Taylor Swift has created a cultural phenomenon with her Eras tour. Whenever you go and whatever you do, you can’t get away from hearing where she is and what she’s doing! But what has she done differently to other performers? And how can you Taylor Swift your HR to create the same fandom in your organisation? (yes we did just make Taylor Swift a verb).
Here are some ideas to consider:
1.Make it an event
When Taylor comes to a city, it can actually change their economy. Banners go up everywhere, restaurants and hotels are full and excitement is in the air. It’s a happening. How often do we create a new HR process, and then launch it by sending out an email? There’s no sense of expectation. There’s no happening. Why not Taylor Swift the launch of a new HR or people process by putting up banners, having some sort of ‘concert’ – maybe even launching it in each location or office that you have – getting some trusted managers or employees to post about the new process, send invites out via your internal social media channel, create some videos or infographics about it? In short, make it something that people are talking about and want to come and find out what it is.
2.Create raving fans
Swifties have taken their fandom to new heights, attending the concerts in their hundreds of thousands, jumping so much it shows up on the richter scale as a minor earthquake, buying merch, defending Taylor from any naysayers. Why not find people in your organisation who can be the fans of your HR process or initiative? Give them merch to wear (t-shirts, mugs, backpacks) and ask them to go out and talk to different teams about the initiative. Yes you’ll need to get this approved as it will be outside their job responsibilities, but could be something to add into your development programmes (teaching people influencing and presentation skills!). Getting them to jump up and down so much your building shakes? Probably not such a great idea…..
3.Recreate & re-record
The story is famous of how Taylor didn’t have the rights to her own music, so after a suggestion from Kelly Clarkson, she re-recorded everything and fans then brought her new recordings in droves. HR policies for example can be pretty boring – so why not re-record them? Give them a new name, ask your marketing or comms department to create some new graphics and layouts for them, rewrite them so people want to read them (if you’re stuck on how to do this, one of our HR Master Classes could help you!!) and make them look interesting and new. Tie in launching them as an event and you’ve got pure Taylor magic.
4.Be transparent & personal
One area Taylor doesn’t hold back, is writing songs about ex boyfriends and sharing her feelings. This could be why Swifties feel so strongly about defending her and supporting her. They feel like they know her. They know what she’s been through, because she’s shared it through social media and her music. In HR we try and be very professional, but sometimes lose that personal touch. When you’re sending out comms, could you add in a personal aspect about why you think it’s important? Could you share a real story of why this process is in place (obviously not breaching anyone’s privacy)? If employees and managers feel like they know their HR or payroll or talent team, they’re more likely to listen and be open to discussing things with you.
Of course, there are also things you don’t want to try and recreate. Coming to work in a Taylor Swift concert outfit possibly won’t set the right tone for example! But the other things she has done have some sound principles behind them that you can use to get your business engaged with HR.
We’d love to hear if you try any of these out.
And if you want training that helps you deliver HR brilliantly – then why not check out our HR Advisors Master Classes or HR Business Partner Master Classes for some new ideas!
Elephant Group 