Strategic employee communications that lead
Fortune 500 companies through transformation

Make your strategic priorities count with an effective communications plan

Employee writing business strategy on white board

You’ve set your business goals – now maximize communications to make a bigger impact!

Why is developing a strategic communications plan important for your business goals and objectives? The impact will lead to a win-win for employees and employers: 

  • Employees understand how they can make an impact.
  • Leaders are equipped and empowered to communicate with employees, so they can do their job and help achieve your company goals. 

As you develop your comms plan, it will be helpful to understand this year’s market climate. Check out my colleague Mark Lindley’s blog, “3 unique communication challenges you must address in the new year.

How to develop a strategic communications plan that empowers and engages

First and foremost, you should develop your plan with an experienced communications partner. Here are some ideas to help you align, engage and drive results across your organization:  

  1. Key message plan – translate your goals into messages that can be used by your leaders. Include how your business goals tie into the overall organization. State your message in layman’s terms so that leaders are unified in how they talk about goals and objectives with their teams. 

  2. Strategic slide deck – use PowerPoint to share visuals, high level messages and results. This is a key resource to have, not only at the beginning of the year, but to update on a quarterly basis. 

  3. Employee Q&As (FAQ materials or lunch and learn sessions) – identify questions that employees have on their minds. These questions could be around the opportunities (i.e., how meeting your goals helps them grow), needs (i.e., what do employees need to be successful), challenges (i.e., what are the headwinds or marketplace pressures), and barriers/obstacles (i.e., how will it be possible with expense controls in place or resource constraints). Consider wrapping it up with how you’ll work together to achieve your goals (i.e., collaboration, partnering across the organization).
  4. Script for leaders – map how goals apply to different functions in your organization and identify how high-level goals roll down the org chart. Encourage leaders to tie these goals to their group, so that employees understand how their group plays a role.  

  5. Video messages – share leader updates with your employees throughout the year. These updates should include goals, progress and accomplishments. Along with videos, this can also be accomplished through quarterly town hall meetings.
  6. Employee goals – help employees see how their work makes an impact! Take your business line goals and develop them further to determine how internal groups will align. Then have managers and employees discuss how they can be included in the employee’s goals and development discussions.

What’s next? Build the plan and then follow it, continuously sharing updates throughout the year.

It’s no surprise that teams can easily be derailed from following their communications plan. Stay tuned for my colleague’s tips for sticking to your strategy.

Employees working together at laptops with notebooks laying out

The time is now to develop a strategic communications plan around your business goals and objectives. Assess the options that will equip your leaders and employees to understand, align and take action.

Plan. Execute. Update.

By spending time upfront to develop a strategic communications plan, you will set the path forward to execute through the year. Keep refining, and share updates as you go so your employees stay aligned and engaged to help you reach your goals!

If you want strategies to help you stick to your communications plan, read our recent blog “How to keep your 2023 Communications Strategy on track and in sync.”

And if you need help, Pivot has a large team of world-class communicators that are overflowing with tips, trends and plans to help you succeed. Learn more about our amazing consultants.

About the Author

Kris GoodmanPivot Strategies Alum

Kris brings 20+ years as an accomplished strategic communications leader from the financial services industry. She is focused on delivering the highest quality outcomes and has experience that spans from communications to strategic initiatives to thought leadership events. Collaboration is at the heart of her approach ensuring that everyone is aligned and informed all while achieving desired outcomes. Her wide array of communications experience ranges from product launches to migrations to crisis events and she knows how to navigate complex initiatives.

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