Internal communications are essential for effective communications amongst all participants and stakeholders within your organisation. Our blog takes you through simple changes you can make starting today!
We’ve been thinking about internal communications a lot recently. Internal comms are one the best ways to bring various teams and departments together and get your organisation moving in the same direction with laser beam focus.
This is a topic near and dear to our hearts here at Ticketsolve. It is an area that we are working on optimising ourselves and one that we think is incredibly valuable to arts organisations that want to break siloed thinking and engender creativity.
This post is inspired by a 2019 session at the AMA Rewire Conference. The session was hosted by Eleanor Appleby. As Head of Visitor Communications at Tate, and a specialist in marketing, brand and staff engagement for the cultural sector Eleanor has amassed a huge amount of experience in delivering the optimum internal communications strategy.
Internal comms is one area organisations don't give enough focus and attention to. It is no surprise of course that this happens. Across organisations, the focus is almost entirely on communicating with audiences and often you just assume that internal comms are just sort of happening - surely departments and teams are talking to each other and know what is happening in the organisation as a whole?
Ask yourself a simple question; How does your organisation communicate with staff?
If you are like me, you might be thinking what I was thinking a year ago. Unless your organisation is huge why do I need internal comms? I can see teams interacting and talking - and moreover - where will I find time for all this?
As Eleanor noted, internal comms are not a “good to have” they are a “must-have” regardless of how big or small your organisation is.
Having a proper process and plan for internal communications means:
And this isn’t just hyperbole. A Watson and Wyatt study on internal communications showed that effective employee communication is a leading indicator of financial performance and a driver of employee engagement.
So What Do Great Internal Comms Look Like?
There are six key things to keep in mind when creating your perfect internal communications plan. You need to keep your comms timely, be transparent and consistent, keep it relevant and succinct and always, always ensure the conversation goes two ways.
Timely
Transparent
Consistent
Relevant
Succinct
Two Way
The Best Communication Channels To Get Your Message Out
Eleanor went through a veritable laundry list of channels you can use to get your message out. While not all of these channels will be relevant to you, We encourage you to use the ones that are - and maybe even explore some new ones that might work well for your organisation.
Some of Eleanor’s suggestions included:
Your Ultimate Goal for Your Internal Communication Strategy? Keep it Simple and Consistent.
Like any communications strategy, your comms need to be simple, clear, concise and consistent. When you are considering which channel to use for your comms, consider the subject matter carefully. Certain types of comms are suited to certain channels, for example, information on show programming shouldn’t be included in HR materials :)
And of course keep it easy on yourself! It is completely fine to repurpose existing content and use methods that make the communications and content easy to produce and absorb.
We’ve a few ideas where technology and apps can support your internal comms.
How to Get Started Revamping your Internal Communications
If you are looking to transform your internal comms, your first step is to become an agent of change. While that sounds dramatic, what we mean is that in order to affect change within your organisation from the mundane to the large scale, you need to see yourself as an agent of change and think a little differently.
As an agent of change, you need to bring everyone along for the ride - this is probably the single biggest task for a change of any kind: getting people on board. The earlier you do this - and the wider you cast your change net, the better (and more sticky) your change will be.
A true changemaker is someone who isn’t afraid of failure and is ready and willing to bring everyone along for the ride. Long-lasting change is about people, so your priorities need to be focused on them.
It is vital to build strong internal relationships at all levels of the organisation and talk to people as early as possible about your ideas and what you need from them. This will help bring everyone along with the change. Be as helpful as you can respond quickly and honestly to questions and concerns - and always look for win-win opportunities. This is especially true if when you need to ask people to potentially add more work to an already filled plate.