5 Simple Ways To Optimize Communication On Your HR Team Today
The three keystones of good team communication
Posted on 01-08-2020, Read Time: Min
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When people are the focus of your job, good communication, understanding, and clarity are essential, but that’s easier said than done. HR teams with effective communication systems work smoothly, efficiently, and ultimately drive greater impact within their companies. The three keystones of good team communication are: consistency, efficiency, and transparency.
These qualities take time to develop and build among team members, but they are achieved more easily with the help of data insights and tools. Here are five tips for how your people-focused team can nurture a healthy communication culture.
There are some questions you get asked over and over again. Tools like a company intranet, knowledge base, or even a private Wordpress blog are simple ways to share things like employee handbooks, communication guidelines, policies, or benefits details. Utilizing online tools for routine tasks can save your team a significant amount of time so you can focus on more strategic elements of your job.
Tip: HR software like Zenefits can make tracking health insurance enrollment, time-sheets and time-off requests easy.
Equip New-Hires for Success
A new-hire’s first experience with your company sets the tone for their impression of the company and their colleagues’ impression of them. Give them the tools they need for success by clearly communicating expectations, goals and logistical details in a well-planned, organized way. When HR professionals partner with hiring managers to welcome new employees well, it can impact their effectiveness and satisfaction beyond measure.
Tip: Task management resources like Trello or Basecamp can organize your new hire’s to-do lists and allow you to follow-up to ensure that everything was covered without micromanaging. Performance management software like Lattice can provide transparency into company, department and individual goals, organize agendas for one-on-ones between managers and their reports, and collect performance review data you can use to make informed choices when planning HR strategies.
When a conversation by email or chat becomes longer than a few exchanges, it might be time to invite that person to meet. Private, face-to-face communication is often the best way to understand how someone is truly feeling. It doesn’t have to be scheduled. It’s best to address urgent, important issues the moment they arise.
Tip: Adopting a shared email address for your HR department can be a huge time-saver. Develop an alias (such as “hr@yourcompany.com”) to keep all communication in one place where it can also be easily reviewed and answered as a team. Other tools like Slack are best for immediate communication - but teams should be mindful of interruptions and reserve this tool for in-the-moment needs.
If you’re not intentional about your employer brand, it will be created for you! All of the communication you have with your candidates affects their impression of your company. Be mindful of the voice and tone of your job posts, emails and interviews. Even the way you tell someone you will not be hiring them says a lot about your company culture. A personalized, appreciative message makes it clear you are a people-focused company and will encourage good candidates to come back and try again.
Tip: Create a web page with a publicly visible email address (like jobs@ or careers@) to solicit communication from interested candidates about open positions. Don’t be afraid to be fun and personable with this -- try out more creative shared addresses (“iwanttowork@yourcompany.com”) to showcase your brand’s personality.
If you’re a larger business with a regularly recurring hiring cycle, a dedicated applicant tracking system like Jazz HR may help. You can create and publish job postings, maintain a searchable record of all the applications, communications with candidates and hiring team members, even create scoring criteria for the hiring team and send questionnaires to your candidates.
No matter what tools you use, the most important thing is that when communication happens, it leads to understanding, resolutions or actions. Stating our messages will only have an impact if those messages are actively heard, understood, verified, and candid responses are welcomed. Your team has diverse perspectives within it. You’ll all benefit from bringing every one of those perspectives to the table.
● HR teams that develop consistent communication standards set a good example for everyone in the company and reinforce the desired culture, goals and values. For example, our team created written guidelines that remind people to be mindful of how and what they communicate.
● Efficiency standards can often flow from HR teams that are organized, deploy key information at the needed time, and lean on technology that automates processes so you can use your valuable time wisely.
● Being transparent with each other builds trust and keeps everyone on the same page while decreasing the effort needed to ensure company-wide understanding.
● Efficiency standards can often flow from HR teams that are organized, deploy key information at the needed time, and lean on technology that automates processes so you can use your valuable time wisely.
