Three Tips to Improve your HR Communication and Messaging

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The Human Resource connects employees, the upper management, and the board stakeholders to ensure everything runs smoothly within an organization. A lack of proper communication can affect a section of the company. And this can result in poor performance, employee disengagement, wrangles within the executive, etc. 

To ensure effective communication across the human resource departments, every organization should have a well-thought-out internal communication strategy. Such a plan should define the communication pathways, set expectations, and identify the key performance indicators (KPIs).  

However, having a strategy in place isn't enough. You need to continually improve on it so it can catch up with the changing market trends.

That said, below are the three tips you can use to ensure an effective communication strategy in the HR department.

Work on your Team's Emotional Intelligence 

Emotional intelligence refers to the ability to perceive and control your own emotions and recognize that of those around you. Over the years, Emotional Intelligence (EI) has become a pillar to better workplace performance and relationships.

Simply put, EI is the new standard that defines how well employees motivate themselves and relate with others. If an employee has a lower EI, chances are, he/she isn't a great leader.

Such an employee may also have trouble getting along with the different personalities in the workplace.

According to Daniel Goleman, a psychologist, and researcher on EI, there are five critical components of Emotional Intelligence. These are:

• Self-awareness

This is the ability to track and understand one's own emotions. Additionally, one should be able to recognize their emotions' impact on the wellbeing of others.

• Self-regulation

After recognizing your own emotions, you should be able to express them appropriately. People with a high sense of self-regulation tend to be flexible and can quickly adapt to change. Moreover, they are good at crisis management, navigating difficult situations, and diffusing tension. 

• Social skills

Good social skills help workers develop a strong rapport with co-workers and their immediate supervisors. On the other hand, managers with great social skills can communicate effectively with employees and board members.

• Empathy

In the workplace setting, empathy is key to establishing caring relationships where the conversation is deep and insightful. Empathy gives employees the power to influence social relationships and lift the spirits of those around them.

• Motivation 

Motivated employees are action-oriented. They are self-driven and have a passion for succeeding, making them well-fit in the highly-dynamic work environment.

The good thing is that all these skills are learnable. As a department head, you can encourage the other HR professionals to embrace them. 

Understand the Various Communication Styles 

Workplace communication is crucial, especially among your human resource management (HRM) team.  

To fully master communication in the workplace, you need to understand the communication styles and personalities. 

There are three different communicator personalities, namely:

• Passive communicators: These are people who put other people's rights before theirs. More so, they tend to be apologetic and may not speak up their minds more often.
• Aggressive communicators: This is a group of people who put their interests before that of others. They are very vocal about their rights and may hurt other people's feelings in the process.
• Assertive communicator: These are people who treat others equally. They are often direct to the point; however, they aren't offensive or insulting.

That said, there are four communication styles you will notice among your colleagues and employees. In other words, people fall into any of the following communication styles:

• Expresser communication: These are the people who often feel very excited. They don't rely on facts or explanations; instead, they care about what and how they feel.
• Driver communication: People with this communication style tend to have strong viewpoints and are very decisive. Similarly, they like to be in charge.
• Relater communication: These are the people who value friendship and would always expect fair treatment.
• Analytical communication: People who exhibit an analytical communication style tend to ask lots of questions. They like order and make decisions based on keen scenario-analysis.

Understanding the above communication aspects will help you collaborate with your employees and colleagues better. This way, you'll know how to communicate with each of them. It also becomes easier to bring different personalities together so you can forge an effective HR communication strategy.

Focus on Active Listening

Active listening is the act of listening to understand what the other person is saying. It occurs in the workplace when the audience is interested in the topic of discussion. Here, the audience is keen to ask questions for further clarification.

Encouraging your employees to embrace active listening will strengthen internal communication within the HR department. Active listening is evident everywhere, regardless of the communication methods, styles or types.  

When hiring new employees, hiring managers can easily know candidates with active listening skills. 

Candidates who listen keenly and digest everything before responding are more likely to be active listeners. 

By embracing active listening within the department and the organization at large, you will boost employee engagement. Likewise, managers and employees will better communicate, and this can help with employee retention. 

Summary 

Besides communicating verbally with workers and colleagues, paying attention to other types of communication can help you learn a lot about everyone in the workplace. For instance, nonverbal communication like body language, facial expressions, and tone of voice can tell more about your employees.

Moreover, be keen to try new ways of communication across your HR department. For example, use social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook for informal communication. You can also try smart collaboration tools instead of sending e-mails or slack messages.

A rule of thumb is to gear your communication efforts towards employee wellness and to understand their needs. This will improve your HR communication skills and will ultimately boost employee morale and workplace performance.

Lastly, consider using team-building activities to enhance employee engagement and productivity. Gallup 2017 survey found that 51% of US employees aren't engaged. Additionally, 16% were actively disengaged, while companies with engaged workers had an estimate of 2.5 times more revenue.