When you think about business communications, you’re probably thinking about external communications—dealing with clients and potential clients. However, a company’s internal communications are just as crucial to business, but are often left to be figured out along the way.
Gallagher’s 2022/23 State of the Sector report extracts insights from over 2,000 communication and HR leaders and provides much-needed perspective on the current state of communications in our ever-changing workplaces. When polled on what the leading purposes of internal communications were, these were the top three selections:
Culture and Belonging – Creating an inclusive workplace where employees feel valued and energized
Strategic Alignment – Creating clarity around your strategy and a sense of ownership
Organizational Agility – Supporting the adoption of new behaviours, systems and processes
From this list, it’s clear that internal communications play a pivotal role in creating a company’s identity, ensuring its smooth operation, and ultimately enabling its success. For any business looking to improve internal communications, the most important thing you can do is develop an internal communications plan. Not all the following suggestions will be right for every business, but a business can improve in several ways in each of these categories.
Organizational Agility
Assess Your Current Channels
Before making any sweeping changes, assessing where you’re starting from is important. First, take inventory of employees’ current communication channels. Then, survey employees about the channels they use and what their preferences are. Of course, having a mix that serves different communication styles is essential, but you also want to ensure that employees have access to all the information they need and that it isn’t siloed from necessary people.
Create a Shared Space
When you’re selecting the mix of your comms platforms, be sure you’ve included an online platform for knowledge sharing, such as Microsoft SharePoint or Google Workspace. Having a centralized hub for staff to share documents lowers the barrier to collaboration and makes it easier for everyone to find the necessary resources.
Write and Update Internal Guides
Internal guides are extremely helpful for onboarding new staff, but they can also be useful for everyone else. For example, if an employee is suddenly absent or leaves the organization and someone must fill in for them, having that knowledge available rather than locked away in someone’s head can prevent a lot of balls from dropping. And if a process has to change, updating the guide and then letting people know is much more efficient than explaining the changes to everyone individually.
Strategic Alignment
Clearly State Your Purpose
You want your company’s mission, vision and values to be well-known by staff and not just something mentioned once during onboarding. Giving the whole staff a unified understanding of the company’s goals will provide context to how everyone contributes to its success. Internal communications should tie back into these values to reinforce them whenever possible. Unsurprisingly, the State of the Sector report recognized strategy, vision and purpose as the top subject that their organization communicated about.
Make Openness the Norm
Keep staff in the know by consistently communicating through a recurring channel—this could be through a regular meeting or an internal newsletter. Let staff know about plans and potential changes since those will likely affect them the most. Not only will this make them feel included and prepared for changes, but when leadership demonstrates being open, it encourages staff to do the same.
Give Opportunities for Feedback
Rather than just issuing one-way communications, allow staff to share their thoughts and ideas. This will not only make them feel more engaged and valued, but as the frontline of the business, their perspectives can provide valuable insights. Creating a formal system for staff to provide feedback will generate more submissions from all staff, rather than informal systems.
Culture and Belonging
Provide Space for Connections
Culture can’t exist without communication, so a company should create an environment that fosters healthy communication among staff. Even small windows of conversation can make a big difference. Opening meetings with small talk puts everyone at ease, makes them feel included and allows them to focus better once the meeting’s agenda begins. Encourage staff to chat on breaks and be comfortable with one another. This extends to the relationships between managers and staff as well. Connection grows familiarity which builds trust.
Keep DEI Considerations Top-of-Mind
Gallagher’s report identified Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) as the second most frequently communicated topic. What language we use is a key factor in DEI, and saying things carefully can be the difference between making some feel included or excluded. Keep DEI in mind when communicating internally about celebrating holidays, planned staff events and kudos to staff. Creating an inclusive culture where people don’t feel left out improves morale and helps keep staff long term.
Celebrate Wins Publicly
When an employee is doing exceptional work, it’s worthwhile to take the time to recognize that, whether in a staff meeting or an internal newsletter. It rewards the employee’s efforts and serves as an example to staff of the kind of work the company wants to achieve. It’s a small gesture that can help employees see how they contribute to the company’s overall success and that it’s something worth taking pride in.
Improve Your Internal Communications
- Assess Your Current Channels
- Create a Shared Space
- Write and Update Internal Guides
- Clearly State Your Purpose
- Make Openness the Norm
- Give Opportunities for Feedback
- Provide Space for Connections
- Keep DEI Top-of-Mind
- Celebrate Wins Publicly