FOUR TIPS TO IMPROVE YOUR COMPANY’S INTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS

Organisations are giving more weight to the concept of internal communications, but before sitting down to develop a strategy consider the following points:

1.  Do you know what you want to achieve?

Publishing a glossy brochure, investing in a state of the art intranet or holding a series of ‘management talks’ might sound like great achievements, but are they changing the way people work and communicate? Knowing what behaviour you want to change or encourage, or what you want employees to do is key before you start developing your strategy. A lot of organisations want to develop an internal communications strategy, without knowing exactly what they are trying to communicate or achieve.

2.  Know what internal communications is.

Internal communications should serve the function of a bridge between senior staff leaders and all other employees. It should build and encourage employees to become brand ambassadors and connect with and know their organisation. It should be informative. If your internal communications are not achieving this, you are not doing it right.

3.  Know your audience, tailor your message.

Internal stakeholders can be as varied as a senior stakeholder to off-site word processors. If you are planning an ‘all staff’ newsletter ensure it contains messages and content that appeal to the entire audience, otherwise it is spam.

4.  Follow the leader.

Employees want to hear from experts. They want to know, what the people in the know think. Achieving engagement from employees is different. To achieve engagement, employees want to be heard too. They want to communicate with the senior leaders of the organisation. Once employees are contributing to the big picture, they work harder, are more loyal and embrace changes an organisation undergoes as it develops and grows.