Too many culture change initiatives fail because they lack the long-term supporting measures that would help to make them stick.
Building a culture strategy is the tip of the iceberg. Role modelling and embedding the culture is what creates stickability.
We’ve already explored how we can reduce the stigma of mental health, create a positive culture and have quality conversations and develop relationships.
Now we need to incorporate these behaviours into a communications strategy that supports long-term and lasting culture change.
Culture change takes time and persistence, and requires a plan and schedule of activities to stay on track.
With an integrated approach that reinforces the knowledge that behaviours actually create culture we can keep the focus on what’s important, while reducing the stigma associated with conversations about positive culture.
Adopting a communications strategy, that helps us normalise language around workplace mental health and wellness, and involves increasing the frequency and forum for discussions is a key step.
An effective communications strategy will:
Enable us to achieve our organisational objectives
Help us engage effectively with stakeholders
Provide opportunities to demonstrate the success of our work
Ensure our people understand what they need to do
Change behaviours and perceptions where necessary.
Let’s explore this further…
Achieving our organisational objectives
Our communications strategy should help deliver our organisation's overall vision and objectives. When it does, it will be recognised as something fundamental to achieving them, not simply an add-on of little or no value.
We should ensure our communications strategy includes communications objectives that are directly linked to the organisation’s vision, core aims and objectives.
Engaging effectively with stakeholders
To help us prioritise our communications work, it is important to consider the needs of different audiences, from employees, to team leaders, managers and upwards. Our employees do not need the same information as upper management in order to adopt a change in the workplace.
To be successful, we should look at what we communicate, to whom we communicate it, and when.
It’s equally important to learn from our current situation - to look at our organisation’s communications strengths, to discover what has been successful and what hasn’t worked as well in the past. We can use tools such as a SWOT analysis to analyse our current situation.
Communication leading to success
A communication strategy determines how we get the initial message out and longer term plans to inform and engage.
From the initial engagement message, to providing updates and changes where necessary, prompting and reminding people of what is expected of them at appropriate intervals, and recognising achievement of milestones and goals, following all of these steps will help keep people on track to success.
Ensuring our people understand what they need to do
Our messages should be appropriate and relevant to our audiences, continuously reinforce major themes and be delivered by channels appropriate to each major grouping.
Then we can begin constructing our communications plan, linking audiences, messages and channels.
Developing a guide to reach our goals
With our audiences, relevant messages and appropriate methods identified, a table that details communications activities, any allocated budget, resources required and timeframes for delivery can be developed.
Allocated milestones for each activity helps to measure clear steps toward ultimate goals.
Lastly, we need to include a section on evaluation, so we know what success looks like and can identify when objectives have been met (1).
A communication strategy reminds leaders to demonstrate compelling influence by using language that normalises the discussions about workplace mental wellness and engaging people to carry the message forward.
People follow - and behaviours become embedded, when leaders model those behaviours through what they see, say and do.
This is visible leadership and one of the hallmarks of effective leaders. It’s not about walking around, being seen and saying “hi” to everyone – rather, it’s when leaders provide a clear vision through clear communication, and then follow that up with meaningful action.
An effective communications strategy provides leaders with the structure, tools and guidance they need to provide visible leadership to the organisation, thereby increasing buy-in and embedding culture change.
Covid19 has increased the importance of an effective communication strategy that emphasises timely, clear and consistent communication in the workplace.
Wellbeing Lab's Workplace survey 2020 investigation into the state of wellbeing in Australian workplaces found that (2):
“Workplaces should also be concerned that only 24% of workers feel certain about what actions they should be taking in response to Coronavirus.
While community updates are changing daily, 76% of workers are likely to benefit from clear and consistent communication on the actions their workplaces want them to be taking.”
There are some critical factors to ensure the success of your communications strategy:
Provide clear and consistent messaging - always link communications to the organisational vision, aims or objectives so people know why the message is being communicated to them, and tailor your communications for the audiences, giving only the information they need - to avoid overload / audience switching off.
Use appropriate forums and disciplines - use existing communication practices, such as daily or weekly team meetings, in the format that works best for the intended audience. Update existing meeting agendas, toolbox talks and memo templates to include mental health and wellness as a regular topic.
Help your leaders demonstrate visible leadership, allowing them to ‘walk the talk’ by providing them with plenty of notice when they are a communications owner / responsible for communicating a change on your communication plan. Where possible, give them examples, anecdotes, activities, etc. that they can apply as they execute your communication plan.
Call To Action
Develop a communications strategy, that helps normalise language around workplace mental health and wellness, and increases the frequency and forum for discussions.
Align your communications objectives with your operational or policy objectives. This activity can be as simple as listing your operational objectives with your communication objectives alongside (see table 1.0).
Map your communications methods to your audiences to align them and then use as a guide for the best channels for your communications (see table 1.1).
Complete your Communications Plan, which includes: audience, deliverable, timeline, description, delivery methods, and owner, and communicate this with managers and leaders included in the ‘owner’ column.
Be mindful about how you roll out your communications strategy; demonstrate the kind of conscious behaviours you want those communicating your messages to demonstrate to others.
Taking it Further
If you already have a communication strategy in place, you might consider:
Conducting an employee survey to evaluate its effectiveness
Re-evaluating your audiences to identify any groups you may be missing in your communications
Looking for ways to provide clearer and more frequent communications with target groups
Examining new channels of communication that may have opened up through updates or improvement to technology your organisation uses
Refreshing your ‘owner’ list in your Communications Plan to ensure your messages are being delivered by the appropriate person.
Human resources, technology and ideas about workplace communications evolve and change all the time - make sure you regularly evaluate and revise your communications strategy and plan to keep up.
Where to now?
Sources
NCVO Knowhow, https://knowhow.ncvo.org.uk/campaigns/communications/communications-strategy
Wellbeinglab's Workplace survey 2020 investigation into the state of wellbeing in Australian workplaces, https://www.ahri.com.au/media/4655/wellbeinglab_workplacesurvey2020.pdf