Healthcare is an important issue to us. We follow the issue carefully and regularly read the latest opinions. I purposely engage people with differing points of view to try to better understand their positions.
So I took strong interest in listening to participants in media training with a healthcare company. I sat in a room for about nine hours with several people who I consider experts in various aspects of healthcare.
What struck me was just how complex healthcare in general is for even people we think of as experts. They face difficult questions from both the media and the public. In fact, a doctor sitting at the table said people have asked her for advice on whom to vote for.
Imagine the challenges healthcare companies face when trying to share in short, interesting sound bites their complex stories. Employees can easily and inadvertently misstate the facts or not properly represent a company’s brand. On this subject, journalists can easily back someone in a corner.
Any industry with its share of controversy can probably learn at least something from the issues healthcare professionals face when facing the media. In the next few weeks, we’ll write about and tackle some of the advice and ideas I shared during media training. In the meantime, don’t feel dumb when healthcare debates confuse you. Even the experts must practice fully grasping all the different issues and relaying them succinctly and accurately to the public.
When companies have a new product, they often spend a lot of time testing those products before they roll them out, especially when it comes to software and websites providing a service. They want to make sure everything functions properly and the end-user experience is the best possible one. So why not take the same approach with your communications – before you send them out?
You likely have some kind of review process for the materials you create. Your boss, your boss’ boss, your internal client, legal. What about your “end-user”? Whether you’re communicating a new company program or marketing a new product, someone from your target audience can provide invaluable feedback before they see the final email or the shiny new brochure along with everyone else. If you work in retail, for example, that target audience person can be a store manager, district manager or front-line associate. If you work in health care, that target audience reviewer can be a doctor, nurse, HR administrator or patient. If you are working on a marketing brochure, reach out to your network and find someone you know that fits the customer profile.
Giving your target audience a sneak peak of the product and how you plan to market and communicate it can save you a lot of time, energy and money. Because he or she is not as close to the project as you are, your target audience tester will think of questions you might not have thought about. He or she will hopefully be up front and let you know if something is unclear or sounds too salesy and not authentic enough.
Does your review process allow for testing your communications with target audience members? What works for you?
It’s a cardinal sin but I still see it all the time: photographers shooting interviews of someone against a white wall. The white wall sometimes is built of bricks, which adds the sophisticated texture of a street alley. Others shoot against a green wall, technically known as a green screen. The weather forecaster lives against the green screen. He’s looking at a green wall behind him, not a wall of expensive, consultant-approved graphics, maps and numbers.
Some companies will produce a video for your business by placing you against a green screen. It’s pretty easy. Just stand in front of the green screen, talk for a minute or two about your company and watch your logo or other video magically appear behind you when you receive the final product. This approach also might save you some green.
You would never promote your business as a cookie cutter company. You stand out from the competition. You find ways to set yourself apart. Why play the role of weatherman and stand in front of a green screen like 30 other businesses did before you?
Green screens serve their purposes, but telling a business’ story is not one of them. Shoot your video at your business. Find an interesting background. Get visual. Show your place in action. What happens behind the scenes? Who are the characters who make your company click?
If your job is standing around in one spot all day with nothing more than a PowerPoint presentation, maybe you can justify green lighting a green screen video. But I bet even that type of boss has something more interesting to show potential customers.
An HR manager in a satellite office sends an email to employees about changes in building security stemming from a corporate office mandate. The tone of her email is hostile and employees feel like children being chided by a teacher. They didn’t do anything wrong but the email makes them feel that way by including warnings about things to avoid – all starting with “DO NOT…”
The tone of employee communications directly reflects the relationship an organization has with its employees. And in this case, the HR manager’s email indeed reflects the employer/employee relationship and a lack of established tone or voice of the corporate brand. (Turns out, we have never seen any evidence of an established brand voice for this company.)
Writing Tone
The tone of your communications piece is as vital as the content of the message. With so many different communication channels in the world today, including emails, memos, newsletters, social media posts, it’s easy for ideas and intentions to be misconstrued. If it can’t be shared with the world, don’t even put it in writing and send it out. Here are some helpful points to keep in mind. The tone of your business communications should be:
Accurate – Review all statements and facts for accuracy before sharing them.
