Finding your Own Voice as an Internal Communicator

Top 10 (ok 12) Incredible Quotes from Kristin Hancock (@KristinAnneH)

“Internal communication...it’s about your employees being fulfilled at work, it’s about how the employee experience is, whether that’s onboarding or training or all those kinds of pieces” - Kristin (4:17)

“Part of why I’ve become so passionate about [internal communications] is because I’ve seen the impact in both ways. I’ve seen the really positive impact when you have a thriving culture and employees who are fulfilled and enjoy coming to work everyday. I’ve also seen the other side of it, where people don’t want to go to work everyday and dread being there” - Kristin (4:52)

“Are you listening and are you paying attention to what [your employees’] natural state is and what their behavior is? Maybe we’re not. For me that’s the biggest first step, looking back and looking at the big picture but also looking at the little nuances. What is your culture in its default state? … It’s not going to help you to build anything without knowing that” - Kristin (6:33)

“Spoiler alert: if you launch a new intranet app, a shiny tool… but your workplace culture sucks, the tool isn’t going to work” - Kristin (11:35)

“Finding people within your organization who are champions of your messaging; that is, I think, the secret sauce in launching a new tool, in rolling out a new strategy… on the flip side… leaning into your skeptics can also be incredibly powerful… finding people who are not tech savvy at all…  because if you can bring them on early, they will become champions because they will feel empowered, they’ll feel like they’ve learned something new, they’ll be telling everyone else” - Kristin (14:40)

“Yes it’s about the technology and it’s about the tool, but it’s so much more about the culture… If you have a culture where leadership controls the message, you likely also have a culture where employees have a fear of owning that message as well. It’s about flipping that whole script so part of it is that leaders are comfortable letting other people be empowered but also letting those other people know that it’s okay for you to comment or post or share or like, those kinds of things” - Kristin (17:46)

“Half the reason people watch the Superbowl is for the Superbowl ads… because it’s video, it’s engaging, it’s emotional, it tells a story… If you are in internal comms, then you are in sales and you are in marketing and you are in advertising and you are in PR, and all of those departments use video to sell a product or a service, and there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be using video to sell an engagement story or strategy, or a new initiative or tool” - Kristin (23:50)

“Do high production value videos have a place in the internal communications world? Of course they do. But… if you have a district manager who once a month shares a message about something and they’re sitting at their desk using their iphone to shoot the video, that’s relatable… it's an easier level playing field” - Kristin (30:12)

“In terms of KPIs and what to measure… one of my favorite things to measure on an employee survey… Would you recommend a friend to work here? That’s a really powerful question to ask because if most people are saying no, that means that maybe they’re just sticking it out, going through the motions to keep their paycheck… The other powerful question i love asking is how peopl