7 Best Internal Communication Tips to Boost Employee Engagement

Internal communication might not always have priority compared to external communication activities, but organizations should absolutely dedicate some time and effort to it to engage their employees and make sure they have the knowledge to stay on board.

Need some stats? Here you go:

• A Bambu data study has shown that 4 in 5 people in the workplace think effective internal communication helps their job performance.
• According to The Harvard Business Review, when companies with high turnover problems take steps to increase employee engagement, turnover can drop by 25%. In low turnover companies, the reduction can reach up to 65%!
• Lastly, 86% of employees think ineffective communication and lack of collaboration in the workplace are the reason behind workplace failures (Salesforce).

If you’re reading this, you are probably aware of the fact that good internal communication is the key to running a successful workplace and business strategy. Good on you! Because internal communication allows for more stability, cohesion and productivity within your organizations’ people and teams, having a strong internal communication strategy should never be overlooked for your workplace. 

But the question is: what is a strong internal communication strategy and how do you build and implement one for your staff?

Follow our step-by-step guide to find out.

1. Creating an internal communications strategy 

With the right internal communications strategy, your staff will feel more informed and part of the company workplace. Members of organizations will gain a sense of belonging within the company, and will eventually feel more inclined to participate in company events and decisions. 

The previous stats have already hinted at it: efficient internal communication and company success go hand in hand.

Internal communication is so much more than sending a myriad of updates on how the company is doing to your staff. In fact, internal communication requires a strong strategy and a concrete action plan to be truly beneficial for your workplace. 

Whether your company is medium-sized or a multinational corporation, here are some of the reasons why you should consider launching an internal communication campaign for your staff:

• Motivation: Encouraging your employees to be more innovative and promoting intrapreneurship is your ticket to a more profitable business. They might just help you outshine your competitors!
• Reassurance: During periods of crisis or change, internal communication is essential to stand by your team members’ side until the situation improves. Internal communications is also a means of resilience that will help you support your employees on an emotional level and provide them with the knowledge they need to act smartly during crises. 
• Information: Internal communication is the way to go when it comes to letting your teams know about new hires or your company’s next big steps.
• Celebration: Launching a new project or a new department, empowering talent or promoting employee advocacy are just some of the things you should celebrate through internal communication.
• Training: Offering additional training programs to your employees and helping them gain new skills and knowledge is also something that falls under internal communication. Keep it in mind!
• Sense of belonging: One of the key goals of internal communication is to make sure your employees feel attached to your company and its culture. Why not encourage them to collaborate on finding ways to be a more sustainable business? Remember we’re all looking for meaningful ways to make an impact and positive change!

Whether you are a corporate journalist or a communication specialist, don’t forget that your workplace tasks do not only revolve around generating internal content and updates. As a company culture expert, your job is to build meaningful connections within your organization and to help team members with the issues they are facing.

To reach that goal, it is absolutely essential that you define the purpose of your internal communication action plan.

2. Foster collaboration across company departments

There’s an African proverb that says “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” We think this is an awesome quote to keep in mind as an internal communication professional.

Collective intelligence is the way to go to harvest the full potential of your messages and communications strategy. Therefore, always be sure to collaborate with other departments!

Involving the expertise of related departments such as HR, Marketing or Executive Management leadership roles will be a great help when it comes to reaching your strategic goals. Speaking with one voice is vital if you want your brand messaging to be consistent and dependable.

Here are some effective synergies that we think you should explore to make positive change in your organizational strategy:

Human Resources x Internal Communications

Maintaining a quality work life and ensuring employee satisfaction means finding ways to boost the sense of accomplishment amongst your team members. Maybe you could start a newsletter with messages dedicated to work-life balance and work on it together with Human Resources communication. Note that this could also enhance your employer brand.

Marketing x Internal Communications 

When launching a new product, people could become your best ambassadors. For example, you could work together with your marketing team and plan to release video interviews of your employees advocating for your newest product or service. They’ll most likely be thrilled to be the ‘face’ of your brand and these kinds of videos also help showcase the human side of your business. It’s a win-win situation.

Wondering how to effortlessly create internal communication videos? With PlayPlay, you can easily showcase your message and engage your audience.

Executive Management x Internal Communications

Stimulating team members thanks to more unique activities is an effective plan in keeping them motivated and team building events are a great way to hear what and how they think. Why don’t you team up with Executive Management to organize something exciting? This will be mutually beneficial to both departments as you’ll be able to show gratitude towards your employees all while giving their leadership a chance to collect feedback and connect with people on a more casual level. 

3. Find the right internal communications channels 

Now that you’ve identified your strategic objectives, it’s time to select the specific actions you are going to implement to change and strengthen your messages. 

Lucky for you, your options in terms of comms channels are basically endless—whether it’s a website, a physical magazine or just regular events, the choice is yours when it comes to picking the ideal way(s) to reach your internal communication goals.

However, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t spend time reflecting and selecting the right plan!

Your mantra here should be: Always adapt your method of communication and messages to your target audience. You should also make sure it fits your brand DNA and company values.

