How to improve internal communication within an organization?

 The term "internal communication" refers to the sharing of information and collaboration among employees and the use of methods or tools to facilitate such sharing. Executives, managers, and employees all need to be involved in internal communication. As a result, everyone must pitch in to make it work.

This article will provide tips to improve internal communication and explain the role of a modern intranet.

What can you do to improve internal communication?

Start by analyzing your own role

 Everyone appreciates a teammate who is open and talkative, but how would you evaluate your own communication abilities?

There is a growing awareness that better information and idea sharing among employees can boost productivity. 

That's why taking a hard look at your communication habits is important, this includes telceommunication for example Internal sms. 

As a leader, it is your responsibility to foster an environment that encourages employees to freely share ideas and information within the organization and to develop internal communication best practices that everyone must follow. It's important to regularly assess your communication abilities to set an example for your coworkers to follow as you work to enhance internal interactions.

Get in touch with your employees

 The best way to improve communication with your staff is to stay in touch with them on a frequent basis. It's a good idea to start by scheduling weekly or biweekly meetings to talk about the organization, individual problems, and initiatives.

Motivate your staff to open up and express their perspectives. Have they had any suggestions or gripes? Where do they stand on the organization and the tasks they're assigned?

When employees feel their input is valued, the corporate culture flourishes, and communication flows more smoothly.

Know the preferred communication channels

​We are all unique, and what constitutes a "meaningful conversation" may vary from person to person. Find out how your employees prefer to have meetings and discussions. How often do they like to meet face to face as opposed to communicating through a smartphone, online survey, or newsletter?

Having a thorough understanding of your company's communication practices can do wonders for fostering harmony within the ranks. You'll be able to establish a standard operating procedure for internal communications within your organization, ensuring that all employees are kept informed and involved at all times.

Taking the time to find out what your team members need can go a long way toward making them feel loved and respected by you. To top it all off, taking action on employee feedback boosts morale and encourages people to feel invested in their work.

Once you have a sense of the preferred methods of internal communication among your staff, you can tailor your message to those audiences.

Get feedback from colleagues 

Get input from coworkers on how you and your company can enhance workplace communication. No formal survey is necessary to gather this data, but it should be recorded for future reference.

An efficient internal communication plan would routinely assess the efficacy of these channels in light of employee involvement and make adjustments, as necessary, based on the input received.

Work on your communication plan 

If you don't know what's causing the issues in internal communications, you can't fix them. First, you should consider how many channels your company actually employs. There are benefits and drawbacks to various professional communication tools, including but not limited to email, team chats, video conferencing platforms, and the telephone.

It's likely, though, that some will work better than others. One such medium that is not ideal for two-way communication is email. This is why some businesses use social intranets and collaboration tools.

Make a list of the internal communication tools you're currently using, and assess whether or not they're effective and whether or not they need to be changed or eliminated.

When making adjustments, it's helpful to have access to resources that facilitate trying out new forms of expression and communication. 

Encourage your employees to talk to you 

 When you keep the lines of communication open with your staff, they will feel more at ease raising concerns whenever they arise. It's a smart strategy for building rapport with your staff and fostering open lines of communication.

It's okay to invite people in. No one may ever enter your home, no matter how wide open the door is. It's important to set an example for your team by getting up from your desk and interacting with customers directly.

Scheduled communication that fosters employee bonds, strengthens relationships and trust, and establishes an atmosphere of openness can also help.

Hold team meetings whenever you feel it's essential. In addition, include them in group meetings where you discuss upcoming projects, duties, and the state of the organization.

Start daily standup meetings 

In this vein, daily standup meetings are another wonderful option that serves a useful purpose. Reminding your leadership team of the tasks they've been assigned to do at this moment is crucial. They can be face-to-face, or you can use video conferencing to include remote employees. In certain cases, they may be as brief as 10 minutes. It's possible that larger companies would only have standups between specific teams or departments.

If your entire team happens to be located in the same time zone, it can be helpful to hold daily meetings at the same time, preferably at the beginning or conclusion of the workday. However, if your team members are spread out across the globe, it may be more difficult to agree on a single meeting time.

Build productive bonds 

It has been the opinion of certain managers and CEOs that maintaining open communication with their staff is a sign of laziness. As a communicator, you already know how crucial it is to establish mutually beneficial connections. However, it can't happen if all you ever do is talk about work.

Normal dialogue is an essential part of any relationship. As long as it doesn't disrupt productivity or cause unnecessary disruptions to other workers, it's fine to let your staff engage in lighthearted banter and friendly debate during the workplace.

The most exciting and interesting ideas typically emerge during casual conversations, which is the single most important justification for maintaining such channels of interaction. The employees are the lifeblood of any company, and it is through them that the best ideas emerge.

Employee happiness can rise, and new, creative ideas can be spawned when leaders take use of the benefits of internal communication. Why wouldn't you like it?

Allow easy access to internal knowledge 

There may be no way for the colleague to respond to a request. And it happens all the time. Document management and knowledge exchange are fundamental activities in any field. That's why it's crucial for workers to have quick access to relevant documents, images, and information.

