Creative Media

<h1>Abstract</h1>
The Internet and pervasiveness of electronic communication has added a new dimension to the skills required of HR professionals--tech writing meets human resources.  There are policies, procedures and handbooks, if not training manuals, to be written and distributed.  Economy, clarity and persuasion has become more critical.This article outlines a process for accomplishing those goals: First the piece must identify the audience and profile them for education and language skills.  Then, their needs require specific definition.  After that, deciding the objective of the piece defines what information needs to be successfully communicated.  Next, length, the learner's involvement and the best presentation methods must be woven into content.  Finally, a step most often overlooked in the HR world, is validation--did the missive hit the mark?  Once accomplished, the writer can evaluate effectiveness and make the appropriate changes.The point is that any employee communication important enough to be distributed should have the goal of economy, clarity and effectiveness.  To accomplish it, more time and effort must be dedicated in the earlier phases and the rest fall into place.<b>The Writing Challenge</b>By now every HR professional is aware of the tremendous impact the Internet has had on how Human Resource departments are run.  Nearly every aspect has been affected from job-search and applicant tracking to training and benefits administration.  Hidden within all these changes is the underlying fact that communication has gone electronic.  Even those areas still covered by the printed word have a pressing need to get the essential message across with an economy of language, clarity of meaning and purposeful persuasion that calls to action or changes behavior.New acronyms have entered the language; CBIT (Computer Based Interactive Training) and WBT (Web Based Training) to name but a couple.  So who is writing those training manuals and policy and procedure documents and handbooks?  HR people, that''s who. They now have the pressure of compliance issues added to the three writing goals of clarity, brevity and persuasion.  They have to protect the firm from litigation.  The litigious language of contracts and agreements are the antithesis of those goals.   Strangely enough, help for the HR professional comes from a group that has struggled with similar problems for decades now.  Poor souls like myself have had the task of getting the complex ideas and processes of engineers into words and pictures understandable and useful to the layman.  Making them "User Friendly," to go back to the over-used cliché.  Tech writing meets Human Resources.  Perhaps HR people can utilize the process tech writers have developed to accomplish those goals.This kind of writing (and the writing now thrust upon HR departments) doesn''t start with a blank computer screen and a few handwritten notes scribbled down at an action meeting.  In fact, the longer one delays the writing process and prefaces it with preparatory steps, the more likely the piece will achieve the three golden goals.
<h1>The Steps</h1>
The first step is to identify the audience.  Not merely by name, but by characteristic.  They must be profiled for location, time availability, education and language skills.  Education does not automatically define language skills in today's generation.  There are so many "dialects" in the business world today that they affect every area from finance to plant maintenance.  Words, phrases and especially acronyms used in each field make it nearly impossible to follow conversations within a group.Once the audience is properly defined what are their needs as they apply to this communication?  What should they know (which may have to be restated) and what do they need to know.  What information must be absorbed as a result of this piece?  For it is not a communication until the ideas presented are both sent AND received.  Those needs must be specifically defined.
<h1>Cost/ Benefit</h1>
Hand in glove with the needs assessment is a cost/benefit analysis.  What will be the cost of a "Failure to communicate."?   Movie buffs might remember it was quite painful for Paul Newman's Character in "Cool Hand Luke."  Poor communication cost companies millions if not billions of dollars in risks left unprotected and opportunities not taken.  Could the Ford/Firestone fiasco been averted or minimized with more effective processes for communicating quality issues?  Somebody had a "failure to communicate" and it cost those companies big time!  A careful and complete benefit analysis can sell a budget for a more comprehensive and effective design.<b>Objectives</b>With that groundwork laid, specific and concise objectives may be outlined.  They must be clearly established to define the effectiveness of the communication.  The study of how to achieve the objectives must take into consideration the basic motivating principle for effective adult education.  Behavior modification starts with answering the question "What's in it for me?"  The recipient must get to an understanding of how this learning will be useful.  Preferably the results should be measurable.  In the current vernacular of the Tech Writing world, create a "Model of Performance," which describes what the population must know and do, forming the foundation for the design.  It implies the ability to assign a "Grade" for how much individuals or groups have absorbed and changed.
<h1>Length</h1>
Once outlined, another goal needs to be established.  How long should the piece be?   How much time will the audience have or take to absorb this material.  How many of you have opened a gift on Christmas Eve where "some assembly is required."  Having looked at the five pages of instructions (all poorly written) and you said to heck with it and proceeded with a screwdriver and pliers.  After several attempts, I usually had to go read them anyway to find out what to do with the extra pieces I ended up with.  You don't want your audience going back to pick up the pieces.  A reasonable length is essential.  Better yet, break it into small chunks.  This gives you the opportunity to synopsize the previous content and go forward--banging it into long-term memory.
<h1>Median</h1>
How is this information best transmitted: Hard copy?  Over the Web?  With lots of graphics?  By a CD or video?  Interactive?  In a group setting?  How involved do you want your audience to be: Immediate response?   Questions and answers?  All text?  One on one?  Again the goal is to achieve the three golden goals: brevity, clarity and persuasion.
<h1>Validation</h1>
Finally, a step almost never taken in internal pieces: Validation.  Did the missive hit the mark?  To validate the piece a pilot, trial or focus group need be conducted.  Can the Model of Performance be tested before executing the plan?  This takes almost as much planning as the creation of the piece.  Who, how and what. What questions to ask to make sure the goals and objectives selected up front have been accomplished?<b>Outcome</b>These may appear to be unreasonable steps for a simple policy statement you are going to fire off to the troops.  Depending on the piece it may seem so.  But if you take the time--even a half-hour--to run through a check-list of these steps and ask yourself the questions, you will find it saves time in the long run from answering questions that should have been understood in the first place.  Even the writing itself will go much faster once you have a clear road map of where this piece is going.  At the very least, give yourself a test by asking if the three golden goals were achieved: Is it brief enough? Is it clear enough?  Would it persuade me?  If you feel you have accomplished those goals you will feel the satisfaction of not merely having written it but rather having authored it.