The 7 benefits of effective internal communication (and how to get it right)

For those of us who work in comms, the benefits of effective internal comms may seem fairly obvious; we see the impact of good – and bad – communication within organisations all the time. But if the idea of an internal comms strategy is new to you or your business, or if you’ve got a manager who’s still to be persuaded of the benefit of having an internal comms function, then this article is for you. What are the benefits of effective internal communications and, actually, what does effective look like? How do you know when you’re doing it right?

Strip it back and the single, overarching aim of internal comms is to help deliver the business strategy. It does this not just by informing employees but engaging with them too, so that everyone understands where the business is going and why. It’s undeniably a soft skill, which means, compared to a new piece of kit on a production line, for example, it can be quite hard to quantify the direct business impact (probably why so many businesses have been slow to realise its importance). Happily, years of academic research has proven it has many benefits and there is now plenty of evidence (look at Engage for Success as a starting point) to show that, done well, internal comms will:

1.      Develop a sense of trust between employees and leaders. This is probably the most important benefit of internal comms, because without trust you won’t get anything else either. 

2.      Increase employee engagement. When staff feel valued and listened to they become more motivated.

3.      Improve staff retention. It’s well known disengaged employees are more likely to leave and the reverse is also true: happy, engaged employees tend to stay put.

4.      Drive up innovation and efficiency. The best innovation often comes from the ground up, from those who see the flaws in the system every day. Listening to staff and encouraging them to make their thoughts heard will lead to better ways of working. 

5.      Turn employees into brand advocates. If your staff do most of the talking to your customers then this is key, as they will reflect the tone and vision set by management. Employees who know what the plan is and who genuinely believe in the product or service, will make all the difference to a business’s success. 

6.      Ensure any big changes are successful. Communication is never more important than at times of change and good comms will ensure staff feel part of that change, not subject to it. What’s more, if you have a history of open and honest communication you’ll have a far greater chance of being one of the few companies which handles large-scale change well.

7.      Improve collaboration between departments. A reduction in silo working will boost efficiency and problem-solving, generally making it far easier to get things done. 

It is, however, easy to say that’s what effective internal comms will do; making sure it is effective – having the right tools and strategy in place – is harder. With that in mind, this is what we would expect to see in an organisation which has an effective internal comms strategy:

·        Two-way communication. This is probably the biggest driver of effective and therefore successful internal comms. If you ask staff to listen to you without giving them an opportunity to talk back, how do you know if they’ve understood or even heard what you’re saying? Providing opportunities for meaningful feedback and discussion is crucial. If you want to improve your culture and communication, you need to let people see their voice is being heard. As an example, you might choose to run an annual survey and this might identify a number of things staff are unhappy about. If you do nothing with that information, you’re basically telling everyone you don’t care what they think. But if you make improvements and then get feedback on whether that’s worked, they know their concerns are important to you; they feel more valued and you start to reap some of the benefits listed above.     

·        Buy in from the senior leadership. Without management being able to give a clear sense of direction and purpose it’s going to be virtually impossible for staff to understand why they do what they do too. Not all leaders are natural communicators, but everyone can improve with training. Managers should be active across whatever comms channels you use and they should be seen to be open, approachable and honest.  

·        Clear channels of communication which deliver the right messages. The specific tools or channels you use will depend upon the nature of your business but, often, a mix of meetings, emails, internal comms apps or internal social media is the best approach. Channels need to be chosen and used with the correct audiences in mind and, whatever you use, the language and messaging should be clear and consistent.

·        Evaluation and measurement. Specific campaigns should have clear aims and objectives, meaning that once a campaign is over you can measure its success. More generally, you want to be regularly evaluating the effectiveness and usage of your comms channels as well as what is and isn’t working in your messaging so you can continue to improve what internal comms offers the business. 

Employee communication really does have the ability to change the way people think and act and, if you want it to, it can set your business on an entirely new path. Hopefully you’ll agree that is one powerful reason to invest some time and effort into making sure your internal comms is as good as it can be.