How internal change comms can impact your reputation

Social media is a necessary part of any change communications strategy. Whether it’s sharing the news of an acquisition or getting ahead of a crisis, knowing how to hit the right tone is a must.
 
🔸 Internal to external
If you’re planning to share news on substantial changes at your organization, you should aim to ensure your internal stakeholders know first or at least as early as legally possible (depending on the change).
 
Why? So you can try to control the narrative internally – through a consistent message - before going externally. Engaging your people first matters the most because everything starts internally.
 
🔸 Finding the right words
A big part of change communication centres on staffing changes, which can mean layoffs. With social media one of the first external touch points of your organization, it’s important to consider the language and tone you’re using to communicate job losses. If you’re not careful, detractors might use your words against you.
 
For a process that takes months to implement like layoffs, it can be stunning to read the cold, unfeeling messages that are sent out, further emphasizing the need for carefully planned wording around these types of changes.
 
Part of mastering the art of employee engagement is mastering the art of empathetic communication. When you’re thinking about layoffs, you need to think about the employee perspective. It’s all about showing the human side of the business.
 
🔸 Clear overarching goals
Social media is an obvious place for backlash against your brand and organization. To get this right, an important step is to ensure that internally everyone is aligned on the Goals of the change communications.
 
This helps when you sit down with the legal team to craft the messages.

Lawyers want to craft language that is legally sound, but from a comms perspective, it also has to be human. This is often lacking. Having clear overarching goals in place will significantly help this sometimes difficult conversation.
 
 If you need advice on your Change & Engage Communications or Employee Engagement, get in touch.
 

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