When executed effectively, internal communications can significantly improve strategic alignment and employee engagement.
However, achieving ‘effective’ execution is often a pipedream for most internal comms teams. Due to budget restraints, unfit technology, and a persistent lack of capacity, communicators struggle to scale-up their efforts and implement tangible change.
Though this can be disheartening, you shouldn’t lose faith. While we can’t promise you extra resources, there are cost-effective ways to augment your teams and do more with less.
By deploying innovative technology, you can enhance your internal communications strategy, boost employee productivity and engagement, and – best of all – shrug off some of your stress.
What are the most effective types of internal communication?
Before we jump into our internal communication tool recommendations, let’s first narrow down the most effective types of communication you should focus on. This will ensure you adopt solutions that help – rather than hinder – your internal comms strategy.
Top down communication
Leadership-to-employee communications are typically used for sharing company-wide information, such as year-end updates and policy changes. This top down approach promotes transparency and gives employees the chance to speak with executives directly. (A rare occurrence in most larger organisations!)
As a communication method, it’s incredibly effective. Indeed, the latest Gallagher State of Internal Communications report found that live events run by leadership teams have a 98% effectiveness rate. This is closely followed by leadership conference calls, which are 97% effective.
Despite the success of these communication strategies, only 63% and 50% of organisations, respectively, make use of them.
Employee feedback
Gathering truthful, qualitative employee feedback is essential for shaping your internal communication strategies and enhancing the employee experience.
However, it’s important to remember that there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to this communication type. Comfort levels will naturally vary between employees. Some may prefer to offer feedback anonymously; others may be open to more collaborative feedback channels, such as virtual discussion rooms.
Company resources
63% of global internal comms teams say engaging teams on their company’s strategy, purpose, and vision is their number one priority going forward.
Company resources, such as policy documents and strategic business plans, are key to supporting this initiative. They advise employees on need-to-know information and align their efforts with your overarching company vision.
Because your employees may need to refer to these resources periodically throughout their career, you’ll need to store them in an accessible, self-service location.
Informal communication
When it comes to collaboration and employee-to-employee communication, informal methods reign supreme. Enterprise social networks, chat tools, and messaging apps are considered highly effective methods of communication across organisations of all industries and sizes.
In light of this, you’ll want to find a communication tool that includes familiar Enterprise Social Networking (ESN) features.
20 internal communication tools that will help you do more with less
Once you determine the right communication types for your business, you’ll need to explore tools that align with these approaches.
But be warned: it can be all too easy to get carried away by the flashiest or trendiest platforms on the market.
With 47% of workers struggling to find the information they need to effectively perform their jobs, you need to choose the right communication tools – not the most popular. This means prioritising tools that:
- Centralise your communications and company data
- Are easy to use and accessible from anywhere
- Adapt to your changing internal communication needs
Keep these considerations in mind when searching for the following tools:
1. Intranet
Think of your intranet as your company’s secure, virtual home. Everyone’s got their own key, there’s a room for every function, and the wall’s are decorated just to your taste. In other words: it’s a central hub for all of your internal communications.
Many intranet solutions contain a wealth of integrated tools – many of which we’ll cover in this list. Because of this, they’re a cost-effective way to enhance your internal communications efforts without overwhelming your employees with hundreds of different platforms.
2. Mobile intranet app
For frontline workers who don’t have access to a desktop or employees who suffer a gruelling commute every morning, a mobile intranet app is essential.
As well as encouraging flexible working, these applications can also align with emerging workplace habits. With many employees wanting to use their smartphones for work purposes, providing a secure mobile app is an easy way to boost engagement and satisfaction.
3. Instant messaging
Employees tend to favour instantaneous communication – especially during busy periods. Direct messaging offers a convenient way to collaborate with colleagues and share resources quickly.
Thankfully, it doesn’t cost the earth to implement it. The best intranet solutions come with built-in direct messaging features, and many chat tools such as Slack offer cost-effective pricing plans.
4. Forums
According to Gallagher, 88% of communicators rate employee forums as an effective form of communication in their organisation. These message boards allow users to ask and answer questions, share resources, and keep up to date with content threads via a subscription.
With digital workplace solutions like Claromentis, you can add an extra layer of security to these forums through optional moderation features and content permissions.
5. Discussion pages
Remember liking interest-based pages on Facebook back in the day? Discussion pages function in a similar way.
You can provide each department or team with their own unique discussion room, which they can fill with comments, events, tasks, links, and files. This is useful for communicating need-to-know information and sharing easily accessible documents that may get lost in a chat thread.
6. News channels
When you’ve got important or exciting news to communicate, it can be difficult to know how to share it.
In an office environment, you can’t guarantee that all employees will be available to listen. And, while a company-wide email will do the job, chances are it’ll get buried under an influx of other urgent and non-urgent emails.
An intranet news channel is a surefire way to share your news and ensure everyone sees it.
7. Announcements
On the subject of ‘news’, occasionally there will be information you need your employees to read immediately. For instance, if your office faces an unexpected closure.
Announcement tools ensure your employees never miss an urgent communication. In Claromentis, you can create company-wide or permission-based announcements. These communication banners pop-up after a relevant party logs into your intranet portal, so they’re very hard to miss. As added assurance, you can request user acknowledgement.
