Importance of Communications Plan and Knowing your Audience

In this guide:

• Why you need a communication plan
• Consider your audience
• Use a variety of communication methods
• Involve your key stakeholders
• Find your champions and build momentum
• Find out why some people are not adopting the new processes
• Template 12 month communication plan

Why you need a communication plan

The purpose of the Performance & Talent software is to support year round (or 'continuous') performance management. For some organisations, this will require a change to your existing performance management process, and possibly a shift in your culture. 

To embed any change at work successfully, you need to communicate the key messages a number of times. In fact, research into change management has found that a message needs to be communicated seven times in a number of different ways in order to be internalised by recipients.

Additionally, you'll need to remind your staff to do the things you want them to do (have regular check-ins, give and request feedback frequently), until they become habits. It can take up to a year for these things to become habits, hence the need for a sustained communication plan for the first 12 months. Whilst the Performance & Talent software will generate automated email reminders, these are never as powerful as communications that come from key people within your own organisation.

Check out our communication plan template to get you started, and read on for more ideas!

Consider your audience

There are three distinct groups of stakeholders that you will be wanting to communicate to as part of your plan. These are outlined below, along with the key messages you'll want to reinforce:

Use a variety of communication methods

To successfully embed change, you'll need to communicate in a variety of different ways. Just relying on email, or on an initial face-to-face briefing session won't suffice. Different people respond better to different communication methods - some people prefer reading, some prefer videos, whilst others value discussion. To ensure your messages reach as many people as possible, use as many of the below communication methods as possible:

• Face-to-face briefing / training / discussion sessions
• 'Town hall' meetings
• Team briefings and discussions
• Emails
• Newsletters
• Intranet bulletins
• Videos
• Posters
• Infographics
• One page tip sheets
• Giveaways (coasters, pens, reusable coffee cups - be as creative as you can!)
• Discussion forums
• Drop-in sessions

 Involve your key stakeholders

For performance management to be truly effective, it can't be seen as an HR initiative. It needs to become a business process and be seen as such. 

Whilst HR typically have responsibility for project managing the implementation of a new performance management approach and system, and may often be accountable for its success, HR should avoid being seen as the 'owners' of the system. The best way to achieve this is to involve different key stakeholders in your communications. Here are some ideas on how to do this:

• Get your CEO to officially 'launch' your new performance management process, e.g. in a 'town hall' meeting, or via a video that you can share internally, or via an email to all staff. Then ask them to periodically mention their own team's check-ins and feedback they have given and received, during staff meetings and town halls. Microsoft's CEO, Satya Nadella, makes a point of doing this and it's been key to their high levels of performance management adoption.
• When communicating by email, consider getting your heads of divisions to send the emails to the employees within their divisions, rather than HR sending them to all staff.

When carrying out your staff briefing / training sessions, involve managers from around the business who you know already embrace the principles you are trying to embed (having regular check-ins with team members, giving regular feedback etc.). You could involve them by:

• Getting them to run the sessions
• Asking them to speak for 5 minutes on the benefits they have personally gained by adopting the continuous performance management principles for their team and some practical tips for doing it well
• Interviewing them on the benefits they have gained and their practical tips and making these interviews into a short video which you can play at your staff sessions
• Use real examples of objectives and feedback from your staff (with their permission) in your communications, rather than dummy ones.

Find your champions and build momentum

With any change initiative, some employees will embrace the change quicker than others. Therefore, it's important to find out who those people are as early as possible and use them to champion your cause during those critical first 12 months. Sharing their successes within the organisation will help you to build momentum and gain acceptance from other, more cynical employees.

 How to find your champions

Run the admin reports in Performance & Talent each month to find out:

• Which managers are having check-ins with their team members
• Who is setting good quality performance objectives
• Who is setting good quality personal development objectives
• Who is giving really good feedback

How to use your champions to build momentum

Interview them, either individually or as a focus group, and find out:

• the benefits they have personally gained from adopting the continuous performance management principles
• how the Performance & Talent software has helped them and why it is better than what they were using previously (e.g. spreadsheets or paper forms)
• how they have overcome some of the common concerns that other employees may have
• any tips or advice they have for others
• any suggestions for improvement

Share the outcomes of these interviews in your communication media (newsletters, emails, videos, tip sheets, etc.)

• Use real examples of good quality objectives and feedback from your champions in your communications
• Get your champions involved in future staff briefing / training sessions
• Consider their suggestions for improvement and whether they should be accommodated. Where these are system related, please share them with us at Performance & Talent!

 Find out why some people aren't adopting the new processes

Much as it's important to find your champions, it's equally important to find out who is not adopting your new processes and why, so that you can address their concerns and uncover any issues that you weren't previously aware of. Here are some suggestions for doing this:

• Run the Performance & Talent admin reports each month to find out which teams are not setting objectives, having check-ins or giving / receiving feedback.
• Speak to the managers of those teams to understand why
• Use evidence / advice gathered from your champions to help to overcome their objections or address any concerns
• Compile the objections / concerns gathered from your conversations into a 'Common concerns and answers' one-pager which you can then share as part of your communication plan. Make sure you provide answers to these concerns, using quotes / advice / information gleaned from your champions to support this.
• Get your senior leadership involved if certain managers are obstructing the success of your new performance management approach.
• Consider whether managers who are obstructing performance management should continue in people management roles. Could they become individual contributors instead. 

Template 12 month communication plan

Here is a suggestion of how to schedule the key messages into a 12 month plan. Remember that this is just a suggestion - you'll want to build on this and customise it for your organisation. Depending on the size of your organisation and how frequently you are able to communicate, you may wish to communicate the key messages over a shorter timeframe (e.g. 6 months) and then repeat the messages again during the remainder of the year, using a different communication method. 

Remember to use a wide variety of communication methods as outlined above.