Setting up your internal communication platform

A strong internal communication platform doesn’t just happen—you need to set it up in a way that fits your organization. Here’s how to get started step by step.

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Step 1: Create your communities

Every organization has its own natural communities. These could be based on location, job function, or specific teams. Each community has its own feed where employees can communicate, share updates, and stay connected.

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Step 2: Set up organization and community groups

Groups help you streamline communication even further.

• Organization-wide groups: Create groups across locations for roles like cashiers or floor managers. You can also set up a dedicated group for crisis communication, making sure critical updates reach everyone instantly.
• Community groups: Use groups within a community for more local or department-specific communication. For example, a team group to celebrate achievements, or a shift-handover group to make transitions smoother.
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Step 3: Start engaging

Now it’s time to invite employees to join Oneteam. You can easily integrate employee data from your HR systems or upload a .csv file.

From there, it’s all about interaction. Create messages, run polls, or share team pictures - anyone in the community can reply with high-fives or comments.

Do you have an important announcement? Selected people can mark it as important. That post will be pinned to the top of every personal timeline until it’s marked as read.

Each employee has a personalized timeline based on their group memberships. They can also adjust privacy settings to decide who can send them chat messages or see their online status (admins will always be able to reach them).

Want to connect directly? Just head over to the chat function to start a private or group conversation - complete with photos, videos, or GIFs.

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Step 4: Manage your community with the organization dashboard

The organization dashboard is your central control room. Here you manage users, settings, and permissions. You can also send top-down messages to all employees or specific groups, ensuring key updates are shared consistently.

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Step 5: Gain actionable insights

Once your platform is running, you’ll gain access to engagement data that helps you improve continuously. Track relevant metrics and watch your employee engagement grow.

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Quick tips to boost employee engagement

Oneteam users see an average of 85% weekly active users. To get the same results, it’s all about how you engage from day one.

• Lead by example with regular messages—schedule them to stay consistent.
• Run polls to involve employees in decisions.
• Share photos and videos to spark reactions, high-fives, and comments.
• Keep internal communication within Oneteam instead of spreading messages across different tools.
• Celebrate individual and team successes.
• Build a learning culture with fun, interactive eLearning modules‍
• Collect feedback with employee surveys to see what’s working and where you can improve.

👉 Need inspiration? Check out our blog post 8 content ideas to spice up your internal communication and see how companies like H&M connect and engage with their frontline workforce.

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The foundation for a digital employee experience

Internal communication forms the foundation on which the digital employee experience is built. Like with all foundations, it gives you a solid base on which you can continue to build extra layers. For any organization looking to deliver an outstanding and fully integrated, digital employee experience, it’s essential to also add other building blocks of the digital employee experience, such as onboarding, eLearning, surveys, and more.

Oneteam offers an all-in-one platform to help organizations connect, train, and engage their frontline workforce. Oneteam includes modules for internal communication, onboarding, eLearning, and surveys, and offers native integrations with your current HR or WFM systems. Try it out yourself and get started for free.