Leveling Up Internal Communication

Everywhere I’ve worked, organizational communication (or lack there of) pretty consistently makes the top 5 list in both voluntary exit reasons and Glassdoor complaints. Strangely, however, an internal comms overhaul has never landed on my top projects list or even really ranked in a discussion of business priorities. But everyone complains about it!

As HR professionals, the real value we provide isn’t in drafting or planning internal communications – although these tasks often become a de-facto part of our role. It’s anticipating and planning for the impact those communications will have on our employees. While everyone else focuses on narrative control, we focus on narrative effect.

So – how can we level up our internal communications? The processes must not only consider what we want our teams to know, but how we want them to feel.

The Worst Kind of Communication is No Communication.
Yes, even worse than bad communication – though not by much. Bad communication definitely creates confusion – but no communication only creates the space for people to fill in the blanks with their own narrative. And, almost without fail, the narrative people create in their minds is much more dire than the reality.

Commit to a Cadence
Humans, by nature, value consistency and reliability more than we care to admit. Yep, even the flexible, driver-mindset, rockstars on your team.

The cadence that works for your team will be completely unique to your business. Early stage start ups might be able to host all hands every week where all employee concerns are openly discussed and addressed – at many other organizations, this would not be possible, advisable, or pleasant for anybody. If you have the resources, a monthly update newsletter would probably be the other far end of this spectrum. Either way – employees should get used to hearing from leadership, and should know when to expect those updates. When communication is reliable, it nips some of that wild narrative spinning referenced above in the bud.

Be Transparent about Transparency
Most employees would tell you that they highly value transparency in an organization. Transparency has also become incredibly popular as a core value for many organizations. However, most HR practioners and executives know that true, total transparency is not always possible. And I think most employees understand that, too! With this in mind, I encourage HR teams and organizations to be transparent about the level of transparency they can provide. There are things that you can never share with your larger employee group – like the specifics on why someone left (or was asked to leave). And it’s totally okay to acknowledge that. Most employees will appreciate the honesty.

Meet Your People Where They’re At
Where do your people spend most of their day? Where are they comfortable getting information? Its kind of an old adage that people need to hear something three times before really understanding it – I would add to this theory, actually. In broad communication, HR Teams should really work to ensure employees are getting key information not only three times, but from at least three different angles:

Primary: usually the initial announcement, sent in either email or via your instant messaging platform. In my mind, there are really only two kinds of organizations – Email Orgs and Slack Orgs. You know which one you are.
Reminder: a second place for the team to see the information visually. Often this happens on a shared site (like an intranet, or HRIS landing page).
Conversational: how will the employees ask questions and seek understanding? If you’re rolling this out through managers, you better spend some time ensuring managers have what they need to answer these questions and stay on message. If tight narrative control is a top priority, a ask us inbox or HR office hours might be more effective. The conversation here is where true understanding starts to be built and habits start to change – so don’t skip out!

What’s critical in this step is that you are paying attention to where your employees are spending time and getting information – and you’re coming to them. Employees should feel that it’s easy to find the information they need, not like they have to dig for it.

In conclusion, strong internal communication doesn’t just focus on disseminating information – but crafting messages that will resonate with employees on an emotional level and build trust between teams and leaders. When employees feel informed and connected to their leaders, they are more likely to be committed to the shared goals of the organization.