Early in my HR career, I was ‘that guy.’ I’d try to add a little irreverence and open enrollment humor into our boring benefits communications in an attempt to get employees to chuckle and pay attention. But the problem was, my ‘humor’ didn’t always go over so great.
Not all employees found my humor funny. Some even found it inappropriate for the context, or got confused since they’d never experienced an HR communication with some health insurance humor. The first time I did it, I ended up spending more time explaining myself in follow-up emails than I would have if I’d personally gone to each employee individually and told them directly what I wanted to say!
Yep. It was a complete failure.
But, I’m a little like Popeye. Remember the old cartoon character’s favorite saying, I yam what I yam? My personality is to want people to smile and laugh, so I didn’t give up on the idea of making my communications less boring and more fun.
Instead, I just tweaked my style a little. I made a point to stick to stuff that most people would find funny, and not so many people would find confusing or inappropriate. I’m still not perfect, but I’ve learned a few things that can help you make open enrollment funny (without going overboard):
1. Sarcasm is lost on most people.
The use of sarcasm can be super funny, but it shouldn’t be used in HR communications because it’s so hard to interpret for many people. Plus, the reason sarcasm is funny is because you’re usually saying the opposite of what you want, or what is true. You definitely don’t want that in writing in an HR communication!
2. The humor you use should be rated G to PG at most.
Have you seen any kid’s movies lately? They’re super funny for adults to watch, and safe for kids to see. That’s the sweet spot. Before you hit send, run the “kid” test: if a child heard or read this communication, would you feel it was appropriate? If so, you’re in the right ballpark.
3. Only make fun of an executive if you’re 100% sure they’d find it funny too.
Let’s just say, I have a ‘friend’ who did this, and apparently, some executives don’t find it funny when they’re the butt of a joke sent out to all employees! Okay, that ‘friend’ might have been me. And that executive still won’t talk to me.
So for the most part, let’s just say…don’t go there. Your open enrollment enrollment humor can do without a jab at your C-suite.
