Communicating to your working parents
When it comes to any reward or benefits scheme, communication is a key driver and enabler of employee engagement and when you are providing support for working parents, it is no different.
From childcare vouchers to flexible working, it is important that you communicate what's available in a clear and identifiable way that employees can understand and relate to. Not doing this properly can often lead to confusion, apathy towards your organisation and ultimately, reduced levels of motivation amongst your working parents.
So how do you go about communicating successfully?
If you are looking to increase engagement amongst your working parents by introducing a family friendly benefit, it's a good idea to open up discussions with them first.
Two way communication is so important in the early stages to make them feel part of the process and once you've made a business decision on what benefit(s) to introduce, you can feel reassured that you are going some way to meet their needs.
Parent forums and research, which could be in the form of an online survey, will help you to gauge the level of interest in benefits such as childcare vouchers.
Fay Bliss, Communications Manager at Accor Services says: "We often work with organisations, even before they even launch a scheme, to evaluate the potential internal market and demand for childcare vouchers amongst employees - who has, is thinking about or would consider using registered and approved childcare.
"And the data we capture not only aids the employer's decision making process but also allows us to take a more targeted approach once the scheme has been launched and to get back in touch with those employees. This research upfront helps clarify and subsequently inform any communication and engagement programme."
It's also important to involve managers because they will have the day to day contact with employees and will be able to listen and communicate directly with them to identify aspects that affect them as working parents. Getting managers on board at this stage will also help the communication process when you come to cascading information down about the benefits on offer.
"Management briefings should be an integral part of any communications programme and we work with clients to produce them before we launch the wider employee communications. Typically, we find this pays real dividends with regards to engagement and take up levels," continues Bliss.
Ownership
Once you have decided to introduce a benefit, you just then need to establish who will take care of communicating it. If it's you, you'll be keen to make sure everybody is aware of it but don't be afraid to involve other departments. If you have a marketing or communications team then get them involved as they will probably know what works best in your organisation and what channels employees are most receptive to.
They can also advise on whether or not a customised approach is required to match your organisation's corporate style, brand and tone.
If you haven't got a marketing team and you use an external provider for benefits such as childcare vouchers, speak to them about their experience of communicating within similar organisations. They can talk to you about best practice, which you can then adopt, or adapt, to suit the need of your business and compliment your existing internal communications strategy, if you have one. If you don't, a good childcare voucher supplier will be able to work with you to plan, create and implement a communications programme to ensure your scheme is a success.
Segmenting
Although your target audience will be working parents', it is likely that you won't necessarily know who they are in your organisation. However, you can still communicate intelligently by thinking about the variations within that group - male/female; online/offline - different messages and channels can be used to suit the audience you are trying to reach.
If you are using an external provider for a benefit such as childcare vouchers, and you decide to switch providers, then bear in mind the two audiences you will need to communicate to - those employees currently taking childcare vouchers and those that could potentially do so.
It is essential that the switchover is communicated initially to employees currently taking childcare vouchers so that they understand what it means to them. The introduction of a new scheme is also an ideal re-engagement opportunity to raise awareness and increase take-up. A good provider will recognise this and help you to reassure existing users as well as help you attract new ones.
Techniques/types
Think about utilising existing internal channels such as newsletters or intranet sites to convey your message. If you are involving a marketing or communications team then they will be able to let you know what channels are available to you if you're not sure, as well as timings and frequency.
Managers are also a great way to cascade information down to employees in team briefings, 1 to 1 sessions or induction meetings. If your organisation holds monthly or quarterly management meetings, then use this time to inform them about employee benefits and the support available for working parents - after all, it might be applicable to them as well!
The strongest form of communication is word of mouth and again, parent forums or discussion groups within the workplace are a great way to raise awareness about the benefits on offer. For example, childcare champions are becoming more and more popular within organisations as they are proactive in letting parents know what is available to them in terms of employer supported childcare. Also, use employee testimonials in your communications to demonstrate how the benefits work in practice.
