I’m MD of one of the voluntary employee benefits providers and as part of my work I meet a lot of editors and journalists in the various HR and benefits trade press.
Over the last year I’ve spoken to many of them about the level of information and knowledge sharing that their features and articles cover. Sometimes I’ve commented that the level of information seems very basic and I don’t think it goes far enough in really sharing practical best practice that HR managers and directors can reflect on and consider following.
I’ve been surprised at some of the responses from quite a few representatives of the trade press. They seem to think that they need to keep the information and advice quite basic to make sure it is understandable by more junior, or less well-informed HR staff.
A good example is on Benefits Comunication. One leading magazine produces a 12 page pull-out last year which I thought really didnt tell HR managers anything they wouldn’t know already. Benefits Communication is an mportant topic as in nearly all surveys that take place, a common finding is that employers report that somewhere between 70% and 80% of their employees do not fully value the benefits on offer. But the feature produced didnt really give any better advice that “Consider your target audience, evaluate all of the possible communications channels open to you and then evaluate the results”. This seems very basic and I’m sure most HR managers need more in-depth practical advice and suggestions than this.
What does everyone else think? Are the industry publications getting the level right? Are some getting it more right that others? Which magazines are people reading that are delivering real, practical advice and best practice that HR managers can use and implement?
Would love to know what everyone else thinks.
Glenn Elliott
MD
Asperity Employee Benefits
3 Responses
Segmentation
The point raised is a good one. The writers, editors and so on need to do a much better job of segmenting the market place. I include CIPD publications in this. I do hope that CIPD’s new recruits work seriously at this!
Headlines are more important than content
An interesting point. I recently read an article in a magazine aimed solely at the legal profession, written on the subject of Risk, related to psychometric profiling.
The article had been aimed a legal teams suggesting that profiling of any kind presented a number of dangers to employers, but then went on to mix up normative and ipsitive “Tests” ( which some are not and some are)but basing its conclusions on the type of “questions” being asked in the tests.
It would appear that the media is being used to present cases that are more and more biased towards a personal viewpoint rather than providing accurate information, something which is also very true of the internet.If the readers of this article were to take it at face value, many companies will end up being advised NOT to use testing of any kind at any time.
Reporters seem to spend less time fact finding and more time looking for a headline.
I now find that I spend more time carrying out my own research as it is the only way to get a balanced view.
KISS (Keep it Simple Stupid)
I think the problem goes a lot further than just dumbing down information in articles for more junior members of staff to be able to understand.
The whole culture in this country seems to be one of making everything simple so no one fails or get up set because they don’t understand.
I think someone has learnt the military acronym KISS (Keep it Simple Stupid) and thinks it should apply to everything and everyone.