Organizations spend plenty of resources in trying to find the best method of communicating with customers. However, most of them don’t spend the same amount of money and time on enhancing internal communications.
Your internal communications say a lot about the culture of your company. In today’s workplace, there are plenty of ways to connect your employees dynamically. Think about the problem through the eyes of the customer experience.
In this scenario, your employees are your clients, and the employer/employee relationship is a subscription service. As the employer, it’s your mission to keep your employees engaged, so they continue to subscribe.
If we look at top consumer brands, they form intuitive connections with the customer through understanding communications. What information are they looking for, and what context and platforms are they using to find this information?
The brands that sit head-and-shoulders above competitors allow the organizational culture to inform communications. Here are a few ideas to help you engage your employees through the use of culture-based communications.
Define Your Core Values and Vision
This strategy might sound like a no-brainer to most. However, it might surprise you to learn that many companies never revisit mission statements, company values, or organizational targets and goals.
As an organization, you must be clear on your core values, providing explanations for each of them in a tangible manner your employees can understand.
Align Engagement with Your Company’s Organizational Culture
When employees are clear about your company values, and how they connect to them on a personal and professional level, it sets the tone for company culture. From the standpoint of company communications, your organizational values dictate what and how you can communicate with your employees.
Use Your Communication Channels Purposefully
Each of your communication channels serves a purpose. Company’s need to understand how using these communications channels applies to the brand value and culture of the company.
Messaging apps provide an ideal channel for ongoing, rapid communications between team members. Real-time collaboration platforms allow for updates on team projects while promoting better transparency and participation in the workplace.
Communicating well with your employees means that you’re considering its impact on your team, and hoping for the best outcome while using the best methodology. Reinforcing cultural values in your employees through better decision making in your communications is the key to improved employee experience.
Understand Your Employer Brand
Communicate how your company’s values come to life through the contribution employees make to the organization.
What’s the perception of your organization in the marketplace, and what are people saying about your company? What are the unique features of your organization, and what is it like to work at your company? How does your employer brand communicate over the employee experience?
Finding the answers to these crucial questions helps to provide organizations with the guidance they need to bring internal communications to life.
Establish Systems for Ongoing Real-Time Feedback
Your employees will feel most engaged when they feel that management is listening to their feedback. Talking at your employees to bark instructions results in a drop in engagement and resistance to achieving targets.
Establishing a two-way avenue for communications to register both communication and feedback is essential if you want to draw on your employee’s insights, knowledge, and talent.
