Should UX Writers Work in HR?
A Case for UX Writing in Internal Communications
UX Writing exists to help people understand information in challenging situations, for example, when completing a task in a digital environment. However, the principles of the discipline are applied almost exclusively in tech and software products, although other areas of organizations face exactly the communication problems UX Writers are trained to solve.
HR communication is one of these areas. For UX Writers who want to know where their competence can have impact outside of software, this might be an interesting connection to make – and also one that’s backed by data.
What the data says
Earlier this week, I came across an interesting study that inspired me to explore this exact connection myself: Gallagher's Employee Communications Report 2026 is the 18th edition of the State of the Sector series. For this edition, more than 1,300 communications and HR professionals from 40 countries answered surveys and took part in roundtables and focus groups between September and November 2025, across all major industries and organization sizes.
The main finding is a widening "Readiness Gap": the risks organizations face grow faster than their capability to communicate through them. The report also documents a lack of human-centered communication in internal communications, because many teams “understand the value of personalization, relevance, and accessibility”, but "far fewer have the tools, time, or influence to deliver it consistently" (Gallagher 2025, p. 35).
HR communication has UX needs
Human resources, to which the internal comms team often belongs, frequently communicates complex and emotionally demanding topics: change, company crises, developments, new requirements, rules, and much more.
At the same time, the audience is busy: Reading and processing information from HR is a side task next to the actual work the target audience performs. As Gallagher’s study shows, 83% of respondents say information overload is a growing problem, and 81% rate audience burnout as a moderate or significant risk (p. 12). Meaning: This audience has no time and only limited mental capacity to process complex information or even bad news.
The difficult topics that HR needs to address carry risks of their own. Communicating change at high volume comes with sharp increases in perceived risk: +24% for burnout and +30% for leader trust (p. 15). High strategy volume even increases the perceived lack of direction, because "volume is often used as a substitute for clarity" (p. 15) – something UXers know does not hold true.
In addition, communication needs to fit the technological context. HR can communicate via email, brochures, or the intranet, and each channel comes with its own opportunities and restraints. Again: something UX Writers are experienced with by the very nature of their job.
Audience research is needed
But there’s more: Organizations usually consist of a diverse workforce, and different target audiences need different kinds of information. They also have different preferences regarding formats for information consumption.
UX Writers are used to working with data-driven decisions and tailoring content specifically for distinct target audiences. Conducting or being part of user research is often part of their job description – a competence that comes in handy for companies that employ people from many professions, with different communication habits and needs.
And companies seem to be in dire need of exactly this competence: The Gallagher report documents how rare this practice is in internal communications, with 77% of respondents stating that they don’t regularly use research and profiling techniques such as personas or archetypes, and fewer than 1 in 5 being satisfied with their ability to personalize content (p. 6).
Tone and voice create trust
Another good friend gets frequently mentioned in the report: According to Gallagher, tone and voice is one of the few execution levers primarily within a communicator's control, and one of the most impactful.
A human tone, as opposed to a corporate one, seems to have positive effects on perceived leadership trust, clarity of direction, and audience burnout, because "'professional' often reads as distant while 'human' reads as trustworthy" (p. 38).
The design and proper application of voice and tone guidelines belong to the absolute core competences of UX Writers, with voice flexibility being one of the most important skills of writers, and as the report shows, HR communication can benefit from it.
The constraint is time, and time is a process problem
The report reveals even more parallels regarding process design and resource management: Limited time is named as the top constraint for human-centered internal communication (60–68%), even for the most mature teams – they may know what good communication requires, but they also lack processes that produce great communication within their time constraints.
UX Writers who work in product development often face tight deadlines, conflicting stakeholder interests, and competing responsibilities, and as a result they are practiced at building workable processes. In the age of AI, many UX Writers focus on optimizing their workflows with tool support, all while keeping the human note of their communication – another relevant competence for internal comms.
Should UX Writers work in HR?
Currently, we can watch the UX Writing community focusing primarily on discussing strategies to address the fear of being made redundant. Many UX Writers and Content Designers try to enhance their employability mainly through AI literacy and becoming familiar with scaling and automating content production.
Broadening the scope of application of UX Writing might be another strategy worth looking into. The Gallagher report describes a documented need outside of software: teams understand the value of human-centered communication but lack the tools, time, or influence to deliver it (p. 35). This gap matches the competences UX Writers bring — including target audience knowledge, tone and voice expertise, and experience in process design.
It is therefore not by accident that the report itself points out the striking parallels by describing the capability to communicate in a "human-centric" way as the ability to deliver internal communications that rival consumer experiences (p. 8).
A conclusion: Employer experience is brand experience
Apart from what the Gallagher report shows, we also frequently read about disappointing recruitment and hiring processes, insensitive layoff communication, and cases of discrimination. These experiences pop up on LinkedIn, Glassdoor, and other platforms where they shape the public image of companies just as much as bad customer reviews would. In this sense, employer experience indeed is brand experience – and hiring an expert from a field like UX Writing may be a smart move.
Source: Gallagher, Employee Communications Report 2026 (State of the Sector 2025/26), survey of 1,300+ comms and HR professionals across 40 countries, September–November 2025. https://www.ajg.com/employeeexperience/state-of-the-sector/
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