How can you ensure your internal communications network scales with your organization?

Align internal comms with company culture and purpose. Consistency of message and story is important. And align with external comms efforts. Sometimes, a great story starts internally and then becomes a great external story. Know your audience, who are you talking to. What do they care about and why. Focus on human-to-human stories. They should be personable and relatable and easy for employees to engage with, to drive engagement (to measure success, relevance). Collaborate with senior leaders to also meet employees they normally would not meet (e.g. coffee chats, Q&As, “walk the shop/office floor”, brown bag lunches).

This question is arguably one of the most important questions one can ask in a leadership role. I believe that almost every problem can be attributed to a lack of effective communications. My simple answer is systemize it, it's a process, not an event. Make sure there are two kinds of meetings in you company, efficient, tight transactional meetings, and one where people can breathe and think together. Next practice what Google calls the Hippo in which you make sure that the person with the highest pay in the room speaks the least. Leadership needs to listen more and talk less. Lastly implement an OKR methodology if at all possible, top down, which catalyzes honest and transparent communications

I would also evaluate how well your internal communication efforts, both in terms of content but also leadership support (how your team services and alignes with key leaders and topic portfolios) supports the current business strategy. It is important that your efforts are focusing on the right things. Internal communication is a corporate function and is there to directly support the business.

The essence of internal communications is to keep the employees informed and connected. Scaling up of the same needs buy in and support from all - Leadership, Internal Communications Team, Employees. Also important is what means you have to share that information with the employees for example like emails, Intranet, screen savers, posters etc. You may choose to use one, more or all mediums depending on the messaging and context. It is also helpful when you have defined guidelines and protocols. It sets up a base level and help the communication team.

É importante que a auditoria interna contemple todos os colaboradores da empresa, independentemente do seu vínculo ou categoria profissional. Devem ser conciliadas metodologias de auditoria quantitativas (questionários anónimos, por exemplo), com métodos qualitativos como focus group ou entrevistas.

Any organization can put together an intentional, impactful internal communications strategy with just 3-4 tools: - An internal communications email platform (not one that serves a dual-purpose with marketing!) - An intranet or hub - Slack or some kind of IM option - SMS if you have frontline or deskless workers

Be careful of having too many channels and platforms, which may have a detrimental effect on communication reach if the audience feels there are too many to keep up with. Stay consistent in the usage of the channels and platforms you do utilise.

When I was researching platforms for a replacement employee intranet, I wanted something dynamic, and not just something that could reach audiences on a variety of devices and through both push and pull methods. I also looked carefully at the business behind the platform, how they incorporated customer feedback, how often they release major updates, etc. And look for tools and solutions that can address multiple tasks...there are probably already more than enough systems and tools in your organization. The fewer that an employee needs to go to for what they need, the more likely they are to engage and utilize what you want them to.

So often, as organisations scale, they add more channels to their comms mix. The noise dials up and comms becomes totally overwhelming for everyone, most of all colleagues, wherever they are. So instead of adding lots of new channels, run a comms audit to hear what your team wants. From it you'll get your channel (and quite possibly messaging) matrix. You'll also get lots of golden nuggets by just having the time to chat to your team, wherever they are. Remembering your people managers are an incredibly important channel too. Don't let them become the clay where messages get stuck. 😊

Have one main channel and maybe another two to supplement it. Most large orgs have some sort of social media channel like Workplace or Viva Engage/Yammer - video content on there is a must. Important messages need to be broadcast across all channels, and the fun stuff can be on your socials, with a call out in newsletters. Make sure you’re interlinking your our channels and driving traffic to them. Use newsletters effectively - as a recap of what’s happened more than live news. Also keep it short. We’re going into an age where reading is taking a bit of a back seat when compared to the short video formats of Instagram and TikTok. Internal comms needs to adapt to different styles of mainstream comms as well.

Generic messages fail. Personal ones resonate. Here's a great strategy to quickly understand the similarities and differences of your audiences so that you can tailor messages to their unique needs and perspectives— In another part of this article, I mentioned the benefit of establishing a communications "network," a diverse group of leaders, HR, and people team members that represent the bulk of your org. Having this network can help you get to know individual teams and divisions a lot better. I keep in touch with them either through regular meetings, or simply via group chat. I can ask questions and they can also report unique aspects of their own teams. Establishing such a network is a quick task with endless benefits.

A segmentação de conteúdos de acordo com as distintas jornadas de experiência que os empregados têm nas organização é um tendência sem volta. Diante de uma volume cada vez maior de informação a geração de valor se dará pela editaçào e curadoria de conteúdos.

La personnalisation permet de diffuser les bonnes informations aux bons destinataires. Cette stratégie permet d'éviter le piège du "trop d'info tue l'info". Lorsque la segmentation et la personnalisation ne sont pas bien définies, les collaborateurs risquent de se désintéresser des messages qui ne leur sont pas adaptés et ainsi délaisser les supports de communication interne. Plus la personnalisation et la segmentation sont bien pensées plus la communication sera efficace. Les collaborateurs se sentent alors compris et valorisés. Cette stratégie contribue à créer un sentiment d'appartenance, mais elle a également un impact direct sur l'engagement et la satisfaction des collaborateurs.

