FAQs
General
We’re experts in Internal Communications and Employee engagement
We partner with some of the world’s largest and best-known brands. Supporting them on programmes spanning strategy, culture, transformation, wellbeing – all the things that get people fired up, teed up and all pulling together to achieve great things.
And with proven success. We’ve been awarded the UK’s Best IC Agency for 10 consecutive years by our peers.
Hessle, Hull, East Yorkshire. But we’re hybrid-working ambassadors, with colleagues all over the UK and our new European office in Budapest.
2011. Over a cup of green tea in the Land of Green Ginger. True story.
You sure can! We’re jolly proud of our work and the brilliant things we’ve achieved with our partners, so we’ve showcased a few of our projects here.
Always. A great place to start is our insights and resources – blog posts, stories and some cracking infographics and guides.
Animators, influencers, designers, innovators, strategists, psychologists, master coaches, L&D gurus, a peacock called Colin… and a toad. Come and meet the team.
Please contact our People Manager via this email address: talktous@handhcomms.co.uk
Intrigued? Inspired? Interested in kicking around a few ideas? Great. Let’s talk. Please complete our contact form and one of our team will be in touch.
That’s not exactly a question, but sure. Check out our About Us page and enjoy our mini movie masterpiece!
Internal Comms
Ever felt left in the dark, removed from a conversation or neglected on the sidelines while everyone around you makes decisions? This is how employees feel when internal communications break down. Effective internal communications invite people to get involved in a conversation. They make people feel valued, which motivates them to give their all. And they keep everyone informed, energised and in the loop, so that employees have the knowledge and fuel that keeps them heading in the right direction, together.
A great starter for creating an internal communications strategy is with 5 elements.
- Who is your audience?
- What messages do you need to communicate?
- What channels do you have available to you?
- Who is communicating the messaging?
- What’s your timeframe – and when is the best time to land the messages?
If you put up posters, send out emails or hold team meetings, that’s three channels you can use. There are also plenty of digital platforms such as Yammer and Slack – lots to choose from. The question needs to focus on your audience. What do they have access to? What are they familiar with? Do they use technology a lot? Who will they expect to hear from and how often? If you introduce a new channel, how can you make sure people are up to speed with it and ready to engage? Put yourself in your audience’s boots – you may find different channels will suit different groups of people in your organisation.
In short, all employees are key stakeholders. But depending on the message you’re delivering, some will be a priority over others. But it doesn’t have to be too complicated! To get started, separate your employees into groups – for example, you might have the executive team, top management or leadership, middle managers and the general employee population.
An internal communications audit is a review of how well your organisation and its leaders distribute and collect information to and from your workforce. And how well the current set-up aligns with your overall strategy. What’s working well? What’s not hitting the spot? How can you tell whether people are engaging with your messages? And what can you change to make things work better?
Employee Engagement
Engaged employees are happier, more motivated, more satisfied and more likely to reach their potential. Disengaged employees, on the other hand, are already looking for their next job.
By enhancing the employee engagement, you’ll be rewarded with colleagues who are committed to achieving your ambitions, hungry to deliver their best and keen to make sure their talent brings benefits to your business rather than to your competitors. They’ll also shout about how great you are to others, promoting your business to potential new talent and customers.
In the simplest of terms – an EVP outlines what you can offer employees as their employer. In exchange for their talent and hard work, you’re telling them what they would receive in terms of benefits, development, culture, rewards, values, purpose and a boat load of other lovely stuff. Basically, it’s why they should want to work for you and nobody else.
As a starter for 10, when thinking about your current employee engagement, consider how well you do on the following.
- Do you have authentic and open communication?
- Do most employees feel a sense of belonging?
- Do they ‘get’ the organisation’s purpose and understand how their work matters?
- Do they have psychological safety?
- And are they rewarded, recognised and have a sense of achievement from what they do?
Transformational Change
In an organisation, transformational change comes from large operations that will affect the business and in turn, a lot of employees. This could be due to relocation, a new business strategy, acquisition, exponential growth, restructure or, potentially, redundancies. Anything on a large scale that means you’re about to do things differently.
Some changes can disrupt an employee’s working day as they know. And these are the ones you need to address carefully. Do it well, and employees feel in the know, they understand what’s happening and how changes will affect them. This leads to a better buy-in, a smoother journey and usually a successful change.
Think about those core elements of internal comms.
- WHO is going to communicate the change?
- HOW are you going to communicate it –through which channels?
- WHEN and for HOW long are you communicating the change?
- WHY is it important the change happens?
- WHAT can employees expect to see, feel and experience as the change is happening – and afterwards?
