The Nine C's of Engagement and Why EVERYTHING is Communication

R. "Ray" Wang, Principal and CEO at Constellation Research Group, shares this warning about attempts to communicate with and engage today's customers.

Most customers now ignore targeted marketing campaigns, avoid responding to offers, and provide minimal feedback when asked. Instead, potential customers interact with each other, bypassing sanitized corporate messages devoid of meaning or value.

 Switch out the word "customer" for "employee", and I think the same warning and observation could apply to our efforts to communicate with our workforces about rewards and our efforts to solicit their involvement in and buy-in to our reward plans.

And so Wang's advice is worth considering for our reward communication efforts.  In his HBR blog post, he outlines the nine C's of engagement, which are worth our consideration as we strive to craft the right customer employee reward experience.

The Three C's of people centric values

• Culture - norms and preferences
• Community - internal and external stakeholders
• Credibility - trust earned through actions

The Three C's of delivery and communication

• Channel - means of communication
• Content - topic or information being covered
• Cadence - frequency of delivery (ad hoc, scheduled or continuous)

The Three C's of right time drivers

• Context - roles, relationships, timing; factors impacting how communication is absorbed and interpreted
• Catalyst - what inspires action and/or response
• Currencies - things that influence behavior through the exchange of value (important for us to keep in mind that these extend beyond the obvious cash elements to things like recognition, access and influence)

Wang's Nine C's should serve as a helpful reminder to us that communication (in compensation) is about more than words, and certainly about more than an annual memo and brochure.

And on that note, please join me and my Compensation Cafe colleagues Margaret O'Hanlon and Dan Walter at the WorldatWork 2012 Total Rewards Conference (May 20-23 in Orlando) for a chat on "Everything We Do (in Compensation) Is Communications."  Hope to see you there!

Creative Commons image "Megaphon" by floeschie

Comments

[Howard Bailen]

Anne: A related point to the discussion of the C's is the need to better align external and internal communications efforts. I've witnessed over many years working in public relations within the HR industry a (still) worrying gap between what organizations are saying to their employees and what they - either proactively or by doing little or no effective PR - communicate to clients, prospects and everyone else on the outside.

[Ann Bares]

Howard:

Very, very good point, and one I suspect we (HR/Rewards) often miss. Our employees are not the only ones that "hear" what we are inadvertently communicating!

Thanks for calling that one out!