Internal communications play a powerful role in defining the relationship that you have with your employees. Every email you send introduces employees to choices about how far they will trust your words. 

The tone and style of internal communications shape – or distort – the quality of the relationship between employees and their employers. Employees will most heavily weigh communications that apply to them. So, consider items relating to benefits and compensation as especially important for setting the right tone and strengthening the channels you use to reach your people. 

When you write clear and concise communications on these topics, you promote trust and clarity. If not, you could foster mistrust between the company and the people trying to make sense of your message. For example, you might: 

  • Use jargon and seem like the disclaimer of a corporate lawyer 
  • Be obscure, indirect, or evasive about critical information and significant changes 
  • Make it harder for people to get straight answers to natural follow-up questions 
  • Discourage dialogue and feedback 

There is an exponential advantage in cultivating trust and engagement in the workplace. Organizations with more trust have higher engagement, better retention, and greater productivity. Benefits communications are some of the most personal that people will ever receive from their employers. If they find you to be evasive or unworthy of their trust on these topics, why would they trust the company on topics further removed from their immediate self-interest, like the next customer satisfaction effort, reorganization, or strategy rollout? 

While your next corporate effort may be only a month away, the tone of your current open enrollment campaign could be setting the tone for its success or failure. Grab that opportunity. Realize the strategic investment that these communications represent. Commit to clarity and to building trust in the communications that hit closest to home. Learn more.