Get leadership on board. If the highest leaders in your organization are not willing to support an internal communications plan, your job becomes convincing them of its importance. Without their support, little will change in your internal communications. People will remain uninformed and unsure of what is going on.
Position communications staff members close to leaders. Consider placing the highest communications staff member at the same level of authority as other leaders in the organization. Having this authority provides them with the information they need to help the organization decide what, when, and how to share specific messages.
Understand your audience. Internal communications is geared toward everyone who works within an organization. Before you communicate with your staff, there is some basic information you need to discover about them.
Ask them how they feel about the current level of internal communication. Discern whether they feel informed about changes, if they feel comfortable sharing their opinions, and how they would like to see communication improve.
Ask the hard questions. See if they would be willing to share specific examples of when they felt out of the loop or ignored. Try not to be defensive when they share;listen with an open mind.
Identify how employees like to receive information: email, newsletter, face-to-face, or other options. Ask if the method depends on what information is shared. For example, a weekly announcement can be communicated via email, but a major staff change needs to be shared in person.
Identify information that needs to be communicated. For now, focus on a single message that you would like to communicate, perhaps your vision or mission statement. As you develop your internal communications plan, include announcements about upcoming events, important company information, staff changes, and other news items.
List methods of communication. There are various ways to share your information. Identify all potential methods of communication and what type of messages should come through each one. Consider which method is best, not only for your employees and their preferences, but also for the message and situation at hand. For example, sensitive situations tend to require face-to-face communication, not emails or a newsletter.
Formal methods are intentional acts of communication and include scheduled meetings, company newsletters, all staff emails or meetings, and reports.
Informal networks are more organic conversations that take place in offices, break rooms, and during lunch. They can also occur via email, social media accounts, and phone conversations.
Decide who within your organization should impart the information to the rest of the staff. Even if communications staff members help craft the message, certain types of messages may need to come from a leader of the organization. Or it may be decided that each supervisor will share the message with their team. Determine what is appropriate for each situation.
Craft your message. Internal communications should be a team effort. Communications staff should play a role in writing the message, even if it is just proofreading, editing, and offering suggestions for word choices. Take the time to work through several drafts, continually improving the choice of words.
Business internal dialing refers to the dial structure within a single business entity, and is sometimes referred to as Virtual Private Numbering (VPN) or Private Numbering Plan (PNP).
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