A Communication Plan That Wins Employee Buy-In | 2-Minute Video

Whether it’s a big or little change ahead that will impact employees, the first thing you need to do is this: Make a communication plan.

A good one will almost ensure employee buy-in for the change. Even better, you might gain champion changemakers.

What’s Up in This Episode: A Communication Plan that Works

In this episode of HRMorning’s 3-Point, we have a practical approach to rolling out changes. Joel Kirk, Associate Director of Talent Engagement at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, shows us how his team communicated before and throughout a new initiative that impacted all employees. The change was positive, but change is not always comfortable. So good communication made it a great experience.

Click, watch and listen for more details on communicating to gain employee buy-in.

Transcript (edited for clarity):

When you have a new initiative or program, you probably need employees to buy into it. And since you’ve spent money and time, you definitely don’t want to take chances on how well they’ll adopt it. So before you launch something, you’ll want to hear about how this team communicated a big change to the way they were going to recruit and hire from within.

Joel Kirk, Associate Director of Talent Engagement, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts: “One of the things we’re realizing about communicating is that you have to meet people where they’re at. Some people want to watch a video. Some people want to listen to a podcast. Some people want to read the email. So we’re approaching it in a couple of different ways so people will really get the information.”

So that’s the critical first step. Know that you need to communicate changes in a variety of ways. For Kirk and his HR team, the initial word on their new internal job site was an email blast. It explained the platform, its capabilities, and how they could set up their profiles. From there …

Kirk: “We shot some videos. It was kind of at first, the team was like, ‘Really, are we doing this?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, we’re doing this. Let’s give it a personal touch. Let’s let our associates know how excited we are about it to help spread that excitement.'” 

You see, it wasn’t just about sharing information now. It was about emotion, too. This final round of communication makes room for both.

Kirk: “Then we’re going to be some road shows, going into our service centers. They’re, obviously, a big part of our employee base. They do these monthly Power Hours with their associates when they talk about career development, and we’re going to go into that and present and let them know about it, and kind of give them the best tips and tricks. And we’ll do roadshows throughout the company, as well.”

Talk about making an impression. We’ll get more into Kirk and his team’s new internal hiring strategy in another episode. For now, if you want to get buy-in on any change or initiative, communicate like this:

• Mix it up. Remember what Kirk said: Meet people where they are. Use different comm channels – email, video, conversations, whatever it takes.
• Get people excited. When you communicate, show people what has you or your team excited about what’s coming.
• Get out there. In this case, literally meet people where they are. Show them what’s new and the tips and tricks they can try to handle it.

This is a great success you can learn from, right? Fortunately, we have more on the HRMorning website. Check out our Case Studies, where you’ll find other real-world practical tips. Thanks for joining me again.