The external communications of a business seem to have always been the focus, with many businesses putting their efforts into keeping their customers happy, often overlooking the impact their employees have on business success.
With the relatively recent realisation that keeping your employees happy and engaged is just as important as making customers happy, the focus on internal communications has taken a positive shift.
Internal communications may currently be a few years behind in the world of digital communications, but with millennials increasingly taking up the job market (50% by 2020), channels such as social media and online hubs are more important than ever.
As all industries also embrace machine learning to differing extents within their businesses, digital platforms will be pivotal for employee engagement, education and awareness programmes.
To give you an idea, here are a few digital channels that you could implement to getting your business embracing digital:
Intranets
While these are often perceived poorly, if built well and allow for two-way conversations rather than simply top-down messages, they can be a great place to share business specific ideas, help foster collaboration and break down traditional silos.
The content needs to be generated by employees for the employees. The content also needs to be short and digestible as employees may not want to read 2,000 words at that time.
Social Media
With social media forming part of most employee’s daily routine, no employee is likely to go an entire day at work without scrolling and clicking at least one, or several, of their social media accounts. Making this the perfect opportunity for business to create an internal social channel for their employees to use.
The launch of Workplace by Facebook has blurred the lines between personal and professional social networking more than ever. Similarly, other networking platforms such as Yammer, Slack, Skype and Jive are used by businesses globally, so are changing the way employees communicate and making larger businesses connect more efficiently.
App
Millennials are checking their phones over 100 times a day on average – mental I know, but true. This makes an app an obvious choice when it comes to delivering real-time business news and content. It’s an easy way for your employees to upload a range of different multimedia straight from their phones too.
Apps are also ideal for remote workers or frequent travellers, as they’re able to keep up with business news on the go.
An alternative to an app is to build an intranet site that is ‘mobile first’ so it’s functionality priorities mobile use.
Digital Signage & Displays
Businesses can highlight news updates, business events, and promote employee benefits flexibly and in real-time. Placing wall-mounted screens, free-standing multimedia displays and touchscreen devices around the workplace, even the most disparate of employee bases can be reached.
Roundup
When it comes to internal communications, there are many channels that may or may not suit your business, but with the shift in employee demographics, lifestyle and communication trends, it’s important to carry out regular audits and assess whether your communications could improve.
Challenge the process
Start your internal communications campaign with a fact find exercise – understand your employee audience as you would your customers, build a profile and source the most liked digital channels to adopt. From here, it’s simply then creating a content strategy that complements this.
Want to create a communications strategy but need some help? Let’s talk!
EXIMIA is a communications agency founded by a corporate, for corporates. The team combines first-hand corporate experience with creative and marketing nous to ensure communicating to your employees is easy, efficient and effective.
