Do you feel that your internal communications strategy isn’t reaping the results you want or that your employees’ performance has stagnated lately? Fresh internal communications ideas can give you the high-performance environment you’ve always dreamed of. And we have just the creative ideas for you!
What Is Considered a Good Internal Communications Strategy?
A good internal communications strategy allows you to reach your communication goals, helps you stay connected to your employees, and keeps teams up-to-date with objectives, goals, deadlines, company news, and company announcements. This can be verbal, digital, or written content on small and large scales.
To accomplish your goals, the internal communications strategy uses tools for communication from leaders to employees, from employees to leaders, and between employees of the same level.
Why You Should Rethink Your Internal Communications Strategy
Since the pandemic, the world has moved towards long-term remote work options. While that’s functional in many ways, it has created new challenges for internal communications and rendered many pre-pandemic systems ineffective.
According to Bankrate’s August 2021 Job Seeker Survey, 55% of US citizens are searching for new jobs in the following 12 months. Accordingly, there’s a marked lack of engagement and a higher turnover rate. However, the solution is a new and relevant internal communications strategy that can engage employees (especially remote ones), create a positive work environment, and promote employee satisfaction.
16 Ideas You Can Use to Enhance Internal Communications in Your Company
Here are some creative ideas to transform your internal communications.
1. Make Video a Part of Your Internal Communications Strategy
In a survey, 93% of internal communication professionals consider video content crucial to a strategy. After all, employees are more likely to understand your message and engage with it if it’s in video form rather than other formats. Conversely, blog posts and long emails are less interactive; employees might skim, skip, or misunderstand them.
So, we recommend videos for complicated topics and information. We also think using them for company news, announcements, updates, and training videos is a good idea. This way, you’ll be sure employees fully understand critical information. Digital signage for internal communication is a fantastic way to showcase your videos. Videos can be shown on large digital signage displays – great for employees who are not based at a desk such as production workers within a manufacturing environment.
2. Use Intranet Software in Your Internal Communications Strategy
An intranet is an excellent tool for two-way, effective communication, thanks to its social and collaborative features.
To illustrate, managers and executives can share company news and information. Also, employees can share their insights and opinions about content, connecting with managers and other employees. This way, you can have space for open communication.
A creative way to use the intranet is to create employee profiles. Team members can add their titles, teams, areas of expertise, special projects, and types of projects they conduct. As a result, employees will easily connect with the right colleagues when they need help with certain tasks.
3. Create an Internal Monthly Newsletter
Why should you publish an internal company monthly newsletter? For one, you can use it to share company news, updates, services, and products. Not to mention, this monthly newsletter can be a platform to experiment with fun internal communications ideas, such as trivia questions, employee birthdays of each month, event reminders, and more.
The internal newsletter can help increase company awareness (especially for new employees) and keep team members in the loop. And you won’t have to send out several emails that’ll likely overwhelm your employees. Also, a digital format will be more practical, so post the newsletter on a blog on your intranet for quick access.
4. Establish Company Traditions
You can create a culture and make employees emotionally invested in your company and connected via traditions. Start traditions like celebratory birthday lunches, company anniversaries, and holiday parties. Announce these events on the company calendar so everyone can see them, attend, and have fun!
5. Show Appreciation
If you want to motivate your employees, recognition and praise are some of the most effective ways. It doesn’t cost you much, but it does mean a lot, especially for remote employees. Appreciation proves that you see your employees’ hard work and recognise its impact.
So, celebrate project successes, send appreciation messages, share success stories, and celebrate an employee of the month. Not only will this motivate the involved individuals, but it’ll also motivate others to do better!
6. Create an Open Door Policy
One of the keys to internal communications is empowering employees to use their voices. They should know they can approach you with any issues, opinions, or personal concerns impacting their work.
But how do you do that? Make it clear that no one will face consequences for respectfully sharing their opinions. Urge managers to connect with team members and ask them to share their ideas and criticisms. Forums are a great way to encourage feedback from employees. And don’t forget to reassure your employees and respond to their feedback.
7. Make It Fun
Revive your employees, and prioritise their mental health by adding fun activities to your internal communications strategy. Boosting employee morale will only reflect positively on their productivity levels.
So, share jokes, organise fun events, and introduce game-based learning processes. For instance, you can try putting together fun competitions with incentives and prizes.
Also, create treasure hunts for the onboarding process where new employees team up to find information, which will familiarise them with their colleagues and the premise. This way, they’ll absorb information quickly, understand objectives clearly, and feel rewarded!
8. Schedule Regular Team Meetings
You need to hold regular team meetings if you want your employees to work as a team. They can be an opportunity to problem-solve, brainstorm, and celebrate accomplishments and milestones. Also, meetings should be a chance to provide updates on major initiatives and discuss upcoming events, such as company anniversaries and employee birthdays.
Not to mention, managers should always make room for questions toward the end of each meeting. As a result, employees will leave these meetings knowing their next steps, armed with the necessary equipment, and supported by experts.
