Internal communications

Internal communications (IC) is the function responsible for effective communications among the employees within a company.

Internal comms is becoming an ever more valuable tool for leaders to communicate to the rest of the company as they see the value in mobilising every employee to make a difference.

Internal communications is, in essence, marketing to employees. Just like in traditional marketing, the more you direct your message to a specific audience, the more effective it will be. Equally, an internal audience is going to be more switched on to sniffing any BS, so it needs to be authentic.

The success or failure of a brand can often be dictated by the strength of its own people and they are, after all, the most dedicated brand ambassadors.

When internal communications work well and your employees are communicating effectively, they end up being so in tune with the business they’ll begin to tell the company story for you, and they’ll take pride in doing so.

The goal of creating a strong organisation, with highly committed and well-performing employees, engaged in a common mission can only be achieved when a quality two-way internal communications plan is executed. Before an ‘action plan’ can be devised, researching where the company currently sits is of utmost importance.

For the internal communication plan to be adopted and implemented with energy and commitment, it is important that all employees are consulted. Is internal communication happening at all? If so, how effective is it? How would your employees like internal communications to work? What information do they need?

Your internal communications plan should be used to present the reasons why something has or has not happened, to keep employees feeling informed and to engage them in problem solving across your business. How do you plan to improve or perfect a system when you have no idea what the problems are?

Empowering your employees to have and share their opinions is one of the most effective ways to improve communication in the workplace. It is also a great way of how to motivate employees in your organization. Rather than settle for what the management team says, encourage two-way feedback and emphasize that their opinions will not affect their standing in the organization.

There are few ways for engaging your employees in internal communications:

• Many companies still rely on lengthy emails or sending too many emails when communicating with internal departments. That usually results in some of the messages being ignored by the employees.
• To keep your teams updated on new developments and changes within your company, you need to do this in the most engaging way possible. For example, using video (online training and how-to videos, important updates to company procedures) is way more entertaining and engaging for your team than reading a long email.
• Integrating internal social network to your communications strategy can enable and encourage people to connect with each other. It can also be a great information resource for the organization because employees use and contribute to it. Users can also decide on the type of content and the people they want to interact with.
• Wikis are excellent tools for documenting personal information, knowledge management, or anything of interest surrounding projects, tasks, and teams. Within an organization, these tools are great for information sharing, building a knowledge base, and for responding to queries from employees.
• Publishing a monthly newsletter gives you an opportunity to increase awareness and understanding of your company, its products, and its services. This is especially important for new employees who may need to get acquainted with company processes and procedures. A newsletter can also be an effective effective business communication tool for updating employees on recent developments and metrics.
• By using metrics in reports, you are more likely to encourage growth. Adding visual representations that show growth trends will enable teams to see where they can focus without even having to tell them to do it.
• Goals and objectives that are publicly available to your employees also help put meaning into metrics. Transparency of goals drives performance because it creates a sense of commitment. By telling everybody within the organization your goals, you are also helping them commit to pursuing those goals in their own way.

What is an internal communication strategy?

Internal communication strategy is like a map, it represents the big picture of what the company want to achieve.

Your strategy is how you capture all this information so everyone knows what route the company is taking, how they fit in, why this approach is the best one and how you’re going to get to your destination.

Employees are the heart and soul of a company, thus it’s critical to pay attention to their needs. An engaged and committed employee work force increases business results.

Find out more about how you can keep your team informed about the big picture and most granular data with Knowlocker.