Kirsten Goodwin, a woman with short blonde hair and wearing a bright orange jacket, black and white top and black trousers, is standing smiling in front of a room full of graduates at the HSBC Global Graduate Induction.

Why your graduate induction is the most important event you’ll run this year

July 9, 2026

Written by Kirsten Goodwin

When your new graduates walk in the door, you know this is the culmination of months of effort by your firm: sifting, assessment centres, decisions, offer letters, contracts, welcome packs, new technology – let alone salaries and training budgets.

And now it’s the moment of truth: the graduate induction event. The moment that will kick start their career in your firm – and where they will see if what they’ve been told is the reality.

But how can you make sure it’s a success – and why does it matter so much?

When it goes wrong

Because there are so many ways an onboarding event can go wrong.

There’s the practical stuff: the event overruns, the tech goes wrong, the lunch doesn’t arrive. Then there’s the intangible stuff: senior reps don’t shine, the energy flags, you can see graduates begin to disengage.

And you sense the event isn’t having the impact you wanted: nothing about it signals the uniqueness of YOUR firm, and THIS cohort – and graduates leave underwhelmed, rather than inspired.

Why graduate induction events matter more than you think

And the evidence is clear that this really matters!

Retention risk: new graduates make up their minds very quickly about their new firm. 29% of new hires decide within the first week whether they’re staying in their new role – and 44% have regrets or second thoughts within that first week. 70% decide within the first month.
Impact: if you don’t get graduate induction right, you risk losing the commitment (and potentially the actual employment) of the new graduate you’ve worked so hard to recruit
Reputational risk: new graduates are very vocal about their opinions. 75% of new hires share their first day experience on social media. One would hope this would be positive – most people don’t want to be too negative on their first day! But this is representative of the public presence of this generation.
Impact: poor onboarding risks public, private, or anonymous damage to a firm’s brand – which can have a damaging impact on its ability to recruit high-performing candidates in the future
ROI risk: graduates are expensive to recruit, and to replace. The average recruitment cost per head in finance and professional services is £2,779 – and this seems cheap to me! An Oxford Economics study suggests the cost of replacing one employee is £30,614 – and this is likely to be much higher among financial and professional services graduates.
Impact: these are not small numbers – they have a significant impact on a P&L. And they compound depending on the size of your graduate cohort.

And those are just the numbers! Much of the damage can’t be quantified:

the waste of senior stakeholder time – the opportunity cost for the firm losing all that experience and judgement on an hour or day out of the office only for it to have a negative effect
the damaging culture forged from a bad onboarding experience – transmitted through the graduate WhatsApp group on the way home, and transmitted to next year’s cohort
your firm’s future partners & leaders, being slower to be effective – and ultimately bring in business – because of a poor start.

To find out more about how I can help you avoid these costs, visit my Expert Services Directory listing.

What graduates actually remember about their induction event

The mistake people organising graduate events make is to assume that if the content is good, and the running order is tight, the event will land.

But the reality is that after one week, people retain only about 10% of what they heard.

I believe there is something that people DO remember: how the event FELT.

Did it match the employer brand promise made during recruitment?
Did I feel valued?
Did I feel excited and enthused by the opportunities?
Did I feel proud to be starting my career in this organisation?
Did this feel like someone I’m going to want to stay?

All of those new graduates have turned up with (you hope!) ambition and enthusiasm – do they feel this has been appreciated, and matched, by their firm?

Because that feeling is what sticks (the agenda doesn’t).

And that feeling is what a Level 3 event host creates.

The “Hosting Impact Scale”

Different event hosts deliver different degrees of impact – I call this the “Hosting Impact Scale”:

Level 1: COMPETENCE. The host introduces speakers clearly, keeps to time, and manages transitions effectively. All of this is crucial – but it’s not differentiating.
Level 2: PRESENCE. The host is confident & engaging, transmitting energy.

Better (and not guaranteed!) – but still not transformational. That comes with…

Level 3: RESONANCE. The host is able to deliberately shape the feeling across the whole day – building things up or slowing them down, depending on what the room needs. Turning a group of strangers into a cohort having a common experience with the host and each other – which is when the room and the material resonates, creating that lasting feeling and impact.

