These days, no matter how big or small your company is, it can be hard to keep everyone on the same page. Are your employees actually reading that monthly newsletter? And who’s to say everyone is fully engaging in company culture? In order for a business to grow, everyone from the top, down needs to get the message to get the picture. Fortunately, today’s generation of business is being exposed to some seriously cool internal communication technology tools.

The past couple of years have really started to see changes in how companies are delivering internal news. Long gone are the days of carbon copy paper memos – in fact, some of your younger employees might not even know what that means. Now businesses have finally given in to technologies that were once considered distractions: social and mobile. These collaborative tools are transforming internal communications. But if this is news to you, or even if your comms strategy isn’t working as-is, then it might be time for an upgrade.

If your company needs a better internal communications plan, then here’s the strategy for your HR services team that’ll get everyone talking:

“Internal comms is incredibly important when it comes to company culture.”

The meaning is in the message, is in the design
Website design company Enplug recently discussed in a blog how internal comms is incredibly important when it comes to company culture. The idea of company culture is make or breaking even the most established of businesses. If you want to attract and retain top talent, you have to have the “it” company culture. No pressure, right?

Let’s take a quick detour to discuss a recent survey report regarding the emerging trends of internal communications by Newsweaver and Melcrum. This survey interviewed 500 respondents ranging from SMBs to global enterprises in an effort to find out how internal comms technology can measure employee communication strategies. The study found that an underwhelming 16 percent of participants were truly satisfied with their ability to measure the effectiveness of their communication plan. The three most popular channels of communication were:

  • Intranet – 93 percent
  • Email – 90 percent
  • Leadership communication – 84 percent.

Of these percentages however, 60 percent were planning to look into internal social networking tools and only 22 percent were going to continue to put more into email improvements. This says a great deal about internal communication as is. But 83 percent of the survey respondents admitted that they hadn’t yet implemented the technology of which they so desired to better their company, and instead continued to get in touch with employees offline. These stats show that businesses want to make the change, they just don’t necessarily know how.

Are your employees getting the message?Are your employees getting the message?

The way your business leaders communicate the message, goals and values of your company, is crucial in helping your employees digest that material. So where do you start?

Step 1: Figure out your message
What are you trying to communicate to your employees? Enplug explained that in order to have a working internal comms, you first need to know what you’re talking about. Begin with asking yourself what you want your internal communication program to do for your company and what your current situation needs improving on to get there.

Step 2: Choose your platform
Communication should be easy to read and accessible for all employees. If you don’t have a simple platform for sharing your message, your ideas will likely fly by your employees, Business.com explained. Fortunately there are plenty of easy platforms for you to choose from once you’ve figured out the company’s message, of course. However, once you decide which platform is best for you, you should stick with it, too many ways to communicate can get confusing otherwise. Here are some popular internal communication sites for you to look into:

  • Slack
  • Google Hangout
  • Basecamp
  • Microsoft Lync
  • Wrike.

Step 3: Keep it simple
Whatever you have to say to your employees you need to make sure to keep it short. If you have a lot of text, your message could get lost in the middle or completely overlooked entirely. That being said, Enplug also recommended to make your content as visual as possible as about 65 percent of the population are visual learners. Giving them aesthetics will make your message more digestible and appealing to your employees.

If you need help developing a plan, consider an HR outsourcing company for all your internal communication needs.