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How to write so your employee audience will read
One simple tip can radically improve intranet content and employee messaging and instantly increase the number of employees who read right to the end. Stop writing book reports. Yes, you heard me. So much of the content that is specifically created for employees follows the same pattern we used when writing book reports for school a thousand years ago- this happened, and then this happened and then the next thing happened. Boring! I’ve seen an awful lot of employee content that sets out in excruciating detail the job titles of all involved or the history of an initiative , waiting until the third or fourth (or fifth !) paragraph to ... Read more »
Why Good Design Matters for Employee Communications
It’s not a secret that design has become a strategic weapon for external communications. Whether it’s an easy-to-use website or an engaging ad campaign, companies of all sizes understand that design can differentiate and create loyal customers. When it comes to employee communications, fewer examples of stand-out design tend to surface. This may be because this type of communication is meant to stay inside the four walls of a company. But what if you designed communications for your employees that were as compelling as your external marketing? What if your internal communications efforts were so beautifully designed that they were worth sharing externally? A few companies have been doing exactly this, and ... Read more »
What if your business got a reality TV makeover?
I’ve become hooked on a reality TV show. I’m not proud of it, but there you are. It’s not the Bachelor or annoying numbskulls surviving on an island; the show I like is called “Hotel Impossible” and features the impossibly competent Anthony Melchiorri. For the uninitiated amongst you, firstly, you don’t know what you’re missing, and second, the premise of the show is that Anthony walks into a failing hotel business, takes a good look around and sets about fixing problems that are holding the business back. More often than not the problem that has driven the business to a place where they need to call in a reality TV ... Read more »
What yoga can teach us about internal communications
A friend of mine recently completed an intensive, month-long training to be a yoga instructor. When she wasn’t practicing headstands, she chatted with me about how she was learning to structure a class. If you’ve been to a yoga class before, you know that the teacher often begins by asking everyone to set an intention to keep in back of your mind as you go through each pose. Even for a beginner like me, thinking about a personal goal – big or small – helps me stay focused and avoid falling onto the person next to me. Can this idea of keeping one overarching goal in the back of your ... Read more »
Marissa Mayer- it’s her right to be wrong
We’re excited to have a guest blogger featured on the Brilliant Blog this week. Neil Cohen shares his insights on Yahoo’s new no work from home policy. Late last week, Yahoo’s head of Human Resources sent an email to all employees outlining a new policy in which any employee with a work-from-home arrangement will now be required to work in a Yahoo office. (see full employee email here thanks to Kara Swisher of All Things Digital). Many, such as Lisa Belkin of The Huffington Post, have quickly pointed out that this new policy is a major step backward and that she expected more from Mayer, the youngest woman ever to ... Read more »
The art and science of interviewing
My husband is in the midst of a job search. After launching a successful mobile/social start-up, and then spending some time with the company that acquired it, he’s ready for a change. As someone with a true entrepreneurial spirit, he’s honing in on small but promising start-ups in New York City, and one thing has really struck me about his job search. These start-ups seem to understand something that a lot of bigger, more established companies don’t – that the interview experience really matters. The half dozen or so companies my husband has interviewed with have consistently offered an honest, transparent view of the company. They’ve invited him to meet ... Read more »
Finding meaning in the moments
If you had to describe your life to someone who doesn’t know you, what would you say? How would you explain it? Would you start chronologically, or hone in on pivotal moments? Would you describe accomplishments or relationships? However you choose to define it, specific snapshots of moments are probably flashing through your mind. That’s because our experience of anything is made up of moments, small and large, positive and negative. And it’s these moments that ultimately define our lives and the way we spend our time. Our experience with work is pretty much the same. If I asked you to recall every day you’ve spent in your current job, ... Read more »
Bringing the personal and the purposeful into our work
I just finished Dan Pink’s latest book, To Sell is Human. It’s a fascinating read that explores how and why, so many of us are now in sales. Sales. Yuk. But before you think I’ve just condemned myself (and possibly you) to the sleazy ranks of the stereotypical smarmy salesman, consider this: “[We] are engaged in what I call “non-sales selling.” We’re persuading, convincing and influencing others to give up something they’ve got in exchange for what we’ve got.” Communications falls pretty neatly into this definition, meaning we communicators are squarely in what Dan Pink calls the “moving people business.” I think that’s a great definition and, when I’d finished ... Read more »
Did you mean to send that email?
Late last year, when students were studying hard for finals and getting ready to head home for the holidays, Replyallcalypse descended upon NYU. You may have heard about this one very unpopular – or popular, depending on how you look at it – NYU student who accidentally hit “reply all” to a university email. Instead of sending the email to his mother, which was his original intent, his email went to all 40,000 NYU students. Yikes! Having made that humiliating mistake before (although on a much smaller scale), my heart goes out to the poor student. From the responses that I’ve seen, reporters, bloggers and even late-night talk show hosts ... Read more »
‘Tis the season…
Last week, I had the good fortune to be onsite with a client on the day the company handed out its holiday gifts to employees. As I sat in the reception area, I watched countless employees excitedly walking to pick up their gift, and wearing huge grins after they’d retrieved it. It got me thinking – this relatively small gesture can make a big difference in overall employee satisfaction and engagement. I will never forget, early in my career when my boss got everyone on our team Palm Pilots – cutting-edge technology at the time! In the grand scheme of things, it was a relatively small expense for the company, ... Read more »