As one HSBC grad described the impact of that level of hosting at their induction event:

“A year down the line, it isn’t specific elements [of the day] that stick with me. It was inspiring to see the passion and how much they value emerging talent. I think that day was the real turning point for me realising what I was a part of.”

Most internal hosts operate at 1-2. Most professional event hosts operate at 2. But Level 3 is where you get real return on all your investment of time and money.

If you want this for your graduates, visit my Expert Services Directory listing to find out more.

The science behind the feeling

But what is Level 3?

The energy in the room isn’t accidental – it has a name: sociologist Emile Durkheim described it as “collective effervescence”.

This is the intense shared emotion and unity that is created by collective gatherings. Individuals become part of a greater whole – and their energy affects those around them.

Crucially this compounds either upwards in a positive direction, or downwards, in a negative way – so you want to get it right…

Collective effervescence is created by four things:

Proximity
A distinct group identity
A shared focus on attention
And a common emotional mood.

Graduate inductions easily deliver 1 and 2: they are already collected together, even if this is virtual at times, and they share a group identity as graduate entrants.

But the magic happens when you have that powerful shared focus on attention, and that feeling of a common emotional mood – and that’s the product of Level 3 hosting.

What “Level 3” event hosting looks like

In practice this means that a Level 3 graduate induction event host:

Will be a chameleon, sometimes the graduates’ best friend, sometimes their coach or mentor, and sometimes their instructor – depending on what the energy needs.
Will be skilled enough to deliver this fluidly, shifting the register of the room, without it feeling clunky or forced.
Will be able to step back and support sometimes, as well as lead and direct – it’s not always about being a performer at the front.

This can mean bringing focus back into a room after a break; handling a panel running dry; slowing things down when the room is overwhelmed; speeding things up when the graduates are flagging; or building energy towards a significant moment.

When you can do this, you create a lasting impact:

As one HSBC grad said,

“Your [event] was super memorable and one I look back on fondly.”

Why most firms get their graduate induction wrong

Most firms use a presenter operating at Level 1 or 2 without even knowing that Level 3 exists.

Their concern: will this person be able to deliver the brief without embarrassing us?

Whereas the more important question is: will this person create the feeling that determines whether our graduates decide they’ve joined somewhere worth staying?

Senior leaders can be great public speakers – but that is a different skillset to that of event hosting: broadcasting, rather than responding and creating resonance.

They won’t be able to shift between registers fluidly to deliver the energy needed by the room at that moment; and the fact they are internal senior leaders (ie with status) sets a specific tone: graduates are more likely to be concerned to impress them, which changes the dynamics of the event.

As a result, the conditions for “collective effervescence” aren’t met – and the event misses, rather than lands.

As Maya Angelou put it:

“People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

That feeling doesn’t happen by accident. Visit my Expert Services Directory listing to find out how I create it.

The strategic case for a professional event host

Analysis by Brandon Hall Group suggests that firms that get onboarding right have 82% higher retention rates than those that don’t.

So hiring a professional event host is a strategic decision, not a logistical one.

It’s not about the process: who can keep the day on track. It’s not even about who has the presence to command the room. It’s actually about who can engineer the experience that determines whether this cohort walks out feeling they made the right choice.

Because your investment in them is significant. At a conservative estimate:

The average cost of recruiting a graduate is £2779 per head (Institute of Student Employers finance sector average)

The average graduate starting salary is £32,000 (ISE 2025)
Year one training spend: £1,530 (DfE average)

For a graduate cohort of fifty, the investment is c £1.8m. For a cohort of 100 it’s c £3.6m. And the cost of replacing a single new recruit who decides to leave: £30,614 (Oxford Economics).

The cost of the graduate onboarding event is a fraction of these costs – and the cost of the event host, an even tinier fraction.

The one spend that can make all of that other investment pay off is less than the cost of the sandwiches.

Why this is your most important event of the year

Graduates are the future of your firm. You’ve spent months finding them, attracting them, recruiting them – and the graduate induction is the moment when all your promises to them about the firm they’ve joined are tested.

You want them to leave feeling proud of the organisation they work for. It’s the moment that has the potential to set them on track to be the best partners, client-winners and culture shapers for your firm – or it could be the beginning of the process where they decide to build their career somewhere else.

What can make the difference is investing in a professional – Level 3 – event host.

