It’s easy to miss what’s happening at work when you’ve been sick, on vacation, or just busy. It isn’t always easy to catch up. That’s where a good internal communications strategy comes in.
Employees can struggle to stay in the loop when announcements are only shared via email or over chat and they have a ton of messages to read, let alone reply to.
75% of employees feel they miss out on company news because their employer has no internal communications department. Or they do and the department doesn’t deliver what they need.
Which isn’t surprising: 60% of companies have no long-term internal communications strategy.
This isn’t in line with what employees want. 44% want companies to adopt internal communications tools and 75% feel socially isolated.
A better internal communications strategy can’t solve social isolation, but it can help lessen it. It can make employees feel more like a part of a team and like they’re working towards something bigger than them.
So how can you improve your internal communications strategy and set it up for success? Let’s dive in:
Be transparent
How much do you share with your employees about what’s happening in your business?
Do you share numbers like monthly profit or churn?
Sharing this information can help employees visualize what’s happening and help motivate them to reach team and company goals.
It’s important to be honest if things are going badly just as much as if they’re going well. This puts things into context as well as acting as a motivator.
Open communication is also good for employee morale. In fact, a third of employees said that a lack of it had the most negative impact on employee morale. Which means a solid internal communications strategy can make a big difference.
Send digital updates regularly
Setting a regular cadence around your internal communications strategy is also important. If employees know when to expect updates from you, they can more easily keep an eye out for them. If you send them sporadically, your updates are far more likely to get lost in the noise.
For example, you could set a schedule of updating every Monday morning. That way, the news is in someone’s inbox when they start work for the week, or shortly after when they’ve caught up on their weekend emails.
Keep it relevant
If there isn’t much to report, don’t ramble on for the sake of sending an update. Respect employees’ time and say there isn’t anything new to report.
In most cases, there will be something, whether that’s progress on a new deal, customers churning, people starting/leaving a role, or upcoming public holidays and how that will affect them (for instance if they get the day off). Your internal communications strategy should cover all of these elements.
Create an internal knowledge base
It can take up to eight months for employees to reach full productivity when they start a new role. They have a lot to learn about your offerings and ways of operating. Plus, they have many people to get to know. Because of that, your internal communications strategy can’t just focus on outreach.
If you want to shorten employees’ ramp-up process, an internal knowledge base where they can get FAQs answered is key and will make onboarding faster for your new hires and their managers.
It also removes the embarrassment that comes from asking what can feel like basic questions. In addition, it ensures that the information people need is written down in an easy-to-find location.
New hires are also great for helping you spot gaps in your knowledge base. Be sure to ask them if there’s anything they’d add to it.
Have regular meetings
Even with frequent email or chat outreach, there’s still the possibility people will miss your updates. Covering them in a company-wide meeting means as many people will hear your message as possible.
These regular check-ins humanize leadership so that they don’t feel untouchable. Instead, they’re more approachable like other colleagues.
This ties back into being open and honest. You can only do that if you’re routinely sharing updates with your employees about what’s going on in the business in line with your internal communications strategy.
Track your success metrics
The only way you can be sure that your internal communications strategy works is if you have the right data. What do you want to track?
It could be your employee engagement metrics and how sharing news affects them; how often employees share about the company on social media; how comfortable employees feel coming to you with issues; the percentage of employees who fill in your feedback surveys.
Remember: just because you don’t get negative feedback, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. It might mean that employees don’t feel comfortable coming to you with their problems. In that case you have a serious employee experience challenge to tackle.
Use Workrowd
Workrowd can help you and your employees connect more easily. You can ensure you’re sending messages out to the right groups; keep every document and announcement they need in one place; and automate surveys to collect feedback. Not only does that cut down on unnecessary messages, but even if someone misses an email or social media post for whatever reason, they can still find all the information they need with just a couple clicks.
We can also help you track the impact of your employee programs, groups, and events with real-time analytics. That way you can act on the results—and improve your employee experience—faster.
Want to find out more? Get in touch today to book your free demo.
Conclusion
Your internal communications strategy plays a huge role in employee engagement and morale. It ensures people know what’s happening and means they can better prepare for what’s ahead, whether that’s positive or negative.
Knowing what’s happening within the business and wider industry is also a motivating factor for many people. Meaning it can help you get more from your workforce.
If you’d like to get better results from your internal communications strategy, why not try Workrowd? We can help you more effectively share updates with your team, collect feedback, and so much more. Visit us online to see how we can partner to deliver more value for your employees with less stress.
