Frequently Asked Questions

Internal communication is how information moves from leaders to your team, between teams, and from your people back up to leaders. Good communication measures when your people understand or if things get lost in translation. Every business has internal communications, it up to your team to plan for it or not. It's always better to plan for it, and be deliberate about what you share and how you share it.

Start with three questions: What does my team need to know? How often? Through what channel(s)?

Build from there instead of trying to plan for every scenario at once. I build these plans with clients all the time.

HR handles policies, benefits, and compliance. Internal communications handles the message, the tone, and making sure people actually understand and care. They overlap, but they're not the same job.

You don't need a whole department, you need a clear plan and someone consistent to run it. That can be an existing team member with the right guidance, someone like me stepping in as a fractional support person, or running a project communication plan focusing on delivering one big thing.

No, you don't necessarily need someone full time. Many small and mid-sized businesses need a plan and some structure more than they need a full hire. That's why I offer flexible levels of support instead of one giant package.

Write down exactly what you do, in the order you do it, using words a brand new hire would actually understand. Then have someone who's never done the task try to follow it. If they get stuck, so will everyone else. As a trained technical writer, I've created hundreds of work instructions and SOPs people actually use.

Because the SOP is either too confusing to follow or too boring to bother with. If people are skipping steps, that's feedback on the document, not proof your team doesn't care. Let's fix the doc, not blame the team.

A policy is the rule, a procedure is the steps to follow it. We require safety checks is a policy. Steps outlining exactly how to do the safety check is a procedure. Most businesses only write the first one and wonder why nothing changes. I write them both - usually working closely with HR for the policy, then using my experience to write the procedure.

Detailed enough that a brand new hire with zero context could follow it without asking you a single question. Any less, and you're stuck being the bottleneck forever. Any more, and nobody reads it. Let's find that sweet spot.

Numbered steps, one action per line, and a picture wherever the words get complicated. Skip the paragraphs. Nobody reads a wall of text while their hands are busy doing the actual task. This is my bread and butter.

Your team doesn't always trust the survey enough to tell you the whole truth, so the earlier score was probably too rosy to begin with. A dip after real change is often the survey finally getting honest, not proof you're failing. Let's dig into what's really going on.

Ask specific questions instead of broad ones, and follow up on what people already told you so they see it actually matters. Fear of speaking up usually comes from feedback going nowhere the last time someone tried. I help leaders rebuild that trust.

Targeted, sharper questions beat twenty generic ones every time. Ask about specific channels, approaches, and sources; ask how they get information and if it works for them. Ask if they have a preferred way to receive information. Specific questions get you specific answers. Let's redesign your survey.

Because anonymous versus information that is actually used to improve anything feel like two different promises to them. They feel like only one of the promises usually gets kept. If nothing visibly changes after a survey, trust drops for the next one. Let's close that loop for your team.

Less often with more follow-through beats constant surveys nobody acts on. Measuring your communication process (which is what the HHC Communications Assessment does) will do more to improve comms than an annual, generic engagement survey. Make sure when you ASK for feedback, you are ready to build a PLAN to address things, and REPORT back on what's improved.

Say it early, say it clearly, be honest, and give people something to do next. Silence breeds rumors and unrest. The unknown is way scarier than the truth. Tell your team what's changing, what's staying the same, and where they can ask questions. Get the full playbook on the Change Management page.

Lead with the facts you actually know, not the ones you're hoping for. Skip the corporate speak and tell people how this affects their day to day job. Then tell them exactly who to go to with questions, because they will have questions. I help leaders script this exact moment.

Your top performers leave first because they have options and zero patience for uncertainty. Get ahead of the rumor mill with honest updates on a regular schedule, even when the update is nothing new yet. Your competition wants your top employees - don't get stuck with a mediocre team.

Managers first, always. They need time to process before they have to answer questions from their team. Next, employees; finally, your clients. Skip a step and you'll spend months cleaning up the mess. Find your M&A champions here.

Share everything you're legally allowed to, and be upfront about what you can't say yet. I can't answer that right now, but here's when I will, builds way more trust than silence ever does. Let's map out exactly what you can say and when.

Keep it to four things, what's changing, why, who it affects, and where to go with questions. Anything longer gets skimmed, and anything shorter feels like you're hiding something. I write these emails so you don't have to stare at a blank screen.

Tell them directly, tell them early, and tell them what stays the same before you tell them what's different. People panic about the unknown way more than the actual change. Book a free consult and we'll draft it together.

Acknowledge what happened, don't gloss over it, and be honest about what comes next for them. Staying quiet about layoffs doesn't protect morale, it tanks it. This is core to my change management work.

One page, one visual, plain job titles. Don't bury it in a memo nobody reads. Follow it up with a quick Q&A session so people can ask the awkward questions out loud instead of in the group chat. Share detailed one-pagers with division and functional leaders before all employees. Happy to build that visual with you.