● Being transparent with each other builds trust and keeps everyone on the same page while decreasing the effort needed to ensure company-wide understanding.
These qualities take time to develop and build among team members, but they are achieved more easily with the help of data insights and tools. Here are five tips for how your people-focused team can nurture a healthy communication culture.
Internal Communication
Maximize your time by creating a FAQ resourceThere are some questions you get asked over and over again. Tools like a company intranet, knowledge base, or even a private Wordpress blog are simple ways to share things like employee handbooks, communication guidelines, policies, or benefits details. Utilizing online tools for routine tasks can save your team a significant amount of time so you can focus on more strategic elements of your job.
Tip: HR software like Zenefits can make tracking health insurance enrollment, time-sheets and time-off requests easy.
Equip New-Hires for Success
A new-hire’s first experience with your company sets the tone for their impression of the company and their colleagues’ impression of them. Give them the tools they need for success by clearly communicating expectations, goals and logistical details in a well-planned, organized way. When HR professionals partner with hiring managers to welcome new employees well, it can impact their effectiveness and satisfaction beyond measure.
Tip: Task management resources like Trello or Basecamp can organize your new hire’s to-do lists and allow you to follow-up to ensure that everything was covered without micromanaging. Performance management software like Lattice can provide transparency into company, department and individual goals, organize agendas for one-on-ones between managers and their reports, and collect performance review data you can use to make informed choices when planning HR strategies.
Streamline Electronic Communications
Ensure that each manager on your team is empowered with best practices for employee communication. At Palo Alto Software, we strategically combine forms of electronic communication like email, chat tools and shared documents. This can aid efficiency, but only if we are mindful of how we use each method. I recommend first considering how important and urgent a message is or is not and choosing the delivery method appropriately.When a conversation by email or chat becomes longer than a few exchanges, it might be time to invite that person to meet. Private, face-to-face communication is often the best way to understand how someone is truly feeling. It doesn’t have to be scheduled. It’s best to address urgent, important issues the moment they arise.
Tip: Adopting a shared email address for your HR department can be a huge time-saver. Develop an alias (such as “hr@yourcompany.com”) to keep all communication in one place where it can also be easily reviewed and answered as a team. Other tools like Slack are best for immediate communication - but teams should be mindful of interruptions and reserve this tool for in-the-moment needs.
External Communications
Use Your Company’s Personality When HiringIf you’re not intentional about your employer brand, it will be created for you! All of the communication you have with your candidates affects their impression of your company. Be mindful of the voice and tone of your job posts, emails and interviews. Even the way you tell someone you will not be hiring them says a lot about your company culture. A personalized, appreciative message makes it clear you are a people-focused company and will encourage good candidates to come back and try again.
Tip: Create a web page with a publicly visible email address (like jobs@ or careers@) to solicit communication from interested candidates about open positions. Don’t be afraid to be fun and personable with this -- try out more creative shared addresses (“iwanttowork@yourcompany.com”) to showcase your brand’s personality.
Declutter Hiring with Tech Tools
Tools like Outpost can prevent your candidate screening process from getting messy. Using a tool like Outpost can help you consolidate all communication with a candidate, rather than letting a thread get lost in your hiring manager’s inbox. With Outpost, multiple team members can post private comments internally in each thread to share their perspectives without scheduling more meetings.If you’re a larger business with a regularly recurring hiring cycle, a dedicated applicant tracking system like Jazz HR may help. You can create and publish job postings, maintain a searchable record of all the applications, communications with candidates and hiring team members, even create scoring criteria for the hiring team and send questionnaires to your candidates.
No matter what tools you use, the most important thing is that when communication happens, it leads to understanding, resolutions or actions. Stating our messages will only have an impact if those messages are actively heard, understood, verified, and candid responses are welcomed. Your team has diverse perspectives within it. You’ll all benefit from bringing every one of those perspectives to the table.
Author Bio
| Celeste Peterson is the Director of People Development at Palo Alto Software. Visit www.paloalto.com Connect Celeste Peterson Follow @CELESTIVAL |
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