There are a few mistakes to look out for, though. For one, ensure no team members are called out during team meetings. The rule is to celebrate in public and correct in private. Also, don’t overdo it with the meetings, as too many meetings can take their toll on your employees’ productivity.
9. Limit Email Use
Limiting your email use and encouraging your employees to do the same is a good idea. According to Mckinsey & Company, “the average interaction worker spends an estimated 28% of the workweek managing email.”
In that sense, the overuse of email hinders employee productivity. It also makes it difficult for employees to identify critical information and relevant news. In fact, they might even miss an email. So, use collaboration tools and messaging apps for discussions and conversations and encourage managers and employees to use them.
10. Set Clear and Detailed Goals
A leading role of internal communications is ensuring all employees know their defined responsibilities and specific goals and targets. Although that happens during the onboarding process, it should happen continuously to accommodate the dynamic nature of the workplace and help manage crises.
Still, how do you clarify these goals for your employees? One tip is to demonstrate them via clear examples and stories rather than abstract ideas. But the key to goal setting is S.M.A.R.T goals. In other words, goals need to be:
- Specific: Use clear and simple language to define your goal.
- Measurable: Set targets, numbers, and milestones to evaluate the project’s success.
- Attainable: Stick to realistic and achievable goals. Don’t get carried away by goals that just look good on paper.
- Relevant: Make sure your goals are in line with your team development and that they serve your business model.
- Time-Based: Establish timeframes and deadlines. This will allow you to hold yourself and others accountable and evaluate your performance.
11. Encourage Collaboration and Teamwork
When employees cooperate and work as a team, efficiency and productivity levels go up. You’ll also have fresh ideas and numerous perspectives to experiment with. So, how can your internal communications strategy support teamwork and collaboration?
For one, social platforms enable office-based and remote employees to get together, connect, discuss ideas, and exchange information.
Also, investing in internal communications software is helpful because they usually feature conversation modules and support chat rooms, allowing colleagues to collaborate. This way, you can help them pause questions, share concerns, and lift each other up.
12. Request Feedback
An internal communications strategy that only works from the top down is ineffective. Instead, it should encourage communication from employees to managers and between employees of different levels. So, make it a point to request feedback from your employees.
When managers send out updates, instructions, etc., let employees express their opinions about the shared content. Getting these responses is especially important if you have remote workers. After all, it allows employees not on the managerial team to participate in the decision-making process.
So, enable likes and comments on posts, and put out surveys, polls, and more. Then, watch how it drives up engagement levels.
13. Promote the Mental and Physical Health of Your Employees
Did you know that 14.7% of employees are reported to experience mental health problems in the workplace? High-pressure work environments lead to both mental and physical health issues.
Also, overworked employees tend to be physically inactive, which has its fair share of complications. This spiralling physical and mental health affects employee morale and makes them disengaged.
To prioritise the well-being of your workers, conduct pulse surveys and polls, and schedule consistent check-ups. This way, you can evaluate the satisfaction levels and understand the concerns and issues of your employees. Then, use that feedback to enhance the work environment.
14. Invite Your Employees to Share Ideas
When employees have a say in the matter, they become more engaged. So, ask for their ideas about company operations and directions. This is much better than issuing these decisions abruptly. Not to mention, your company will benefit from the fresh perspectives and diverse ideas your workers have to offer.
For that reason, you should use two-way communication software to start the conversation. Such ready-made platforms facilitate sharing of thoughts and suggestions. So, post about a business challenge, and encourage your employees to use their problem-solving skills.
Also, reassure them that there are no bad ideas and that they’re welcome to voice their opinions respectfully.
15. Tell a Story
Do you feel like your employees are out of spirits or demotivated? Then, re-energise them with a success story!
Talk about a company milestone, project success, or employee achievement. It doesn’t have to be work-related; maybe an employee won an award or published a book! Be sure to mention the specific employees involved in that story to make it captivating and personal.
As we’ve mentioned, recognising achievements makes the involved employees more committed to the company. Not to mention, it inspires others to follow in their footsteps.
16. Assess Progress and Optimise
Use key performance indicators to evaluate the success of your internal communications strategy. To illustrate, live metrics can track intranet usage, reach, engagement, and more.
Then, identify areas you need to work on and devise a plan to optimise your existing strategy. Run these evaluations on a quarterly or monthly basis to gain insights, and adjust your plan accordingly.
Also, it’d help if you ran pulse surveys to assess employee satisfaction with your internal communications. Ask them about the strong and weak points of the system, and invite them to share their ideas. This adds trust and loyalty to the work environment.
Conclusion
Overall, you should rethink your current internal communications strategy and choose the ideas that work for you. This is especially important if your employee performance level hasn’t been up to your expectations lately. By improving employee satisfaction and engagement levels and communicating goals clearly, you can have the productive culture you envision for your company.