As another grad said,

“The thing I remember most is your confidence and stage presence, and how smoothly the whole day ran. It really gave me confidence that if HSBC puts this much effort into running events like this, then they are equally invested in their graduates and that it will be a great place to work.”

Your graduates represent one of the most significant investments your firm makes.

The difference between a Level 3 professional event host and a Level 2 host costs less than the sandwiches – and the return on that difference is measurable in retention, reputation, and the careers your graduates go on to build with you.

To talk about how I can help your next graduate induction land the way it should, get in touch through my Expert Services Directory listing.

Kirsten

Please note, this article was originally published on kirstengoodwin.co.uk and can be accessed by clicking here.

What's the Real Cost of Leadership Transition in Professional Services?

Leadership retention plan; the secrets to them staying and being high-performing

January 27, 2026

Nic Redman Communications

Let’s say your senior team has nailed the slides. The messaging is tight. The strategy is sound.
But when it comes time to deliver the big update – at a town hall, an investor meeting, or on your company podcast – something doesn’t land.

The voice shakes.
The pace is all over the shop.
The message sounds robotic or, worse, unsure.

Despite knowing their stuff inside out, your leader doesn’t sound like someone people want to follow.

And here’s the rub: if they don’t sound confident, credible or human, they won’t be heard. Not really.

That’s where voice coaching steps in.

The Performance Gap Hiding in Plain Sight

Presentation training teaches people what to say.
Voice coaching helps them say it in a way that actually lands – with authority, ease and personality.

Because when people don’t feel confident in their voice, they:

Rattle through the message like they’re late for a train
Flatten their tone to avoid sounding “too much”
Default to monotone when nerves kick in
Get labelled as unengaging, unclear or uncertain

The result?

Re-records, rebriefs and lost hours
Podcasts and internal comms no one finishes listening to
Missed media opportunities because no one feels ready
Leaders who don’t feel – or sound – like leaders in the moment

Voice coaching addresses all of this by developing the voice as a communication tool. We work on:

Pace that lets the message breathe
Pitch that keeps people engaged
Clarity that cuts through noise
Vocal presence that earns attention
Real connection between message, meaning and tone

It’s tailored to the individual. No cookie-cutter corporate scripts. Just humans sounding like themselves – on a really good day.

Real Example: From Mumbling to Magnetic

One client I worked with was prepping for his organisation’s internal town hall.
Smart, kind guy – well respected. But nerves got the better of him when speaking to large groups. He’d mumble, rush his words, and trail off mid-sentence.

By his own admission: “I sound like I’m bored of myself.”

In three short sessions, we worked on:

Grounding breath to steady the pace
Phrasing techniques for clarity and confidence
Vocal energy to bring the story to life

The shift was immediate – and it didn’t just improve that talk.
It changed how he felt about all future speaking moments: panels, pitches, even one-to-ones.

Real Example: The Internal Podcast Host

Another client had been tasked with hosting a new company podcast. She was brilliant at her job – but terrified of sounding stiff or “PR-y” on the mic.

We focused on breath and articulation for clarity, and how to connect naturally to scripted intros and outros.

The result?

A warmer, more human tone
Less second-guessing during recording
Episodes that sound like a real conversation – not a sales pitch

Most importantly, she started enjoying the recording process. And that energy came through to listeners. It sped up the recording process, meant less mistakes and less editing. Win win!

Brand Sound Matters Too

Your external voice is your brand voice.
Whether it’s your CEO on a podcast, your CTO in the press, or your leadership team pitching to partners – how your people sound is how your brand is perceived.

Ask yourself:

Do they sound calm under pressure?
Do they speak with clarity and conviction?
Do they make people feel something when they talk?

If the answer isn’t a strong yes across the board, that’s not a presentation skills issue. It’s a voice issue.

Voice coaching helps ensure your people:

Align tone with message and moment
Speak with personality, not polish
Sound like leaders and like themselves

Because people trust people who sound real. Not perfect. Real.

The Commercial Case for Voice Work

Still wondering whether it’s worth the investment? Here’s what I see regularly in teams that commit to voice training:

What you gain:

More confident speakers across your leadership pipeline
More efficient recordings and presentations
Sharper internal comms that land first time
Better performance on camera, podcast and stage
Increased take-up of speaking opportunities

What you avoid:

Wasted time on re-records and rewrites
Missed PR, podcast or media slots
Internal frustration when people “don’t sound like themselves”
Death by awkward panel delivery

And yes – you’ll probably start hearing “That was your best one yet” after key comms. Because it is.

