Best Internal Communication Strategy Templates
An effective strategy for corporate internal communications is communicating goals with employees strategically and effectively via break-through internal communication channels. It is essential that communications with employees cut through the chatter created by overused and ineffective internal communications.
Regardless of company size or industry, the following easy-to-use internal communications plan will create the template for successful internal communications and achieving company goals.
Internal Communication Strategy
Table of Contents
Understanding Internal Communications
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"The two words 'information' and 'communication' are often used interchangeably, but they signify quite different things.
Information is giving out; communication is getting through."
Sydney Harris
What are the 6 types of internal communications?
Types of Internal Communications
Six Types of Internal Communication
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Top-to-Bottom Communications
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Bottom-to-Top Communications
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Peer To Peer Communications
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Crisis Communication
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Change Communications
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Culture Communications
What is Top to Bottom Communications?
Top-down communication is a style of organizational communication in which information flows from senior leadership on down through the business. When important business decisions are made at the highest level, organizations need an efficient way to communicate the decision throughout the entire company
How to improve top down communication?
Use communication vehicles to cut through employee clutter and keep it simple, clear, and to the point. Do not try to cover a single issue over multiple emails or lengthy emails.
Communicate regularly. Similar to marketing a product where it takes three to seven impressions before a message is understood and registered, the same approach has to be adopted for top-down communication. Scheduling message delivery over a period of time will help the message resonate with employees and change from what might be perceived as a suggestion to an expectation or directive.
What is Bottom Up Communications?
Bottom-up communication is internal communication where employees at the bottom of an organizational hierarchy share information with superiors. Employees at the bottom of an organization often can provide insight and contribute to the progress of a project, goal, or overall mission objectives.
How to improve bottom-up communication?
To improve bottom-up communication employees need to be provided an internal communication vehicle to provide insight to leadership. Using quick quizzes or surveys will give you a measurable insight into your employee's opinions as well as comprehension of what matters most to an organization.
Being open to feedback is necessary for creating a culture where employees know that insight is valuable and that their opinions and ideas matter. It is also important to note that most employees may feel reluctant to share their feedback publicly so while an open town hall format is valuable some ideas are often not shared.
What is Peer to Peer Communications?
Peer-to-peer communication tools can be done via face-to-face conversations, email, or via collaboration tools. Employee-to-employee communication is an essential element in internal communication. However, it can be a slippery slope in that you can also inadvertently create more chatter and clutter that employees would have to sift through in order to find the most important messages.
Learning Benefits of Peer to Peer Communications in the Workplace
How to improve peer-to-peer internal communication?
Chances are you already have tools in place to improve peer-to-peer internal communication. Using email and collaboration tools effectively can create a space where employees can share ideas with little moderation or oversight. Create collaboration groups or distribution lists where employees can communicate freely.
What is Crisis Communications?
Crisis communication is the strategy that includes internal organizational processes and communication channels that an organization will use to communicate with its employee base during a critical situation. Internal Crisis communication is arguably the most crucial of all internal communications.
Checklist For Crisis Internal Communication Tools
How to create or improve an internal crisis communication strategy?
The key is to guarantee as much as possible that key crisis communications can be seen immediately. Have a communication tool ready to deliver full-screen crisis alert communications across all screens and devices.
Ideal crisis communications in the workplace should be:
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Easy to implement
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Easy to use
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Seen across every internal screen
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Targetable to every employee or machine or preferably both at once
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Location-based targeting
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Seen across mobile devices as well as computer screens
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Affordable. While having a crisis communication strategy is crucial, it shouldn't have to break the bank.
What is Change Communications?
Change communication includes communicating to employees changes to performance standards, compliance and policy adherence, changes to preferred technology systems, general transitions, organizational leadership change, or anything that has an impact on an employee's performance and overall business objectives.
Integral to any business is communicating change effectively to employees.
How to effectively communicate change to employees?
Use multiple communication channels to guarantee change awareness with your employees. You can create an internal communications campaign that should include a variety of messages over different mediums.
An example of change communications channels are:
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Direct-to-screen scrolling headline tickers
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Wallpaper background messaging
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Screensavers that communicate changes to employees
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Locked Screen Backgrounds messaging
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Messaging on common area screens
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Internal quizzes to determine if the change communication message is resonating with employees
Cut-through change communication tools
What is Corporate Culture Communication?
Whether it is organizational values, performance standards, achievement recognition or anything your company stands for long-term stability relies on everyone being aware of what the business is all about. Your organizational culture needs to always be front and center. Integral to any business is communicating change effectively to employees.
How to improve corporate culture communication?
Send frequent, informal, and short culture communications to your employee base using tools that are not disruptive but are impossible to miss.
Whether your employees work onsite, work from home, or are hybrid, you can communicate with them directly on their own screens using cut-through communication tools such as desktop scrolling heads, or computer pop-up messages.
Be proactive and not reactive when communicating culture to your employees. Communicate to your employees regularly to maintain a work environment where the culture is not just a reminder when something is not going right but is seen and felt everywhere within an organization and is understood as a standard in everything they do.
Types of Corporate Culture
What are the pros and cons of the most common tools for internal communication?
How well do the most common communications tools get important messages across to your employees?
Pros
Immediate Outreach
Wide Reach
Easily Accessible
Targeted Messaging
Cons
Creates Clutter
Less Personal
Message Recall Uncertainty
Pros and Cons of Email
What are the Most Cut Through Tools For Internal Communication?
Direct-to-screen internal communication tools allow the most important messages to rise above the everyday noise created by overused and ineffective communication tools.
XComms empowers organizations to immediately send out desktop alerts through various flexible messaging channels so key messages will never be ignored, pushed to the side or deleted.
The multi-channel platform casts a wide net to immediately engage and interact with employees.
The XComms Platform Includes:
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Unlimited Content Managers
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Mobile Device Notifications including SMS, WhatsApp, and email
All XComms communications are fully trackable and can be sent instantly along with employee acknowledgments.
Contact XComms to schedule a personal demo of the platform and see how XComms is the leading provider of direct-to-screen notifications for businesses.
Why XComms?
XComms is an incredibly cut-through internal communications tool that enables organizations of any size to quickly and affordably send communications directly to employees' screens cutting through the noise created by email and collaborative tools more effectively and affordably than any product on the market.
XComms casts the widest possible net to guarantee that employees are aware of what matters most when it matters most on any screen or device.
With affordability in mind, businesses of any size and with any budget can implement XComms.
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Setting new standards with the most innovative, responsive, and intuitive technology available; XComms InfoSec Communication tools are the easiest to use, most affordable, and most advanced solution in its class.
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