Keeping your team up to date with company progress and performance is critical for motivation, a sense of purpose and belonging.  As a leader, how often should you update your team?  Whilst every business is different, internal communication is often an art that every leader can make positive further progress on.

 

In person or remote?

We have always recognised the importance of bringing our team together physically to reaffirm our purpose as a collective. As a team we are often with our clients in their offices or working from home but after regular feedback we know how much our team enjoy being together.  We have meetings where our team dial in for our weekly catch ups, but our quarterly updates are always in person meetings.

HR can often get a bad press of being an admin function that operates on behalf of the leadership of the company.  At JourneyHR we have always been proud of the impact of our solutions at leadership and through organisations. We all hold the responsibility for creating a positive employee experience which at times we don’t always hold full control of.  

What do a bunch of HR people talk about when we get together?  We are always keen to make sure people understand what our business strategy is and how that connects us all together.   Our quarterly catch ups always follow the same drumbeat:

 

1. A recap of our business strategy
2. What do the finances look like and what does this mean
3. What are our priorities for the next 3 months
4. Feedback from the team
5. Time together to do something fun as a team

 

We’ve found that any more than an hour with everyone in a room can be a struggle to keep everyone’s attention so topline data with clear connection as to why the information impacts the team at a group and individual level.

 

Financial Transparency

Our strategy is always rooted in our 3 values: we build connections, we make a difference, and we create value.  We’re focused on reminding the team how those values are connected with our financial performance and always play a north star for us when we think about how we work together for the next three months.

We take time to explain what the numbers mean and what the impact of our commercial performance has on everyone.  If the numbers aren’t looking as brilliant as we’d like them to be looking we talk about it, we encourage people to ask questions and also reassure everyone that we have a plan and everyone has a role to play; from the brilliant basics to the delivery of highly strategic project work.  We also use this time to remind people why we ask everyone to complete their timesheets with rigour and accuracy.

Setting clear goals

We have an ambitious, motivated hard-working team.  Sharing with everyone what our core business priorities are every quarter helps people stay focused and prioritise the agreed important stuff.  We make sure we regularly reflect back on what these goals are and measure our performance against them each quarter.

Feedback            

We’ve all been in meetings where people are asked for feedback and there is a deathly silence.  We do our best to encourage space in our quarterlies to share feedback together – what is working well and what needs fixing.  We often have feedback to share from engagement or wellbeing surveys we have all participated in which allows for healthy discussions regardless of years’ experience or job title.

Having fun

We are fortunate as a team to have a strong connection when we are together.  We have some fiercely competitive people in the mix too so making sure we create time to have fun, relax together and continue to build strong relationships with each other is also a massive part of why we do these meetings.

This year our brilliant social team hosted a JourneyHR Olympics Event in Hyde Park.  We had some food and refreshments, formed 2 formidable teams and spent the evening in the sunshine together in awe of certain team members flexibility during the limbo event, the speed and precision of some of the team in the egg and spoon race and as the sun slowly set I was left wondering how my team lost tug of war.  A rematch may be on the cards in three months….