When writing communications, ask yourself these questions about the outcome:

• Who is this communication for?
• What do you want them to do differently after they read this message?
• Why would they read this?
• What information do your employees need?
• What is the key action step?

Know your communication outcome: inform or comply

Two common outcomes are complying and informing - meaning, is there an action you need employees to take (comply), or are you sharing a message (inform)?

We've provided examples below.

Pyn’s user research shows a strong correlation between someone clicking an email and reading it fully. But getting clicks is harder than you may think - that’s why it’s important to have a helpful headline that benefits the reader.

Ask yourself, “What’s the promise we’re making to our employees if they open this email?”

It’s not always necessary for your headlines to include all four tips outlined below, especially if there is no urgency for employees to complete a task. But when there is a specific action you want them to take, the clearer you can be about why + when + how and for who, the better.

1. Avoid jargon

Our brains like certainty - jargon doesn’t help. Leave out jargon in favor of clear and concrete language.
This helps in two ways:

1. It relaxes the brain and makes it easier to digest information because our brain knows how to orient what’s to come.
2. It builds trust. Don’t waste employees’ precious cognitive resources on asking them to guess on their own what’s inside or decipher fancy HR speak (competencies, anyone?). Instead answer, what’s the ‘so what?’ of the jargon.

2. Include an action

Data from early Pyn customers show action-oriented headlines perform better. Choose the action you want employees to take instead of just the topic. Action-oriented subject lines clarify the promise of what’s inside if they click and are another way to build trust.

3. Personalize it

Early Pyn data also shows personalized subject lines tend to perform ~10% better.

4. Make it time-bound

Tell your employees not just what you need them to do or pay attention to, but by when. Use the formula: Task + Time.

Resist the urge to overpack your communication, because overpacking messages makes for a heavy cognitive load.

Cognitive load refers to the amount of information that our working memory can hold at one time. According to the Cognitive Load Theory developed by John Sweller, the way we share information can either aid or obstruct that working memory. This is especially true if the content is complex or not directly relevant.

Our ability to use and be affected by the messages we receive isn’t a matter of quantity - how much information it contains. It’s a matter of quality - that the information is relevant, applicable, and personal.

It’s not about the length of the message, or how much information it contains, but the employee’s ability to do something with it.

Employees want to know what’s expected of them. This is especially true when someone is going through a new moment in their employee journey, like onboarding. That’s one reason why we can support our employees by being action-oriented, not just informational.

While we may believe it’s friendly to use casual or fun language, it can get in the way of our message being read. It also makes it harder to decipher what’s most important. If we’re not careful this can create more noise than signal.

An employee is scanning your message looking for clues on how to be successful, “Okay, but what do you need me to do?” Make it easy by telling them.

First, group asks and put them at the top of your message. If you have several asks, try to have them all be positive (things to do) or negative (not to do).

Second, decipher what the action looks like in an employee’s context. Focus on describing actions in observable behaviors. You can even give employees scripts or prompts of what to say, for example, “Say this when starting a difficult conversation.”

Use Pyn’s action continuum

The same message can be said in many ways, often on a continuum from informational (learn about) to actionable (do now).
That’s why we created Pyn’s action continuum to measure how actionable your communication is.

While not all messages can be on the “most preferred” end of the continuum, see if there are opportunities to shift your message from knowing to doing.

Instead of sending your communications all at once, make it timely by matching the message to the moment. Communicating in the flow of work is easier for employees to remember and to action.

For example, send a message to managers about how to have great 1:1’s in their first week as a manager - a time when many will be looking for this information and practicing this skill for the first time.

With Pyn you can automate messages to send exactly when an employee needs it, based on data in your HRIS. For example, you can send a sequence of messages to a new hire, triggered by their start date with in your HRIS

Talk about the timeframe

Labeling an email with a time frame is helpful, for example, “Welcome to Week 2 as a new manager.” You can take this one step further by connecting the “when” to the “what.”

When: In their second week, what are they trying to accomplish?
What: What might a new managers need be in their second week? What’s happening for them right now?

Connect tips to a concrete need

Help employees “land the plane” by directing them where and when to use the information you’re sharing.
This also helps your message feel more real and applicable by connecting it to a critical incident.

Concrete need: “Try this tip in your next team huddle”
General best practices: “Communication tips for teams”

It’s not just the message we share, it’s how and when we share it.

Communication is harder now because there’s so much content competing for the limited attention spans of highly stressed workers. We can decrease stress and anxiety (which is no friend to learning) by providing certainty through written communications. Give employees clarity on what’s expected of them and what they need to do.

Our job is to help people do better, not simply to share content. We need to close the gap between the utility of the information and our employee’s ability to do something with it.

The solution is not to give more information and comms, but to bring the message we want to share closer to those we want to share it with.

When you know your outcome, have a helpful headline, don’t overpack your messages, keep it action oriented, and match the message to the moment, you can communicate with employees more effectively.