Communication makes the change process easier. An effective communication plan can help control any fear or assumptions about the change. It’s the golden opportunity to explain the change, how it will affect people and why it’s happening. Depending on the change, it can create excitement instead of worry, understanding instead of confusion. It smoothes the path to cooperation. It gets everyone on the same page and promotes a trustworthy and authentic organisation.
Business Strategy
Businesses are only as good at the employees driving them. And you don’t want them driving without knowing where they’re going. When we communicate business strategies effectively, we improve the overall productivity of employees. This is because we’re instilling a sense of trust in our employees. They are in the know and have the information they need to feel informed and confident in the business’s plans. And to bring up that driving analogy again, it’s like a handy roadmap that shows their destination and how they’ll reach it.
When we share the vision of our business with employees, we inspire, clarify, and focus them in their work. It helps generate commitment, advocacy and belief in the journey ahead.
Keep it simple. Start with why. And make sure everyone in your organisation forms a powerful and personal link to your strategic direction.
This tried and tested approach has proven highly effective with our clients worldwide, delivering meaningful results and measurable impact.
Each of our clients has different goals and ambitions, unique purposes and diverse needs. We tailor all our programmes to answer these specific needs. Every programme therefore looks very different from any other. Yet in each one, we’ve started with why, kept things simple and inspired every colleague to play their part in making it happen.
Wellbeing
Put simply, wellbeing is being happy and healthy in body and mind. Some people assume it’s all about meditation and yoga. Sure, these can certainly promote and enhance employee wellbeing. But at H&H we see wellbeing as intrinsically linked with everything that promotes health and happiness in the workplace.
This is about creating an environment in which people have the confidence to be comfortable in their own skin. A culture that enables every colleague to bring their whole selves to work. Structures that keep them safe. And a workplace that allows employees to admit when they’re not OK as much as celebrating when they are.
So, we embrace each inclusion and diversity programme, health and safety campaign and mental health awareness project we’ve worked on as being an essential part of our clients’ wellbeing communications.
Effectively communicating your wellbeing initiatives will clearly have a positive impact on the health and happiness of your colleagues. But did you know keeping your colleagues in the loop about every part of your business will also boost employee wellbeing?
We’ve always known great internal communications can enhance wellbeing. But even we were surprised at how dramatic this impact can be. Check out our research to discover how organisations that value great communications are leading the pack, with lower levels of absence and sickness, higher happiness and engagement levels, and higher productivity.
Supporting others to be themselves, and to be happy and healthy, is on its own a brilliant gift to give others. The fact you’ve chosen to read the answer to this question suggests that, like us, you agree that promoting employee wellbeing is simply the right thing to do.
But happy and healthy employees also make for happy and healthy organisations – think increased productivity, dramatically reduced absence, and a robust bottom line.
Culture
Culture is a combination of values, beliefs, rituals and people.
Some of these – such as your values and the behaviours they promote – will be written down and codified. These set the standards and define the ‘rules’ and expectations within your organisation. People, on the other hand, come with their own unique personalities, ideas, perceptions and behaviours.
As with people, cultures shift and change. And culture will happen, whether you nurture it or not.
Your people will have a dramatic impact on your culture simply by being themselves. Supporting them to do this while inspiring them to nurture the culture that fits with your future goals is therefore a win-win.
You know where your organisation wants to be. Your culture is the vehicle that will either get it there – or hold it back.
Our qualified research doctor will use her decades of experience to get to the nub of where your culture is right now, and where it needs to be to realise your ambitions. A combination of in-depth interviews, immersive storytelling and innovative activities will provide qualitative and quantitative results that paint a rich picture of what your culture looks and feels like today. With this as our starting point, we’ll then create all the tools and resources that support you to nurture a culture that’s authentic and aspirational, inspiring and exciting – and which drives your organisation to success.
Values are only one part of your culture, but boy are they a critical part. They define the behaviours that will power your collective goals. They guide people to make decisions that will support your future success. And they shine a light on what great looks like so every employee can feel proud to take ownership.
Maybe you’ve already defined your core values. Or perhaps you need support to understand what your values are. Whatever stage you’re at, we will combine our strategic thinking with showstopping creative to create for you a programme that’ll make sure everyone in your organisation understands your values, feels a sense of pride and is inspired to bring them to life, every day.
Of course, you could always just put your values in fancy frames and stick them in your reception. But wouldn’t it be great if instead you had everything you needed to make sure your values are lived, breathed and put into action in every corner of your business?
New structure. New strategy. A new future for 10,000 people. It was time to talk
Jardine International Motors
