Internal communication is the transfer of information within a company. It is an essential function for a business since it helps it build working relationships between employees and managers to drive behavior that positively affects the bottom line.
Internal communication strategies ensure that the employees feel valued and well informed of all the company activities. Staying informed boosts their confidence and morale, increases productivity, and decreases turnover.
Internal communication is just as important as external communication. It plays a part in fostering a welcoming culture, which is essential for attracting and retaining top talent. Meeting this goal requires care and attention. Here is a quick guide by Jim DePalma on how to kick-start your internal communication strategy.
Internal Communication Strategic Plan – As Per Jim DePalma
1. Analyze Your Current Situation
To build an effective internal communication strategy, start by analyzing your current position. Knowing your present situation will help you formulate a better strategic plan for your business’s internal communication.
Determine if your previous internal communication strategy was effective. Were you getting a positive result? What tools were you using? What was the level of employee engagement?
Conducting a survey, an internal audit, and group interviews will help you gather quality feedback. It will be easier to point out where the company was lacking and what changes are necessary for establishing better communication with employees.
2. Define Your Objective
Analyzing your current situation benefits the planning of your new goals and objectives. Once you know your goal, you can formulate better strategic plans.
According to Jim DePalma’s research, start by envisioning the company’s future and the difference you wish to see after implementing these plans. Internal communication is a primary success factor if it aligns with your company goals.
Consider what tools you can use to engage and inform your employees and their role in achieving business goals.
3. Putting the Plan to Action
When you formulate your strategic plan, determine how you will achieve them. Tactics help in selecting specific tools and appropriate channels to deliver your internal communications plan.
The following steps can help in achieving your internal communication plans:
- Making a spreadsheet to record communication tasks
- Segmenting employees based on channels that suit them to target a specific audience
- Preparing contingency plans for unfortunate situations to minimize their impact if they appear
- Selecting appropriate channels for communication
Jim DePalma suggests that employing multiple channels is the best way to have alternatives and not have to rely on one specific track.
4. Tracking Results
It is often said that what gets measured gets managed. Jim DePalma suggests tracking results to make your strategic plan for internal communication a success. Hence, your plan should include monitoring your goals and tracking results.
Tracking results involves conducting surveys and measuring the scores, collecting feedback forms, and examining turnover and retention ratios. These steps can help you understand how successful the extent to which the new strategy is successful.
Evaluating all this data can help you decide what changes are necessary to engage your employees better; this lets them know that their feedback is respected.
Final Thoughts From Jim DePalma
An effective internal communication program is becoming necessary for growing businesses to create an open and transparent workspace for their employees.
Jim DePalma believes that a solid internal communication program promotes greater employee engagement, boosting productivity and profits and reducing the turnover ratio and its related costs.