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Businesses have two communication sources that are expenses but are conversely sources of profit – the external marketplace – and internal factors, their human capital.
But all your money poured into marketing doesn’t accomplish much unless you devote equal resources to employee programs and communication.
Ironically, your human capital is an important asset – from making good products – to servicing your customers.
Thanks to the Internet, this is the era in which marketing has shifted to personalization. It’s not just a trend.
Internal communications
Why not launch an effective internal communications program tailored for your employees?
Employees must be fully apprised of your brand, vision and strategies.
If employees learn these concepts, they’ll be adequately delivered to your customers for a higher return on your marketing investment.
You’ll benefit from a healthy company culture and higher sales. Yes, you can power your brand with employee empowerment.
This isn’t just about mass e-mails or newsletters. By themselves, heavy reliance on mundane e-mails and newsletters isn’t an authentic approach. They’re distant and impersonal. (More on this later including an interesting infographic.)
Solutions
But if staff and management share ideas thanks to an open-door policy, such strategies lead to better employee engagement and serves as inspiration to workers.
Events combining departments of employees with shared experiences, such as team lunches, help them to better relate to one another.
In our litigious society, we do have to be careful how we communicate.
Don’t ignore the truth about contentious issues, such as rumors about pending layoffs. Understand the fine line between transparency and discretion. If you don’t know the answers, be sensitive to employees’ concerns, ask for patience and vow to provide answers as soon as you’re able.
Keep your commitments. Don’t procrastinate. Communicate. Encourage your key employees to become internal communicators or employee ambassadors.
Team-focused phrases
Use positive team-focused phrasing. The use of “we” is more engaging than using the pronoun, “you.” In 98 percent of all internal communications, you have opportunities to use positive – not intimidating language – particularly with the words, “please” and “thank you.”
Polish your antenna for understanding human nature. You should be aware of potential issues long before they become crises, which is possible with effective internal communications.
That includes external news. If you have a pending tsunami from the marketplace, such as a souring economy that will affect your company, don’t let the news media be your employees’ sole source of information. Again, communicate.
“Internal Communications has become a huge part of how a business operates and will be increasingly so in the future,” predicts Danielle Gibbons of Newsweaver, an internal communications company.
“For example, smarter employee engagement leads to stronger business results increasing company profitability by up to 30 percent and customer satisfaction by up to 40 percent,” she adds.
Amen.
From the Coach’s Corner, here’s related information:
Tips for Productive Meetings to Improve Performance — Here’s a checklist to engage your employees in energetic, inspiring staff meetings that will increase profits.
Four Tips to Motivate Employees When You’re Facing Adversity — Effective bosses have antennas to alert them over looming challenges. If they don’t have such an antenna, it’s important for them to develop one for multiple credibility reasons. Even the bosses of small companies can suffer from image problems externally and internally. Either one or both will adversely affect profits.
“Like a human being, a company has to have an internal communication mechanism, a ‘nervous system,’ to coordinate its actions.”
-Bill Gates
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