Internal Communications Tools

"Have you launched a new communication program or channel, expecting employees to dive right in, participate and do their part? But they don’t, and you’re left with wondering why. Isn’t this something they needed, maybe even wanted? In fact, employees may simply not know what to do with the information that we have just communicated. If we haven’t let them know our expectations, and made it easy for them to follow, we’re missing a big opportunity."

Read the full article to find out more about using these communication labeling system ideas to clarify expectations, bring greater relevance, and fuel participation with your employees:

• Categories:  instructional & descriptive
• Mix and match for the ultimate approach
• Customize your labels and categories

"We have two simple questions for you:

1) How often do you hire new team members?
2) How FAST are your new employees ready to work on their own and contribute to the company?

If you can get the full stack employee in less than three months, congrats! You are HR and onboarding guru. Unfortunately, the rest of us are not. We usually need more time (up to six months) to successfully onboard the new team member and to get good results from them."

Read the full article to find out more about these 8 steps on how to make the welcoming process as pleasant as possible:

1. Make an announcement to the rest of the team that you are going to have a new team member.
2. Prepare new workstation and set up the computer for our new colleague few days before she arrives.
3. Make sure that your company culture document is up to date.
4. Have your procedures in writing.
5. Enable access to the internal Q&A section.
6. Write a welcome post on a day of new colleague's arrival.
7. First day at work - show her around and introduce her to the team.
8. One on one meeting with the CEO.

"Employee communications are crucial to an organization’s success, no matter its size or sector. You want to make sure your employee communications are as effective as possible, right? But how? Should you use internal staff to get the job done or look to an outside vendor to take care of everything? The answer: It all depends."

Read the full article to find out more about when it's best to go the:

• internal route
• work with an outside vendor

The article also includes interview questions for potential vendors, and a chart you can print to help you decide whether it makes sense to handle your employee communications in-house or to outsource.

"Of all the communications tools available to a leader, perhaps none is more powerful than storytelling.

To reap the greatest rewards from storytelling in the workplace and steer clear of the risks, one must think strategically about the stories they tell, making sure they can first identify what they need a story to achieve so they can then find or develop the right story to achieve it. It also involves building great stories to be told. And while every story is different and unique, all great strategic stories are composed of five essential elements."

Read the full article to find out more about these 5 essential elements in leadership storytelling:

1. Premise
2. Platform
3. Person
4. Plot
5. Point

Everyone in the industry knows it needs to happen but few are measuring the outcomes of our internal communications efforts. Fewer still are happy with their ability to extract useful information from what they are measuring.

Read the full article to find out more about these four facts about measuring internal comms and to download a report containing some of the standard metrics Newsweaver uses to report on campaign success and activity:

• The number of internal communicators measuring activity declined in 2014
• The successful use of measurement is low
• Communicators are settling for what they can measure, not what they ought to measure
• Measurement is vital to getting a seat at the strategic table

"Internal communications is no longer just about top down communications, instead you need to be driving engagement from your employees and enabling them to be part of the conversation.

Apps provide a platform to drive two-way communication between employees and their employer, whilst also providing instant access to information and content employees may need whilst working mobile."

Read the full article to find out more about the must have list of features of an internal communications app, split into 3 broad feature areas:

1. Employer-to-Employee
2. Employee-to-Employee
3. Access to Corporate Content

"In this blog, I propose a fun intranet scavenger hunt to help introduce and familiarize employees to these various intranet features. So, your mission – should you choose to accept it – is to execute an intranet scavenger hunt to spread awareness of what hidden treasures are available on your intranet. As a result, more people will start using these features more effectively, and more frequently."

Read the full article to find out more about intranet scavenger hunts and:

• how they can boost employee engagement
• suggested tasks
• how to design your own

"To put it bluntly, corporate communications is the spurned stepchild of the C-suite. In many organizations, the function hardly gets the attention it deserves until the moment crisis hits. But undervaluing the importance of powerful communication is a mistake, and it's costing some companies dearly."

Read the full article to find out more about these ways corporate leaders can do their part to improve how their companies communicate:

• Recruit talented, senior-level communications executives
• Learn to trust and understand the communications function
• Let communications leaders advise and educate the C-suite
• Eliminate command-and-control communications
• Let employees be ambassadors

"In all the excitement about digital and social media, it’s easy to forget one enduring fact about internal communications. Line managers matter.
Building supervisors into a communications strategy should always be step one; it just doesn’t get talked about much because you don’t need to buy many expensive widgets to make it work. All you need is a bit of common sense and the answers to five basic questions."

Read the full article to find out more about these 5 questions and things to consider about the manager's role in communication:

1. Have we empowered them to communicate?

2. Who’s communicating with them?

3. Have we given them the skills?

4. Have we given them the tools?

5. Is anyone listening?

"You’ve spent several months working towards the launch of the new intranet. The big day arrived with much fanfare and razzmatazz. Then it all went flat. People didn’t like what had been done. It wasn’t what they expected. Some even thought it was a step backwards.

Not all is lost. You undoubtedly have positive results among the issues. They may be hidden, but you have them. You now need to figure out what to keep, and what to change – because starting over is rarely an option for anyone."

Read the full article to find out more about these steps which will help identify what needs to be improved and where to begin.

• Gather and assess feedback
• Validate business requirements with users
• Re-prioritize business requirements against organizational priorities
• Assess stakeholder relationships and engagement
• Standardize your steering group
• Embed publishing standards
• Manage content types (appropriately)
• Apply the right standard to collaborative content
• Apply small changes sooner

"The first step to aligning people at all levels of the organisation is to create a simple, clear and compelling business narrative that everybody can understand and believe in. This narrative can then be brought to life by drawing on personal stories of success and achievement from real people within the organisation that people at every level can relate to. These can illustrate key messages and at the same time create an emotional connection, inspire and motivate others, celebrate 'heroes' and build a sense of pride and purpose. As your company goes through change, stories can play a critical role too, demonstrating exemplary actions and behaviours that leaders can role-model and their teams can adopt."

How do you go about developing a story that will move others? Read the full article to find out more about these five stages to a successful story and examples:

1. establish our hero
2. introduce peril
3. hero is tested and fails
4. introduce Guide(s) to help the hero change
5. hero overcomes the obstacles and succeeds

Employees want an authentic connection with their leaders. And leaders want inspired employees, engaged in the organization. What if you could have both – and you didn’t have to create more communications, nor even scripted events?

Read the full article to find out more about the successful Gates Foundation Unplugged formula and how you can launch your own unscripted leadership platform using these guidelines:

• The anatomy of Unplugged
• Make sure you meet the prerequisites
• Getting started
• Listen and adjust