Human Resource Communication Pays Off

Human Resource Communications and Corporate Communications - are they one in the same? Both plan and develop written communication strategies to further the understanding and perceptions of their audience. Both provide counsel and editorial support for management communications.

Business communications transmits and manages messages that inform, persuade and collaborate by speaking the language of the company. HR Communications creates a "one company" culture, integrates acquisitions and facilitates information sharing company wide. Both work at the highest levels of the organization, aligned with senior management and the board.

The most successful HR professionals are consummate communicators. Typically their organizations over communicate with all constituents. Their leadership styles transmit the traditions and values of their company. You often find a strategic HR function when the spoken and written words parallel leadership actions.

Human Resource Communications is a subset of our corporate culture. Corporate cultures determine communication styles. Cultures as diverse as a business headquarters viewed as a traditional downward style with an abundance of males in dark suits and white starched shirts to other companies which express their identity by polo's with logo's and scores of identical sites around the country.

Which of the three following communication styles dominate your culture?

Downward - helping employees perform their jobs

Upward - senior management and board level

Horizontal - selling your value proposition and merging cultures

HR COMMUNICATIONS ARE SPECIALIZED

Human Resource professionals uniquely position themselves at both the start point and finishing point of the communication chain. New hire orientation and policy and procedure manuals exemplify downward communication intended to help employees perform their jobs. Employee opinion polls, employee focus groups and exit interviews deliver information upward to solve problems and make executive decisions. Employee newsletters help work teams requiring a coordinated action between units or locations.

How well is HR information exchanged in your company?

Human Resource Communications Consultants manage and direct the planning, creation and execution of communication strategies to further the understanding and perception of HR policies, procedures, programs or initiatives. This often involves conceptualizing, researching, writing, editing and design/production of materials. Either print or electronic, projects often involve web pages (internet and intranet) and e-newsletters. HTML experience and knowledge of Dreamweaver and other graphic programs will serve this function well by providing the HR Communication Consultant a larger repertoire of up-to-date tools.

Is your HR information timely, accurate and understandable?

What should I expect from my Human Resource Communications Consultant? First, excellent writing and project management skills. Either internal or external, this person should display a record of accomplishment of interpersonal and project management competencies. They must be experienced in managing multiple assignments, with strong problem solving abilities. This "internal consultant" must have your confidence in an environment of highly confidential matters. Perhaps their past included the responsibilities of corporate due diligence matters.

Have they work experience at the highest levels of HR?

Do they have the proven ability to motivate themselves and others to generate strong results? To round out your choice, have they led HR initiatives and cross-functional teams? Ad industry / communication industry exposure just could be the icing on the cake.

Formally by PowerPoint or informally by walking the second and third shifts, we demonstrate HR Communications leadership as we amass information, process facts and disseminate intelligence at lightning speed. Our free flowing atmosphere of dialog and written messages translates values, traditions and habits into words and actions employees interpret

Operating as an internal consulting agency, or external resource, HR Communication Consultants work with employees and vendors on communication matters relating to the highest work initiatives. By building and managing cohesive communication strategies and working closely with HR process owners, they oversee the integration of both print and multimedia content and distribution. They may also create HR Communication metrics to measure results using employee communications to create a distinct competitive advantage.

One-page field memos and one hundred page policy manuals present a challenge for busy HR professionals. Your Human Resource Communications requires advanced knowledge and professionalism. Our HR role, singularly positioned at both the start and end of the communications continuum, offers an advantage to HR professionals who initiate and advance HR correspondence for field and headquarters functions.

About The Author

Focused exclusively on EMPLOYEE RELATIONS, HR COMMUNICATIONS and RECRUITMENT PROJECTS contact John Mooney at (972) 355-7481 or email JMooney@ConsultiveSource.com or the company website www.ConsultiveSource.com. I utilize extensive hands-on industry competencies to solve your HR challenges. Supporting small, medium or large human resource projects with 20 years of human resource and operating experience, John Mooney has a results-oriented, focused approach to the human resource needs.

