Last updated on February 13, 2023 at 05:38 pm

Being able to distribute critical HR communications regarding compliance and training is an enormous task for companies. HR teams are constantly struggling to get employees to engage with compliance and operational comms. But compliance topics such as job training, certifications, and safety courses, are essential for companies to maintain a high-performing workforce.

During a two to three-year cycle, companies will provide training on an average of 12 topic areas for each employee. The top three topics most likely to be covered by training programs include code of conduct (93%), conflict of interest (76%), and cybersecurity (69%). And compliance tasks that need to be completed by your employees are time-sensitive and have broader organizational impacts. But it’s hard for companies to get these messages to all employees in a way that is measurable. And this challenge has a cost. In the past three years, 44% of companies have faced “legal or external regulatory actions where a policy came under review as part of the action or defense.”  

The ability to get messages through to all employees and focus why they need to complete each of these tasks is even more complicated. Especially to your frontline teams who lack access to intranets or corporate email. So, where is the tipping point? The answer to this question is in the partnership between HR and Internal Communications. The IC function has long been refining their comms approach, developing a calendar, and understanding the channel and timing of messages out to the workforce. Together, these two teams need to develop a multi-touch and channel strategy, that includes mobile, to communicate these critical messages. 

Three ways Human Resources Teams can tap into the Internal Communications team:

1. Internal Comms wants to partner with Human Resources for success. You likely already work closely with your internal comms team on messaging. But IC is always looking to align campaigns with business goals. Moreover, this team is ready to advise you on how to drive success and measure the success of your campaigns. 
2. Learn about how you can reach your frontline workers. Working with IC to find ways to access frontline workers can help close the compliance and training process gap. This may require breaking away from traditional channels that this audience doesn’t have access to. Internal comms can help promote and place messaging in mobile apps to reach targeted audiences. Additionally, IC has mastered reducing the amount of noise created from overlapping messages. Partnering early on will allow you to find the right time to share messages, to eliminate confusion, and help you reach your targets.
3. Take a metrics-focused approach. IC pros are continually measuring and sharing metrics out with organizational partners and senior leaders. With critical tasks like completion of training or certification of compliance, knowing the progress to your campaign’s goal and success is vital. Working with internal communications regarding data also helps you pinpoint what comms strategies are most effective. This will help you to hone in on the right strategies and more effectively reach your people. For example, you may find that your videos perform better with a certain group at your company.

Strengthening the partnership between HR teams and internal communications teams will benefit everyone. We recommend creating a regular meeting with stakeholders to align on compliance goals, challenges, and tactics.

About the Author

Michael Marino is the Vice President of Marketing where he oversees the creation and execution of theEMPLOYEEapp’s marketing programs. Before joining the team, Mike held marketing leadership positions in both the B2B and DTC spaces in channels that include media, manufacturing, and professional services. Mike is passionate about demand generation, mar-tech, and being able to create campaigns that connect with Internal Comms audiences.