Internal communication is the glue that holds together an organization from the top-down. It’s a critical function of any organization, and its main purpose is to share information among employees so that they can perform best and stay engaged.
Still, it often results in ineffectiveness and it doesn’t reach the preset goals. As a consequence, too many frontline employees feel disconnected and disengaged from corporate.
What can you do to reverse this? In this blog post I will share 8 content ideas to spice up your internal communication.
Last update: July 26th, 2022
Impact of good internal communication
First of all, let’s understand the impact of good internal communication. According to a Gallup study, employee engagement also translates into higher productivity, profit, and lower turnover.
Internal communication can encourage employees to feel trusted and connected both to each other and the organization they work for.
If your goal is employee engagement, you’ll need to build a strong communication and content strategy. Understand what works and what does not.
For example, when content is consistently long, dull, or irrelevant, engagement levels suffer and the message ceases to be effective. Be aware that times have changed and so the need of your employees and the channels to reach them.
Before we dive into some ideas to spice up your internal communication, it’s important to keep the following guidelines in mind while setting up an internal communication strategy.
The keys to an engaging internal communication strategy
- Use the right tools. The first step for an efficient and inclusive internal communication strategy is to build a ‘digital ecosystem’ to reach all employees. Optimizing your communication channels for mobile users would allow you to provide a consistent and effective information flow across all departments and locations and avoid leaving a portion of the workforce uninformed.
- Create the perfect content mix. When it comes to engagement, including a diverse content mix is a crucial piece of the puzzle. Supplying employees with a rich and relevant variety of content will keep them informed, engaged, and help them become your brand’s best advocates.
The secret for a successful content mix is all about maintaining the balance between fun and engaging content with business information. Pro tip: keep in mind this rule of thirds: 1/3 Company News, 1/3 Industry News, 1/3 Daily Life.
Important: Always remember that “A picture is worth a thousand words”. Spice up your content and hold people’s attention with images, videos, GIFs, and graphics.
Content ideas to spice up your internal communication
So how can you create messages that employees will look forward to seeing and interacting with? Here are 8 content ideas to spice up your internal communication:
1. Share important business updates
Keep your frontline employees directly updated on products, promos, systems, and regulations.
Use graphics and make them eye-catching to get their attention. Ensure your message is given the prominence it needs by your internal communication tools to ensure it is heard.
Use updates to help your frontline employees connect with work on a personal level – don’t make them purely administrative.
2. Acknowledge individuals
Welcome new employees, appreciate veterans or celebrate outstanding performances publicly on the dashboard of your internal communication platform.
An expert study found out that 76% of respondents found peer praise very or extremely motivating, so don’t forget to recognize your hardest workers. A simple message of thanks can mean a lot.
Digital ecosystems such as an internal communication platform have built-in recognition tools for managers and peers. High-five!
3. Share the bigger picture
It’s well-known that frontline workers often feel disconnected from the corporate environment. Start sharing company values, priorities, and progress more frequently to join these two sides of your organization.
This will help employees connect with the bigger picture, giving them a more rounded image of their position within the organization. Clarify your long-term company goals and make your frontline workers feel they have a role to play in meeting them.
Tip: Want to let them feel that their contribution counts? Share media updates, business achievements, statistics, and positive reviews. They’ll feel proud of working with you!
4. Receive powerful testimonials
Just released a new employee discount or promo? Ask your employees to film selfie-style videos of their experience and share them on the platform.
It could be an effective means of breaking down walls of text, engaging your staff, and receiving instant feedback on your new product or service.
Improving your internal communication in this way could even transform your employees into fully-fledged brand ambassadors.
5. Organize team challenges
Boost team spirit with a little fun and healthy competition between departments or locations. Include prizes to encourage participation and get with the times.
Get inspired by the latest trends on social media and put yourself out there! It’s fun, entertaining, and engagement with your GenZ employees is guaranteed!
Check out how H&M challenged the teams on dance moves.
6. Quizzes & games
Introducing gamification to your internal communication app can encourage employees to learn more about a specific topic within your industry and push them to challenge each other.
More importantly, it’s a lot of fun! Gamification can also help employees retain important information from workplace training, which will ultimately improve the customer experience. Include some targeted microlearning and start the game!
7. Stimulate a learning community
No one knows your organization’s frontline daily activities better than your frontline staff. So why not encourage your frontline employees to share some practical day-to-day tutorials about their special job skills or any kind of tips & tricks they use on the floor?
Offer them opportunity to learn from each other and grow both as individual professionals and a wider community. Internal wikis, for example, could be be the innovative internal communication idea your employees need to stimulate their next big idea.
Extra tip: Keep a challenging vibe to encourage participation, and include some nice prizes up for grabs for the most useful or creative tutorials.
8. Transform feedback into growth
Frontline employees are the ones who know your customers best. According to Forbes, over half of frontline employees have suggestions and feedback to improve customer satisfaction quarterly.
Learn how they feel, listen to their feedback carefully, and involve them in the ideation process. Don’t miss out on many great ideas!
Use mobile-friendly survey solutions so employees can give feedback at any time.
9. Leverage a social intranet
Social networks are not just for killing time or messaging friends, they can also empower your frontline workers. A social intranet can form part of an effective internal communication plan by encouraging employees to like, share, and engage with work-related content
10. Keep it quick
Your frontline workers don’t have time to read an essay. They want to receive short, snappy company updates.
Millennial and Gen-Z employees are particularly eager to receive their information quickly, so you should ensure your communication is targeted and relevant.
11. Don’t be afraid to use video
Internal communication is important, so it’s vital that your message is understood. Sometimes it’s easier to get your point across using speech and through a medium where body language is visible i.e. through a video.
Plus, almost half of employees in the US said that they wanted to see more video content in the future, so give your workers what they want!
12. Spice up your emails
Although email is not the ideal communication channel for your internal communication with frontline workers, where it remains relevant, be sure to keep things interesting.
Engage your frontline workers with interactive emails using features like pulse surveys, comment boxes, and smart links. Just because you’re sending an email, it doesn’t have to be a boring one.
13. Schedule an event
Frontline workers may be on variable timetables, making it difficult for them to get to know their colleagues. One internal communication idea to help bring your workers together is by organizing events.
An internal communication platform can help you organize events, like a welcoming event for a new employee, a staff birthday, summer party, or any other social event, boosting morale at your company.
14. Use metrics to measure
You won’t know how your internal communication strategy is performing unless you use digital tools to gather data about it.
Establishing metrics around your communication plan will tell you how engaged your frontline workers are and if the channels you are using to send messages, training, and updates are the right ones.
15. Share your well-being strategy
Although half of employers report having a formal wellbeing strategy in place but ensuring this includes frontline workers isn’t easy when they don’t have a desk or, sometimes, even a company email address.
If you are using internal communication to promote wellbeing, make sure your frontline employees aren’t left out.
Boost your internal comms with an employee app
Find out how Oneteam helps organizations like yours to revolutionize their internal communications. Interested in learning more? Watch the platform overview video below or book a guided product demo.
