Revive your IC channels with these juicy tips
Like us, you’ll know that to achieve high employee engagement levels in your organisation and build a strong, connected culture, you need an effective internal comms channels strategy.
Today’s continuously evolving technology means there are now so many diverse channels you can choose from to communicate with your teams.
But which ones would be best for your organisation? And should you look to introduce new channels, or can you breathe fresh life into your current ones? We’ve handpicked four powerful ideas you can use to help create an internal communications channels strategy that nets the results you need.
Remember that no one channel fits all. A quick disclaimer before we get into the detail. We all have unique and varied preferences and behaviours in how we consume content. So, certain channels will likely work wonders for one group of employees – and totally miss the mark with others. And that’s okay.
It’s not necessarily a reflection on the quality of your content. The best IC strategies integrate multiple channels together, so they complement each other and serve the diverse needs of your employees in the most productive and personalised way.
We’re not suggesting you cram as many channels into your internal comms strategy as possible. It pays to be selective and judicious in your approach. So if a particular channel isn’t bringing anything of value to the table – ditch it. Here are four fresh ideas to help bring your IC channels to life.
Our first idea is to involve employees in your internal e-newsletter
One of the most highly used digital internal comms channels is the internal newsletter, with 71% of organisations citing this as a very effective channel.
But if your internal newsletter is only used to broadcast messages from the top-down, you’re missing a valuable opportunity to create greater connections with employees – and boost engagement with the content.
An internal newsletter can be just as effective in unlocking employee voice, as it is in amplifying the voices of senior leaders. It’s an opportunity to capture the thoughts, ideas and insights from everyone across the organisation – touching all bases to deliver a richer, more thorough and more informative experience for employees.
So why not invite employees to share stories about the projects they’re currently working on?
Or ask them to enlighten colleagues with the activities that keep them motivated and happy outside of working hours?
This can also help to create a better balance of content for people to engage with. Blending important corporate messages with a view ‘from the front line’ creates greater variety and diversity of information – plus it’ll make the content more authentic and relatable.
You could think of your newsletter much like a forum – a platform which people from across the business can put their own unique stamp on. At H&H we use our own internal newsletter (the ‘Hubbub’) to share stories, insights and news worth celebrating from across of the agency.
For every edition, a different H&Her takes on the role of editor – collating snippets, constructing a compelling narrative, and calling on their inner artist to design the newsletter in they way they see fit. And it’s gone down a treat – with an open rate consistently above the 95% mark.
Turn PowerPoints into Town Halls
How often do you use face-to-face comms channels in your organisation?
Are they prioritised within your internal comms mix? Or does digital play a more prominent role in communicating messages to employees?
You’ll know face-to-face channels are consistently rated as the most effective by IC professionals, with over three quarters using them as a key part of their internal communications strategy.
Every IC channel has its merits. However, face-to-face is often the kingpin when it comes to effective engagement.
And there are tons of ways you can make in-person internal comms creative and imaginative beyond the bog-standard ‘death by PowerPoint’ presentation.
A particularly powerful method of face-to-face comms is the town hall meeting – currently being deployed by 73% of internal communicators
It’s a great way to reach as many people across the organisation as possible, in the same space, at the same time. And it’s how you deliver it that really makes the difference.
Could you incorporate some elements of gamification? From ‘treasure hunts’ that invite senior leaders to race around a city piecing together a new strategy, to interactive ‘two truths and a lie’ games that encourage employees to see their CEO in a new light, we often incorporate gamification into our clients’ town halls.
When you get people involved in this way, it leads to heightened retention of key messages – meaning they stick long past the event.
Reinvigorate your intranet. Did you know 93% of organisations use intranets as their main channel of communication?
It’s easy to see why. Much like an Enterprise Social Network, intranets provide the opportunity for collective knowledge and information-sharing.
They enable employees to communicate directly with managers and IC professionals. And they drive engagement by allowing people to interact with content and share their opinions and ideas in a safe communal space.
So how exactly can you reinvigorate yours?
Rather than changing the content – you could be more creative in how it’s displayed. Let’s say you’re communicating a new business strategy. Rather than hosting information and resources alongside unrelated content on the home page – why not devote a page specifically to this new strategy, and bring it to life with an interactive, experiential design?
You could weave the communications into a visually immersive experience – one that takes the user on a journey through the new strategy, so they can get a real sense of the direction and the part they play in making it happen. Check out how we used this approach to successfully connect Fujitsu employees with the brand’s newly redefined story.
You could even throw in a KPI traffic light dashboard, so employees can keep up-to-date on how the shift to the new strategy is progressing.
Social channels have been on the rise in organisations over recent years, with companies investing in popular communication tools such as Yammer and Slack.
But have you ever heard of Hunchbuzz? This neat networking tool is an ‘ideas management system’ and is essentially a combination of a survey platform and social network.
Users can ask a variety of questions to collect employee feedback on all sorts of issues – as well as picking their brains to generate new ideas and innovative solutions to tricky challenges.
And if you’re looking for something to replace long-winded employee surveys, you could try Push.
Insights and Resources
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