Perhaps it’s no secret internal communications play a central role in employee engagement. In addition to keeping employees informed, internal comms help organizations connect with their employees while fostering a sense of community and belonging. Here are three ways that internal communications can better promote employee engagement.
- Build trust. When employees trust that their employer is truthful and transparent, they are more likely to be engaged and committed to their work. Paul Zak, founding director of the Center for Neuroeconomics Studies at Claremont Graduate University, found that “Compared with people at low-trust companies, people at high-trust companies report 74% less stress, 106% more energy at work, 50% higher productivity, 13% fewer sick days, 76% more engagement, 29% more satisfaction with their lives, 40% less burnout.” Unfortunately, Zak found that only 40% of employees feel well-informed about their company’s goals, strategies, and tactics.
Uncertainty undermines trust — and this reveals a significant internal communications opportunity.
Work with executive leaders to summarize strategic plans and companywide communications. Leverage your creative writing skills to make strategies more understandable and sticky. Include quantitative results during town halls, share KPIs across the organization, and keep teams current on which tactics are producing and which are lagging. The more transparent you can be in your strategic communications (while maintaining confidentiality), the more trust you can build with your people.
- Foster human connections. Building work relationships in a hybrid work environment is less spontaneous and more challenging. When people lose their social ties to others in your organization, they become less engaged — increasing turnover. This challenge presents another opportunity for internal communications.
Regular updates about company news, events, and initiatives are the baselines for creating a sense of community and shared purpose. Organizing and promoting events — and following up with recaps, pictures, and stories — will encourage more participation in the future.
Also, promote informal Teams or Slack groups and channels to help build more social connections among colleagues. These ‘watercooler’ or ‘after-hours’ groups can highlight special interests and hobbies versus just work-related projects. Facilitating and promoting these can help foster a sense of belonging and improve employee engagement.
- Recognize accomplishments. We all want to be recognized and valued for our work, and we know good managers make this a standard best practice. Data shows employees who feel recognized and appreciated are more likely to be engaged and motivated to do great work. Yet according to Gallup, only one in three workers in the U.S. strongly agree that they received recognition or praise for doing good work in the past seven days.
Internal comms has a phenomenal opportunity to take recognition to the next level by creating programs, processes, and places to recognize employee contributions, success stories, and work anniversaries.
A simple method is to make space in your email newsletters or intranet pages to recognize individual and team accomplishments. Establish routine communications with managers and a program or process where they can submit employee recognition stories that deserve a wider audience. Communications can help edit or curate stories to fit specific cultural or business objectives or reinforce strategy. You could also create a channel or intranet page for recognition stories, ideally with reactions that allow stories to trend or be shared.
Receiving wider recognition at work can positively impact employee engagement, motivation, job satisfaction, retention, and colleague relationships. Employers prioritizing recognition and a culture of appreciation are more likely to have engaged, motivated, and loyal employees.
Using internal comms to boost employee engagement
When internal communications programs build employee trust, foster social connections, and recognize employees’ accomplishments, they can achieve a measurable return on investment. Increases in employee engagement lead to positive business outcomes such as boosted productivity and increased employee retention.
