How to create an internal communication strategy. 3 key aspects and checklist

Do you need to develop a company communication strategy? Want to know what an HR communications strategy should consist of? In this article, we will talk about the basis of a communication strategy, give 3 main points, and share a checklist for creating your comms strategy.

HR strategy is an important document which serves as a base of all activities of the HR department. It consists of three main parts: a recruitment plan, distribution of tasks within existing teams, and a motivation and engagement plan (including those who have not yet been hired). Often the third part, motivation, is left as the least important. In some companies, it is just a bonus plan. But in fact, employee engagement is the most important metric that can be influenced without spending a lot of money on benefits. We talked about such methods of motivation in our article.

To effectively manage employee engagement, you need a communication strategy that will allow you to determine the expected effect of the work of internal communications specialists and achieve the best result. In addition, the presence of a strategy allows you to effectively develop the HR brand and corporate culture.

IC strategy should define the communication tools, content types and content plan, key metrics, and the tools to measure them. Let's take a closer look:

There are three kinds of employees in organizations: office, remote, and field. Each of the types has features that you need to consider when choosing communication tools. Office and remote employees have constant access to computers, but they are also surrounded by distractions that can make messages from the company through standard channels (mail and internal portal) less effective. Emails and announcements on the portal, consisting of boring plain text, can't engage modern employees who are already accustomed to social networks, which means they will not read them. We recommend using modern and more engaging formats that will provide more coverage and increase overall awareness (use more pictures and videos, add interaction).

To communicate with field employees (workers in production sites and stores, and sales representatives), it is necessary to use digital signage in recreation areas and walk-through places, as well as formats that are suitable for consumption on a smartphone. You will greatly increase the efficiency of communication specialists if you choose a universal tool that works on different types of devices and does not require double work to create and distribute content for different kinds of employees.

Even the most effective communication tool will not bring results without engaging content posted regularly. Therefore, it is crucial to write down all possible content formats that you can share with employees. Here are some ideas:

• Digest of company news: new customers and products, completion of KPIs, product improvements, media mentions
• Information about events: reports from corporate parties and training meetings, charity, conferences
• Messages from executives: meetings with employees, video or text addresses, company goals
• Educational content: learning materials, corporate culture training, company history, information about the products
• Information about incentive programs: new training opportunities, corporate discounts, news from the C&B team
• Surveys and feedback: about the work process, quality of the working environment, attitude towards internal communication, incentive program

The content plan is important for the effectiveness of the released material, the communications department will always know what content to prepare, and employees will not get bored with the same types of content. Try to diversify the information that you share with employees as much as possible, but also do not forget to regularly collect feedback so that you know what the employees themselves are interested in. You can also think about personalization – allow choosing what content to subscribe to or to unsubscribe from irrelevant information.

The metrics that you should track may differ depending on the specifics of the company and the composition of employees. For example, in an organization without many branches and with mostly office workers, it makes sense to track the level of participation in corporate events. But there are universal metrics that are most important to monitor:

• Engagement – the level of interest of staff in the results of their work and the overall success of the organization. This metric can be measured using a survey. The higher the average survey result, the higher the interest of employees in company success. Engagement is not only HR but also a business metric that affects business indicators such as profitability, staff turnover and employee productivity.
• Survey completion rate is a crucial metric for effective HR performance. Important decisions need to be made based on survey results, and before making such decisions, you should ask the question "does this solve the problems that employees face?" To always give a clear answer to this question, you should regularly conduct employee surveys and ensure that the completion rate is high enough. There is no "normal" pass percentage, but once you start tracking this metric, you can build on past results and know where to grow
• Internal portal visit rate. Large companies and government agencies invest heavily in the development of a corporate portal and set KPIs for HR departments to increase intranet traffic. Even if you do not have such tasks yet, the improvement of the internal portal should be considered one of the priorities. It is on the portal that employees should receive the most up-to-date and reliable information about the work of the organization, but often due to an inconvenient interface or poorly prepared content, employees do not go there. This metric can and should be monitored, as a high-quality corporate portal can have an impact on employee engagement.

Workstories can become your employees' favourite communication channel! This is a platform for creating and broadcasting corporate Stories on computers, smartphones, and TV panels in the office. The Stories format allows you to present any information concisely and engagingly, taking a minimum of employee time, but keeping them fully informed of all important events in the company.

Workstories apps on PCs and phones are combined into a single platform with corporate TV in the office and production sites, which means that the same stories can be broadcasted on all screens in the company, which saves time for internal communication specialists and allows you to focus on quality content.

We invite you to register on our website and get access to corporate Stories right now!