More resources:

RELATED ARTICLES

Why and How to Work with a Consultant
A good consultant provides specialist abilities and experience, innovative ideas, second opinions (reality checks), unbiased appraisals, and new approaches.A good consultant will leave you with tools, plans, and materials, and will transfer knowledge and resources to help you use them.

Its a Training Issue!
There's a common phrase used by Organizational Development and Human Resource professionals, when identifying kinks in the growth of an organization or company - "It's a training issue." The same phrase can be applied to almost any group of human beings that are working together to achieve a common goal.

Diversity in the Workplace: Benefits, Challenges and Solutions
Workplace diversity refers to the variety of differences between people in an organization. That sounds simple, but diversity encompasses race, gender, ethnic group, age, personality, cognitive style, tenure, organizational function, education, background and more.

Employee Motivation - Access Their Unique Talents
Your people are invaluable to you. They are the lifeblood of your business or organisation.

Policy & Procedure Manuals - Tools For Greater Productivity and Efficiency
In today's tough retail environment the retailer needs all the tools he can get to help improve efficiency, productivity, and the bottom line. Two of these tools are the company's Policy Manual and Procedure Manual.

Drafting an Employee Manual Sample Outline
One of the hardest things I had discovered running my company was drafting an Employee Manual. Also added to the stress was the fact that if you made a mistake someone could sue you and you might lose all your hard work and money that you had earned thru blood, sweat and tears as an entrepreneur.

Help for the Meeting-Weary Manager
Most of us have found ourselves working on a team at one time or another. That means we have been asked to attend, and even participate, in lots of meetings.

Integrity... Should It Matter?
In our fast paced work culture, manned by technology savvy generation in a globally competitive environment, quality and productivity became the battle cry of corporations to stay in business. Though this is not necessarily bad, an equally important ingredient to succeed is seemingly taking the back seat.

Talent Recruitment Challenges of High Technology Companies
As a result of the dot com meltdown and the decline of the NASDAQ in 2001, many organizations had no alternatives but to lay off many talented IT professionals. Currently, the pool of available talent in the labour market is large.

Leadership Skills Means Turnover is Not a Problem
"Ha!" you say. "For someone to make a statement like that, they obviously haven't worked in the real world and certainly have never had to run a company.

Are Your Marketing Pieces Up to Date?
The other day someone asked me for one of my informational brochures. As I was giving her the piece I stated that if I were printing these today it would be a little different.

How to Make a Difference Every Day
Every day, everyone can make the world a better place. It's simple; it's quick and it is free.

Top Ten Tips About People Management
To get the best results you have to be very good at Managing People..

Innovation Management: The Hype Cycle
Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation whilst innovation can be defined as idea selection, development and commercialisation.There are distinct processes that enhance problem identification and idea generation and, similarly, distinct processes that enhance idea selection, development and commercialisation.

Lone Rangers Suffer without Tonto
A lone ranger is someone who prefers working in solitude or isolation. Sometimes life circumstances can call for us to adopt this attitude.

Preparing For ISO 9001 2000 Registration
The steps need to be taken to prepare an organization for ISO 9001 2000 registration:Whilst the following text is not exhaustive in its content it should give you a reasonable idea of what's involved in setting up an ISO 9001 2000 registration within an organization.First and most importantly you should either purchase a copy of the ISO 9001 2000 standard or read a copy at your local library.

The Seven Cs: Partnership Danger Signs - The 4th C: Cumulative Money Problems
A series of articles exploring the seven critical areas that can indicate a partnership is in trouble.The 4th C: CUMULATIVE MONEY PROBLEMSConflicts over money are very high on the list of reasons that 70% of business partnerships fail.

The Higher You Go
The higher you go, the cooler it becomes. Really? Let us begin from first principles.

Todays Employees and Their New Needs: What You Need to Know
Today's employees are not only interested in security or in pay and fringe benefits. They are often placing increased value on being recognized and involved in reaching personal growth goals.

The Do's and Don'ts of Giving Feedback
Being able to give effective feedback is not just a good skill to possess in business, it is a great life skill to have. Because when you are masterful at giving feedback, not only can you help your employees to sustain continuously improving performance, you can also improve the performance of the baseball team you coach, the cleaning lady at home, or the performance of your own children on completing their chores.