How To Tell You Need An Internal Communications Upgrade
Three-part series to building a business case for internal communications.
Why do you Need an Internal Communications Strategy?
An internal communications strategy is important because it strengthens the connection between employees, employers and the company mission.
It increases commitment by keeping staff informed. It boosts productivity by raising employee engagement. And it drives business success by maximizing the effectiveness of every activity.
Organizations with highly effective communications practices see 47% higher shareholder returns, according to Willis Towers Watson.
An effective internal communication strategy will inform, engage and improve your organization.
- Audiences - Collect information on the composition of your organization. This should include number of staff, locations, departments, demographics, devices used and any other factors related to your organizational structure.
This information can then be used later for audience segmentation to deliver targeted, highly relevant messages – key to achieving greater readership and response. - Environmental Influences - Consider which issues, needs and challenges are influencing your communications. Is it difficult to communicate with staff working in certain environments, such as call centers, warehouse or frontline retail? What specific messaging needs do different departments have?
Consider the table below. How many of the issues outlined currently afflict your organization? How significant is the impact of each? What value to your organization would resolving each offer?
- Current Communications - Understand how your current internal communications have been performing and what level of employee engagement has been achieved.
Review your existing comms toolset. Which current channels are the most effective? Are certain channels more effective for specific types of messages? What types of messages are your existing channels not well suited to?
- Communication Tasks - Make a list of all the main communication tasks scheduled for the year. Each task will require a tailored Communications Plan. A simple spreadsheet like the example below can be sufficient.
- Audience Targeting - Segment your employees into distinct groups based on their working environment or communication preferences. Set these groups up in your communication platforms to enable easy targeting of relevant messages – in the format and channel best suited to them.
Consider the following table for the audiences relevant to your organization. Putting yourself in the shoes of your audiences will help you to better understand their needs and then deliver to them through targeted, relevant message solutions.
- Contingency Plans - Create a contingency plan which outlines alternative courses of action to be taken in the event of roadblocks to the main plan – whether timing delays, lack of resource or inclement weather. Preparing back-up messages in advance can help reduce the stress when obstacles arise, as well as allow you to move more swiftly in response.
- Channel Selection - The type of content you need to communicate, and the urgency with which staff must consume it, will help define the most appropriate channels. For example, communicating IT outage notifications, promoting campaign events and soliciting feedback to company announcements all have very different purposes – and require very different communication channels.
It’s advisable to use multiple channels to maximize the best attributes of each and reduce the risk in relying on a single, overloaded channel. The key is balance, variety, accessibility and repetition.
- Measurement - Put systems in place to track how achievement is progressing against your objectives. What’s working well – and, more importantly, what isn’t? Delve into the data to identify improvements that can be made immediately.
There are a range of different KPIs you can use to measure performance. These include open rates, click-through rates, survey response rates, number of comments and shares, engagement levels and device types used.
- Testing - Try different approaches to see if one is more successful. For example, send the same message with two different subject lines to see which has the higher open rate. Or deliver content in text vs visual formats to see which has better engagement. In Marketing this is referred to as A/B testing. Insights gleaned through testing will help your quest to construct the perfect message.
- Two-way Feedback - Be open to requesting, collecting and reporting on employee feedback. Mechanisms such as staff sentiment surveys and intranet forums can be fertile ground for honest and helpful views.
- Evaluate and Evolve - Use channel tracking and analytics tools to identify which channels have been more successful. Revisit your strategy on a quarterly basis to evaluate how it's working. Share the results and how these are supporting wider company performance with the rest of the organization.
More Resources
44 Tips For Internal Communications Best Practice
From urgent to engaging, we have 44 tips to help your communications.
10 Questions You Must Ask When Creating An Internal Communication Plan
Ask yourself these questions before you begin planning.
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