As the work landscape evolves and businesses engage in important discussions about employee wellbeing, it’s time for organizations to make the overall employee experience a priority, the same way they do for customer satisfaction.
A study by AON reported that a single disengaged employee can cost a company on average $10,000 in annual revenue. These figures add up, especially for larger organizations with hundreds of employees.
Internal communications has an important role to play in creating a positive and engaging employee experience. If your internal comms strategy is strong and incorporates community, equity, and ease of messaging across channels, your employees will feel more comfortable at work, both in their day-to-day tasks and on a human level.
Read on to learn how internal communications is key to creating a strong employee experience.
Is employee experience (EX) the same as employee engagement?
The term employee experience—or EX—often overlaps with “employee engagement”, but these concepts aren’t the same. Gallup lays out this distinction clearly:
Employee engagement includes emotional and social needs, like doing work that you are good at and connecting your work to a higher purpose. The employee experience on the other hand, is the entire journey an employee takes with an organization, from pre-hire to post-exit interactions and everything in between.
With this in mind, how can you use internal communications to ensure a great employee experience? Here’s how:
1. Create a strong workplace culture
94% of executives and 88% of employees believe a distinct workplace culture is important to business success. As employees rate their company at a rate 20% higher at organizations with strong cultures, it’s important to develop these key cultural values right away in the employee experience.
As we spend a large part of our lives at work, fostering a sense of belonging and collaboration is important to creating a strong company culture. One way to accomplish this is by leveraging messaging tools and channels to help teams across departments stay connected. This can also help prevent a silo mentality from taking place.
It’s also important to create a direct line of communication between leadership and employees. According to Steven Kramer, CEO and co-founder of WorkJam, trust in senior management is an important part of job satisfaction, which can grow through clear and consistent communication.
2. Ensure channels and tools of communication are strong
When communicating internally, do you use email, direct messaging, or the announcement board in the kitchen?
The reason we want strong internal comms channels is so employees can expect certain information to appear in dependable places. In other words, it’s to ensure that when they go looking for information, it’s simple and intuitive for them to find the most correct, relevant, and up-to-date material.
To build the foundation of strong internal comms channels, start by answering the following questions: do you know where and how people communicate within your organization? Going one step further, have you asked your staff how they prefer to receive communications?
Remember, one person may request updates via SMS or Slack, while another might prefer email. By understanding current communication tactics, internal communicators can contact employees on their terms and increase messaging efficiency. More efficient communication equals happier, more productive, and more engaged employees!
Click here to download our free Channel Audit Tool to start assessing your internal comms channels.
3. Encourage employee feedback
Requesting feedback and creating a feedback loop will make your employees feel valued and respected, and lead to long-term employee satisfaction. Not all of your employees will feel comfortable providing feedback the same way. A great internal comms strategy allows your employees to get their message across to leadership, as well as vice versa. It’s all about two-way communication!
Put methods in place to support various formats and styles of feedback, whether it’s anonymous, one-one-one, through written surveys, quick polls, or in a group setting.
Connect your employee experience to internal communications
In conclusion, an effective internal communications strategy will make your employees feel valued and keep everything running smoothly, which in turn will strengthen the overall employee experience.
As we ease back into the office after a year apart, you need dependable software to get your messaging out, gather feedback, and create a general sense of community and belonging among your employees. Our internal comms software can help you get there. Book a demo, start a free trial, or head to our technology page to learn more!
