Boost Employee Engagement: Internal Communication Strategies

Communication is a key part of business success, employee engagement and both internal and external processes. Poor communication within a business can have a detrimental impact, fortunately, many challenges can be overcome and resolved by establishing timely, consistent, and informative communication lines. Effective internal communication processes can ensure alignment and consistency across teams, increase clarity and understanding of company messaging and significantly contribute to employee engagement and communication with all employees within a business, including remote workers.

A study carried out by Gallup found that almost 75% of employees feel as though they’re missing out on company information and news by not receiving regular and consistent communications from their employer. 

Businesses can experience the negative impact of ineffective internal communications when remote employees feel isolated by in-person updates and communications, information overload and when messaging is communicated through the wrong channels and from the incorrect point of contact.

According to Salesforce research, 86% of employees, as well as corporate leaders believe that ineffective communication is the root cause of workplace failures. Poor communication can have a significant impact across all areas of a business and teams. It’s important for businesses to recognise this and put in place effective and consistent communication processes.

Benefits and impact of effective internal communications 

When organisations implement a structured and well-thought-out communications strategy, there are many benefits that will result for both the business and employees. We highlight the greatest benefits that businesses can experience with effective communications:

Employee engagement

Employees feel more engaged when they feel involved and considered with business communications and updates. It’s important for employee engagement to be high as this will contribute to all areas of the business, including employee retention and attraction.

Team building and relationships

Good communication within a business can contribute to better relationships internally, with a positive impact on team building. According to Expert Market, teams with connected employees see productivity increase 20-25%. Communication is key to strong relationships internally and this has a positive impact on activity and business success.

Productivity and efficiency

When businesses communicate effectively and consistently with their employees, they will experience increased productivity and efficiency with activity. If employees feel engaged with work and feel they are getting desired communications from their employer it is thought they are 2.5 times more likely to be engaged in their work. (Gallup)

McKinsey highlighted that employee productivity increases by 20-25% in organisations where employees are connected through strong communications in a business.

Loyalty and trust

To keep employees engaged and invested in an employer, trust and credibility is key. By keeping transparent and honest communication lines across the business, you will build trust and loyalty amongst employees. Employees who are loyal and have great trust in a business are more likely to remain with a company long term and be committed to contributing to business activity and objectives.

Innovation and ideas

When employees are engaged and well connected, they will be more creative and forthcoming with ideas and approaches. With this, businesses will see greater innovation and adoption which in turn will support business growth and success.

Better client and customer relationships

Overall, when employees feel engaged, well connected and feel a sense of inclusion with a business, they are likely to perform much more efficiently in their role. As a result, business performance will improve and a notable impact on client and customer relationships will also be a positive outcome.

Growth and success

If employees are engaged, productive and have great loyalty and commitment to an organisation, the business in turn will experience both growth and success.

No matter the size of your business, having clear communications and change management processes in place will ensure company-wide messages are communicated in the right way, at the right time, to all employees.

Internal communication plans for businesses

When it comes to communicating both effectively and with the most successful approach within an organisation, there are 6 C’s of communication to consider; clear, cohesive, complete, concise, clarity.  By utilising this approach, your communications will be easier to digest and process by your employees.  

Implementing effective internal communications

• Think about the tone of your message and adapt to your audience depending on the nature of the message and the actions required.
• Ensure you are authentic and genuine in the delivery of all communications, this will help build trust and credibility with your teams.
• How will you engage with your employees? Ensure you keep your communications enthusiastic and positive to keep teams engaged.
• How will you communicate your message to your employees? What messages and updates should be communicated in-person or verbally and which can be done through written means such as email, newsletters etc?

Some examples of internal communication methods:

• Instant Messaging
• Intranet
• Social Media
• Newsletters and Blogs
• Collaborative calendars
• Surveys/Comment boxes
• Focus groups/Face to face sessions
• Consider the frequency of internal communications and the most appropriate frequency that would suit your organisation (Harvard Business Review found that over 90% of people said they wanted weekly communication from their company)
• Ask for feedback from employees, whether this is relative to individual situations or set times throughout the year where you carry out internal surveys or focus groups

Ashleigh Smith – Civil Service: “Our communications team send out a formal update about strategic work or operational work on a weekly basis to all employees. It’s in accessible document, well-structured and it’s engaging to the internal audience. We also get a less formal weekly update which contains more light-hearted information such as interesting things colleagues are doing, upcoming events, training announcements and some fun features like staff blogs, mindfulness sessions etc. There are also various sporadic updates which are communicated via the intranet system.”

Communicating change with different demographics/generations

While it’s important to have a standardised process and structure in place for internal communications and change management, business leaders must also consider the style and method in which they communicate so it is easily understood and processed by all employees, irrelevant of demographic, communication style and whether they are based in the office or working remotely.

Communications in a global or remote business

It’s important to consider communications when operating within a global business to ensure global alignment of teams, consistent messaging and clear processes throughout the business. Poor communications can result in lack of engagement from employees, reduced collaboration and inconsistent business activity.

“Working as part of a global business we know first-hand the challenges that can be experienced to ensure alignment of global messaging. While we recognise we can always make improvements, we continually take steps to ensure our communications are inclusive and considerate to local offices and the global business overall."  – CSG Talent

Companies with Winning Communication Strategies

There are many businesses paving the way with their internal communications strategy which are resulting in positive outcomes for the business, talent attraction and retention. Some of the leading global businesses include; Google, HubSpot, Salesforce and Buffer. These businesses happen to be leading organisations within the technology sector and demonstrate open, transparent and engaging company cultures in hybrid business models.

HubSpot is a global organisation, paving the way with software, integrations and resources with their leading CRM platform to support businesses with content management, marketing and sales. HubSpot are heavily focused and passionate about effective communications, both internally and externally. The culture they promote is open, transparent and collaborative, holding company wide meetings regularly and ensuring a feeling of inclusivity and consistency across all office locations and operations within the business. HubSpot utilise tools such as Slack, Google Drive and Zoom which helps support effective internal communications.

Effective Tools for Internal Communication 

There are a number of resources, tools and platforms available to businesses that help facilitate a great internal communications strategy. Internal communication tools allow for interaction and social collaboration, two-way communication and personalised feeds, some of which include:

• Microsoft Teams
• Zoom
• Slack
• Google Workspace
• Trello
• Happeo

If you’re keen to re-evaluate your hiring strategy as a business and adapt your approach to combat current talent shortages in the market, click here to download our latest guide – How to create an effective hiring strategy.