Internal communication: How can it help the company?

Although internal communication is an increasingly used strategy, it is currently one of the tools that can help the most when it comes to improving the performance and productivity of teams. Although traditional communication within companies has been hierarchical (that is, from senior positions to workers) and only to communicate specific and essential things in a unidirectional way, most companies have abandoned this model to work and give more importance to internal communication.

 

A company's internal communication is carried out within the same company and addresses its workers. Although it can mostly have an informative purpose, there is a big difference with traditional communication manners. Internal communication is the strategy development of different actions to create transversal and bidirectional communication. Its goal is to create a feeling of belonging to the company and team under shared values ​​and messages.

 

This technique is usually closely linked to the company's culture because, as we have mentioned, it is found in day-to-day actions and moves away from the exclusive use of informative emails. Internal communication is created from statements but also through actions: creating spaces where the employees can be heard while transmitting clear messages and shared values.

 

As has been repeated on several occasions, it is crucial that people feel comfortable being part of their company, not only because of the conditions but also because of its culture and day-to-day activities. By using internal communication, companies can improve their workers' well-being by transmitting/creating the right message and values.

 

 

Which benefits does internal communication have?

 

Nowadays, the relationship between a company and its workers has gained significant importance. This relationship has become essential given the general growth in staff turnover, but it is also valuable because workers can be one of the company's influencers abroad.

 

Adopting a customized internal communication strategy for the company has a series of benefits:

 

• TEAM FEELING: Companies can make people feel valued by keeping them informed, and being transparent. The team feeling is achieved when you promote transversal conversations, where workers can participate while being informed by the company or the sector news.
• GOOD WORK CLIMATE: Spaces are created where people from different teams/departments can get to know each other and thus generate greater trust and relationships.
• BETTER ORGANISATION: Tasks are optimized based on a better knowledge of the company's organizational structure and the needs or situation of the different teams.
• POSITIVE IMPACT: The final message needs to be clear and related to the company's values, culture, and daily routine. Therefore, the employees will have it easier to stick to the image and message and, thus, transmit it to the (possible) clients.

 

Moreover, through all the mentioned benefits, your company might be able to achieve a greater objective: a decrease in staff turnover. Having workers who feel valued and at ease in the business can significantly be decisive in their future decisions. Inevitably, by having less staff turnover, the company's image and results will increase positively.

 

 

How to achieve good internal communication?

 

In the end, there is no exact way to develop an internal communication strategy. The key is to know the company, the team, and the message/image to be transmitted to carry out a personalized development.

 

However, we give you some ideas of actions to adapt to your company and start adopting an internal communication strategy:

 

• STRATEGIC PLANNING: Think about different actions that could work and link them strategically. Make sure that the actions are continuous and related and, once in a while, review the strategy to ensure its effectiveness and possible improvements.
• CREATION OF COMMUNICATION CHANNELS: Create spaces where conversation between workers happens. It can be from a contact email to opinion polls, and a company intranet, among others. The communication channels can be used to keep the workforce informed, congratulate the workers' performance, and inform about news in the sector and organized events/activities.
• ONBOARDING: A key moment to transmit the company's culture and message, in addition to accompanying the new incorporation so that they feel valued and part of the team from the beginning.
• COMPANY MATERIAL: Prepare and provide documents about the company such as the organization chart, values ​​and purpose, and protocols, among others. In this way, you will have a clear and internalized knowledge of the culture and organization of the company, and if there is ever any doubt, it can be easily consulted.
• SPECIAL ACTIONS: Organizes recurrent activities to strengthen the workers' relationship with the company. It can range from more typical teambuilding activities to others, such as internal contests or raffles.

 

Analyze the impact:

To analyze the impact of internal communication is crucial to ensure that the message received is the established one and, consequently, the response from the workers is as expected. The strategy result can already be seen daily, but it is always better to rely on data than on the interpretation itself. For this reason, we recommend the following metric tools such as:

• Surveys: Send a survey to the workers to find out the level of satisfaction in the company, opinions, or questions about the company's purpose, the adjectives that would define the business, etc. Think carefully at what point in the strategy to send these questions!
• Feedback: Look at customers and their feedback. It can give you clues as to whether they are happy at the organizational level, if the clients that arrive are as expected, etc.
• Prescription: How do your workers talk about you? Do you share things on networks? Do you know of people who want to come to work at the company because they have heard good reviews?

 

Now that you know all the aspects of internal communication, you can begin to analyze the situation of the teams and the company. Little by little your team will be able to establish those actions and spaces that foster a team feeling!

 

At Axxon, as talent management professionals, we want to help companies grow with us. Do you want more content for your company's human resources strategy? Dig into our blog!