Employee Communication

Employees have long been recognized as the No. 1 stakeholder for organizations. With the social, economic, and technological transformations sweeping the globe, companies and their leaders are challenged to harness disruption and innovation in a rapidly changing environment. How to attract, retain, motivate, and engage talent to lead these disruptions have become pressing issues for global business leaders. The workplace dynamics and culture of today have shifted as millennials and Gen Z enter the workplace. The line between internal and external is blurred by technological advancements. Internal stakeholders’ voices can be easily amplified and travel across borders in real time. Communication starts from within. How to leverage employee ambassadorship and brand advocacy, capitalize on the power of emerging technologies, and mitigate potential issues have become a new challenge for employee communication professionals.

As the evolving environment, new trends, issues, and audiences reshape the communication landscape in the workplace, communication models and practices need to evolve to keep up with the growing pace of change. New opportunities and challenges at the macro-and micro-levels require employee communication leaders to update their knowledge base and be equipped with data-backed strategies, insights, and toolkits to create impact, deliver business results, and drive organizational success.

This Master Class is designed to energize your employee communications and enhance your management communication skills by integrating theories, recent research insights, and practices, as well as current issues and cases into a comprehensive guide for best practices in employee commu­nications.

The following topics will be addressed in this course:

• Why does employee communication matter? What is the role of employee communication?
• How can internal publics and audiences be segmented and analysed?
• How to optimize various communication channels to best reach employees, keep employees informed, motivated, and engaged?
• How can emerging technologies (e.g., social media, AI) be integrated into employee communication efforts? How to take full advantage of internal social media to engage employees and mitigate potential issues and risks?
• How should corporate leaders communicate to align employees with strategies, build internal brand, and enhance employee trust?
• Why is culture not just an HR thing? How to leverage the power of communication to build a healthy and effective workplace culture? How to establish a positive emotional culture (e.g., a culture of joy, companionate love, pride, and gratitude)?
• What are the best practices of employee engagement?
• How to develop a roadmap for strategic change communication?
• How to create an employee communication campaign and evaluate its effectiveness?
• What determines success in employee communication? How to showcase the value of internal communications to business leaders?

Learning Objectives

• You will be introduced to strategies and principles of effective employee communication informed by theories and recent research insights.
• You will compare different channels and tactics in reaching and engaging employees.
• You will learn about how to counsel organizational leaders such as the C-Suite and supervisors to communicate effectively.
• You will examine the contribution of communication in strategic alignment, employee engagement, and culture building.
• You will develop a standard of excellence in employee communications by analysing award-winning cases.
• You will be able to create an employee communication campaign applying strategic and creative thinking, a comprehensive toolkit, and measure its effectiveness.