Here’s a short overview of the main effective internal comms channels to help you make the right choice:

• Internal email newsletter: This is the favorite channel of 86% of internal communication specialists because they get to quickly send out important information via email. It’s also the channel employees tend to prefer as well! A study has shown that 91% of employees appreciate receiving company updates via email. Interesting, right?
• Internal events: They are especially useful when it comes to teambuilding. Regular events (Monday stand-up, Friday breakfast etc.) are a great way to share weekly updates or just to get together more casually.
• Idea box: This is one of the main tools of bottom-up internal communication. Employees are free to write down and submit their feedback or complaints regarding the company’s internal organization. HR departments love this tool as it can help collect ideas and show team members that their opinions matter. Employee empowerment and motivation are just 2 of the benefits that an idea box provides.
• Digital internal magazine: This tool will help you share updates regularly in written and physical form—though you could also opt for a digital internal magazine! Be sure to include information on new hires, upcoming projects, recent results and more.
• Physical meetings: Think company offsites, team building events and conferences. They’ll allow you to exchange with your employees and gather their feedback IRL. If physical meetings are not an option, why not use software tools such as Hangout or Zoom?
• Intranet or corporate social media: 76% of communication professionals say they enjoy using an intranet to put together corporate data or documents. And 78% of employees share that opinion! However, avoid being too casual here and be creative to make sure everyone engages with the content that is shared. You could organize challenges, post fun videos of your employees, stick a map on the wall showing the best local lunch spots… Another option is to work with a corporate social media platform (Workplace, Yammer, Joincube) or set up company chats with Slack or Microsoft Teams. Alternatively, you could set up a private group on digital softwares like LinkedIn or Facebook.
• Posters or screens: Displaying updates and information on a screen or on printed posters is the best way to share information linked to internal rules, security or new services that are available. Just make sure to place them in strategic places and where people are sure to notice them!

4. Identify the effective types of content for your comms strategy 

After you‘ve selected the right channels, it’s time to define the effective types of content you’ll be producing and sharing to make your messages more memorable. 

You’ll find some editorial ideas below:

• An internal blog is great to share company updates regularly.
• A video tutorial is ideal if you are rolling-out a new time-off management tool.
• Why not share a fun interview with your CEO as season’s greetings? You could also record a focus group session and share a report with your employees.
• A portrait could be great to introduce a new team member.
• An infographics is perfect to share the main data from your yearly report.
• An internal podcast could help you tell your employees about a specific issue, such as sustainability or mental health at work.

Would you like to know more? Discover 7 internal communication ideas and 11 internal communication trends to boost employee engagement.

Remember that no editorial format or plan is perfect, though. Just make sure your content is geared towards your employees and their expectations and focus on each community’s—or department’s—specificities.

You could switch things up between shorter content when it comes to communicating about a very specific topic, and long-form content to be effective in adding value or diving deeper into an issue.

Either way, remember to keep things interesting for your team members. Avoid being cold and impersonal in your plan at all costs!

5. Keep a steady communication schedule

Content ideas? Check! Comms channels? Check! Ideas to keep your employees interested? Check, too!

Great. But did you figure out how often you should initiate communication to improve your overall strategy? As you probably know, getting in touch at regular intervals is essential to engage your audience and improve your content. Of course, quality should also be kept at a constant level.

As an example, are you planning on releasing your newsletter daily, weekly or monthly? Should IRL events happen every quarter or twice a year? The amount of content you’ll be able to produce is key when it comes to defining that variable.

Sharing information more often doesn’t mean your internal communication strategy will be more efficient, so don’t overestimate the amount of work you’ll be able to put in. Just pick a frequency for your plan and stick to it!

An idea to improve your communication strategy and make it more sustainable and engaging could be creating several series of content rather than one-off pieces. For example, you could always choose to release interviews to introduce new products.

6. Involve employees in the strategy’s evolution

Congratulations on making it this far! Your employees will surely appreciate your level of commitment to improving your internal communication. One last step would be to improve your strategy by optimizing it as you go. Ever heard of agile project leadership?

Be sure to monitor the impact of your communication strategy:

• Gather constructive feedback from your employees by launching regular surveys and measuring employee engagement.
• Invite them to participate in creating the content you’ll be sharing—provided this is in line with your current objectives.

This will allow you to be sure your communication strategy truly fits the needs of your teams all while staying close to their actual needs. Remember that personalization is the key to a positive employee experience and will contribute towards a happy and high performing work environment for people. 

Now you hold the keys to an internal communication strategy that will be efficient and will keep employees engaged at work. Well done!

Time to get to work!

7. Boost your Internal Communications strategy with PlayPlay

It’s no secret that video is a great format of communication to keep any audience entertained. Video helps add a human touch to any message to make communication more relatable. 

That’s why your internal communications strategy should include video format to boost your organization’s engagement!

PlayPlay is the online video creation solution that enables marketing and communication teams to turn any message into a compelling video. PlayPlay is one of the easiest video creation software tools to use, requiring absolutely no expertise in video making or editing, making it easy for communications teams to engage company members in just a few clicks. 

If you’d like to find out more about how your communications team can build fun and entertaining videos for your organization with PlayPlay, book a demo with us or benefit from our 7-day free trial.