3 quick tips on how HR can improve internal communications

Building communication between employees is a fundamental role of HR. 

Without effective communication, teams can break down and ultimately cost a business money.  

This has never been more evident during the pandemic when a pivot to remote work and digital communication meant that HR was often called upon to act as makeshift comms centre. 

As Harriet Shurville, Chief People Officer at Iris previously told HR Grapevine: “One of the biggest challenges we’re currently dealing with is how we manage to keep everyone connected and convey that sense of shared company culture when everybody is in different cities and towns around the UK.” 

Of course, there is clear reasoning for this focus on comms. Lack of clear internal communication hits productivity and morale among employees, as The Economist 2018 report Communication Barriers in the Workplace revealed. 

In fact, the study found that respondents believe communication barriers lead to delays or failures in projects (44%), low morale (31%), missed performance goals (25%) and even lost sales (18%). 

Additionally, research by Opinium on behalf of Mitel previously found that substandard communications cost organisations around £8,000 per employee per year. 

However, communication in times that are intensely more digital are a lot more different. This is why HR Grapevine reached out to Marc Powell, Managing Director at software firm Emalogic to pinpoint exactly how HR can get better at all manner of company communication. 

Read his advice below. 

Video Meetings

Powell: “When you are watching someone in a video meeting remember – it is not really them – it is a pixelated image of them. They are probably miles away. 

“On a video call you are likely to be reading no more than 50% of their body language compared with a face-to-face meeting. But we think we are fully connecting. 

“This is the cause of a lot of exhaustion from video meetings – our brains get tired with the mismatch."

“Video images of colleagues can be deceptive and can draw your attention away from really focusing on what they are saying. 

“Careful not to rely too much on the video and listen hard to their words. We are far more adept at picking up cues from audio than video as we have been using the phone for years.” 

When in a video meeting turn your self-view off

Powell: “You wouldn’t look at yourself in a mirror when in a face-to-face meeting. Even worse imagine being in a meeting where everyone kept glancing at themselves in a mirror. 

“On video calls is easy to get hypnotised by our self-view. It is a huge distraction – so turn it off. With Teams you cannot turn off your self-view so just pop a Post It over your image. 

With people working at home email is being used more than ever

Powell: “No one needs any additional unnecessary CC emails or reply to all. Ask yourself, is this message going to add value? Will they read it? If not, don’t send it. 

“Sending unnecessary emails means adding to stress and impacting productivity – we all need to be responsible for this. 

“If you don’t you will be sending a message that it is OK for them to copy you in on unnecessary traffic – and they will keep doing it – and you will keep on spending time dealing with them.”

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