4 steps to better internal communication
Throwing your message du jour into a text-heavy email won’t get the job
done. Find creative formats, and promote feedback for optimal
engagement.
By Preston Thompson | Posted: July 6, 2017

If you asked your employees what your corporate mission statement is, or
whether they feel appreciated, what would they say?
The answer isn’t obvious, especially if your business spans state or
country borders—or continents. The farther away employees are from
headquarters, the less connected to company leaders they’ll feel.
Internal communications entails more than updating employees with business
information. It must connect with and build up each department.
Engagement increases productivity and retention, and creating that connection doesn’t have to be hard.
[FREE DOWNLOAD: 2016-2017 Internal Communications Survey Results]
Here are four ways to improve internal messaging:
1. Encourage employees to speak up. They should know they
have a voice and that their opinion matters. If they believe a process or
meeting can be handled more efficiently, provide a way for their feedback
to be heard.
2. Be clear with your communication. Don’t simply inform
people about change. Tell them why change is coming, as well as how it will
help the supply chain, reduce overhead or eliminate redundancies. Change is
always scary at first, but addressing concerns before they fester helps
reduce employee stress.
3. Be creative. Don’t rely on walls of text to get your
message out. Summarize your message in an email is not ideal communication.
Mix up your content with videos, or introduce friendly employee
competitions.
4. Give recognition when it’s deserved. This is
particularly important when your business has many different hands involved
in creating your product. Make sure your warehouse workers know how they
fit in with the business; there is no business without them. Make sure
people in sales, marketing or engineering know that every piece of the
company is integral to the workflow.
Follow through with these guidelines consistently. A common employee
complaint is always receiving mixed messages—or no message at all— from
corporate leaders.
Preston Thompson is a copywriter at Tribe, an internal communications agency based in Atlanta. A version of this post first appeared on
Tribe’s Good Company blog.