Get to know your audience well. You won't be serving anyone well if you send out bland and generic messages. Create 3-4 personas for your audience and write for them.

Para mi en este 3er punto, la segmentación no depende de estos factores. La experiencia me ha llevado a entender que siempre tratamos con, personas y no con roles, departamentos o funciones. Algo imprescindible es que los pongamos a ellos antes que a nosotros como emisor, ¿Cómo podríamos comunicar algo sin entender quien es y como esta el receptor? , luego entonces puedo entender cuáles son las necesidades transversales y puedo segmentar para estructurar la infromación de tal manera que realmente tenga el impacto adecuado y se genere la comunicación interna , de otra forma, solo nos quedamos en una vaga emisión de infromación desde mis percepciones o premisas.

All this focus on managers is understandable, but it's equally important not to overburden them or give them tasks that can be handled by other means. Communication is an important part of a manager's role, but by no means the only part. Respect their time and bandwidth as well as their influence.

The best and pragmatic way to scale internal communications is by partnering with employees. By involving, empowering and inspiring them as partners of change organizations can tap the potential and power of staff. It isn't about getting an advocacy tool to have employees share content or giving them platforms like Viva Engage to allow for internal conversations. Scaling can only happen when you trust employees to collaborate and co-create communication alongside the team. This approach is articulated in my latest book - Inclusive Internal Communications.

Multiple research studies show that managers are the most valued and trusted source for job-related information. They’re the only ones who can make information relevant to individual employees and can answer the question, What’s in it for me? Internal communications — as important as it is — can’t do that. That’s why it’s critical to have a strong partnership with Human Resources and support leaders and managers.

And don't forget the informal leaders. Informal leaders motivate their teammates, they often have a lot of professional expertise and know what is going on in the team. They also function as role models and promote the company goals. In addition, they are often a connecting factor between managers and their teams.

Make it easy for managers to answer questions and point employees in the right direction. Sometimes these are message maps and other times it's a head's up email with a robust FAQ. As much as possible, keep the managers in the loop!

Check your ego at the door and embrace feedback. This can look like surveys, 1:1 chats, or asking for feedback publicly on an internal intranet channel. Actively ask for it. Thank people for giving it to you. Let them know that you are listening. Your message is worth getting right. Everyone receiving the message wants you to get it right. Continue to iterate so you can create a message that lands.

The key to success here: show that action is being taken based on the feedback. Think of this as market surveys… we all tend to shy away from these as we find them to be time-wasting. Avoid this by showing employees that their feedback is being put into practice

Learn to listen. So many bosses are so busy thinking about what they want to say that they are missing the essence of communications... it is a two way street. If you don't make space for others to speak then you're never going to learn anything and ultimately you teach people not to tell you things.

One effective approach I've observed is the implementation of regular townhall meetings. These forums offer a unique opportunity for leaders and employees to interact directly, bridging gaps and promoting open dialogue.

Feedback is a critical tool that many companies get wrong. Especially post-COVID, people are survey fatigued. There has to be enough value in what comes after the feedback for the employees to take time out of their already busy day to share. 5 ways to build value in collecting feedback: -Take the time to really absorb the feedback — don’t read it and run. -With input from the team, create an action plan to address the opportunities (and celebrate the wins!) -Communicate transparently — if something can’t be prioritized now, explain why and/or when it can be. -Point new programs and initiatives back to the feedback — “We heard you.” -Build this loop into your regular updates. Share what’s working/what’s not, and what comes next.

It’s important to remember you’re not just communicating to employees but through them too. You should anticipate and encourage employees to amplify and personalize the message based on their own lived experience but you have to trust your employees. Done well, every employee becomes your greatest brand advocate.

Au-delà de la méthodologie , canal de communication… il est crucial de prendre acte du niveau de maîtrise linguistique ou le niveau d'instruction de vos équipes, surtout dans des organisations multilingue. vous ne vous adressez pas juste à une population, mais à l'ensemble de vos collaborateurs. Ce point prend sens surtout dans les pays résultant de combinaison complexe de facteurs historiques, culturels, politiques et sociaux.

Be ruthlessly disciplined about channel proliferation. Be intensely focused on having your channels be authoritative and respective - having them be "central" to your organization - rather than try to control or "centralize" everything. This distinction is crucial to scalability. Too much focus on control can make your work unwieldy and defensive. Too many channels can create too much noise.

Employees have to see the value in the chosen internal comms tool if they are going to engage with it. It also has to be a simple and necessary journey. One way to do so is to ensure that employees know what kind of information to expect from that platform, and that this will be the primary means of obtaining this communication. When we adopted Workplace we removed most of our original Intranet in order to ensure we were not putting the same information in multiple places, this created clarity and motivation to use the tool. Allow employees to contribute to content creation, they will share what is important to them and increase the value of the tool in their eyes (sense of ownership, relevance, etc).

Make your internal communications fun, inclusive and engaging. That way your employees will want to be involved and it will be easier to scale as your organisation grows.