This data will be collected in one place and made available to everyone in the company via the social intranet. If you want better internal communications, look first at how your team finds information.

Use social media features in your intranet

More and more companies have begun to see the potential of social media in recent years, particularly as a means of customer engagement. However, few of them realize that businesses may leverage social media to enhance internal communications and keep staff up to speed.

Get your staff to engage with posts about the company and its principles by clicking the "like" or "share" buttons. To further integrate social media into your company's day-to-day operations, you can employ social technologies already present on your intranet.

Share your opinions and interests with your coworkers to spark interesting conversations about your work. It's a fantastic method of coordinating interpersonal efforts with organizational targets.

Start using an employee app

If you work for a multinational corporation with employees spread across the country or the world in a wide variety of positions, you may find it difficult to increase the level of engagement and communication among individuals who aren't physically present in the office.

If this describes your organization, it's clear that internal communications aren't taking into account a sizable portion of the company's culture.

The widespread availability of smartphones and the availability of employee apps like Workvivo make it possible to maintain constant communication among a company's workers, regardless of whether they are working directly with customers or in an office setting.

The use of an employee app can boost internal communication and make even frontline workers feel like they're part of something bigger.

Use the intranet to organize documents 

You can't expect to keep up with best practices for internal communication if accessing information within your departments is hard and untidy. This could lead to overburdening employees with extra, unnecessary work.

Put your company's intranet to good use by coordinating the many members of your teams as well as the resources they have access to. You may make this platform the standard for information discovery and retrieval.

Department heads can quickly distribute documents and information to their teams using an in-house messaging system.

Therefore, the administration can get in touch with members quickly, and members can get instantaneous access to any necessary paperwork or data. In particular, this will help new hires get up to speed quickly if they have quick access to all the required resources.

But it's impossible to get anywhere without first studying your teams, their members, and the communication patterns they have both within and between teams.

Focus on the company's shared goal

If your company had a mission statement, what would it say? By spreading the word about this objective and sparking related discussions through internal communications, you can get everyone rowing in the same direction. You can increase your team's productivity and reduce misunderstandings by identifying, clarifying, and reinforcing a unified aim. Remember that having a unified front is crucial for any group's success.

Reward your employees publicly ​ 

People will always come through when you tell them what you expect of them. If an employee goes above and above the call of duty, you should publicly acknowledge their efforts.

Recognized and rewarded employees exceed your expectations. As social beings, we appreciate being acknowledged for our efforts, especially when they contribute to a greater whole. It's good to be recognized by your boss in private, but it's even more rewarding to be recognized in front of your coworkers or the whole company.

It shows the rest of the company how things ought to be done.

Motivating your staff can be done in a number of different ways. It is possible to publicly recognize employees for their hard work if the internal communication platform they use has gamification features. One alternative is to have a conversation face to face.

An increase in morale is a direct result of public recognition and rewards for personnel. Because of this, internal communications will improve greatly, as staff will be eager to boast about their successes. 

Promote content creation

Give your staff the ability to produce and share material within the company by providing them with intranet capabilities. They will feel more heard and invested in the company as a result.

Content production alone will greatly enhance internal communications; this content could be in the form of blogs, videos, postings, etc. 

Do not use a top-down approach

One common organizational communication style is the top-down model. This strategy has been around for a long time and is considered a classic. You may feel more in charge of this method of professional communication, but it won't benefit your team in the long run. 

Rather, you should encourage free flow of information by creating a forum where employees may air their grievances and suggestions. In the end, there should never be one-way conversations at work.

Allow employees to take breaks ​ 

When you put in a lot of hours at work, and you're bound to wear down mentally and physically. Because we've all felt burnt out at some point, it's hard to connect with others effectively. Give your workers some time off to recharge when they need it.

In the long run, taking your time during breaks is worth it, whether they're longer meals or a day off. Although this suggestion has nothing to do with internal communications per se, it does increase dialogue and team spirit if employees report how they spent their time off.

Conduct surveys

It doesn't matter what kind of business you run; every employee is unique. It is possible that conducting a poll asking employees about their preferred methods of internal communication might yield the greatest results. This is quite useful because it allows you to ask specific questions and receive comprehensive answers.

Stay in contact with remote employees ​ 

Relationship development is extremely challenging when managing remote workers. Video conferencing could be an answer to this issue. It's the most convenient approach to meeting someone in a faraway place.

Establish recurring weekly video conferences for brainstorming and other team-building exercises. This is a wonderful opportunity to learn more about your coworkers and their projects.

It also sets the correct example for internal communications in your company; everyone should be heard and seen.

How can the intranet help you to improve internal communication?

Implementing an intranet is one of the finest methods to boost morale and productivity. Announcements can be a useful tool for internal communications tool, as they allow you to quickly and easily share important information with your team or organization.

AgilityPortal's announcement feature allows people in a given organization to quickly and easily communicate important information. It provides a brief, concise summary of key events or changes within the company, providing everyone with up-to-date information about the organization. By making it easy for everyone to post announcements and view them in one central location, it allows for efficient communication and reduces potential confusion caused by emails or separate posts from different sources. Additionally, announcements can also keep teams on track by highlighting upcoming deadlines or tasks that employees should be aware of. In this way, the use of this feature can help boost productivity and morale within the workplace by keeping everyone on the same page.