What Voice Coaching Is (and Isn’t)

This isn’t about sounding posh or ditching your accent. It’s not elocution lessons or endless reading aloud.

It’s about helping your people:

Use the voices they’ve got to the best effect
Communicate clearly under pressure
Feel good about how they sound when it matters most

They’ve done the work on the message. Let’s make sure it actually lands.

Who I Work With

I support senior leaders, spokespeople and in-house podcast hosts across sectors including utilities, tech, finance and academia. Clients include Northumbrian Water, Peloton, Channel 4, and Queens University Belfast.

Typical clients include:

CEOs and Founders leading from the front
Internal podcast hosts who want to sound pro without losing personality
Leadership teams prepping for high-stakes presentations
New spokespeople representing the brand in press or partnership settings

If they’ve ever said, “I know what I’m saying – I just hate how I say it” – voice coaching is the missing piece.

Final Thought

Voice is the delivery system for every idea, every brand value, every call to action.
If your leaders don’t sound like themselves – or worse, don’t feel like themselves – that message won’t land.

So if your team already knows what to say…
Let’s help them say it with confidence, clarity and a bit of fecking oomph.

View my Expert Directory listing to learn more about how I help leaders and spokespeople speak in a way that builds trust, lands the message, and strengthens your brand.

When Growth Means Goodbye: What Layoffs Are Really Costing Tech Leaders

Why Charity Leaders Don’t Need More Resilience

October 31, 2025

Written by Becky Hewson-Howarth

As an HR professional, you play a vital role in bringing your organisational values and purpose to life. From ensuring cultural fit when hiring and aligning company performance metrics with the organisation’s purpose, to including culture in your company policies. But there’s an often overlooked opportunity to further embed company culture – through employee reward communications.

When done well, reward communications can amplify your company’s values and strengthen the bond between your people and your business. And I’m here to lift the lid on exactly how you can do this.

How does your reward offering connect with company culture?

Your total reward offering is a tangible representation of how much your organisation values its people. The most impactful packages are designed with intention, so the rewards reflect your company’s ethos and priorities.

Think of it this way. If your company prides itself on innovation, offering rewards that focus solely on tenure or experience will send a conflicting message. Instead, a culture of innovation might be better supported by recognising creative contributions, agile thinking or risk-taking. Similarly, if your company champions work-life balance, then flexible working arrangements and wellness incentives would clearly reflect those values.

Reward offerings can communicate culture in several ways. These are some of the more common cultural aspects I’ve come across in my work with leading companies:

Recognise your core values

Align your reward systems with the behaviours that demonstrate your core values. If teamwork is one of your values, your reward system should highlight and celebrate collaboration.

Inclusivity and fairness

A company that promotes inclusivity should ensure its rewards reflect that value. For example, transparent pay structures, fair promotions and inclusive benefits (like comprehensive leave policies that support the entire workforce) will reinforce the company’s commitment to diversity and equality.

Wellbeing

A major trend over the past few years, the focus on wellbeing has had a significant influence on the shape of reward packages. While this is partly about ensuring market competitiveness, rewards focused on wellbeing – like gym memberships, mental health support or additional leave – showcase a commitment to ensuring a culture that genuinely cares for its people.

Career development and growth

While learning and development opportunities aren’t always thought of as part of the reward package, if you take a total reward approach, they should be. Focusing on L&D can signal a company’s investment in employee growth, reflecting a culture of continual improvement.

The communication-culture connection

A strong reward offering is one part of the equation, communicating your rewards is the other.

“Communication leads to community, that is, to understanding, intimacy and mutual valuing.” — Rollo Reece May, writer, psychotherapist and philosopher

Communication connects the dots between the tangible benefits you offer, your company’s mission and values and the culture you want to cultivate.

When employees feel rewards are communicated clearly, transparently and equitably, it:

Ensures your reward package is noticed, understood and accessible.
Provides clarity on what’s offered, why it’s offered and how it aligns with your company values.
Fosters trust and reinforces the belief that your people are valued by the business.

