By Germanas Kavalskis, EACD Board Member and Chief Communications Officer at
Yukon Advanced Optics Worldwide.

Are you staying up to date with the latest communication trends and keeping an eye on industry changes? If so, the concept of internal communication is not new to you. And most likely, you actively implement it in your business, especially if you hold a leadership position in a larger company, such as Head of Communications or Personnel. Your goal is to foster job satisfaction among your employees, build loyalty, cultivate them as brand ambassadors who consistently advocate for the organisation they represent. In short, you want them to love their job and feel positive about the company.

Sounds familiar? That’s why there has been lately a growing interest in internal communication, and the question “how do you make internal communication successful?” is being asked more and more frequently.

For some years, communication specialists were primarily focused on external tasks such as public relations, disseminating press releases, and managing advertising campaigns. The need to inform employees about the organisation’s activities was not as pronounced. Even today, not all organisations prioritise internal communication.

But let’s start with the bad news. There are no perfect organisations, just as there is no perfect internal communication. There are numerous tools, theories, and strategies to promote effective internal communication. However, I have not yet come across an organisation that can claim to have faultless internal communication, adored by its employees and fully backed by various performance indicators (KPIs).

The smaller the team, the easier it is to spread information, get the message across, and receive feedback. But as organisations grow, their structure becomes more complex, and internal communication more complicated. Accordingly, it becomes more challenging to achieve internal communication goals, and feedback is more likely to get stuck somewhere in the internal structure. The management may start to feel that employees are not sufficiently engaged in the company activities and have a poor understanding of its mission and vision.

Often, it’s like fighting windmills. As management’s expectations rise, more effort is poured into internal communication, higher demands are placed on it, and new goals, KPIs, aspirations, wishes, dreams, and so on are set to meet those requirements. If a company introduces various performance programs, the pressure on internal communication increases even more. In such a scenario, it’s not unusual for a communicator to allocate up to 70% of their time to internal communication, leaving the remaining for external communication.

But sometimes you may want to say, “forget the targets for a moment, set the metrics aside, just communicate. If you have something to say, say it. If you have something to share, do so; if not, let’s discuss why”. Because direct conversations between the management and employees are the most effective way to ensure everyone is aligned and working towards the same goals.

However, there’s always a bright side and things might not be as bad as they seem.

If your organisation…

    1. understands the importance of internal communication and practices it.
    2. has clear internal rules, missions and visions that are communicated to all employees and explain why they are being asked to follow them.
    3. has an intranet (the form doesn’t matter; what matters is that you have one), regularly updated with the most relevant organisational information and, most importantly, it is actually read. If it’s not read, make it a mandatory homepage, functional, attractive and innovative.
    4. is so big or has specific activities which not all employees can read news online, so you publish newspapers, magazines, monthly newsletters. Well, if you are so advanced and concerned about data protection, create an app to host at least non-confidential news.
    5. takes care of employee well-being, organises joint celebrations, picnics, camps, lunches, and otherwise tries to make the working environment attractive.
    6. holds regular organisation-wide meetings and events to present what is new and what changes are coming, sharing up-to-date information and receiving positive as well as negative feedback from employees, i.e. the latest positive-negative information about what the organisation is up to is constantly circulating internally.
    7. encourages employees to provide suggestions on how to improve organisational operations, and most importantly, listens to and considers those suggestions; conducts various surveys to see how employees feel and what observations or suggestions they have; actively involves employees in the organisation’s activities and even in its management.
    8. seeks direct communication between the management and employees, avoiding creating internal divisions like ‘they’ and ‘us.’
    9. welcomes new employees warmly, assigns them mentors, provides newcomers with induction, and says goodbye to departing employees as if they were close friends who leave only positive reviews about the company.

…then your internal communication is operating smoothly and your organisation is performing well in line with all the necessary criteria.

However, there’s one aspect that isn’t easily influenced by changes, KPIs, or technical measures – the human element. There will always be people whose enthusiasm for performance metrics is dampened by various external and psychological factors, and they may not be as enthusiastic as the management would like. There may also be executives who set high demands but are unwilling to be part of internal communication themselves, so employees only see them on special occasions.

Exactly this is what makes it hard to claim that an organisation has a perfect internal communication tool. Can it be improved? Certainly, by recognising that there will always be some minor imperfections. If everything else we discussed is functioning well, then your organisation is effectively managing its communication efforts.