Think about which online and offline communications will be suitable and how they will be distributed; this is where the involvement of other departments will be invaluable as you may require them to be part of the distribution channel.
If you are working with an external provider then they should have standard marketing material such as emails, desk drops, posters and payslip inserts which can also be customised to demonstrate your organisation's ownership' of the benefit on offer.
Face to face communication
If face to face communication is appropriate for your organisation then a presentation followed by a question and answers session is the most effective way to do this as it is more targeted and can capture a wider audience in one go - usually employees will have similar kinds of questions or concerns.
Drop in sessions' are often less effective as employees may be put off if there isn't a free person to speak to - they may eventually lose interest and decide not to find out what's on offer, ultimately making them feel disengaged.
If benefits days work well for your organisation or you run a day in partnership with your local Children's' Information Service (CIS), then having half hour presentations throughout the day are an effective way to inform the relevant employees.
Before you decide on any face to face communication it is essential that you gauge the level of interest and give employees the chance to register their interest in attending. If you are raising awareness about childcare vouchers for example, then your provider can work with you to create a communications plan leading up to the event which should also include a quick survey.
Fay Bliss explains how this works: "We build and host online surveys for our clients, not only to evaluate the level of interest in the benefit itself, but also to give employees the opportunity to register their attendance at an event or to request further information if they can't attend in person."
"We provide a unique link which can be distributed internally via email and/or included as a link on the client's intranet site. We recommend that the employees receive the email or notification about the survey from the client, because from experience, employees are more likely to respond to an internal message."
If you have employees at different sites across the country or who are field based, then online presentations might be more appropriate. You may have the facility to host this yourself, or if you are working with an external provider, then they might be able to facilitate this for you.
Cognizant sees value in electronic communication
Ella Blunden, Compensation & Benefits Analyst – Europe, Cognizant Technology Solutions, explains: ‘Because we have employees geographically dispersed across the UK and working different hours it wasn’t practical to get our interested employees in one place for a briefing session on childcare vouchers. We decided to use existing channels of communication that have proven successful in the past - our online conference call and live meeting services, email and our intranet. The scheme was promoted via an email announcement combined with leaflets from Accor Services, the email reached all employees with supporting policy materials, Q&As tailored to our Company and summary power points which were also used in the on line conference calls/live meeting sessions. Employees were able to call in at an arranged time and follow the presentation on their individual screens. A childcare voucher expert from Accor Services was also on hand to answer any questions. Since launching the scheme we have had some excellent feedback from our employees regarding the savings they have started to make.’
In addition, telephone consultations also work well to engage those employees who are harder to reach, as well as shift workers who have different working patterns than 9 to 5.
Call to action
One of the main components of any communication is the final sign off or 'call to action' - this could be instructions on where to get more information or how to join the childcare voucher scheme - and will depend on the overall message the communication is trying to get across. Make sure you don't just leave the employee wondering what they do next!
Re-engagement opportunities
One important thing to remember is that communicating to engage your working parents is an ongoing process. Consider national events or days as ideal re-engagement opportunities as parents will be able to identify with them and are probably more receptive to communications. For example, host a work life balance day during National Childcare Week to coincide with national activities in support of working parents.
New starters and employees whose circumstances have changed will also need to be kept informed about the support available for working parents and as a result, they need to be continually promoted as part of your overall employee benefits package.
Measuring the impact
Evaluating the engagement merits of your family friendly initiatives is an integral part of the communication process. For example, assessing satisfaction levels amongst your employees currently taking childcare vouchers, evaluating the reasons why employees leave the scheme, and understanding how the employees' perceptions of you as their employer change as a result of offering childcare vouchers, is invaluable information to assist your evolving communications and engagement strategy.
"We have found in the past that employees who are not engaged with their employer overall, do not engage with external providers in particular, even if they can benefit from what's on offer. The same is true for working parents; to engage them properly, it's essential that they understand and appreciate the support you are offering - communication and engagement go hand in hand", says Fay Bliss.
