Nothing scares communicators more than disengaged employees. And nothing turns employees into zombies quicker than poor internal communication.
It may be a spooky time of year, but there’s no need to fall into frightening internal communication traps. Get your goody bag ready because we have some tasty tips and tricks to share.
Frightening internal communication traps
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The treat:
Tips and tricks to avoid scary communication traps.
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| Senior leaders who are never seen |
Increase leader visibility
Employees want to experience leaders as more than just an email signature. Consider these two tactics to increase leaders’ presence:
- Don’t have time; give me something short and sweet!
Distribute a leadership blog where leaders share their perspectives, advice and business updates in a conversational, brief message—say 50 to 100 words. Cadence could be weekly, monthly or each leader’s choice. Bonus points if leaders include photos! Then pull quotes and snippets from these blogs and repurpose them for other channels, such as the intranet, Yammer (or other internal social feed) or LinkedIn.
- I have time for a flavorful experience; bring on the pumpkin pie!
Set up time with each leader to develop a customized communication plan with objectives, tactics and measurement. A collaborative process will ensure you connect tactics to your company-wide plan and build buy-in along the way.
Now that you have agreement on steps to build visibility, implementing strategies to improve leader visibility should be a breeze. |
| Meetings with a dead audience |
Provide opportunities for engagement
Employees value meetings that are relevant to them and when they can participate. Apply these tips to your next meeting:
- Don’t have time; give me something short and sweet!
Try breakout rooms in your next virtual team meeting. Employees will feel more comfortable speaking up in small groups. Teams can use this time to solve a work-related challenge or participate in icebreakers to strengthen company culture.
- I have time for a flavorful experience; bring on the pumpkin pie!
Review an upcoming meeting’s agenda (if there is one) and blow it up! Try moving the Q&A up to encourage discussion among speakers and participants. Be sure to include time for interaction—such as polls, chat or virtual whiteboarding. Planning an agenda with interactivity in mind will liven up any meeting!
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| A corn maze of an intranet |
Give employees the information they need easily
If employees can’t find what they’re looking for, they likely won’t come back to the intranet. If participation is low, your intranet may need a revamp. Try these solutions:
- Don’t have time; give me something short and sweet!
First, make sure your intranet has a search function that works. Then, note how employees refer to certain topics and be sure to tag your content that way. When you use common keywords to make content searchable, you ensure that employees can easily find what they’re looking for.
- I have time for a flavorful experience; bring on the pumpkin pie!
Get helpful feedback on your intranet by holding focus groups. Gather employees across multiple functions/teams and ask what works and how to help employees get important information faster.
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