It has been proven time and time again that companies or departments that take internal communications seriously achieve positive outcomes, so it’s madness to think that many businesses still fail to prioritise keeping their staff well informed and engaged.
People don’t like to be kept in the dark. They crave information about the company they’re working for, the projects they’re working on and the overall goals of both. Good internal communications is all about getting the word out to everyone, preferably in a way that gets them involved and invested in the bigger picture.
Some companies spend so much time and money trying to educate consumers about their brand that they often forget to do the same with their own workforce.
Having employees who are ill-informed about what’s going on internally presents a considerable danger; after all, if they don’t know what an organization’s strategy is for the future or the goals it wishes to achieve, then how can they possibly act as advocates for their employer.
All companies, no matter how big or small, should be coming up with ways to facilitate and encourage communication between employees - not just from the top down, but also between peers.
Jazzbones has worked with all kinds of businesses designing and delivering on-brand internal communications – from intranet projects to training videos, internal recruitment campaigns, digital displays, health and safety guidelines, staff newsletters, community and charity initiatives, staff surveys, awards branding, well-being projects, and AGM or events comms. Sometimes these communications initiatives were company-wide, other times they centred on one area or department.
Our partnership over several years with manufacturing giants Honda produced a wide range of internal comms campaigns across a variety of media, including videos, newsletters, billboards, posters … even a lavish 126-page hardback book.
“I worked on many projects with Jazzbones and was confident they could deliver extremely important projects for our senior management team,” says Chloe Dodson, former Internal Comms manager at Honda.
“They took on board all our feedback and were typically proactive in their approach. Wherever my career takes me next, I won’t hesitate to recommend Jazzbones for their branding and design skills.”
For Smiths News, the UK’s largest wholesaler of newspapers and magazines, we worked on multiple projects, notably the long-running company newsletter, both in print and digital, and also their local charity initiatives which secured genuine buy-in from their staff.
Fuel card provider Fleetcor and pharmaceutical company Patheon are other companies to have benefited from Jazzbones’ holistic approach to internal communications, always working on the basis that top-down messaging can never work on its own, internal comms should also create a channel for feedback, debate and discussion.
This can take many forms: employee polls, links to internal discussion forums, the announcement of events that encourage feedback and criticisms, even organization-wide invitations to debates on goals or projects.
By listening to their employees and regularly asking for their feedback, companies can learn how to avoid making mistakes in the future and understand where their strengths lie so they can harness them further.
Strong internal communication means always seeking ways to improve and better serve your company’s people. Getting it right is not just the right thing to do, it’s also the best way of securing employee buy in. If your employees are not waxing lyrical about your company, why should anyone else?
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