Intro
Did you know that the average business loses $12,506 per employee every year just on poor communication? On top of that, business leaders lose almost an entire full workday per week as a result of ineffective internal communications.
If you have a company with 1000 employees and manage to improve your internal communications only by 5%, you would save 20,000 hours for the entire organization in a year. With that amount of time, you could take on additional projects, get rid of any backlogs, and improve your business processes.
So today, we’ll take a look at how you can build better internal communications processes and what kind of a role the intranet plays in all of that. But first, let’s take a look at why internal communication matters.
Why internal communication matters
In the 19th century, rapid technological advancements and complex organizational structures led to organizations sending out company magazines to their employees. This was the first form of internal communication and today, we still use it for the same purpose— to cut through the noise and deliver the information people need.
However, the forms have quite changed today, most of us longer use the “magazine” way. Today, we have about four general sources of internal communications. They’re:
- Top-down. This is a common way for management to share information with the company’s employees—anything from general information, new goals and objectives, strategies and tactics, that is shared from management (“top”) to middle management and employees (“down”).
- Bottom-up. This is an internal communication source where the information flows from the employees and the “ground floor” up to the middle and senior management. Companies today emphasize the importance of bottom-up communication because with it, senior management can quickly get the information from the front lines and pivot their strategy and tactics to ensure success.
- Peer-to-peer. It’s the same internal communication source as team sharing, where peers share relevant information with each other to ensure that they all meet their goals.
- Resources sharing. Resources sharing can take multiple forms such as video and live conferences, speeches and conferences, social media, and intranet.
No company today can succeed in the market if they don’t invest in their internal communication process. Moving fast and being adaptable are the hallmarks of today’s business environment and that doesn’t happen if you have hiccups in your internal communication flow.
What can you do to build an effective internal communication process
Building an effective internal communications process should be the priority for any business that wants to succeed in today’s business environment. Overhauling your internal communication is a process and it will take some time— there are no magic bullets. However, there are tips and tricks that can help you with that and they are:
- Analyze your weaknesses. Internal communication is quite a big field and providing a solution can only happen if you know what you need to solve. Is speed your problem? Is it accuracy? Double inputs/information? Old information that’s not being updated? To ensure you pick the right solution, you need to pinpoint the exact problem and only then will you be able to solve it. So spend some time (and resources) in analyzing your internal communication weakness to ensure you solve the right problem.
- Pick your tools. Once you pinpointed the problems down, now it’s time to pick the right tools that will help you solve and deal with this problem. Even though every company will be a case for itself, there are some things that can be helpful to all companies. If you don’t have an intranet that serves as a central repository of information and a company-wide communication tool, then it’s time to get one.
- Measure/track religiously. How will you know if you solved your problem, especially for something “elusive” as internal communication? You need to determine the right measures of success and key performance indicators and track them vigorously. If you keep tracking and measuring your progress, you’ll see if you successfully solved your problem or if you need to pivot and change something to get the desired results.
Conclusion
Investing in internal communication is always a good idea because it will have a spillover effect on all other areas of your business. If you’re still unsure about your internal communication problems, check out our 2025 intranet trends workbook. That will help you determine what kind of help you need in the process.