8. Polls and surveys
Poll and survey tools are a great way to collect informal and formal employee feedback.
For example, a quick, one-question poll can help you determine the best date for your next company team building exercise. Alternatively, you can use a long-form survey tool to create your annual employee engagement survey or more regular pulse surveys.
9. Internal blogs
For more casual longform communications or musings, internal blogs are a great option. Like many of the tools in this list, they often come part and parcel with your intranet investment – so you needn’t fork out any additional money.
10. Collaboration tools
If your organisation is fully or partially remote, collaboration tools are a must. These tools should go beyond ineffective email tools or unproductive (and at times draining) video conferencing software.
To truly enable collaboration, you need to bring your teams together, encourage document sharing, and facilitate task creation. That way, collaborative conversations lead to tangible results.
An extensive digital workplace platform will allow you to:
- Create channels for different projects, departments and topics
- Tag colleagues in conversations, threads, or tasks
- Adjust permissions to ensure the right employees can access the right communications
- Message colleagues directly or within a discussion room
11. Employee advocacy tool
Some news is too good to keep inside your business’s four walls. On occasions where it’s okay to share internal communications externally, adopt an employee advocacy channel.
This could be as simple as utilising LinkedIn and encouraging employees to share company-related content. Alternatively, if you only want to share information with your clients, partners, or other external stakeholders, consider building an extranet. This allows you to communicate and collaborate with important third parties without compromising data integrity.
12. Internal executive blog from leadership
As we mentioned earlier, top-down communication from leadership is highly effective in most organisations.
To double-down on your internal blog investment, you could also set up a series of executive blogs from your leadership team. These can be as informal or formal as you like, depending on the content you wish to share.
13. Employee recognition and shoutouts
Over 90% of HR professionals agree that recognition and reward has a positive impact on employee retention. And most employees seem to agree, with almost half stating they would leave their workplace if they weren’t praised enough.
The good news is you needn’t spend a fortune on separate tools or gold-plated awards to show your employees how much you value them. The best intranet tools on the market feature built-in employee recognition modules. This allows staff members to shout out their colleagues and express their gratitude publicly.
14. Multilingual content
Do you have offices in other continents or countries? Or do you employ multilingual staff who may find it easier to read communications in their native language?
Offering multi-language and localised information can avoid miscommunications and enhance employee experience.
In our digital workplace solution, users can change their language preferences in their personal settings. This allows employees to access the same content in different languages, providing the template accommodates multilingual settings.
15. Content approval and permissions
Overloading your employees with irrelevant content can result in information overwhelm. To mitigate this, try to offer a more tailored experience. With content permissions, you can make sure employees only see communications that are relevant to their department or job role.
This has an added data security benefit. For example, healthcare professionals can restrict confidential patient information to the relevant parties. That way, personal data doesn’t leak into other parts of your organisation.
Related to this, content approval features will ensure no inappropriate or non-compliant communications slip through the cracks.
16. Social media features and push notifications
Like breakfast routines and afternoon dog walks, social media has become an unbreakable daily habit for many of us. So, it’s unsurprising that the Enterprise Social Network (ESN) market is projected to grow by a staggering 16.5% by 2031.
To enable informal communication methods, opt for a tool that incorporates ESN features, such as commenting, reacting, tagging, and push notifications.
17. Video conferencing
Video conferencing tools are a cost-effective way to bring your remote teams together without having to spend an eye watering amount on travel expenses. They’re also an easy way to facilitate face-to-face leadership communications – one of the most effective communication types, as highlighted by Gallagher.
The right platform will include additional collaboration features, such as in-call chat threads, team breakout rooms, screen sharing, and animated reactions.
18. Podcasts and audio announcements
While research suggests podcasts are only effective for 58% of teams, this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t adopt them.
Some employees prefer audio-based communication, and those with visual impairment rely on it.
If this communication channel seems fitting for your business, we’d suggest adopting a digital workplace platform that allows you to embed audio into your news and blog posts. This gives your employees the autonomy to choose their preferred communication method.
19. Internal comms generative AI
Over 40% of communicators feel enthusiastic about AI advancements in their sector, and it’s easy to see why.
In the midst of resourcing issues and capacity challenges, AI can provide much needed support. With the help of generative AI integrations, your teams can produce internal communications at speed. Instead of dedicating hours to writing a blog post, you’ll only need to spend a handful of minutes editing the content to ensure it meets your brand guidelines and data security practices.
20. Analytics and reporting
If you want to increase the effectiveness of your internal comms strategy, you’ll need to measure the success of your new communication tools.
Any solution you adopt should provide you with analytics and reporting features to help you monitor usage rates. This can indicate whether your employees actually value your new communication channels. If they don’t? You may have to tweak the look and feel of your digital workplace or, in some cases, look for a customised application.
Aligning technology with your internal comms strategy
We’re sure you’re eager to start window shopping for the latest and greatest internal communication software on the market. But, before you do, remember this: technology – no matter how great – isn’t a quick fix.
The tools you choose now will only ever be as good as the strategy they’re built upon.
So, if you want to make the most of your investments and enhance your communication efforts, you’ll need to optimise your strategy. And we’ve got the resource to help you do just that.
We’ve packed our latest ebook full of internal comms strategy recommendations and tips to help you boost employee engagement, increase productivity, and make the most of your technology investments. You can access it for free here.
