How to work with an employee reward internal communications specialist
Power up your employee reward messaging
Your HR or Reward team is rushed off its feet keeping up with a rapidly changing business while delivering on all your strategic goals. Without an internal communications team (or one that’s too busy to help) your reward communications keep falling to the bottom of your team’s to-do list. You know the value that effective communication brings to your organisation, not least around one of your business’ biggest expenses. But there never seems the time to get this important work over the line.
As an HR leader, you’ve hired consultants or freelancers for other departments. But what about your own team? What’s holding you back from doing the same?
If you’ve read my article, ‘Why reward communications are a powerful force for your business’, you’ll know why well-written employee communications are an essential part of your internal comms mix.
If you’re not sure about the steps involved in working with a freelance reward communications specialist and the value they’ll bring, read on.
Step 1 - Clarify your project’s scope and identify freelancers
This could be as simple as deciding you want someone to help write your gender pay gap report or much broader than this. For example, bringing in an employee reward internal communications specialist to establish an engaging employee benefits communication plan. Or finding someone who can advise you on the best way to communicate benefits to employees.
Whatever your project, create an outline, identify what’s in and out of scope and write a few bullet points to cover off the deliverables.
LinkedIn is a great place to look for specialist service providers. Just use the search function and click on ‘People’ to find freelance employee reward communications specialists. Or search using the relevant hashtag to find people in relevant groups who are talking about reward communications. Useful hashtags include:
#employeeengagement
#employeebenefits
#employeerecognition
#employeecompensation
#employeerewards
#employeeexperience
Step 2 - Screen freelance candidates
You don’t need me to tell you that hiring a freelancer or consultant is slightly different from your normal permanent or fixed-term employee hiring process. Most freelancers won’t have a CV. So start by reviewing your potential internal communications specialist’s social media profile(s) to create a shortlist. Then get in touch with each individual to see if they:
Have the expertise to carry out your specific project
Have availability to deliver to your deadline (if you have a firm date in mind)
Seem like the kind of person you can rely on and want to work with
Can provide examples of similar work (bear in mind that this might not be possible depending on the confidentiality of the work)
DO - Explain the scope of your project and answer any questions they have. Look for people who have a solid understanding of employee reward and communications to get the best fit.
DON’T - Expect an accurate quote there and then. Depending on the project, the internal communications specialist might be able to give you a ballpark figure. Or they might need to take some time to come up with a proposal and quote.
Step 3 - Ask for proposals
If your project is fairly involved - like delivering a bespoke communications skills training session for your HR team or designing an employee benefits communication strategy - it’s a good idea to ask for a formal proposal. This will help you understand how each individual will work and the deliverables you can expect. The document should also include a formal, detailed quote.
Step 4 - Decide who to hire
With all the information, you’re ready to decide who to hire. While cost is an important consideration so is personality, service and experience. After all, as any good reward person will tell you - you get what you pay for. If you really want to be sure you’ve got the right person, you can ask each candidate to provide testimonials or a referee you can call to find out more about what it will be like to work with them.
Step 5 - Put a contract in place
Hiring a freelance internal communications specialist is much quicker than traditional recruitment. Depending on the scale of your project and your freelancer’s availability, you could expect to start working with your consultant in around a week, sometimes sooner.
Before you get started, it’s really important to put a contract in place. Not only will this confirm the project scope, deliverables and fee but the deadline and items like data protection, confidentiality and copyright of the work. With everything set out in a legally binding contract, both sides are protected and misunderstandings are prevented.
Depending on the size of your organisation, you might be happy to accept the consultant’s terms and conditions. Or you might want them to sign yours. Whichever route you go down, make sure the contract is completed by both parties before any work begins.
Step 6 - Provide helpful information
A seasoned employee reward internal communications specialist will know exactly which questions to ask to get the information they need to do an amazing job on your project. They’ll likely ask for information or data on:
Your business, HR and reward strategy
Employee demographics or benefit takeup
Your HR, Reward and wider communications plans
Your company’s tone of voice and any internal communication guidelines
This information will help them create the right messaging for your business, deliver your communications in the right style and enable you to measure the results of the campaign. It could also be used to set key performance indicators so you can measure the success of their work. For example, if you set up an employee benefit communications strategy you might agree that measures like benefit takeup or intranet page visits are suitable measures of success.
Step 7 - Agree on practicalities
Providing a point of contact inside your organisation is a brilliant way to support your consultant during the project. This person will need to answer questions, introduce your freelancer to others in your organisation, provide additional data or information, review the freelancer’s work and provide feedback and approval.
It’s also helpful to agree upfront whether you prefer to work with Google Docs or Word and if there are any specific project management tools like Slack or Trello that you use to manage projects. Your consultant will probably have their preferred tools too but if you have a particular way of working they should fit in with you.
Step 8 - The work begins
Your employee reward internal communications specialist will now get started on your project. If it’s a brand new working relationship and they’re writing communications for your business, you might want to ask for a taste of the work they’ll produce. This often takes the form of ‘conceptual copy’ which gives you the chance to provide your feedback before they complete the project itself. Many communications specialists will include this in their service.
Step 9 - Revisions and approvals
You’ll get the chance to feedback on the work your consultant produces. Most consultants want to provide an excellent service to their customers so they’re typically open to making changes, taking your views on board and ensuring an excellent final product.
That said, you hired an expert for a reason. So don’t be surprised if they push back on major points. Good freelancers will pick their battles knowing to only assert their preference if it’s an important aspect of delivering the outcome they’ve promised.
Step 10 - Implement their work and bask in the glory
A communications reward specialist will often complete the work so your team can implement it. This could mean:
Developing a range of creative ways to communicate employee benefits and designing and writing the campaigns for your team to implement throughout the year
Delivering training on communication skills for HR professionals leaving your team with an annual plan and a sharpened ability to deliver it
Crafting the blogs, intranet content, posters, video and social media posts so your team can publish the content in line with your pay review or employee benefits enrolment window communications strategy
If your project has KPIs associated with it your consultant should come back at a later date to gather the data to measure the effectiveness of the campaign. Understanding what’s worked and taking on board any learnings will ensure future employee reward communication plans are even more successful.
With your new employee reward communications strategy in place and the content to deliver it, your HR or Reward team will effortlessly engage your employees with your total reward programmes. From improved employee wellbeing and enhanced performance to better employee engagement and an even bigger return on your employee reward investment, outsourcing your employee reward internal communications is the way to go.
Find out how I helped WYG with a session on reward communication skills for HR professionals that delivered an exceptional employee benefits communication strategy.
Find out how I can help you deliver powerful communications to your customers and staff. Get in touch on 07703 155 404 or at becky@clarioncallcomms.co.uk.