In today's rapidly evolving workplace, staying on top of the latest HR trends is crucial for maintaining effective communication within your organization. You can promote optimal daily operations with an effective internal communication strategy. This is especially important in addressing challenges like the quiet quitting trend and fostering employee development. Most companies have best practices for communicating with customers and partners. Companies even create policies for communicating with new employees.
However, it's equally important to maintain the same level of planning when communicating with existing staff members. It's also essential to provide tools that help employees communicate with each other, such as employee engagement platforms.
Effective internal communication is not nice to have—it's a must. It improves employee engagement and helps to align employee ideals with company goals. Revamping internal communications is a considerable undertaking. However, it's more than worth the effort for the positive results.
For the five best practices for your internal communication strategy, keep reading.
Some organizations already have established internal communications policies. In this case, your existing systems are a good place to start with revamping your practices. You'll need to begin by rethinking your internal communication processes. For this best practice, you'll need to conduct a detailed introspection of your organizational culture, including how it may contribute to issues like soft quitting.
However, some organizations do not have an official internal corporate communications policy. In this instance, you can move on to identifying unique metrics. These metrics will quantify internal communication success for your organization—more on that in a moment.
If you have existing policies in place, you'll need to examine your current strategies. For example, you'd need to assess the strengths and weaknesses of your internal communications policy. You'd also need to figure out who's involved with the planning of internal communications and how they contribute to shaping the workplace culture. More importantly, you'll need to figure out how to improve your existing processes to foster a positive work environment.
Most likely, your organization uses key performance indicators (KPIs) for processes such as sales. You might also use them to measure customer service. However, you can also use KPIs to analyze your internal communication strategy and its impact on employee engagement. This analysis should include metrics that reflect psychological safety within the organization.
To begin, you'll need to choose core metrics. These metrics will show you what parts of your strategies work—and what doesn't.
For example, your company might measure success based on how many employees use your intranet. This metric will also provide insight into how employees use company tools. It will also help you to determine if you're reaching employees and preventing employee disengagement.
You may also measure employee social media shares. Alternatively, you might keep track of how many employees read internal content. Metrics allow you to dissect your corporate communications strategies. They help you to learn what areas need more attention and can provide valuable employee feedback.
It's important to establish realistic goals for your organization. Reasonable goals can help you to assess obstacles and figure out the challenges of deploying a new strategy. Realistic goals can also help you to work more efficiently toward updating your policies and supporting professional development. This approach can help balance the demands of hustle culture with sustainable work practices.
Your internal communications metrics can help in this regard. These benchmarks can help you to figure out where you can make immediate improvements. As for your goals, you may want to know what improved internal communication can do for your firm. You may also want to consider how it can contribute to career development opportunities for your employees.
When setting goals, think about how quickly you can achieve them and how they align with your overall organizational objectives. This alignment ensures that your internal communication strategy supports the company's mission and vision.
When publishing internal communications, it's vital to know your audience. Marketers, for example, learn intimate details about their ideal consumer. In the same way, it's important to understand your employees and their needs, including their work-life balance and overall employee wellbeing. This understanding can help prevent issues that lead to loud quitting examples, where employees vocally express their dissatisfaction.
By doing so, you can figure out what messages you need to communicate to select staff members. Many organizations mistakenly think that all employees need to receive all messages. They believe that this policy promotes transparency. While employees need to have current information about your firm, it's better to segment your internal corporate communications.
By segmenting internal messages, you can ensure that important messages don't get lost in a sea of information. You can also prevent employees from suffering from information overload, which can negatively impact their mental health and productivity.
It's essential to identify the channels that you use to publish content. It's also important to consider the internal tools that you use to share company information, especially in the context of remote work and hybrid work environments.
Some messages are better suited for certain channels. For example, you might publish a positive company announcement on an open platform such as Twitter. You might post job openings on LinkedIn. Meanwhile, you might limit proprietary information to the company newsletter.
It’s also helpful to consider your communications tools. For instance, team tools such as HR Cloud Workmates help you share important information with staff members. It also allows enterprises to stay focused on employee engagement and company culture, regardless of whether employees are working remotely or in a hybrid setting.
It’s also important to formalize the approval process for communication in the workplace. By doing so, you can avoid needless errors. For example, you can ensure that you don't accidentally promote closed comments from internal forums. Alternatively, you can make sure that you don't send the wrong information to the wrong staff member segment.
To develop an approval process, you need to figure out who's in charge of your internal communication strategy. Typically, this is the person or group that writes messages to the team. However, you'll also want to consider the best stakeholders who can contribute to the approval process.
You might also consider hiring an employee engagement manager. However, most companies usually put their marketing department in charge of this task. Marketing professionals are generally the most skilled at creating content. For this reason, members of the marketing department are typically the most qualified for the role. They're also well-qualified to convey the desired company voice, brand, and image.
More than likely, your marketing team is also well-versed in navigating your existing content library. For this reason, it's easy for them to locate relevant content. Marketing professionals are also skilled at pointing staff members to industry-specific resources. What's more, they can ensure that the information is timely and relevant. For marketers, this kind of ability comes naturally.
Now you know more about the best practices for your internal communication strategy. An effective communication strategy will ensure that employees feel as though their opinions have a voice. In turn, your staff members will feel more engaged. Effective internal communications will make employees feel educated, informed, and inspired. More importantly, however, it promotes optimal performance, boosts employee morale, and supports ongoing employee development.
HR Cloud's Workmates platform is a powerful internal communication tool that can promote employee engagement and facilitate employee recognition. By implementing these best practices and utilizing the right tools, you can create a more connected and productive workforce, even in the face of challenges like the great resignation or changing work dynamics with Gen Z employees. This approach also helps in creating an environment of psychological safety, where employees feel comfortable expressing their ideas and concerns.
Contact HR Cloud today to schedule a free consultation or request a demo.