Take Charge of Your Internal Communications

In any organization — whether you are a CNY Top 100 corporation or a much smaller business — employees should be your number-one audience. The most successful organizations are those with engaged employees who are involved in frequent two-way dialogues with leadership throughout the organization. These top-performing companies give employees the chance to provide their […]

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In any organization — whether you are a CNY Top 100 corporation or a much smaller business — employees should be your number-one audience. The most successful organizations are those with engaged employees who are involved in frequent two-way dialogues with leadership throughout the organization. These top-performing companies give employees the chance to provide their own feedback and ideas.

Good internal communications will not only make your organization stronger, but it will also come in handy if any changes or crises come along. Employees need to be the first ones informed of any change in the company — before your external audiences. You never want your employees to find out that there will be big changes at work by watching the evening news or hearing it second-hand from people from the outside.

When you communicate with employees first, the support of an internal community can help to keep your organization’s reputation on track. Employees’ engagement directly affects company morale, productivity, and also customer experience.

More importantly, internal communications needs a strategy of its own. It should be more than a simple plan of tactical message deliveries about business activities. This needs to be tied in with your business goals.

Ask yourself how well your employees understand the business strategy and how connected they are to the organization. Who do your employees influence when they are in and outside of the office? They likely have much more of an impact on your company’s message and reputation than you are aware of or believe.

Once you develop an internal communications strategy, you can then improve the answers to these questions. Your organization’s reputation depends so much on user experience, impacted by their direct communication with your employees.

Take charge of your internal communications, and mobilize the army inside your organization.

Are you being heard?

Crystal (Smith) DeStefano is the president and director of public relations at Strategic Communications, LLC, which says it provides trusted counsel for public relations, including media relations, employee relations, and community relations. Contact DeStefano at Crystal@stratcomllc.com

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