What do you think would happen if you asked a painter-decorator to do up your house, with no direction? You’d either get something completely off-the-wall, or generic and bland.
It’s the same when asking for Total Reward communications. Try launching a share plan without creating a detailed brief with your communications agency – we doubt you’d end up with an exceptional campaign.
Why is a Total Reward communications brief important?
A good brief is something you only miss when it’s not there. Like our painter-decorator who has no direction, not having a clear brief can lead to pandemonium.
But when you have a good brief, you:
- Set clear standards and expectations
- Get the creative juices flowing
- Define the project’s goals
- Help avoid confusion.
What if you don’t have a Total Reward communication brief?
Your people could feel misunderstood
If your agency doesn’t know your employees, they won’t know how to reach them. They could focus on the wrong method of communication or the wrong message.
For example, your agency could create the most wonderful microsite, with interactivity, videos and a clear user journey. But that won’t work if your employees are offline – in factories, on the shop floor or out in the field.
Your purpose could become unclear
Every business that launches a share plan, or refreshes its pension communications, does so with purpose. It could be that the company wants to address colleagues’ financial wellbeing, improve engagement, or differentiate from the market.
If your communications agency doesn’t know your primary purpose, they could create communications materials that don’t hit the mark. The narrative may not resonate with your brand or your offering, and they could be miles off from your employee value proposition, with no clear link between your reward and your mission, vision and values. Result: a loss of brand identity or, worse, confusion.
Your message could get lost in the noise
Your rewards and benefits are a key part of your offering to your people. It makes them feel valued, and provides practical support when they most need it – particularly important in the current economic situation. So you want your total reward communications to stand out and grab your people’s imagination.
If your communications agency doesn’t have enough project information, they could play it super safe. The content they produce could be so generic that it would completely fail to show the value you bring to your people. The more information at the start of a project, the more creative your agency can be – and creativity is what will stop your message from getting lost in the sea of information that employees experience every day.
What makes a good Total Reward communications brief?
You need to be an expert in total reward, and an expert in communications. At Eximia, we challenge the process by bringing the two together: our account managers have worked in reward roles, and our creatives have in-house and agency experience.
Our experience means we know the information needed at the start of a project, so we will consult with you to make the project a success. When you work with us, we’ll take you through a discovery phase.
We do this with all our clients, whether they’re regular ones or new to us – because the more we know, the better we can be at what we do. It’s a win win situation: our client gets a say in the strategic planning phase to make sure the project meets their needs, and our team know exactly how to bring that project to life.
We’ll do a deep dive to find out:
- What you’re hoping to achieve with your communications project
- Who your people are
- What communications you already have in place, and what’s working well – or not
- How you’ll measure success.
A good brief doesn’t sound exciting, but it’s vital to the success of a project. Establish the information you need at the start, and you’ll ultimately save time, money, and frustration later down the line.
We cultivate trusting and open relationships with our clients, working collaboratively to create a detailed brief at the start of their project. It means they always get our best work. Contact us now to work on your next project.
