6. Human Interest and Business Stories

Most internal communications programmes follow a philosophy that runs along the lines of: ‘what is important is the news about the business but what is going to help staff read it is news about people’. Human-interest stories – those concerning the exploits of individuals rather than businesses – not only tend to be lighter (and thus easier to read and digest), but also help engender team spirit. Plus they can create a sense that the business is an organisation that cares for its people and is willing to devote space to them in its corporate communications.

As a result, it is fairly usual for internal communications programmes to try to strike a balance between business and human-interest stories, often devoting several news items and sometimes even a special page to sporting and social events.

Employee magazines or papers may even have a ‘coffee time’ page with quizzes, crosswords, cartoons, gardening columns and so on.

Human-interest stories need to be treated quite differently from business items. The tone is usually much lighter and may even be tongue-in-cheek. Use of first names is the norm. But it is just as important to seek approval of the subject matter; employees are just as likely to get upset about being misquoted about their favourite hobby as they are for an error in a story regarding a new management initiative.

Maximising the interest in human interest

You would never believe some of the things people do when they get out of the office. I have written stories about staff doing everything from collecting airline sick bags to taking part in horse-and-trap races.

Sadly, such exploits tend to be the exception rather than the norm. Most human interest stories revolve around the kinds of things many people do on a regular basis: playing sports at amateur level, raising cash for charity, playing in a band and so on. When covering these, it is of course possible to write up a straight account of the news. But while a five-a-side football game between two different offices, for example, may have been great fun for the people involved, it is hardly going to leap off the page in terms of a story.

To make the most of these stories you often have to go beyond the event itself in search of something truly amusing or memorable. Dig deep for details when you speak to your source. In this five-a-side contest, did the novice team trounce the expert players? Was there anything special about the winning goal-scorer? Was this the culmination of a trend? Was there any special significance in the date, the location, the players or whatever? You may find, for example, that the coach carrying one team nearly had an accident and only the quick intervention of a player saved the team from disaster – a much more powerful story than your original lead.

Business stories

The principle of trying to raise interest also applies to business stories – and perhaps with greater justification. Management is often keen to lay out in detail plans for improved productivity, rationalisation, reorganisation and so on. For employees, such issues usually boil down to a simple question: ‘What does it mean for me?’ (Which, in some cases, can be roughly restated as: ‘Will I keep my job?’) The management response to this is usually of the form: ‘We are doing this to improve the business and if the business does well then we all do well’. (There may also be a few ‘buts’ involved.) However, it is important, both for the credibility of the internal communications programme and for the readability of the story, that the ‘what does it mean for me?’ question is addressed up front.

Also, since business stories may sometimes convey news that is of critical importance to the livelihood of workers, it is vital that they are written in a formal, sensitive way. It is also vital that they are written. Business leaders often like to think they can keep the lid on bad news, such as redundancies, for as long as possible. In fact, such news leaks out almost the minute it is formulated (if it has not been predicted already) and spreads out through the organisation via the grapevine. A good internal communications programme will recognise this and put out an official (if often necessarily brief) statement at the earliest possible opportunity. Employees appreciate being told, even if what they are being told is only that there will be more news to follow.