In today’s business culture, thoughtful employee communication often gets overlooked. Strategy and tactics surrounding corporate communications are frequently ignored, as immediacy takes center stage. Many companies don’t realize that internal communications can have a direct impact on their employees and their culture at work. As Mahan Tavakoli, previous Chief Diversity Officer at Dale Carnegie Training explains, having robust internal communications will gain credibility, respect, and employee trust, which in turn drives employee engagement, while poor communication can breed resentment and distrust.
Maintaining strong company internal communications cannot be understated. Here are some tips to improve your current internal communications, which in turn will positively affect your company culture:
- Get Organized: When you have a plethora of different employee communications to write and send out on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis, the best place to start is by creating a content calendar. Placing all your communications in a content calendar will allow you stay organized and eliminate common issues such as over communicating or poorly timed communications. Removing these problems will prevent your employees from feeling overwhelmed by excessive communications or frustrated by emails sent at odd hours. Getting organized is the first step to developing a healthy internal communications program.
- Choose the Right Channel(s): In this day and age, there are so many different mediums that you can push your communications through. Everyone knows about the common internal communication channels such as email, company intranet or a poster, and of course, it is vital to utilize these mediums. However, what other channels can internal communicators turn to as effective yet creative ways to successfully deliver their message?
- A private Facebook or LinkedIn group message might be a great way to reach a small group of employees who are active on social media.
- Videos are proven to be the best method to capture the attention of millennials.
- Lastly, for companies with a variety of available channels, utilizing Slack could be a great way to effectively manage and optimize each channel. Selecting the correct channel(s) is critical. Remember to think about the tone, content and goals of your communication before determining the most effective mediums.
- Listen to Feedback: As a communicator, you will receive feedback from employees, whether you illicit it through surveys or not. They will ask questions and they will give their opinions on what they think is best. Your job is to listen. Odds are, if you’re hearing the suggestion from a variety of different employees, it’s probably something worth considering. Listening is a great way to demonstrate to employees that they are respected and that their opinions matter.
- Track Data: If you’re not tracking metrics behind your communications, how will you know if your communications are effective? Utilizing tools such as web analytics and marketing automation platforms will allow you to see how engaging your current communications are. After analyzing the data, if your open rates or page views aren’t where you want them to be, you can adjust your communication strategy accordingly. Today, the way we communicate is constantly changing, so tracking metrics will allow you to stay ahead of new trends.
Enhancing your company’s internal communications is no easy task and it should not be done alone. It should be a collaborative effort with your marketing and communications team as well as your HR department. Furthermore, be sure your internal communications are aligned with your organization’s external branding and marketing, to ensure tone and branding match.
There is no doubt that internal communications influence company culture. Don’t ignore enhancing your communications any longer, start strengthening your internal communications today, your company culture will thank you!
- Are you Getting the Most out of Your Company’s Intranet? - August 22, 2018
- Internal Communications Positive Impact on Company Culture - March 30, 2017
