Great internal communication starts with understanding what your organisation needs to communicate, who needs to receive it, and which channels staff use. A clear content and channel plan can reduce information overload, improve understanding and help build trust across your organisation.
All too often, internal communications are overlooked as time and effort goes into communicating with external audiences to drive business. But done right, your entire staff base can become your greatest advocates.
When done right, internal comms doesn’t just keep staff informed, it builds trust, it connects people to purpose and can be the difference between an engaged team who thrive in a productive workplace.
Without clear internal comms, confusion can creep in, rumours can start to fill the gaps and frustration, or worse, disconnection can grow.
What type of things should you be communicating internally to staff?
Internal comms can consist of:
- Strategic Plan objectives and outcomes, this includes the organisation’s vision and mission
- Safety information such as work, health and safety related items that are suitable for your organisation to keep staff safe, fit and healthy
- Software, procedures, policy or business rule updates; and of course,
- Celebrating staff and their contribution to the organisation.
You may also want to include or combine internal comms with an update from the CEO.
That’s always a nice touch to ensure that the executive team are not out of reach/touch with staff.
How do you communicate to staff internally?
Regardless of whether you are a small or large organisation, internal comms needs to be intentional, be clear not complicated and reach staff where they are and how they consume information.
Not everyone is built the same and as the saying goes “you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink” applies to humans absorbing content as well.
Some standard ways to reach staff are:
- Individual, team, division or organisation-wide meetings
- This includes the good old toolbox meetings
- All-staff emails
- Monthly newsletters (CEO or just staff updates)
- Posters on notice boards, lunchrooms and yes back of toilet doors
- Don’t dismiss posters, they are more effective than you might think.
If you’re lucky enough to be in an organisation that has adopted a tech-forward view:
- Intranet, your internal, staff-only website
- Digital Signage/TVs
- Placed in strategic locations, these are a great way to display information and updates
- Internal chat systems such as Teams, Viva Engage or Slack
Whatever your channel mix is, it should complement who you are talking to, what you want to say and how people will not just find but consume that information.
And listen to your staff. Understanding how they currently receive and find information can help you make better decisions about which channels to use.
Remember, there is such a thing as information overload, so choose wisely.
So how do you get started?
To get started on making your organisation’s internal comms, think about:
- Why do you need to communicate?
- List what you are trying to achieve. Communication should have a purpose beyond simply to inform staff.
- What does your organisation need to communicate?
- List it and group it
- Who needs to receive the information?
- List and group internal audiences
- What channels/tools do you have to deliver or put information on?
- List it in the order you think staff actually use
Now you can create a map of what information should go where. Not everything has to go out on every single channel.
If you have an intranet, with a news section, make this your single source of truth.
All your information can go on the intranet and then you can pick and choose how you will deliver that to staff.
Make sure staff will not be overloaded.
It is easy to send an email but think about the fact that staff are under the pump and you are sending two or three emails a day with updates. Some may be relevant to everyone, while others may only be relevant to, say, field staff.
So, once you have mapped out your content and channels, list what content will go on what channel.
Once you have done this, you will have a content and channel matrix that you can use to help with decisions about what information to communicate, when, where and how often.
Now you can make informed decisions
Knowing when and where to communicate with your staff is the key.
For example, let’s say there is an important policy change. This might need to live on the intranet permanently.
A good way to communicate this could be:
- Update the policy on the intranet
- Send an all-staff email to let staff know a short summary of what has changed and point them to the new policy
- See we don’t need a full email to explain the policy or a news item
- Be clear and concise
- Discuss the update at the next team/staff meeting if appropriate
You now have a clean internal communication line and more importantly you have created a two-way communication channel with the team discussion.
Always start with a plan, not another email
Your internal comms doesn’t need to be complicated, but it does need to be intentional and clear.
Remember to:
- Start with a plan to understand what your organisation needs to communicate
- What are you trying to achieve?
- What do you need to communicate?
- Who needs to receive it?
- What channels will staff actually use?
- Map it all out to establish a consistent rhythm to build authority and trust
- Make an internal comms matrix
- Make a schedule
- Keep it consistent – Don’t push out information because you want to get it off your desk
- Make it easy for staff to find the information or find out more
- Communicate with clarity and be intentional
- Staff need to understand what we are saying, if it’s filled with big words that no one understands or has to Google every second word, you will miss the mark
- Clarity comes when everyone from the top to the bottom can understand what you are saying
- And remember, ‘everyone’ is not an audience
Most importantly, keep listening to what people are saying and if you can measure what you are doing, even better.
Great internal communication isn’t about sending more information, more often. It’s about making the right information easier for the right people to understand and act on.
This article is part of The Adaptive Approach insight series.