The modern business world is changing rapidly. As millennials begin to enter the workforce, the relevance of effective internal communications tools is increasing. Newer generations have very little patience for conventional ways of communication and office politics.
With this progressive shift, there is a dire need for communication tools to encourage more collaboration, transparency, and feedback in the new work environment. This is where internal communications come into play.
Here are the top 8 reasons why internal communication tools are essential for your business.
- Targeting messages to diverse, global workforces
Workforces have different languages, roles, locations, departments, regions, and divisions. Here, internal communication plays a vital role in ensuring proper content targeting diverse groups and resonates with all the employees. A modern digital workplace solution offers the opportunity to target communication items to diverse groups and make digital communications relevant for everyone in the organization.
- Keeps everyone informed
Creating, dispersing, and managing communication is the foremost requirement of every organization. This is where internal communication plays an essential role. When the employees are informed and kept in the loop, they can quickly put their work into perspective and carry out their roles effectively. While the organization distributes a huge amount of information to employees, you need an effective internal communication plan to grab the relevant information and reduce the noise.
- Boosts employee engagement
Employee engagement is regarded as a critical activity because it directly impacts key areas like employee productivity, turnover, and even business profitability. And internal communications play a significant role in various aspects of employee engagement, including the physical, emotional, and cognitive components. When employees know that their contributions are appreciated, they will push themselves to offer their best every day. Also, they will connect themselves with the vision and values of the organization. If you do not have a professional approach to managing internal communications, a modern digital workplace solution can help you to leverage the opportunity to boost employee engagement.
- Omnichannel communication approach
There is a plethora of tools and software within the digital workplaces. Email, social media channels, intranet, chat apps, and public-facing sites have the potential role in a truly omnichannel environment. However, it takes the right skills and experience to manage communications across different channels and make the best impact depending upon the audience and message. Here, a unified internal communication platform can help make the best use of multiple communication channels and ensure a positive messaging impact.
- Crisis communication
COVID-19 has shown the need for clear crisis communications that employees can trust. The role of internal communication is not only to ensure crystal clear and consistent messaging but also it must be effectively managed without leaving any room for misunderstandings. During COVID-19, the messaging clarity and good communications have supported the well-being of employees, and it has also helped in minimizing the risks to business continuity in grim times. Employee communication software plays a vital role in improving internal communications during a crisis and beyond.
- Reduces conflict
Conflicts cannot be avoided in the workplace. It could be misunderstandings, a clash of ideas, or a sense of lack of recognition. Well, there is nothing that good communication cannot solve. But for that to happen, an organization should have the right internal communication platform that boosts a culture of diversity, respect, and address issues immediately. Everyone has their perceptions driven by their values, experiences, and culture. Recognizing these factors and allowing everyone to share their views, opinions, and issues help resolve workplace conflicts.
- Supports organizational change
Another benefit of internal communication in business is that it helps in change management. It can be anything from following a new company policy, introducing new ways of working, modern technology practices, mergers and acquisitions, etc. Changes and transformation are prevalent, and taking a professional internal communication strategy is essential to bringing employees along on the change journey.
- Advising on best practices
The internal communicators also act as internal experts and consultants, helping to advise on best business practices and provide guidance to leaders. Not everyone in the organization is a trained communicator – senior leaders need support from professionals to get their messages across the organization and create and execute campaigns. Considering the importance of communications in various aspects of the organization, it is essential to have an internal communication platform to ensure best practices and provide professional support and guidance.
How to build an effective internal communication strategy?
Building an effective internal communication plan is vital for every organization, regardless of its size and industry. Here are some key steps to creating an internal communication plan:
- Analyze the organization’s current situation – Identify the communication gaps and scope of improvement.
- Define communication goals and objectives – What are the benefits of internal communication for your organization?
- Identify the audience and segment it – Define the group of employees by department, skills, generation, location, etc. Choose the categories that are relevant to your business.
- Outline core messaging of your organization – Decide and convey the core message to everyone in the company.
- Specify the tactics and communication channels – Choose the relevant channels like interactive chat tools, a news feed, and alike.
- Create a communication calendar – Choose the type of communication, and target audience based on role, location, and department. Keep the calendar always up to date.
- Determine key performance indicators to measure results – Define short and long-term improvements by measuring the internal communication effectiveness.
Ramp up your internal communication strategy with a modern digital workplace
As the workplace continues to change, a next-gen intranet empowers the communicators to reach your workforce quickly, reduces conflicts, engages your employees, builds relationships, and keeps a mutual trust between the management and employees.
If you are finding the right tools and capabilities to boost internal communications, Microsoft 365 intranet can be a one-stop solution for your business. It offers familiar Microsoft 365 tools to enable seamless communication, easy sharing of information, access to multiple communication channels, and better project management are some of the benefits offered by the modern intranet.
