Rhetoric, as defined by the Oxford Dictionary, is the art of effective or persuasive speaking or writing, especially the exploitation of figures of speech and other compositional techniques. This is so true of employee communications!
How many presentations have you heard where the employee is acknowledged there right up front, maybe even top of the bill, in statements like “Our People are important to us,” “We can’t get this job done without our wonderful employees,” or “This company is our people,” and then, then what? That’s the last mention in the presentation? It is rhetoric, it is art, but it is not effective.