A great internal communications strategy is like a well-oiled machine. Get that right and reap the benefits of increased productivity, good collaboration, employee engagement and more.
Internal communications should keep employees informed of any company developments which may affect them physically, emotionally and financially. The team should also be transparent about how your business is responding to and impacted by a given situation.
Poor communication can lead to disconnected staff, low retention rate, duplicated work and poor productivity rates.
Here are five challenges that an effective internal communications strategy can address:
Disengaged staff
There’s nothing worse than staff who are demotivated. Disengaged staff leads to poor productivity and low retention rates. And who has time for that in today’s business climate? After all, it’s enthusiastic staff who drive your business forward.
One of the key reasons for disengagement is a poor communications strategy. Failing to inform a team that a work project has fallen through or not providing information quickly enough, having had resulting in a lost sale, could be classic examples.
Staff appreciate being involved and knowing what’s going on. So, every time they receive a notification for a new blog post from the CEO or a message flash up on their screen about some job promotion opportunities, they instantly feel valued.
With an out-of-the-box intranet, you can ensure staff see these types of messages every day and get the news they need to hear when they need it.
A study by Gallup found that engaged employees are 59 percent less likely to search for another job within a 12-month period.
Employees feel isolated
With recent ways of hybrid working, it’s easy for staff to feel disconnected. They may feel left out as they didn’t know there were beers after work, or a fundraiser was being organised.
An effective internal communications plan is so important because it facilitates feedback, discussion and debate, which is a great way of involving everyone, whether they’re in the office or not.
With Attollo Intranet, quickpolls, forums and instant Teams chat can be accessed from the homepage making it so simple to keep in touch with colleagues.
Say goodbye to one-way communication from on high, and let all staff have their say for a much more meaningful workplace.
Lack of information
Having poor dissemination of information can cause two emotions within staff: frustration and distress.
The employees who get frustrated didn’t get the memo about their benefits changing or a job promotion, while the distressed ones heard gossip about redundancy in the office – a rumour that would have been quickly quashed with an instant message to all staff.
Over time, a lack of communication can lead staff to leave the business altogether, ultimately costing you more to rehire their positions.
Generational staff
In every office with a wide spread of age groups, there will be problems with people being stuck in their ways. The ones who will wait all day for a printed company newsletter rather than quickly access the news hub on an intranet.
Younger staff are much more likely to use social styles like instant messaging and text as their main method of communication. Older staff may prefer phone calls and emails. Preferences need to be considered when dealing with a multi-generation workforce.
Research by McKinsey on the use of social tools and communication platforms showed that 80 percent of employees who have social tools at work communicate regularly with others on their team. Only 65 percent of staff without social tools do so.
When you decide to implement Attollo intranet we offer training days. This means we can support your team with getting onboard in all using one central platform, which sits on Office365, to satisfy every communication need. No more waiting around for a round-robin email as everything is instant.
Using the right internal communication tools has the ability to facilitate a strong communication strategy within a company, improving overall efficiency for every user, no matter what their age.
Not using analytics
Failing to use metrics means an inability to measure success. You’ve spent time laying out the perfect internal communications plan so don’t forget to see how well it’s doing.
With Attollo, you can use analytics to identify exactly who is spending time in which areas and for how long or how many people engaged with a blog post or accessed the training portal.
Without defining and measurable internal communication goals, you risk important information not being clearly communicated – and this could have bad consequences for your team’s success.
Make sure you ask employees for feedback and be seen to act upon it and include realistic objectives. You can have an ongoing assessment of your strategy to ensure everything is working well – and decide what your goals are along with improvements you can make to see them through.
Keen to know more?
If you’d like us to give you a free demonstration of how Atollo Intranet could supercharge your internal communications strategy, contact us today.