Professional – Avoid personal remarks or inappropriate comments.
Positive – Avoid disparaging remarks, negative comments and using ALL CAPS which often comes off as yelling.
Polite – Don’t include rude requests or make demands. Treat others like you would want to be treated.
Open – Be as open as you can be in your communications. Being vague or unclear can cause miscommunication or start rumors.
Consistent – Sending mixed messages can make you appear disorganized or dishonest. If there’s a change in message content, it’s important to address the previous communications in your new piece.
Clear – Jargon, slang and acronyms are okay if you are sure that your audience will understand your meaning.
Before you push the send or publish button, review the tone of your piece to make sure that it represents your intentionsand is consistent with helping to build a compliant culture that achieves your company’s strategic priorities and objectives. Also, ask at least one colleague to review your piece before you send it.
Does your company have a distinct writing tone that reflects your brand’s characteristics? What steps does your company take to make sure communications reflect it?
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The job interview is the face of your employment brand to prospective employees. It can either breathe life into your brand or extinguish any sparks that attract an applicant to your company in the first place.
A woman gets a call for an interview with a company where she applied for a job. She asks the recruiter who calls her what the title is of the person who will be interviewing her. The recruiter doesn’t seem to be certain. Red flag no. 1. She also asks the recruiter if she will interview with anyone else and she is told no.
Now it’s interview time. There are a total of six people sitting around a board room table waiting to interview her. Red flag no. 2. They say their names without any explanation of what they do. Red flag no. 3.
The woman who appears to be heading the interview (the only person the applicant thought she would interview with) gives a bare bones overview of the company.
The people around the table take turns reading awkwardly-worded questions. Red flag no. 4. The first question is one that appears to be out of sequence: Give an example of when someone in the same room said something that was unpopular and what was your reaction?
The interview continues and some of the questions include several questions in one. And sometimes the interviewers seem to be confused by them. Red flag no. 5.
The woman leading the interview indicates they are pressed for time and have to finish. There is barely time for the applicant to ask questions. What number red flag are we on here? At this point she is left with more questions than answers. On the way back to the lobby with the interview leader, the applicant asks a question to determine this person’s role. (She didn’t have time in the interview and the woman never volunteered information about herself.) She confirms the applicant’s suspicion: She isn’t even an employee – she is a consultant! Red flag no. … Oh forget it.
The applicant walks away from this experience with a bad taste in her mouth. The more she thinks about the interview, the angrier she feels about the whole thing. She is turned off. The interview extinguished any interest she had of working for this company.
She describes the process as robotic. The questions didn’t give her a chance to get to her experience and the essence of who she is. She didn’t get to know much at all about the people interviewing her. She didn’t get a feel for the culture and what makes the company a great place to work other than its cafeteria and on-site fitness center.
What should this company have done differently? Trained their employees to interview or at the very least provide some guidelines. Offer key messages that reflect the employment brand. And those awkward interview questions! Sure companies have key competencies or success factors they seek in their applicants, but clearly worded interview questions could have done a much better job gauging the desired skills.
Please share your thoughts. What does your company do to ensure the job interview process is an authentic reflection of its employer brand? Do hiring managers have the tools they need to conduct effective interviews?
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Part 3 in a series: Keith speaks to the Phoenix Public Library’s Leadership Academy participants about why if you put on way too much makeup, he may Tweet about you.
Part 2 in a series: Keith spoke to the Phoenix Public Library’s Leadership Academy participants about embracing and responding to social media comments that are not always positive. Here is some of what he said:
Keith spoke to the Phoenix Public Library’s Leadership Academy participants on the topic of “Innovation in 21st Century Organizations.” Wow! That’s a mouthful. But here is some of what he said about social media.
Healthcare is an important issue to us. We follow the issue carefully and regularly read the latest opinions. I purposely engage people with differing points of view to try to better understand their positions.
It’s a cardinal sin but I still see it all the time: photographers shooting interviews of someone against a white wall. The white wall sometimes is built of bricks, which adds the sophisticated texture of a street alley. Others shoot against a green wall, technically known as a green screen. The weather forecaster lives against the green screen. He’s looking at a green wall behind him, not a wall of expensive, consultant-approved graphics, maps and numbers.
