Internal comms has an attention problem. Here’s how to fix it.

When trying to get employees to pay attention, internal communicators aren’t just up against client emails and Teams chats. They’re competing with Instagram, breaking news alerts and text messages from friends and family.

“Employees are not a captive audience; they are discerning consumers of information,” said Julia Christenson, U.S. chair of employee experience at Edelman. “If content doesn’t feel immediately relevant or valuable, it gets filtered out.”

Even a steady paycheck doesn’t guarantee someone will be actively invested in checking their messages and signing into the company intranet every morning looking for updates. The latest figures from Gallup show just 31% of U.S. employees are engaged at work, down from a high of 36% in 2020. One factor behind the decline: poor communication.

Below, experts outline three ways internal communicators can earn employee attention.

1. Embrace the employee’s point of view

If employees already feel unappreciated and disconnected from work, an internal message that has little to do with their daily struggles and victories will only leave them feeling more alienated.

That’s why it’s important for internal communicators to understand their audience. Surveys, focus groups and one-on-one conversations can help lay the groundwork.

“The most effective programs are rooted in real employee insight, not top-down messaging,” said Betsy Linaberger, EVP at Carmichael Lynch Relate, the PR practice within creative agency Carmichael Lynch. “From there, companies can define what makes their culture distinct and express it in a way that shows up everywhere — in recruiting, onboarding, manager communications and day-to-day storytelling.”

At Spotify, the internal comms team gathers feedback on how and when employees want to receive updates.

“Putting your people at the center of your thinking is critical,” said Laura Batey, who works in corporate communications at Spotify.

2. Encourage two-way communication during campaigns

After gathering this crucial information, the next step involves turning monologue into dialogue.

Today, shoppers expect an opportunity to rate the products they buy and comment on the videos they watch. They want their voices heard. It shouldn’t be any different at work.

“Anything successful needs to be participatory,” said Paul Parton, chief strategy officer at the PR firm Golin and author of “Share of Culture: How Brands Grow in the Attention Economy.” “People have got to feel part of it.”

And, yes, sometimes that means dealing with criticism. Companies shouldn’t shy away from it. Indeed, sometimes content spreads because it’s provocative. It contains an idea people want to wrestle with. If an internal message doesn’t elicit any debate or strong opinions, it might be because no one read it. Or no one cares.

As Batey from Spotify put it: “Internal communications, when done correctly, feels more like a two-way conversation than a broadcast.”

Edelman’s Christenson offered peer-led storytelling and content designed to invite interaction as two examples of what this might look like in practice. A Q&A session following a town hall meeting with the leadership team is another.

3. Do less

There’s power in scarcity. Think of how HBO releases one episode per week to sustain buzz for a drama series over several months, rather than dropping the full season all at once.

“Many companies have an attention problem because they have a volume problem,” said Christenson. “If everything is urgent, nothing is.”

Her advice to internal communicators: “Be brief, be useful and be human. Also, do less.”

Spotify aims to earn employee attention by respecting their time. Email newsletters recap priority news from the previous days with digestible summaries and links to read more. Every Monday morning, the company also shares a visual review on its all-employee Slack channel called In Case You Missed It, which covers news from the previous week with links for colleagues wanting to go into further detail.

“We keep communications relevant, useful, and easy to consume, so employees engage because they choose to, rather than feel obligated to,” said Batey.

Christenson added that because employees are overwhelmed with information, they tend to place greater value on content that is clear, credible, and directly relevant to their role.

“The expectation isn’t more communication,” she said, “it’s better communication.”