How to Think Holistically About Internal Communications
Do you know who your biggest brand advocates are? You and your employees are. This is why your internal communications strategy needs to be as dialed in as your external-facing strategy. If your internal team can’t clearly communicate your value proposition and believe in it, it is going to add bumps in the road for your customers.
When we think about a communications plan for our companies, we’re often thinking about external-facing channels such as social media, paid advertising, etc., to reach growth goals. While this is critical for any company looking to expand its customer base and drive sales, turning inward is equally important to engage employees and nurture company culture.
What Is Internal Communication?
Fostering an engaged employee culture is key to both employee and customer success.
Internal communication is the nerve center of your organization. This is why it is important to have a plan where employees are consistently kept up-to-date with the latest company goals and the progress being made.
This is essentially a roadmap to keep employees and stakeholders engaged and inspired to work collectively towards the company objectives.
Select an Image
Beat Practices for Executing Internal Communications
When it comes to thinking holistically about any communications plan, it is important to:
Audit your current communications plan and engagement. Take a look at your current employee communication process from hiring to execution to exit. What activities have you been doing? How consistent are they? How engaged are employees? How aligned are they with your external communications plan? Gather as much data as you can to inform your decisions.
Evaluate your current channels. Take a look at which channels or activities you are using for communications. Is it in the form of emails? Videos? Newsletter? Make a full list and see which channel is currently receiving the most engagement. Also, take a look at which ones have the least engagement and get curious about why.
Define your audience and what they need. The advantage to internal communications vs. external is you know exactly who you are talking to. This helps to articulate who your audience is and what they need based on the role they play in helping objectives come to fruition. Communications should not talk at the audience but aim to engage and inspire.
Set communication objectives. Each touchpoint should have an objective or purpose behind it. Begin by setting high-level objectives such as establishing a baseline for employee engagement, recognizing employees who embody core brand values, employee surveys, facilitating important conversations between managers, etc.
Create a content plan and tactics. With objectives defined, now it’s time to select your key channels for communication and create a content calendar for execution. For example, if you are looking to recognize employees who embody the brand values, what does your recognition and incentives program consist of?
Establish timelines. It’s important not to go overboard with communications because that can cause people to tune-out all together. Create a consistent cadence that not only conveys important information but inspires the audience.
Define metrics for success and iterate. Like any strategy, it’s important to know how you will measure success, even for internal comms. This might look like employee engagement scores, customer services scores, product scores, increased interview feedback, employee referrals, and retention. Create a dashboard where metrics are tracked over time. With this data, you can make decisions for improvement.
No matter if you are creating an internal or external communications plan, it all starts with your core values. The more your team embodies these values, the more your customers will feel that and be attracted to your organization. This also goes for recruiting new team members.
Taking a holistic view of your internal and external communications creates a roadmap for trust and fosters employee engagement that can be felt outside the company.