Here are some tips for using announcements effectively for internal communications:

Promotes online collaboration ​

Internal networks today facilitate real-time collaboration, file sharing, and editing. Erroneous document versions and inconsistent file storage across discs and locales are diminished as a result. Having a single place where everyone can meet and work together in real-time is very helpful for remote workers and frontline staff.

Boosts employee engagement ​ 

The culture of your company can be brought to life with the help of an intranet. Employees will have more of an emotional investment in the company if they are given chances to celebrate successes and highlight fellow workers. Your workforce's output and loyalty to your company will increase in direct proportion to their level of happiness and engagement.

Decrease the need for meetings ​ 

An intranet can assist in cutting down on the number of meetings that aren't essential by offering a central hub for teamwork and information dissemination. Likewise, this lessens the need for emails and the dreaded "reply all" debates that often follow.

Brings organizational clarity ​ 

Even though intranets have progressed well beyond org charts, they continue to offer great clarity for managing a company's internal operations. Relationships, teams, and affiliated groups are now also a part of modern intranets in addition to employee profiles. As a result, everyone in the company will have a better grasp of their respective responsibilities.

Improves knowledge sharing ​ 

  A lack of effective communication between coworkers and management, and staff is a major contributor to ineffective communication. The problem of information silos is serious and expensive. An intranet facilitates information sharing by centralizing information and providing quick access to relevant experts.

Makes it easy to share critical information ​ 

Is there a way to get the word out to workers quickly? What about the people who are actually doing the work? Whether an employee is physically present in the office or working remotely, they may all be reached with a single click, thanks to intranets.

Must-have intranet features that help to improve internal communication ​ 

Intranet news feed ​ 

An adaptive news feed lets readers select only the stories that interest them. The news administrators can determine which stories are distributed to which users' newsfeeds. This is a deliberate strategy to keep certain employees from hearing about company news.

Still, it's also a simple way to cut down on clutter and make sure that people in every department know what's going on. To effectively disseminate this data, you need to adopt the mindset of a news organization and write updates that are timely, concise, and presented in a way that gets the message across.

Knowledge sharing

Intelligent companies understand that their intranets can serve as a platform for knowledge sharing by allowing for the constant and unending exchange of information. Employee motivation and output can be greatly boosted by encouraging knowledge sharing.

A company's sales numbers, research projects, and even its own history can all find a home on the company intranet. It's important for employees to feel comfortable enough to share the expertise they've gained in their respective fields, as doing so not only inspires those with whom they may not have a direct working relationship to learn from their experiences.

Dedicated mobile app

With a cloud intranet and a mobile app, employees can access work from anywhere. All staff members, wherever they may be, can access company resources through a mobile device. It eliminates delays caused by persons working in various locations or time zones not having instant access to the same data.

The features of a mobile intranet can be tailored to the specific needs of your business, allowing, for instance, for the dissemination of company news or live events, the establishment of support channels, etc. 

Profiled information feature 

The importance of individualization has grown to the point where it is now expected even in the workplace. Providing just pertinent content to certain individuals is what we call "targeted" or "profiled" information. First and foremost, employees must have easy access to relevant job data that can significantly enhance their day-to-day output.

Avoid bombarding readers with irrelevant information, such as the inner workings of a subsidiary company's administration or the progress being made on an office makeover in a different region. Content on the intranet should be personalized for each individual based on their role, team, geographic area, and so forth.

Create an employee-specific news feed that addresses their specific interests and needs.

Sending smart notifications

  This function is great for maintaining a knowledgeable and up-to-date workforce. This can be used for anything from a brief reminder to a major company statement. Messages posted to an organization's intranet can serve as a useful tool for getting people's attention on urgent matters. Instead of sending yet another email that nobody reads, try using a pop-up notification or homepage banners to get people interested in what you have to say.

In-built event manager ​ 

Internal networks are more than just a bulletin board. It's useful for organizing and hosting events like webinars, online courses, and business gatherings. Many advantages come with internal live broadcasting for multinational corporations.

Without having to travel or repeat the same session many times, speakers can engage with audiences from different departments and locations in real-time. Even for more traditional, outside events, the intranet may serve as a central hub for all the necessary resources and information to ensure a smooth and successful execution.

In-built knowledge base

The instantaneous nature of the support provided by this function is greatly appreciated. In order to maximize the benefits of your intranet solution, your company should implement a knowledge management system to disseminate relevant information and give employees helpful resources.

The knowledge base is a great resource for both new employees and telecommuters, as it contains a wealth of information in the form of frequently asked questions, how-to instructions, and walkthrough videos.

Wrapping up 

We are well aware of the significance of effective internal communication and the difficulty of working to improve it. The aforementioned suggestions can help you become an effective internal communicator. You now have everything at your disposal to strengthen company-wide communications and cultivate an upbeat environment at work. Moreover, a modern intranet is essential to improve internal communications.