Avoiding jargon, reducing message length, and eliminating “spin”
Communications consultant Steven Laird is the editor for Buck Exchange. He works with an advisory board with representatives from each of Buck’s consulting practices: Health & Productivity, Retirement, Investments & DC Plans, Communications, Global Technology, and Research & Compliance.
Feel free to comment on any of these stories; comments will be posted after a brief review. Or you can contact the editor directly at steven.laird@buckconsultants.com. Steven will direct your questions and comments to the appropriate consulting practice for response.
In this issue:
Communications
Global Technology
- Going paperless in HR
Communications
Getting personal
by the Editor
Avoiding jargon, reducing message length, and eliminating “spin” has been tagged as the top theme emerging from a study of recent pension communication campaigns.
Extracts from an ongoing study by UK research firm Spence Johnson ( “Getting Personal: Excellent DC pensions communications from around the world”) puts cutting jargon at the head of 14 communications trends. Others include using creative ideas and graphics to highlight messages, making specific calls to action from plan members, using different messages for different groups, and personalizing messages.
The study collected 90 communication campaigns from nine countries, including Canada. “There is a relentless focus on brevity and clarity in communications,” the researchers found.
Personalized messages that include information relevant to the member are highly prized in these campaigns. Hand in hand with personal messages goes the timing of communications that prompt members to take action (e.g., enroll in the plan).
Global Technology
Going paperless in HR
by Elena Morandi-Bonner, Account Executive
“This is the 21st century and we are communicating wirelessly all over the world. The little old lady in a remote village is yakking on her cell phone and my 80-year old mother in Italy is on Skype almost daily with friends and family with her shiny new net book. The press reported just yesterday that four out of five Canadians access the Internet regularly– more than almost anywhere in the world.”
So with 80% of the Canadian population using the internet, why are we still hearing from corporate sources that not enough of our population is online and using web self-service tools to make it worth the corporate investment in communications technology?
Read the rest of Elena’s article on the Buck Blog.
