Effective Internal Communication Strategies for the New Normal: Insights from BuildUp’s 'Homing In' Session
Last week we attended BuildUp’s 'Homing In' session, which discussed the strategies and challenges of internal communications. Rachel Birchmore hosted it from AreBe with co-chair Tina Connell; the guest speakers feature Dilly Lidder from AECOM, Sean Peacock from Stride Treglown, and Gemma Jachnik from Barr Gazetas.
The ongoing challenges presented by the pandemic and the return to the office are still as real as ever. Sean Peacock, the Head of HR at Stride Treglown, highlighted that this needs to start to be addressed by looking at ways to support and ease employee anxiety. Since many people have been working from home, many can feel daunted or anxious about returning to the office. After almost a year and a half, this is a significant change of environment, or for some highlights, negative experiences they associated with the office pre-pandemic. According to the Independent, 5 million people with mental health problems feel anxiety about returning to typical working arrangements. As a business and society, we have to consider how this impacts us and provide support.
So, what role can internal communications play in easing teams back to the office?
Firstly, Sean suggested that companies have flexible working guidance, which allows employees to work on the right tasks at the right place and at the right time. In the session, 34% of the attendees answered that their organisations require employees to work in the office three days a week to implement hybrid/blended working (Chart 1). However, to allow employees to be flexible, 'trust' is the key; thus, it is essential for the leaders to be the role models for the employees, Sean and Dilly say.
Chart 1: Percentage of organisations with/without hybrid or blended working
To manage employees and deal with a company’s challenges, efficient and effective internal communication is the key.
How do we improve internal communications?
Gemma, the Studio Manager at Barr Gazetas, suggested that the company has regular meetings. For example, starting a new week with a Monday meeting ensures that the employees keep updated on new work, and any issues or information can be discussed and shared. Having regular meetings is an effective way to communicate with employees as it prevents employees from feeling overwhelmed.
Secondly, Dilly Lidder, the Head of Internal Communications, Europe at AECOM, discussed that having people with particular subjects to talk about helps organisations communicate efficiently with employees. Ensuring that the right people are speaking about the right topics can help people feel more comfortable with the situation and quickly get to grips with their role in the project.
Enabling employees to talk beyond corporate issues was also advised. It was discussed that companies should have a place for employees to talk about their concerns, interests, or anything they want to share. For example, creating a group chat on an app can helps employees feel comfortable to talk about topics beyond work without being too formal. This can assist leaders and employees in getting closer to each other and ensure that everyone understands the personal and professional challenges that teams face individually or as a group.
Alternatively, running or participating in workshops or webinars was proposed. Running workshops for a specific audience in the workplace can be more effective and educational. For example, Sean suggested that the company runs two different workshops - one for team leaders and one for employees.
In the session, 41% of the attendees at the session answered that marketing/communication teams lead on internal communications in their organisations, followed by joint HR/marketing and communications at 38% (Chart 2). These numbers show how vital marketing teams are to have efficient and effective internal communication in an organisation.
Chart 2: Teams that lead internal communications
But why does marketing play a significant role in internal communications?
The main reasons why internal communications are important to an organisation is that it keeps employees updated and informed, gets people engaged, helps people to remain calm in a difficult situation, and creates opportunities for feedback, debate, and discussion. It also makes teams feel value when they are listened to and involved.
Marketing teams are skilled in engaging with target audiences, messaging, campaign planning and content creation. Therefore, by involving marketing teams in significant conversations and sharing information, the marketing teams will create and deliver specific messages to target audiences efficiently and effectively.
So how can we involve marketing in internal communications? Here are some practices to involve marketing:
- Create a multi-functional team that involves marketer(s) in an organisation
- Determine target audience and analyse personas to understand how employees wish to be communicated
- Create channels to communicate, inform, and update
- Create appropriate messages for each announcement to avoid overwhelming employees and make them feel comfortable
- Ask for feedback by email, newsletter, etc.
- Creative customer engagement to connect with every employee efficiently.
To conclude, it is difficult for many organisations to manage all employees in this challenging situation. It can be overwhelming for many people to balance remote working, create practical hybrid working, and focus on a successful return to the office. This session focused on the challenges that organisations are facing and how to deal with those challenges. It made it clear that marketing can play a significant role in an organisation's internal communication. And having an appropriate and effective way to communicate with employees can help people cope with the situation and feel comfortable.
If you would like to discuss how The Property Marketing Strategists can help improve the internal communication in your organisation and involve marketing, please contact us.
