You can reap many benefits from effective internal communications in your company. By now, this seems like such a cliché thing to say, but it’s still very much true.
If you still don’t know this, it’s high time you informed yourself about all the benefits of effective internal communication within a company. Good communication means improved employee engagement, productivity, and job satisfaction. For a company, this means less employee turnover and an improved public image.
Of course, there are many more benefits, but with just these couple you can see how important working on developing and improving internal communications strategy is.
So to help you develop a successful communications strategy, we made a list of all the important steps you need to take.
Assess current IC situation
To be able to improve your internal communications strategy, you first need to know the situation of your current strategy.
Start by trying to figure out how effective this current internal communication strategy is. Don’t be afraid to ask your employees what they think of the current situation, what they would improve, and what works just fine.
By knowing where you are now, it will be much easier to know where you want to get and what stands in your way. Of course, to get to the point where your internal communication strategy is solid, you’ll need to do some planning on how to get there, which tools to use, and who to involve in this whole process.
Set attainable goals
Assessing the current situation has given you enough insight into what to do next. However, you must be aware that realizing this new plan will take some time, so try to keep your goals smart and realistic as much as you can.
The best thing you can do is set the S.M.A.R.T. (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-based) objectives. These objectives will help you be specific about what you want to achieve, create targets that you can measure, and keep your goals achievable and relevant to your business and within a specific and realistic timeframe.
Know your target audience
In addition to setting attainable goals, you also need to know your target audience before creating an internal communications strategy. But be careful not to follow in the footsteps of many companies and make the mistake of putting all your employees in one big group.
Since you have different job types within your company and different locations from where your employees work, this means that you will need several different communication channels.
This is why you need to know your target audience and review it regularly so that you can be on point with your internal communication strategy.
Choose the right internal communications tool
There are many internal communications tools and choosing the right one isn’t easy. That’s another reason why it’s highly important to know your target audience – to help you choose the right IC tool.
Many companies that have created an effective internal communication strategy usually use collaboration and productivity apps such as Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Slack, Trello, and many other similar ones.
These apps are designed to facilitate collaboration and increase productivity within a team.
Be aware of internal communication examples
Internal communication should be clear, informative, engaging, and inspiring. You should address each target group with a professional but at the same time social and humane tone.
Some examples of internal communication that you should be aware of include top-down communication, bottom-up, peer-to-peer communication, and information and culture communication.
Top-down communication includes internal news articles, newsletters, or e-mails sent by management to the whole company. Bottom-up communication allows every employee to express their opinions through group chats, polls, and surveys. Peer-to-peer communication as you can assume is communication and collaboration between employees, teamwork basically.
Information communication refers to company policies, product information, manuals, annual reports, and so on. Culture communication is the type of communication used to reward, and recognize employee success. This type of communication includes information about events, training, or social information.
Schedule internal communication
Yet another important step when creating an effective internal communication strategy includes scheduling and timing. Internal communication should take place during the working week when people are in their working places.
Different types of messages should be sent at different times. For example, it’s well known that people are most productive and efficient in the morning, so it’s logical to send important messages during this time.
If you use IC tools, you’ll be able to see when your employees interact the most. This will allow you to adapt your communication to when employees are most active and engaged.
Also, try not to overload your employees with information. Create a good balance and a consistent timetable for communication. This will make your employees more likely to read and respond to messages you send.
Creating a long-term internal communications strategy will have a direct impact on the success and growth of your business. If you still don’t have one, now is the time to create a solid IC strategy. Hopefully, these 6 steps help you out in this process.
Author Bio
Eve Anderson is a marketing specialist turned blogger. Interested in sports and exciting travel destinations. Love to share content that can inform people.
