More than ever, your internal communication is essential. Whatever your sector of activity or type of organisation. In particular, with the rise of teleworking, it has become essential to ensure that employees are properly informed and have the keys to actively participate in the life and performance of the company. So how can you improve your internal communication?
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5 good reasons to improve your internal communication
Effective internal communication is not just about disseminating information. It is really about involving your employees to boost their motivation and commitment to the company. In more detail, here are 5 reasons to improve your internal communication.
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1- Ensuring a good level of information
This is probably the primary purpose of internal communication. You need to give your employees a good level of information to enable them to do their job properly. The information can be about :
- News from your organisation
- The state of your sector and its news
- The internal life of the company and its teams
- Internal events not to be missed
- Etc.
If your employees are aware of what is going on, inside and outside the company, they will have the keys to be better.
2- Keeping employees motivated and actively engaged
Improving internal communication helps to keep employees motivated and committed. Indeed, internal communication must, in particular, enhance the value of teams by highlighting their work, their initiatives and their ideas. To do this, it is necessary to communicate on achievements, but also simply to give employees a voice so that they themselves can talk about their successes. This is the secret of strong commitment. The more you do this, the more your teams will want to commit themselves even more. It's a virtuous circle that needs to be put in place as soon as possible!
3- Unite the teams
Internal communication has the wonderful power to unite people and create an esprit de corps. This is particularly valuable in times of crisis and difficult times. Indeed, by keeping your employees together, you ensure that the boat stays afloat, even in the biggest storms.
4- Accompanying transformations
Transformations are permanent and accelerating. So whatever changes your organisation is going through, effective internal communication is essential. Why is this so? Because an internal transformation can easily be perceived as a kind of tornado. It overturns codes and makes a mess of things. Having good internal communication during a transformation period gives it a solid framework and reassures the teams.
5- Improve your employer brand
Improving internal communication could well have very positive repercussions on HR communication, and more particularly on the employer brand. Because if your teams feel informed, united and valued, they will be more inclined to speak positively about your organisation to their entourage or on social networks. They will also be more willing to talk about their experience as employees if you ask them to.
How to improve your internal communication? 10 good practices
1- Work on the raison d'être of your organisation
Take the time to communicate your organisation's values and mission to your employees. Better still: you can co-construct the raison d'être of your company with your employees! Indeed, if they understand and adhere 100% to the company's objectives, they will be more inclined to achieve them!
2- Encourage sharing and collaboration
Internal communication is key to building a culture of collaboration and sharing.
To start with, you need to lead by example. This means that the internal communication function must ensure that important documents, key dates, etc. are shared with all teams. In this way, it is the guarantor of the accessibility of information.
On the other hand, improving internal communication means encouraging information sharing and collaboration. It is therefore a question of putting teams in touch with each other to initiate exchanges and to set up spaces conducive to collaboration within the company. This is the beginning of collective intelligence!
3- Valuing the teams
As mentioned in the first part of this article, improving internal communication can improve the commitment and motivation of teams. And to boost motivation, there's nothing better than valuing the work accomplished. Here are some ideas for doing so:
- Organise 30-minute breakfasts during which a team presents a project.
- Disseminate case studies to circulate information on completed projects, mentioning the collaborators involved in the projects.
- Broadcasting interviews with employees.
- Ask top managers to speak (orally or in writing, even in very short formats) about a project and thank the teams.
- Broadcasting videos taken by employees in the field explaining how projects are carried out.
4- Involve managers
Managers are one of the keys to successful internal communication. Indeed, they can be your detractors as well as your best relays. If they are not involved in your system, you are less likely to get them to relay your internal communication. On the other hand, if they are actively involved, then they will be your best ambassadors. Because they themselves will participate in the circulation of information and in the overall commitment.
For example, this is what you can ask managers:
- Highlighttheir team members in written content, videos or even podcasts!
- Organise cross-teambrainstorming workshops to break down silos
- Participate in general in internal communication actions
5- Organise federative moments
Internal communication is first and foremost a human affair. This is why it cannot do without moments of encounter. These moments can be physical, digital or physical. They allow people to meet, often in a more informal way than usual, and to unite.
Think, for example, of ideation workshops to collectively reflect on irritants, design thinking workshops, feedback breakfasts, or even simply, aperitifs to celebrate victories!
6- Disseminating a common language
One of the traditional objectives of internal communication is toaccompany transformations. However, a transformation often involves its own concepts and vocabulary. The essential step is acculturation. Disseminating a common language means ensuring that all employees understand the changes taking place in your organisation. Better still, it means ensuring that they adhere to it and are ready to participate.
To do this, you can share educational content such as MOOCs. This content can be "top-down", in a traditional pedagogical way, or more collaborative. For example, ask top executives, managers or employees to explain an aspect of the transformation, or what it changes for them. Once again, you will be helping to create a more collaborative culture, where everyone can speak up and be valued. A new step towards more collective intelligence!
7- Promote the sharing of know-how and good practices
Help employees formalise their expertise and know-how and share it with others. The result: experts are valued, and the whole organisation benefits! Because sharing good practice is really the best way to set up a virtuous circle between pride, motivation and team performance.
8- Surveying the teams
Improving internal communication also means developing the ability to listen to employees, particularly in the field. The more they feel that they are listened to and that their voice counts, the more they will want to participate.
Polls or surveys can be a regular ritual - weekly or monthly for example. The key is to always communicate the results for the sake of transparency, and above all, to take these results into account in your future actions!
9- Use mobile tools
It has become essential - if not already done - to improve internal communication to make it mobile. Between telecommuting teams , those permanently on the move, those at the point of sale or in the factory, etc., not all your employees have access to a computer. Not all your employees have access to a computer, and those who do may be on the move.
Assurez-vous donc que tous vos outils et vos contenus sont accessibles et lisibles sur tous les périphériques.
10- Turn your employees into "collaborators
Once again, the objective of internal communication isemployee engagement. To achieve this is to ensure that they are involved in the life and objectives of the company, beyond the scope of their job. To improve your internal communication and greatly stimulate commitment, there is nothing better than giving the teams a voice.
Give them opportunities to contribute ideas to the company's strategy - for example to improve performance, address CSR issues, or improve the quality of working life. This will make them feel more involved because they will feel that their voice counts.
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Idea box in companies: what happened to it?]
Organizing an innovation challenge: why and how?]
Organize a call for ideas: yes, but on which themes?]
Why does a collective intelligence tool help to improve internal communication?
A collective intelligence tool allows you to put in place, in a single space, the best practices to improve your internal communication. It facilitates top-down, bottom-up and transversal internal communication.
Indeed, a collective intelligence tool will allow you to :
- Co-constructing the company'sraison d'être or mission
- Sharing important documents or information
- Encourage your staff to share in turn
- Publish content that enhances your employees
- Organise live events and remote workshops
- Provide a space for employees to offer their ideas and good practices
- Conducting polls and surveys
- Disseminate acculturation and learning content
- Enable employees to create quick learning paths to formalise their know-how
- Organise idea challenges
