Most of us can agree that communication is key to a successful relationship.  The same can be said for communicating with employees. Effective internal communication can be the key to fostering employee engagement, which in turn can boost productivity and drive success. A well-crafted, year-round internal communications strategy can also help transform your workplace culture.

Implementing a strategic internal communication plan is not just a nice-to-have; it’s a must-have for any organization looking to thrive in today’s competitive landscape. According to a study by McKinsey and Company, effective communications can increase the productivity of an organization by 20 to 25%. Moreover, businesses with highly engaged employees report 21% higher profitability.

Let’s explore some best practices for creating a comprehensive internal communications plan that helps keep your employees informed, engaged, and connected throughout the year.

Rethink Your Communications Strategy

Turn your internal communications into an advantage over your competitors. Rather than communicating with your employees just for the sake of communicating, communicate with a purpose.

Ask yourself some questions like:

1. What goals do I want to achieve?
2. How do I measure the effectiveness of my communications?
3. What channels should I use?
4. Do I truly understand my audience?
5. How do I make sure I communicate ONLY with those that need the message?
6. How do I measure the impact to productivity and the bottom line?
7. Do you want two-way communication with employees? If so, how do I gather feedback?

Create a Year-Round Employee Communications Calendar

Creating a comprehensive communications calendar is a key step towards implementing an effective communications strategy. A well-planned calendar helps you anticipate key events, campaigns, and messaging opportunities, allowing you to proactively engage your workforce. You cannot anticipate when a need will arise to deploy a communication outside of your calendar. However, a calendar helps you decide on the optimum number of deployments for your workforce. You know when communications are scheduled to plan accordingly.

Utilize Seamless Internal Communications

Our goal should be to help foster a connected workforce using seamless communication channels. An internal communications strategy alone is not enough to maintain employee engagement and productivity. However, it is a crucial piece of the puzzle.

Look at your overall employee audience to help decide the most effective communications channels to use.

• Is your workforce primarily office-based?
• Is your workforce a mixture of employees such as office, field or factory-based employees?
• Is your workforce scattered across the country or even the globe?

Implementing a multi-channel approach like digital platforms or mobile solutions can help reach employees with diverse communication preferences and ensure information reaches everyone.

Leveraging Employee Feedback

I get it. People are “surveyed out” because of the frequency of requests for completing surveys or submitting feedback whether on a store receipt or on an app or website. However, well thought-out surveys or other feedback mechanisms are essential for improving internal communication and gauging employee sentiment.

Surveys can even help employee retention. According to Gallup, companies that implement regular employee feedback programs see 14.9% lower turnover rates.

Best practices for gathering employee feedback on communications include conducting quarterly pulse surveys and establishing anonymous feedback channels. Gathering employee feedback is just one side of the equation, however. It is essential that employers act on that feedback and adjust their communications appropriately. Failure to adjust may lead to your communication efforts becoming ineffective.

Implementing Modern Communication Strategies

Embracing innovative internal communication tools and techniques can significantly boost engagement and collaboration within your organization. The way in which people communicate is in a constant state of change. The days of printing a flier and sending mass email to all employees are over. Employees have communication preferences whether because of demographics or employment setting. We must leverage today’s technology to communicate with today’s employees.

By including these best practices in the development of a year-round internal communications strategy, you’ll be well on the way to improving employee satisfaction, retention, and overall organizational growth. Remember, effective internal communication is an ongoing process that requires consistent effort and adaptation to meet the evolving needs of your workforce.

Have a question? Schedule time with Edward Sanchez, Director – Customer Adoption & Engagement, by clicking here.