How to improve internal communications in organisations with multiple cultures and languages
You know what fascinates us? How organisations can operate across entirely different industries, yet still face the same core challenge: how to connect with a workforce that spans geographies, languages and cultures.
Whether you’re in pharma, mining or tech, the internal communication challenges are identical: how do you get the same message to resonate with a massively diverse, dispersed workforce without losing its spark?
Prepping the perfect global internal comms plan
If you’re going to get that perfect internal comms plan that will light the spark in your people across the world then it all starts with prep.
First, you need to understand your audience. Talk to people properly, watch how they work, understand the reality of their day to day. Do they work remotely, are they often on the road? What resources do they have? What routines do they follow? And what’s their environment? Is it noisy? Is there a phone signal or reliable internet connection? Do they use tablets or desktops, phones or pens and paper? And how are their language skills?
Take the team at Anglo American – the miners out on-site don’t exactly carry pens and paper around with them! They’re not going to complete a quick worksheet before they head into a mine or scribble on sticky notes to share their thoughts. Sounds obvious when we state it like that, doesn’t it? But often it’s not, until we do this kind of drilling-down. Empathy is key to creating inclusive and accessible comms.
It’s also worth thinking about how different people prefer to receive information. Some audiences want depth, context and supporting material. Others want something shorter, clearer and easier to absorb quickly. Your job is to build communications that work for both without losing impact.
And one more thing at the prep stage: if you’re naming a programme, campaign or strategic theme, run it past translators and local representatives early. Test the language before you launch. That way, you can be confident the message makes sense not just centrally, but across every region and every level of the business.
Here's what you need to reach your global teams
1. Line up your line managers
Your line managers are one of your most important communication channels, especially in workplaces where direct access to people is difficult. We all love ambitious engagement ideas, but none of that matters if your leadership doesn’t have the confidence, skills or resources to deliver the messages.
That’s why it’s so important to be actively communicating with your line managers. Give them the context, the messaging and the flexibility to adapt delivery for their teams. They know their people and their environment better than anyone else, and that local knowledge is invaluable.
2. Keep it simple
Use short sentences and simple language, avoiding jargon or acronyms wherever possible. There’s no point writing something clever if nobody understands it. The same goes for idioms and colloquialisms, which can be difficult to translate and even harder to interpret consistently across cultures.
Keeping things clear also makes life easier for translation. It’s faster, more accurate and usually more cost-effective, which is no bad thing when you’re communicating across multiple languages.
3. Take it back to basics
Step back and ask what you really want your comms to achieve. Start with the clearest, most straightforward version of the message, then adapt it for the most remote or hard-to-reach colleague in your organisation. If it works for them, it’s much more likely to work for everyone else too.
Simple doesn’t mean dumbed down. It just means clearer. You still need to preserve the outcome you want whether that’s awareness, understanding, behaviour change or action.
4. Get creative
If your audience doesn’t have the usual tools to hand, what else can you use? Voice, gesture, imagery and interaction can all help bring a message to life. And if you want to understand the real barriers people face, go straight to the source.
Surveys, focus groups and conversations with team members and line managers can give you far more useful insight than assumptions ever will.
Break down the language barriers
Language is only part of the story. Even when a message is translated accurately, that doesn’t automatically mean it will be understood in the way you intended. Tone, cultural context and delivery all shape how communication is received.
That’s why it helps to think beyond simple translation. In some situations, you may need interpretation for live sessions, or local-language support for key updates. In others, you may need to adapt examples, visuals or references so they feel relevant to the local audience.
It also helps to remember that not everyone feels equally confident speaking up, especially when they’re working in a language that isn’t their first. Creating space for questions, clarification and feedback makes communication feel more human and effective.
Where words fail, music speaks
Wise words by The Little Mermaid author. He’s not the only one to have said something along those lines in years gone by. In fact, much has been said about the power of music to affect people’s emotions and connect different groups of otherwise unrelated individuals. And hundreds of scientific studies have shown how music affects us physiologically. It can stimulate dopamine release, change our heart rate – and generally transform how we feel. So, when it comes to selecting music to play as part of an internal communications message – a LOT of thought should go into making the right selection.
Dunbar’s work showed how performing music generates a natural ‘high’ and increases community bonding. Apply that to the workplace and we can see how a group of employees with different languages, cultures and literacy levels can engage with one another through music – whether that’s creating a beat with stamping, hands clapping, humming or even playing instruments.
We’ve applied this science across a number of client projects. We worked with one manufacturer on their annual ‘happiness day’ to inspire employees around the world to each submit different parts of a popular song – all edited together to create an engaging and shareable music video. We worked with another to create a project focused on safety and values – over two weeks a handful of employees rehearsed warm-up dance routines, then more than 1,000 of their colleagues united with them in a dramatic, musical celebration of the company’s values and safety programme.
