Recognising the strategic value of employee communication

How many times have you been in a discussion around internal communication only for the conversation to skip the ‘why’ and go straight to emails, newsletters, and all hands meetings?

It happens more often than you think, especially in organisations where the strategic role of internal communication (IC) isn’t well understood, and it doesn’t have a seat at the decision-making table. Where there is a lack of strategy, or a dedicated internal communication function, it isn’t surprising that the conversation goes straight to tactics like tasking someone with sending weekly or monthly ‘what’s happening’ emails and looking for content to put in a newsletter.

But with research consistently showing a link between employee engagement, productivity, intent to stay and  aligning employees to your organisations purpose , mutual trust, recognition and leadership – maybe it’s time for a rethink.

Because if your internal communication strategy isn’t engaging your teams on purpose, strategy and values and building mutual trust by helping employees be heard and empowered, then what is?

Here are a few of unassailable truths that have come from years of experience in Internal Communication:

• When people say there is a lack of communication in the organisation – they aren’t referring to emails and newsletters – they’re referring to the direction they do or do not get from their leaders on the work they are doing, why it matters and what the future looks like.
• Humans are social and story driven, and we pay more attention to people in our social circles. Organisations aren’t alternative universes. Our behaviours and expectations around how we consume information don’t magically change when we enter the office.
• When you survey people about their preferred channels for receiving internal communication, they nearly always say email – but when you talk to them, they complain about the volume of email they get, all company emails they receive that aren’t relevant and not seeing or hearing from leaders.

Direction matters, whether it’s the transformational vision and purpose of the organisation or the day-to-day delivery of the outcomes that will get us there, direction is critical.

When we apply a structured approach to storytelling, we help people stay anchored in where the organisation is now, where it’s headed and what it’s going to take to get there. And we help keep up the focus by ensuring we communicate with purpose.

With channels it’s about creating and picking the right ones, at the right time to cut through the noise. They are the execution of the IC strategy, and some of the most powerful channels are your leaders.

None of those things come from starting the conversation about communication channels or how frequently we should send emails, newsletters or schedule all hands meetings. They all need to work in harmony and none of them just happen organically.

It takes a strategic conversation about how to connect employees to purpose, crafting a simple, compelling narrative to help people understand it, planning communications and aligning messages across multiple channels, coaching and supporting leaders to be one of those channels and to walk the talk. And it takes a seat at the table.