Your employee population is unique, and you are the expert on your people. As you develop a engagement strategy for BetterUp®, below are some questions we recommend reflecting on:
- Who is your audience? Are they emerging leaders, seasoned professionals, or subject matter experts? Have they had experiences like BetterUp before?
- When rolling out other programs at your organization, what communications channels, messaging, or tactics have worked well? On the flip side, what hasn’t worked well?
- What challenges will your employees face in the next few months? Are there seasonal opportunities when you can promote BetterUp?
Take some time to review the best practices below to be able to create communications that will resonate with your members and drive activation and continued engagement.
The audience
Identify the key stakeholders for your engagement strategy and prioritize the information they need to know to amplify the success of your program.
- Business Stakeholders
- Communicate “the big why” for BetterUp & connect it to business strategy
- How can they support this initiative?
- Line Managers
- Communicate “the big why” for BetterUp & connect it to business strategy
- Drive accountability by sharing the manager’s role in the member’s coaching journey
- Set expectations for participating in Manager Feedback (if enabled)
- Set expectations for how Line Managers should support the program
- Members
- Communicate “the big why” for BetterUp & connect it to business strategy
- Share what BetterUp is & set expectations for activation, engagement, and outcomes.
- Share tactical steps to activate and get started.
- Build excitement by highlighting the member experience, including the custom plan, 1:1 coaching, and the Whole Person™ assessment
Who is sending out the communications
It is helpful to have communications be sent from different people across your organization for maximum impact.
- Executive Sponsors should:
- Communicate “the big why” for BetterUp & connect it to business strategy
- Share a vision of impact & value
- Program Managers (you!) should:
- Share the tactical steps to get started i.e the launch date
- Set adoption deadlines and engagement expectations (activate account within 1 week, have first coaching session by week 2)
- Nudge post-launch adoption and engagement
- Business Stakeholders should:
- Translate what the Executive Sponsor communicates into relevance for their specific business area
- Previous BetterUp members or internal Coaching Experts should:
- Share testimonials of personal impact to inspire
- Line Managers should:
- Reinforce the benefits of coaching during 1:1 meetings
- Create the space for members to engage and share their reflections
Communication channels
Reflect on what has (and hasn’t) worked in the past when launching new programs. Meet your stakeholders with touch points in their flow of work.
- Internal chat messages (e.g. Slack, Teams)
- Internal sites (Sharepoint, Viva, Intranet)
- All-hands meetings, team meetings, live events
- On-site promotion, internal intranet, newsletter blurb
Personalization
Tailor your communications to your culture and environment to increase resonance and excitement.
- Adapt to your target audiences
- Use company language and branding
- Incorporate into existing communications platforms
Executive sponsorship
Our most successful launches leverage an executive sponsor to drive member commitment and engagement.
Email outreach
- The Communications Toolkit has templates for email outreach from an executive sponsor to announce BetterUp to your members.
- Tip: Encouragement and endorsement from executive leaders makes a significant impact on member activation and engagement
Kick-off call participation
- If you are hosting a live or recorded kick-off call, invite an executive sponsor to speak for a few minutes about why your company is investing in BetterUp coaching, and why your members have been selected to participate.
- Tip: Highlight the personal and professional growth that members can expect to build excitement and motivation.
Video recording
- If your executive sponsor can’t participate live, a recorded video can be just as impactful.
- Tip: Play the video in a live kick-off call, include it in internal communications, and share it in ongoing engagement communications.