Tips for improving your internal communication!
There are many different types of internal communication. Traditionally, communication within an organisation is focused on transmitting information, but this has limited effect because it fails to actively engage the employees. There’s clearly room for improvement! The use of new internal communication resources can lead to significantly better results. In this blog, we give you three reasons why it’s beneficial to improve the internal communication within your organisation.
The current state of internal communication
Almost 50% of the respondents in an international survey by Epicom say that they find it difficult to use internal communication to increase employee engagement with their organisation. Furthermore, the survey reveals that today’s internal communication is static; there is little to no interaction with employees. The research also identified a number of other limiting factors, including:
- Lack of management support
- Lack of time
- Problems with reaching employees
Good internal communication ensures that managers and employees understand one another as well as each other’s responsibilities. Besides that, effective internal communication leads to higher employee motivation and better long-term performance.
Trends in 2021
As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and the remote working that ensued, nowadays, there is a clear trend towards using increasingly interactive internal communication. As hybrid-remote working will become the ‘new normal’, this will create both advantages and disadvantages. For example, colleagues are less likely to see each other at the office, which will make it more challenging for organisations to maintain a high level of engagement. As a result, communication professionals will need to look for new tools that support a more interactive approach to internal communication. There are numerous reasons why interactive communication is a good idea within an organisation. In our view, these are the top three reasons to consider:
1. The value of openness
If you want to give your employees a voice, they first need to know what is going on within the organisation. It is therefore important to be transparent in your employee communication. Celebrate the successes when things go well! And if something doesn’t go according to plan, acknowledge it and then try to find a solution together. Enter into dialogue with your employees. Rather than being afraid of their criticism, use it as input for improving your organisation’s performance. According to research, transparent internal communication leads to:
- Engaged employees. Employees understand what is going on within a company and which choices are being made.
- Motivated employees. Because your employees become increasingly more engaged and involved with the organisation, they are motivated to work harder.
2.Employee productivity
To improve the transparency of your communication with employees, you will need to look beyond just intranet and email. A great solution is to use webinars to share periodic and incidental updates. Webinars offer several benefits – not only for you as an employer, but also for your employees. For example, they have the opportunity to ask questions in the chat during a live broadcast, they can share their opinions in polls, and much more! As a result, your employees feel heard and understood, which boosts their productivity and motivation.
3. Clear language expands your reach
Try to keep your internal content as clear and concise as possible. Break information down into bite-sized portions, using simple language and lots of visuals. This not only helps your employees grasp the information more easily, but they are also more likely to remember it. As a result, they will act on the new information faster and also be more inclined to share it with their colleagues.
Communicating bite-sized pieces of content transparently and making it easy for employees to provide feedback will significantly improve your internal communication. The two key advantages of webinars are:
- Webinars are transparent because they involve employees in decisions and also enable them to provide their feedback
- Webinars are easy to understand because they are based on visual content which reinforces the message for the viewers
If this has inspired you to start using professional webinars to improve your internal communication, download our checklist now. If you have any questions or would like to know more, contact us. We can provide you with all the tools you need to broadcast a professional webinar.