HR for HR: Top tips to achieve effective communication

Published: 5 March 2025 | by Caroline Green

For HR professionals, strong communication skills are a must. Why? Because one of the key aspects of your role is keeping your organisation updated and in the loop. Caroline Green asked HR experts for their top tips for getting communication right.

Whether it’s national changes like the Employment Rights Bill or something specific to your organisation, how do you confidently address topics and drive initiatives and change across the entire company? I reached out to experienced HR practitioners from across the profession to get their insights. It’s perhaps no surprise that they put communication at the heart of their formula for success.

Here are their top five recommendations for communicating effectively.

1. Focus on comprehension

“It’s not about communication, it’s about comprehension,” says Sandra, a highly experienced HR consultant. She explains that you shouldn’t simply flood everyone with emails or posters – focus instead on a two-way conversation. Lead with active listening and taking concerns on board, being prepared to flex where you can. If something is ambiguous or contentious, then start by acknowledging that.

Other ways to help with comprehension include:

• Show the bigger picture: align with business strategy and demonstrate how the HR update aligns with the broader goals of the business.
• Emphasise long-term benefits: highlight how the change you are proposing will support the long-term goals of the organisation. Be clear on what those are if your audience isn’t as aware of them as you.
• Frame ambiguity positively: it’s OK to acknowledge if things are uncertain. This can help to manage expectations as things evolve. Be clear on an expected timeline for the work.

Comprehension is critical, not just in the meeting where the idea is first discussed, but also when it is subsequently being rolled out across the whole organisation.

2. Be transparent and open

“The most important element in my view is being as transparent and informative as you can,” says Dean, an HR Adviser based in the south-east. “People are much more likely to get on board if they know why the change is happening.” Amelia, an HR Administrator, underlines another reason why honesty is always the best policy. She stresses that it is “important to keep an honest dialogue – people need to understand that HR doesn’t always have control over decisions and are also normal people with their own views”

3. Prepare your data

In addition to those all-important people skills, the foundation of all HR work is in providing evidence-backed data. This is crucial as it highlights that changes are being made not on a whim, but for a legitimate reason. Gayle, an HR Policy Writer, agrees, saying it is important to “use evidence and data to back up suggestions”, while others suggest that evidence should include how not making the required change could impact the organisation financially, and provide a potential risk to its reputation.

But before you head into the meeting armed with your spreadsheets and graphs, remember that not everyone loves data in its purest form. Part of HR’s role here is to make the dry data leap off the page, full of colour and insight, to weave a story around the data, using case studies of your people or of organisations that have already made the changes you’re suggesting – or that haven’t and have suffered serious consequences. These will all make the data more interesting, give context and make it stick in people’s minds more. It will help comprehension, moving beyond simple communication.

4. Tailor your approach

Nicola, a senior HR professional, explains that a crucial step is understanding your audience so that you know what specific challenges they will face and then “pitching how you can help with those challenges”. Tailor your approach to the particular change you plan to implement. “If it’s a change that is not law-related, then I find that ‘drip feeding’ into stakeholders initially is a good way to get them accustomed to your ideas,” says another senior professional, Naomi. “Chat things through. Then when you are ready to implement, they have a good understanding of the background (and you of their views). I find then that it goes much more smoothly. If it is a legal change, then I share and provide options on how the organisation could implement, with caveats if the final detail is unknown.”

5. Lay the groundwork

Before you head off to a meeting with your shiny new idea, having a plan of how you’ll pitch the change – including the “why” and the “how”, the evidence you’ll use and anticipating any potential questions – is of course good practice. But Cheryl, an established HR professional, goes one step further. “I think this is where having a seat at the internal leadership table is important, so you are a key and regular part of the discussions and can formulate a way that makes sense and fits the organisation.”

Laying this groundwork, having longer-term plans of how you can shape and influence the organisation, as well as giving “in the moment” advice, will pay dividends. As will being on hand to answer queries before, during and after the implementation of any changes, whether they’re about a change to a policy, a legal update or a new initiative.

In this way, the HR approach can truly support the organisation – and make your life a little easier in the process!