Alongside all your other strands of cultural communication, reward comms add another string to your bow by strengthening your employees’ connection to the company and its culture.

Practical reward communications tips to build your culture

The key to effectively communicating your rewards is to approach reward comms with the same care and intentionality you apply to designing the reward package itself.

1. Align your messaging with company values

This means ensuring the narrative and messaging you share, the language you use and the tone in which you communicate all reflect those values:

Create a narrative that’s a couple of short paragraphs long for each reward comms project you undertake. Consider why you’re doing this, what you want to achieve, and how it links in with your company values. Then summarise what you want to communicate in a way that will resonate with your audience. Underneath this, define several key messages. Then use all of this to inspire your communications and keep them on track.
Review the tone of your copy for alignment with your values. If your tone is formal but your company culture is known for being relaxed and open, this could cause a disconnect.
If your company values innovation, communicate rewards with an emphasis on creativity and fresh ideas. Instead of traditional email announcements, consider interactive digital platforms or even gamified experiences that capture the spirit of innovation.

2. Make it inclusive

Inclusivity is key to ensuring employees feel seen and valued. This can be achieved through tailored communications that speak directly to different employee segments making the messaging relevant to each group:

If you offer flexible benefits, ensure the communication highlights options relevant to each employee demographic. For younger employees, you might emphasise career development and health and wellness benefits. For those with families, you could highlight flexible working arrangements or parental leave. Understanding your audience and the different groups within it will ensure you share the right messaging with the right people.
Use segmented email lists, personalised benefit portals or one-on-one conversations to ensure that reward communications are tailored and inclusive. Managers play a key role in one-to-ones, so ensure they have easy-to-read information that helps them explain and signpost the relevant rewards.

3. Be clear and transparent

Transparency is a core value for many organisations. You can achieve this by providing employees with a clear understanding of how rewards are calculated and distributed. Avoiding jargon and ensuring every employee knows how they can qualify for and access rewards is also key:

If bonuses are linked to company performance, communicate the metrics and how individual contributions affect those outcomes. This helps employees feel they’re part of a bigger picture and can see the direct link between their efforts and their rewards.
Develop clear, easy-to-understand guides, videos or FAQs that explain your reward policies and approach. Run workshops, webinars or Q&A sessions to give employees the opportunity to ask questions and provide feedback.

4. Regularly reinforce your messages

Reward communications should be ongoing and not just a one-off conversation during annual reviews or bonus periods. You can do this by embedding reward messaging into your regular communications:

Celebrate employee achievements on internal platforms like your intranet, newsletters, or town hall meetings. Your recognition programme should highlight the rewards linked to these achievements, reinforcing the connection between actions, rewards and company culture.
Develop a communication calendar that ensures reward messaging is frequent and relevant. This could include monthly reminders of the benefits on offer, case studies that show how employees have used certain rewards, or reminders during peak times like the holiday season or when incentives are paid out.

In conclusion

When you align your reward communications with company culture, you won’t just inform, you’ll inspire. By showing why you provide these benefits, you’ll do more than tell employees what you offer – you’ll remind your people of what you stand for as a business and reinforce your values. Strengthening not only your company’s culture, but the relationship between your employees and your organisation that’s so vital to driving its overall success.

Take your reward communications – and company culture – to the next level by talking to me, Becky Hewson-Haworth. With over 20 years reward and communications experience, I can help you transform your reward comms from so-so to stand-out.

This article was originally published on Clarion Call Communications and can be accessed by clicking here.

What is employee reward communication? And how does it fit into a total reward strategy?

The Microaggressions That Are Stifling Your Business

October 31, 2025

Written by Becky Hewson-Howarth

With organisations spending hundreds of thousands to millions of pounds on their total reward packages, the importance of effective reward communications can’t be overstated. As employers strive to attract, recruit, engage and retain the best talent, reward communications stand out as a pivotal element of a successful employee reward strategy.

Reward communication can be as straightforward as conveying compensation and benefits information to employees. But, done well, it also plays a crucial role in enhancing employee engagement, motivation, and ultimately, organisational performance. This article explores:

The basics of employee reward communication
The different types of employee reward comms organisations are implementing
Key components of effective employee reward communications
The benefits of effective reward comms
How to integrate reward communications into a wider total reward strategy

What is employee reward communication?