As soon as the decision is real, even if every detail isn't finalized yet. Waiting for the perfect moment usually means someone leaks it first, and now you're playing defense. Let's build your timeline before that happens.

Because nobody told them why it's good for them, only that it's happening. People don't resist change, they resist feeling left out of it. Loop them in early and resistance drops fast. More on this on the Change Management page.

Ask them what's annoying about the old process before you roll out the new one. People support what they helped shape. Skip that step and you're just handing down orders from a mountain. I run these listening sessions with clients all the time.

It's when your team has been through so many changes they've stopped believing any of it will stick. Fix it by finishing what you started before you launch the next thing, and actually celebrating the wins along the way. Let's talk about where your team is.

Watch for silence in meetings, a spike in emails asking the same question more than once, and rumors that spread faster than official updates. That's not a personality problem, it's a communication gap. I can help close it.

Check to see they actually understood it before you assume they're ignoring it on purpose. Half the time a policy fails because nobody explained the why behind it. Fix the message before you try to fix the people. Let's rewrite it so it actually lands.

It can cost up to 200% of a person's salary once you count recruiting, training, and lost productivity. That's a wildly expensive way to avoid a hard conversation. More on why better communication is a cheaper fix.

Money keeps people showing up, communication keeps them staying. If your best people don't know what's coming next or how they fit into the plan, they'll find a company that tells them. Let's figure out where your gap is.

Yes, and it's a lot cheaper than a signing bonus. Employees who feel informed and included stick around, because uncertainty is the top reason good people start browsing job boards. This is literally my specialty.

They want to know what's happening, why it's happening, and where they stand in it. Feeling informed is feeling valued. Skip that and no perk package will fix it. Let's build that into your culture.

ASK! Stop waiting for the exit interview, that's too late to fix anything. Check in regularly, ask specific questions, and actually act on what you hear. If your engagement survey isn't catching this, the survey's the problem. Let's fix that survey.

Because nobody told them why it makes their job easier, only that they have to learn it. People adopt tools that solve their problems, not tools that get dropped on their desk. Let's build a rollout plan that actually sticks.

Roll it out in stages, not all at once. Tell people the one problem it solves for them specifically, and skip the full feature list. Overwhelm kills adoption faster than a clunky interface ever could. I help plan these rollouts.

A timeline, a message about what's actually in it for each team, training resources, and a clear person to ask when something breaks. Miss any of those and adoption stalls out. Let's build yours.

Longer than leadership expects and shorter than employees fear, if you communicate well along the way. Rushed rollouts with no follow-up communication are what stretch it out for months. Good comms speeds this up more than extra training, but a solid training plan helps too.

Involve a few real users before launch day, not just IT and leadership. Let them find the annoying bits early, and let them help explain it to their peers later. Peer buy-in is easier to sell than a leadership memo. Let's identify your champions.

More than most owners want to add up. Every time someone reinvents the wheel, or asks how something works for the third time, that's paid time with nothing to show for it. Documented process fixes that fast.

Sit down with that person and have them walk you through it step by step, out loud, like they're training someone new. Write down exactly what they say, then clean it up. That knowledge shouldn't leave with them on vacation, let alone for good. I run this exact process with clients.

Every new hire asks the same questions, the same mistakes keep happening, and only one person knows how something actually works. That's not a training problem, that's a documentation problem. Let's build your SOPs.

Hand them a written process on day one instead of a schedule and good luck wishes. They'll still ask questions, but way fewer of them, and they'll get productive faster. This is exactly what a good SOP does.

Pick the best version of how it's currently done, write it down, and make that the standard everyone follows. Consistency comes from a shared process, not from hoping everyone lands on the same method by accident. Let's document it together.

Same strategic work a full-time communications director does, just scaled to what your business actually needs right now. Think planning, messaging, and keeping your team informed, minus the full-time salary and benefits. Learn how this works for you.

If you're the one drafting every announcement, dreading the next big change, or watching messages get lost between leadership and your team, that's your answer. Let's chat and figure out what you actually need.

A full-time hire is on payroll year-round whether there's a project or not. A fractional director shows up when you need strategic communications support and steps back when you don't. Flexibility, minus the overhead. I offer different levels of support depending on what's going on.

It depends on the scope, but far less than a full-time salary and benefits package. I build a project plan with costs upfront so there are no surprises. Payment plans are available too.

Usually, YES! You don't have to hire me for everything all at once. I offer different levels of support, from a plan you run yourself to full hands-on help. Let's find what fits your budget.

Fractional support offers companies a set number of hours each month/quarter/year for a set cost. This can be helpful when you need communications support, but you don't want to keep pricing projects. Often fractional support is less expensive than a project based charge from a change communication consultant.