there is a lotmore ‘conversation’ in the workplace, thanks to enterprise

EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT

HR & HOSPITALITYBITES

“Unless the person

you’re talking to

understands what

you’re saying and

most importantly,

wait for it…can

communicate back,

then you’re probably

having a big long,

probably quite

draining conversation

with yourself. "

INTERNAL COMMS

0

01

“Communication the thing humans

forgot when we invented words”

social networking tools (think Tibbr and Yammer where youcan communicate everything you need to employees and letthem communicate back and have multi-way conversations),the development of clever communications channels, weeklye-blasts, Twitter and real life actual meetings and briefings.When it comes to communicating employee benefits, manybusinesses still have some way to go.

We know the following to be true – employees want to havetheir say in what benefits they can choose from. So, youalready have your first step marked out clearly with‘Consultation’ written all over it, but what happens after that.

The launch of the employee benefits programme and then ofcourse the uptake. Or maybe not… And what’s the point ofrolling pound coins into an employee benefits programme ifyou don’t see ‘Improved Recruitment and Retention’ marchingstraight back at you with loud footsteps?

There is no point. It’s a waste of money, but the key to makingsure these pounds are well spent lies entirely in the ‘C’ word.Communication.

We like to back up everything we say with the facts (ok, thereally important stuff we say…) so we embarked upon aresearch project to dig out the detail, unravel the mysteries andline up some hard (and some not so hard) facts about theworld of employee benefits. (Have a look at our website fordetails)

We were quite thorough as you would expect. We asked sixtop hospitality business leaders some key questions, 439people completed our online survey, we held focus groupswith business and finance students to get their views onemployee benefits and businesses’ responsibility to administerthem. One of the biggest headlines that came out of thatresearch was this:

87% of employees think it is the employer’s responsibilityto explain how employees can get the most out of theirpackage

What’s the point of

rolling pound

coins into an

employee benefits

programme if you

don’t see

‘Improved

Recruitment and

Retention’

marching straight

back at you with

loud footsteps?

PAGE 10 HR & HOSPITALITYBITES

INTERNAL COMMS

02

The key part of that statement is not the percentage, it’s this… ‘explain’ And that’s not just in relation toemployee benefits.

Communication is everything and the challenges of delivering excellent internal communicationwithin a hotel and group can be enormous, as you know probably better than anyone. Take comfortfrom the fact that even in the most organised of organisations where the majority of folk are able totap their technology at the stretch of their arm, communication is also a challenge. Because we’rehuman. Not robots.

INTERNAL COMMS

What can you be doing more of to ensure that everyone in your organisation is on the journey with youwhether you're communicating the benefits of your employee benefits programme, announcingcompany news, sharing award wins and media coverage or just sending a motivational message ?

CHANGING WORKFORCE

S O , W H E R E I S I N T E R N A L C O M M S A T I N 2 0 1 7


03

- A N D W H E R E ’ S I T G O I N G ?

INTERNAL COMMS

CHANGING WORKFORCE

No – we don’t mean the folk walking into walls

whilst scrolling through their Facebook feed. We

mean the internal social network – the online

community of your employees, getting together in

that ‘cloud’ to collaborate, inform, receive, share

and be ‘always present’, even if they’re not at their

desk, work station or even country! Enterprise

Social Networks (ESNs) are being rolled out all

over the hospitality industry allowing nondesk

employees (and of course desk employees) to be

connected all of the time. Apps are now part of

employee engagement and internal comms culture.

3

3


04

1. Social media at work

5 Internal Comms trends for 2017

No more staring at a blank Outlook message

wondering how you can phrase ‘Can you please

just send me the info right now?’ in a slightly less

demanding way and proceeding to rattle off the

usual email niceties… We’re talking speed,

brevity and no more ‘Hope you had a lovely

weekend’… Quick and easy exchanges, saving

time, cutting down in email overload. Why

wouldn't you?

2. Social media at work

2. In an Instant

INTERNAL COMMS

CHANGING WORKFORCE

You can find out a lot about a company’s culture by the way they run their internal comms. Does

the way you communicate as an organisation really embody your core values? ‘Openness’, or

words of that ilk will always be somewhere in a company’s core values but how easy is it for your

people to talk to the ‘big people’? How available, visible and approachable are your CEO,

Managing Directors, Senior Managers in the eyes of your teams? Does that openness really

exist in your organisation or does it just sound good? And it’s not just about being open.

Remember that people nowadays are more interested in working for a company that has a

positive impact on the world than they used to be and shares that ehtos internally. The moral code

of the Millenials is as high up there on the list as salary and rewards..

3

3


05

3. Walk the talk


2. In an Instant

Internal comms in 2017 is going to be all

about empowering your greatest assets –

your people. Empowered employees are the

ones who turn up every day and deliver the

best version of themselves to you and your

guests, acting as your internal and external

ambassadors. But don’t take it for granted.

They need to feel like they are working for

the best company they could be and need to

be reminded of that through every day

communication of why you are so great. If

they love you, they’ll stay with you. If they fall

out of love, it’s pretty hard to get that back.

Spread the love.

4. Spread the love

INTERNAL COMMS

CHANGING WORKFORCE

Ok – we don’t quite mean Vegas, unless of course

you are in Vegas but we’re living in the digital age,

the dawning of virtual reality, so why would we

expect anyone to get excited by anything on a piece

of paper? 2017 is all about digital signage and

communicating your news, social media, ‘Thought

for the day’, performance and results, media

coverage, announcements, awards and images on

screens.

If it can work in Times Square… One of the easiest,

quickest and most effective ways of communicating

information in our extremely time poor world

is literally, the ‘huge flashing signs’.

3

3


06

5. Neon lights


2. In an Instant

4. Spread the love

There is no secret formula for brilliant

internal comms and there is no 'cut

and paste' solution either. What

works for one company will not

always work for another because

every company has a different

personality and culture. Just because

something looks great on someone

else doesn't mean it's going to look

great on you. Internal comms

success is also about taking your

people on the journey with you partly

as an engagement exercise and but

more so because they need to

understand what and why.

The question that comes back from people will always be "Will this not take more of my time?" and

yes, initially there is a huge pain threshold that needs to be overcome when introducing new internal

comms initiatives, but the long term gain well, it's there to be seen in several case studies where

hospitality organisations have introduced new technology to revolutionise and introduce multiway

communication Accor and Hyatt to name just two. And it works across generations, departments,

different sites, different countries. 'Piece of paper' the end is nigh!

hr & hospitality bites 10 february

Recruiting & HR