The term “internal communication” is meaningless when it is not coupled with the term “effective communication”. Without being too on-the-nose, if your messaging is not effective, your internal comms may as well be in an entirely other language. But the art of internal comms is not challenge-free; in fact, internal comms challenges could be a huge detriment to employee productivity and the efficiency of your organization’s workforce.
At IC, we’ve been both pioneers of internal comms software and remained at the cutting-edge of technology for 20+ years. And in our experience, while internal comms challenges can affect productivity, they don’t have to. So, our experts have crafted this blog to help you recognize key challenges when building an internal communications strategy and how to overcome them.
Internal comms challenge 1: too many pings
The problem: The last thing you want your internal comms to be is burdensome, annoying, or distracting. In the day and age of remote work, where so many employees are using their own cellphones as a method of corporate communication, it might seem efficient and modern to send all your internal comms messaging over channels such as SMS, Slack, Teams, or email; but that will quickly result in notification fatigue amongst your workforce. If your workforce is constantly being disrupted by pings and dings and rings from their phones and laptops, they’re probably less likely to engage with your messaging or even pay attention to them (there’s something Pavlovian here, we’re sure), making your internal comms less impactful.
The solution: Instead, utilize channels that pull employees in to create a proper balance between push and pull communications. Examples of these channels include intranet software, which should be your go-to single source of truth. When building your internal communications strategy, consider which messages are time-sensitive and require employees to view and respond to promptly, and which messages do not. This way, you won’t be at risk of being muted or set to “Do Not Disturb” (a nightmare for any communicator!).
Internal comms challenge 2: not enough feedback
The problem: If your partner never responded to texts between dates, we’d figure you’d be pretty confused on whether things are going well or not. The same principle applies to internal communications—you need to know if your audiences are opening, clicking, viewing, and engaging with your content. But asking for feedback isn’t so simple, and that’s where modern software comes to save the day.
The solution: Good internal comms software will aid you in collecting data in everything from intranet utilization, message open rates, and click rates. It will allow you to create quick polls in messages or on your intranet to gauge the temperature on certain topics within your organization. With IC’s intranet solution—and its built-in multi-channel messaging feature—you can measure click rates, open rates, and so much more. Plus, our team of internal comms experts is here to guide you on how to use this data to better shape future internal campaigns and really hone your messaging. This blog on intranet utilization is a good place to start!
Internal comms challenge 3: haphazard onboarding
The problem: Internal communications are important for keeping everyone in your workforce engaged, up-to-date, and in the know, but this is especially true for newbies! Think back to when you first started at your organization, did you know where everything was? How to submit your onboarding documents? What was going on in the company? Even if you didn’t, it’s your turn to make that a little easier on the next generation. When new hires are brought on, it is especially important to have a clear strategy in place for how to seamlessly transition them into the organization.
The solution: Messaging that explains to new employees where they can find important HR documents, an organizational chart of other employees, and where to find important resources are paramount to making onboarding a piece of cake. Upload important docs to the intranet to solidify it as the single source of truth from an employee’s very first day. And when building your internal comms strategy and analyzing different audiences, make sure to create campaigns for juniors to build that sense of camaraderie and understanding of what is happening within your organization. New employees who are seamlessly transitioned into their roles are more productive and stay in their roles longer, and with how easy IC makes it, it’s an easy win!
Have bigger problems? We have bigger solutions
At IC, we couple cutting-edge software with best practices and guidance on how to perfect your internal comms strategy. No challenge is insurmountable, and with products like IC’s intranet software and our excellent support team, you’ll see that for yourself.
Book a free demo today and be sure to check out our free assessment to gain valuable insights on your current internal communications strategies.
