Are your internal communications accessible and engaging?
At least one in five people experience some form of long-term illness, disability of impairment – creating a very real barrier when it comes to engaging with internal communications.
Internal communicators, people leaders and HR professionals all have a duty of care to their workforce to make key messages and communications accessible. Niamh Merrigan, Internal Communications Manager at H&H takes a moment to share some reminders and useful tips on how to make communications more inclusive for all.
As communicators, it’s on us to make sure that no one is left out.
We take such care and pride in layering our key messages and deliverables with our diverse audiences in mind.
So why is it that so often we find ourselves falling into the trap of distilling content by seniority, location or language?
There’s a much more important layer we should be prioritising – all revolving around the fact that we have different requirements when it comes to receiving and processing information.
The notion of ‘getting it wrong’ shouldn’t be holding you back.
Move over FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) – FOMM is the new kid in town. Fear Of Making Mistakes is a very real and powerful force that often leads to us sticking our heads in the sand when it comes to making a piece of work accessible from the get-go.
But here’s the secret – no one is expecting you to get everything right the first time around. One single deliverable isn’t going to hit all of your audiences in one go. As IC professionals, we strive to steer clear of the firehose method with all our might – always avoiding the tactic of throwing all the facts at all the audiences at the same time. So why should it be any different with communications when you’re looking at them from an accessibility perspective?
Let’s stop pretending we know everything about everyone who will receive our communications, and just make a start. That’s the important bit. Because after the first step, comes the second. Then the third. And before you know, it we’re galloping towards what it means to be truly inclusive and accessible.
Moving away from a tick-box energy.
It’s not a case of creating a list of do’s and don’ts to stick to, although, that does help get you off the starting blocks. Instead of framing your thinking around a series of things to include or avoid, why not take things up a level and look at the impact of embedding accessible communications will have on your culture.
That way your commitments go way beyond a given deliverable or programme of activity – and rightly so. Complacency is a familiar enemy at this juncture – don’t forget that true inclusion isn’t a milestone – it’s a process.
Knowing your audience is key.
If you do have employees with explicit requirements, for example if they revolve around a certain disability, you need to make sure their needs are being accommodated.
Your HR team will be a powerful ally here – and should be able to give you a starter for ten on the makeup of your workforce (balancing GDPR compliance and confidentiality of course).
But you should be taking this a step further and reaching out to people on an individual level too, so you can get a deeper sense of how they like to receive information. Don’t make any assumptions or group people together where it’s not warranted – lean into the power of personalising your content where it’s required.
And do your homework – there are a multitude of fantastic charities and organisations that specialise in tailoring communications for different disabilities or conditions. Time to expand your network and get a sense of what best practice could look like. Why not think about setting up an inclusion group to take the conversation further?
Accessible internal communications start with simplicity
Keeping things clear and simple is a powerful way to engage and inspire all audiences.
Large chunks of text and never-ending sentences are harder to read. Why use 100 words, when you can summarise the message in 10? Spacing words out gives them room to breathe and holds on to people’s attention for longer.
Equally, unusual words might be great to pepper through a doctoral thesis, but when it comes to connecting with colleagues, isn’t plain language best? (There are lots of free online readability tools to help with you achieve this.)
Creating accessible communications doesn’t just help those who might otherwise struggle to see, hear, access or understand a message – it’s a great way to connect. Full stop.
Making content and showstopping visuals work for everyone.
For people who are D/deaf or hard of hearing, closed captions on a video can mean the difference between staying connected or being left in the dark. And using capital letters at the start of each word in a hashtag can also make a big difference to those using text-to-speech or screen reader software.
You might have the perfect visual to bring your message to life, but unless the image includes alternative text people who are visually impaired will miss out. Italicised, bold or complex fonts can be difficult to read – keeping your fonts as simple as your words will make it easier for everyone to engage.
And while metaphors might make your copy sparkle, how well will they translate into different languages and cultures? Or resonate with a neurodiverse audience?
Like with everything else, your internal communications and external communications go hand in hand.
If you’re focusing your efforts on staying accessible and inclusive for your internal audiences, why wouldn’t the same go for your external audiences? All the way from engaging with supporters, partners and new business leads – to your social media channels or website.
This is where the creation of an inclusion working group could truly come into its own – three heads are better than one. And five are better than three – especially if you recruit people with a range of lived experience.
True accessibility isn’t one person or team’s responsibility.
Working on the basis of including everyone, and excluding no one – it’s important to note that it’s a shared ownership.
What good is it if company-wide internal communications are accessibility focused, but local/team dynamics don’t carry that through?
Empower your workforce to get their head around the importance of accessible communications – from people managers, a C-suite, to your frontline workers. And equip them with the tools they’ll need to deliver best practice – whether that’s a tone of voice people can draw on, or a quick-fire list of basic do’s and don’ts.
The meaning of the communication is the response you get.
Diversity in the workplace is proven to significantly drive up creativity, productivity and innovation.
And by significant, we’re talking up to 62% higher. Accessible communications is about levelling the playing field. It’s about making sure everyone has the same opportunity to understand the meaning of the communication.
In neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) there is a proposition that claims ‘the meaning of the communication is the response you get’. So what can you do to ensure you get the response you intend across the full audience landscape?
We’ll sum up with three areas to kick off with:
The Three Ts
Training. Create some opportunities for your IC team and other content creators to broaden their awareness and deepen their understanding.
Stay on your Toes. Inclusion isn’t something you reach – so embrace it for the journey that it is. And be kind to yourself along the way!
Insights and Resources
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