Awarness. Attention. Action.

Posted on Tuesday, December 11, 2007 by Frank Roche

Here’s what works in HR communication: Make sure that your campaign moves employees from awareness to attention to action.

Too often, what passes for “communication” is nothing more that making employees aware. Sure, it’s fun to work on graphic identity, logos, branding, and taglines. But that is just about the big splash. You have to make people aware, that’s right. Just don’t stop there.

Once people are aware, it’s time to get their attention. Remember those Lexus ads where it was just a car hidden in the fog? That was awareness. Then the car came farther out of the fog. You could see it was a Lexus. That’s attention.

But getting their attention isn’t enough. You want your employees to do something. You want them to sign up for long-term insurance. You want them to work as part of a team. You want them to cooperate more. You want action.

Great communication campaigns drive positive behaviors. Awareness. Attention. Action. If you’re not thinking about all those steps, then you’re missing out on effective HR communication.

User Comments

Jim Stroup

Dec 12th, 2007

Frank,

Your comparison with the ad is enlightening. You don’t just make your point – however strikingly. You can have the whole building talking – accurately, even – about your message, but if they don’t act on it, they haven’t really gotten it – and if you are the one who wants them to take action, you’re the one that has to find a way to bridge the gap from attention to action.

A lot of people feel they’ve done their job by putting the word out, but this is a great illustration of the shortcoming of this view. Awareness, attention, action. That’s a keeper.

Thanks!
Steve Roesler

Dec 13th, 2007

Hello, Frank,

Certainly on board with the action orientation.

Here’s a question to ask HR practitioners and their internal clients:

“Did you ask for an action to be taken?”

I’ve seen a lot of good conversationalists and folks who explain things well; very few, though, ever “ask for the sale”.

Let’s face it: if we want something–regardless of our job title–ya just gotta “ask for the sale”.

Keep writing…