Transform your internal comms with tech
Obviously, technology plays a massive role in all this.
The lockdown-led rise in remote working in 2020 forced the hand of technological innovation and experimentation. Zoom – the virtual meeting technology – for example, saw revenues skyrocket 300% in 2021 after the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic. Some businesses have even hosted parties and socials using tools such as Weve and Party.Space where employees can enter the metaverse and control their own avatars to socialise.
Naturally, the move to immerse ourselves in digital ‘spaces’ has accelerated. Overall, global spending on Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) headsets, software and services, including purchases by consumers, rose in 2020 to $12 billion, up 50% from 2019.
New technologies like AR and VR could make it easier to reach and engage remote employees in exciting ways. But – it’s important to flag here that access isn’t equal.
Even though consumers are buying more equipment like this, making it widespread in the workplace could end up creating a bigger divide within organisations. Not only in terms of varying access to fast internet connections, but also personal differences. Some will be keener than others to strap on a headset and plunge into a virtual world. Those with more interest in gaming might be more au fait with certain types of user interfaces and controls. And for many, digital devices are purely functional tools to get their jobs done, and they may not have an interest in exploring other developments. So if you’re introducing snazzy tech, think about whether anyone might be left out or put off.
Employee apps are on the rise – especially when a workforce has limited access to email or a computer. Many employees have phones and data as part of their job in order to access company apps, so make the most of this on-the-go comms channel. It’s easy to operate and can deliver simple and engaging messages, such as gifs or access to social feeds.
Make it personal
A study from the University of Texas has shown why personalisation works. The data suggested personalisation gives us a sense of being in control. And it helps us feel like we’re under less pressure from information overload, because the message has already filtered out other options – sounds good to us. So when messages are tailored, the outcome, whether that’s an open rate or an engagement rate, is usually better. According to HubSpot, personalised calls to action perform 202% better than plain ones, for example.
Delivering personalised video communications en masse is something that’s possible now thanks to next-generation marketing tools. And it can serve a wonderful purpose of making complex messages much easier to digest. 90% of information that the brain picks up is visual – and we process images 60,000 times faster than we process text. So the science backs up why we think videos and images are a great way to deliver internal comms, when languages and text are so much more process-heavy on our grey matter.
Create equity through visuals
Across the world it’s estimated that 773 million adults lack basic literacy and numeracy skills, but it’s an issue that can sometimes be hidden. Video, graphics and simple infographics are also powerful communication methods for employees who don’t have those literacy skills. Something called the Picture Superiority Effect (PSE) helps support this.
People will only remember 10% of what you say 72 hours later if you use words alone. Use a picture, however, and the figure rises to 35% – and for the full shebang with picture and words together, you can achieve a 65% recall.
Graphics, animations and video can help people understand quickly, even when the subject matter is detailed or unfamiliar. For example, imagine an organisation needs to share detail around its new pension contributions or bonus scheme. It could share some straightforward percentage options. Or it could tell the individual how their current contributions – based on their current salary – are affected. How’s it done? First, you need a spreadsheet upload of data that’s specific to the individuals, and a pre-built animation. Next, the tech does all the hard work to personalise and simplify the message.
You should also think carefully about the cultural meaning of visuals. Colours, symbols and imagery don’t always carry the same associations in every region. Red, for example, is a revered, lucky colour in Chinese culture, but might land differently when conveying safety messages in Western cultures where red can be associated with fire, and danger in the Middle East. And while green has become a byword for sustainability, it symbolises pure bad luck for groups as disparate as stage actors and fishing communities.
Visual content can do a lot of heavy lifting. Images and video make messages easier to absorb, especially where literacy levels vary or the subject is complex. In many cases, a visual explanation can do more than a block of text ever could.
BREAK DOWN THE BARRIERS
When there’s one message to communicate, the real challenge is often how to make it work for different audiences at once. That means thinking about language, access, delivery and context together rather than as separate jobs.
There are plenty of ways to make internal communications more inclusive across languages and cultures. Clear writing, practical support, local adaptation, useful technology and good feedback loops all help. The best approach is usually the one that removes friction rather than adding more of it.
At the end of the day, people just want to feel seen, heard and clued-in. Strip away the corporate noise, keep it human and give them the space to connect – no matter where they are in the world.
We can help
Are you ready to ignite the spark on your next global campaign?
Connecting people across geographies, cultures and languages isn’t easy – but then, nothing worth doing is, right?
We thrive on helping deliver those meaningful messages and connecting your people, no matter how far apart they are. Let’s make it happen together.
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