Reward communication is a strategic approach to informing, engaging and educating employees about every element of their total rewards package. This includes their compensation, benefits, wellbeing, work environment, learning and career development opportunities and workplace culture.

Effective reward communication goes beyond simply sharing information by:

Demystifying complex reward schemes.
Helping employees make the most of their pay and benefits programmes.
Supporting managers by making it easy for them to communicate reward.
Ensuring information is understood, engaged with and acted on (where needed) by employees.
Fostering reward scheme transparency and building trust within the organisation.
Communicating your business, HR and reward strategies in engaging ways.
Connecting your people with your company’s purpose, mission and values.
Boosting attraction, wellbeing, employee engagement, performance and retention.

What kinds of employee reward communications are organisations deploying?

This often depends on a company’s maturity and degree of reward scheme transparency. Common communication projects include creating:

Reward brand development
Reward narratives and messaging
A one-stop shop for rewards – either an intranet page or reward microsite.
Careers pages that clearly communicate the employer value proposition.
Total reward guides – digital documents and interactive PDFs.
Employee benefit communications – socials, email newsletter, campaigns and more.
Incentive programme comms – one-pagers, guides and presentations.
Recruitment packs that help employers stand out in the marketplace.
Compensation comms – gender pay gap reports, pay transparency communications.
Employee pension communications that make pensions easy to understand and are engaging.
Manager and HR training and guides.

Most organisations start out with the first three points in the list above. These three things create a solid foundation from which to communicate reward effectively. They also deliver a great ROI because they leverage every aspect of the total reward package.

Key components of effective employee reward communications

Effective employee reward communications take comms from must-do broadcasts tied to the annual cycle, to powerful, high-performing campaigns. This communication transformation relies on five key elements:

Reward scheme transparency

The general rule of thumb is that the more transparent the reward communication, the better. However, even large organisations with mature reward functions and big HR teams aren’t always as transparent as you might think. Sometimes, the organisation’s culture doesn’t lend itself to reward scheme transparency. And sometimes it’s because the work hasn’t been done to enable certain topics – like pay – to be communicated openly.

The key is to be as open as you can be. This means getting executives on-board with moving to a more transparent reward culture. Establishing clear messaging and supporting materials will empower managers to effectively outline how rewards are determined and distributed.

Simplicity

Using clear, jargon-free language will ensure all employees can easily understand the message. Many people find anything to do with money and maths complex. So you should use the most straightforward language you can. Why? Because:

The UK’s financial reading age is 9 – making communications less complex is key for people who are neurodivergent, people with dyslexia or those with English as a second language.
Even the most educated people prefer plain English. When 800 circuit court judges had to choose between a traditional legalese argument or a plain English one, 66% preferred the plain English version. No matter their background.

How do you achieve simplicity with your Reward comms? Start with plain English. Then, for more complex topics – like incentives, pay increases and pensions – add visuals to the copy to make it easier for people to digest.

Personalisation

Tailoring communication to meet the diverse needs of the workforce can sound like a LOT of work. But personalisation can be as simple as splitting your communications into those appropriate for managers and those appropriate for specific groups of employees. Rather than bundling everything into a single communication and asking people to wade through it to find the relevant section for them.

How much personalisation you include will depend on the quality of your employee data and the other tools and communications support at your disposal. For example, adding each individual’s first name to the top of an all-staff email to personalise it is only achievable if your email software has this functionality.

Consistency

Getting regular marketing emails from a company you bought something from a long time ago feels pretty normal if those emails have regularly landed in your inbox. But when you suddenly get an email a long time after buying from a business, it feels a little jarring.

The same goes for your employee comms. Maintaining a steady flow of information will build a relationship with your people and ensure you can reiterate key messaging so your narrative lands. It will also prevent misinformation from spreading in a vacuum. And build a positive relationship with your people that will pay dividends when you need to communicate about less positive subjects.

Of course, the annual cycle of communication surrounding performance and pay reviews and benefit windows is key too. As is keeping employees informed about changes to reward structures or policies so you avoid surprises and manage expectations.

Employee engagement

Employee reward teams often have a lot to shout about. Bonuses, recognition awards, new benefits, old benefits, pay reviews, wellbeing initiatives, career development opportunities, discounts and more.

