Communication has changed in many ways over the last 100 years, including the speed and methods of communication, and how people perceive things.

1900s: People communicated primarily by talking, writing letters, and reading printed material.

1950s: The telephone became a common way to talk with friends and family. Four in ten households owned a radio.

1970s: Americans spent their time watching TV and listening to the radio.

1990s: The internet brought us platforms like America Online (AOL) and Internet Relay Chat (IRC) which allowed us to connect online and exchange messages.

To cope in our world today with smartphones, most of us select what we want to read and hear. There is so much that is shared on social media, in emails, texts, podcasts, and other forms of communication. We can’t read, listen, or watch it all.

In this selection process, we are ignoring some things and hyper focused on others. And then some topics are on the periphery, and they get our attention sometimes.

When writing communications related to pay and other rewards, it is easy to assume your audience cares about the topic.

But the reality is that it may or may not get their attention given all the other things that are vying for their time and energy.

So, when developing your communication plan and ways of communicating, be sure to simplify your key messages and be repetitive.

People typically need to hear a message at least 7 times before they take action. This is known as the "Rule of 7", a marketing principle that originated in the 1930s when the movie industry found that potential moviegoers needed to see a movie poster at least seven times before going to the theater.

That was in the 1930s. Imagine how many times it takes to get through the clutter of communications that we are bombarded with today.

If you need help developing your compensation and rewards related communications, let’s talk.

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