Keeping the momentum: How internal comms pros can maintain engagement in slower times

Heat waves aside, it’s probably easy to tell that many of your colleagues are in full summer mode with increasing PTO alerts on their calendars and intranet posts about their travels. But just because there’s a cultural “slowdown” during the summer or around the end-of-year holidays doesn’t mean internal comms can take its foot off the gas pedal. Communicators simply need to ensure they’re aligning that engagement with the company’s cultural norms and in a manner that respects people’s time off.

Anne DeAngelis, executive vice president of employee engagement at Zeno Group, told Ragan that communicators should view these periods as opportunities rather than challenges.

“This is the time when you actually may have more bandwidth to have meaningful conversations with your team,” DeAngelis said. “Sometimes these conversations get pushed to the bottom of the to-do list when business pressures are high.”

As the calendar and audience changes, messaging should too

When periods of slowdown happen, communicators need to ensure that they’re adjusting their tactics to hit the audiences that are sticking around and working.

Christina Frantom, internal communications lead at Mercedes-Benz U.S. International, told Ragan that a keen eye toward international calendars and cultural differences helps shape communication during holiday and break periods.

“We’re an international company and so we have German holidays that are very different than American holidays,” Frantom said. “So, somebody’s always on holiday somewhere.” That’s especially true with EU paid leave periods generally being higher than those in the US, and most employees taking up to 30 days off a year.

Frantom shared an example from her own experience communicating to an American audience that emphasizes the values of spending time away with family and resting to return to the workplace recharged.

“Here in the United States, we like to say, ‘Have a safe and happy time with your families,’” Frantom said. “Take the rest. We’re looking forward to having you back.’”

She added that her team also creates specific messaging for essential personnel at her company’s facilities during days off or holiday breaks.

“When the maintenance teams come in to work, we like to say, ‘Hey, welcome, thank you for working over this holiday break,’” Frantom said. “We appreciate you. You keep the doors open and the robots working for us.”

Frantom said that a multichannel approach to reach every type of employee team helps ensure that MBUSI can reach everyone during the summer and holidays. Some of those channels include:

• The company’s employee app
• Digital signage at the company’s plant
• Email newsletters
• Intranet and desktop portals

She added that MBUSI also uses billboards along their employees’ commute routes to drive home that the company is grateful for their contributions, no matter the time of year.

“We like to have our appreciation campaigns live so when they’re driving into work, they can visualize how much we appreciate them,” Frantom said.

Opportunities to unify culture and leadership buy-in

The summer and the holidays are a great opportunity to refocus your internal comms efforts on people as opposed to process. DeAngelis suggested that internal communicators take a

“If there’s not a lot of business news to share, why not do something more people-centered?” DeAngelis said. “Profiles, shout-outs or even user-generated content like covering summer activities or vacations can work.”

She added that these types of messages can help unify the culture by showing that no matter their work location or role, everyone shares a bit in common.

“You’re not a robot that comes to work,” she said. “You’re a person. You’ve got a child. You have a life. We want to hear how you enjoy your time if you feel comfortable sharing.”

For these types of initiatives to be successful, they require leadership support. DeAngelis told Ragan that theming people-centric campaigns around a stated value set can help drive that message home for leaders and by extension, the whole company.

“If you can bring it back to your own organization’s values — for instance, respect, inclusion and collaboration — then it becomes more meaningful,” she said. This is a way we demonstrate those values in action.”

She added that supporting claims of increased engagement with better productivity can help leadership get on board. Additionally, she said comms pros can help leaders understand that there are waves in intensity in any business, and messaging can reflect that reality.

“You can go back to stats that show employees who feel like they are seen and understood and part of the organization are more likely to be productive and have higher retention,” DeAngelis said. “Tell them you can take advantage of the fact that this is a slower time because we know what lies ahead.”

Sean Devlin is an editor at Ragan Communications. In his spare time he enjoys Philly sports and hosting trivia.