By seizing the opportunity to talk about the good things you do for your people, you’ll create a backdrop of positivity. So, when bad news needs to be shared it’s a blip in your narrative, instead of the only message you’ve shared. In an ideal world, you’ll create dialogues that allow employee feedback and questions, so you create conversations and not just one-way communications.

The benefits of reward communications on employee engagement

Well-communicated employee reward strategies and employee engagement drive a whole range of organisational wins:

90% of HR professionals agree that an effective recognition and reward programme helps drive business results.
75% of employers believe improving the effectiveness of their benefits communications is an important objective.
Research from Willis Towers Watson proves that firms that communicate effectively with their people will deliver a 47% higher total return to shareholders (2004-2009)

Integrating reward communications into a wider total reward strategy

Taking a strategic approach to reward communications requires a holistic approach that aligns with the organisation’s overall objectives and culture. It’s not just about the ‘what’ of rewards but the ‘how’ and ‘why’ behind them.

Strategic alignment

The first step in integrating reward communications is ensuring that the communication strategy aligns with:

The organisation’s broader total reward strategy
Any reward philosophy
HR strategy
Relevant business goals

It can also draw on company culture and values through the language and narrative that’s created. This alignment ensures the messaging reinforces the organisation’s values and objectives, creating a cohesive and unified understanding of rewards across the organisation.

Reward branding

A lot of companies miss a trick with this one, but a reward brand is a great way to get your messaging noticed. With people’s inboxes and time maxed out, creating a recognisable reward brand can help people spot your communications. Typically aligned with your company branding, a reward brand has (potentially) a logo and a consistent look and feel that lets people instantly know they’re looking at reward communications.

In the same way your marketing team has visual guidelines, a tone of voice and style guide, and approved narratives and key messages, your reward team should have the same. This will ensure a consistent style of writing and a coherent approach to employee reward communications that have the same look and feel across all pieces, building trust with your audience.

Connected and self-reinforcing

Total reward strategies have been carefully thought out and reward communications should follow suit. While you will want to create communications for specific elements of your total reward package, you also need to have overarching comms that explain the value of the whole package.

You should also create connections between relevant parts of your reward package with your narrative and messaging. Whether that’s about placing a focus on performance, wellbeing or development. Your communications should consistently repeat the same messaging in different ways helping your messages land.

Multi-channel approach

Using a variety of communication channels ensures your messages reach the entire workforce in a way that resonates with them. You’ll have lots of options, including the intranet, reward microsites, email, face-to-face meetings, social media and print.

Reward communication channels used by Aon UK Benefits and Trends 2023 survey respondents

One of my favourite places to communicate with employees is the back door of the toilets or above the urinals because the messaging always gets seen and read. A multi-channel approach caters to the different communication preferences of your workforce and reinforces messaging through repetition (without boredom) in different formats.

Training for managers and HR

The communications you create will be shared and brought to life by your HR team and your managers. Not only when you initially cascade your communications but when recruiting or communicating pay review and bonus outcomes, during performance reviews, when supporting employee wellbeing issues and when retaining employees.

Equipping managers and HR with the knowledge and tools to confidently and effectively communicate reward-related information to their teams is vital in helping you achieve your recruitment, employee engagement and retention goals.

Feedback mechanisms

Incorporating feedback mechanisms into reward communications allows organisations to gauge employee understanding, perceptions and satisfaction with their rewards. Whether it’s a clickable link to a shared inbox where employees can send their queries, a reward-specific employee survey, face-to-face Q&A sessions or reward surgeries where employees can bring their questions and challenges. This feedback loop is crucial for continuously refining and improving communication strategies to better meet your employees’ needs.

In conclusion

Employee reward communications are a critical component of a comprehensive total rewards strategy. They bridge the gap between the organisation’s reward offerings and employee perception and appreciation of those rewards. By adopting a strategic, aligned, multi-channel approach, organisations can enhance attraction, employee engagement, motivation and performance.

Ultimately, effective reward communications are not just about conveying information – they’re about engaging in a dialogue that values and recognises the contribution of each employee. Fostering a culture of transparency, appreciation and mutual success.

Take your reward communications to the next level by talking to me – Becky Hewson-Haworth. With over 20 years reward and communications experience, I can help you transform your reward comms from so-so to stand-out.