Creating campaigns that resonate with our audiences has to start with a deep understanding of who our people are. But this can’t be solely based on our instincts or what we think we know. We have to put in effort to thoroughly research and learn about each segment of our workforce. And the culmination of that research should be an employee persona. If you’ve never created one before, our employee persona template can help you get started.
What is an Employee Persona?
An employee persona is a representation of a specific type of employee within a company. It is a detailed and well-defined profile that captures the general characteristics, behaviors, needs, challenges, and preferences of a particular group of employees.
Employee personas are created based on research, data, and insights gathered from employee surveys, interviews, and other sources of information.
Why Internal Comms Pros Need to Make Employee Personas
The purpose of developing employee personas is to gain a deeper understanding of your workforce and create more targeted and personalized communications.
By identifying common traits and motivations of different employee groups, you can tailor your internal communication, training programs, benefits, and recognition initiatives to resonate with specific segments of the workforce. This also helps you personalize communications based on communication preferences, reading level, and the type of information that group requires for their jobs.
When done right, personas help internal communication teams and HR professionals to humanize their approach, address individual needs, and enhance overall employee experience, resulting in improved employee engagement, satisfaction, and retention.
How to Segment and Target Communication With Personas
You can use employee personas to create more targeted and effective communication campaigns by following these steps:
- Segment your workforce. Your employee research will help you divide your workforce up into the main groups you need to target communication to. This is often based on shared characteristics, such as roles, departments, age groups, and/or comms preferences. This segmentation helps ensure that messages are relevant to the specific needs and interests of each group.
- Tailor the content of your messages. Based on the preferences of each employee group, you can then craft messages that resonate with each segment of the workforce. By understanding the unique challenges, motivations, and interests of different employee groups, teams can deliver content that speaks directly to their concerns and aligns with their values.
- Choose the right channels. Your employee personas should also help you identify the preferred communication channels of different groups. Some employees may prefer emails, while others might be more responsive to mobile apps or texting. Using the right channels ensures that messages reach the intended audience and are more likely to be read.
- Gather feedback and evolve. Once you’ve made your personas, you aren’t done. After launching targeted communication campaigns, gather employee feedback to learn if you hit the mark or if your personas need to be modified for future campaigns.
By incorporating employee personas into your communication strategies, you’ll build stronger connections with employees and drive higher employee engagement.
What Our Employee Persona Template Includes:
- Context on what an employee persona is
- An example of an employee persona using our template
- An editable employee persona template
