Internal Communications Tools

"The employee communications department is at risk of becoming irrelevant. There already are voices calling for companies to do away with them, arguing that a function focusing on one discrete audience is anachronistic given everybody’s ability to see what everybody else is saying.

Most internal communication departments spend most of their time creating and distributing content. Much of that is done through email and intranets, which have become the replacement for newsletters and magazines (and something called a “magapaper”).

It remains vitally important for a dedicated internal comms function to report news and other information employees need to know. While they may read the same reports other stakeholders read (like customers, shareholders, and local communities) and have access to sites like Glassdoor.com, where employees praise or condemn their organizations with granular detail, employees have special contextual needs those channels don’t serve.

Reporting alone, however, is not enough to sustain employee communications’ relevance. Everything about business and work is changing; so is the way people get, share, and use information outside the workplace (and even inside, since it’s easy for employees to bypass official channels). Employee communications departments need to recognize the realities of the modern workplace and reinvent themselves in response."

Read the full article to find out more about these roles a modern internal comms department needs to fill:

• Facilitating employee-to-employee communication
• Message Mission Control
• Channel management
• Inspiring and sharing employee-generated content
• Data analysis
• Coordination with other communication functions
• Change and culture communication
• Leader communications
• Communicating for engagement
• Supervisor communications
• Employee advocacy
• Measure, measure, measure
• Call to action: Go forth and communicate

Weber Shandwick released Chief Communications Officers: First 100 Days, an e-book reflecting advice from dozens of veteran corporate communications officers (CCOs). Our new e-book provides invaluable advice from CCOs on making the most of those first 100 days when any missteps can derail the best of plans."

Read the full article to access the ebook download that covers these 12 tips + more:

1. Be patient
2. Prepare before you start
3. Listen & learn
4. Evaluate your team from day one
5. Don't criticize
6. Get to know the business operations
7. Develop internal advocates
8. Figure out the shadow organization
9. Don't lose site of what's outside the organization
10. Be prepared for some surprises
11. Gain the CEOs respect
12. Find your early win

"Should your IC team consist of generalists who are adequately skilled in a variety of areas, or specialists who focus specifically on one skill that they have mastered?

It’s an ongoing debate that Heads of IC across the globe have had to mull over at one point or another.  But it ultimately boils down to what your organisation needs. And that should directly inform how you build your IC team – and the skills and competencies you foster among them.  Yet finding the right balance of these crucial competencies within an internal communication department or team can be tricky."

Read the full article to find out how to effectively manage an expanding mandate for IC, by adopting a more systematic approach to competencies and skill development using Melcrum's IC Competency Model.

You can also find out more about the need for this model in this Melcrum article Brave New World: Capabilities for Internal Communication's Future.

It takes people to staff a successful internal communications function. William Amurgis takes us through the roles communicators need to play to carry it out based on these three underlying assumptions:

1) No longer can we afford to (only) cascade messages down from the top

2) As much as I might prefer face-to-face or print communication, those methods are too inefficient, costly, and slow for any organization above a certain size and geographic scope

3) Even though I advocate a future where everyone is a communicator, communications professionals still have a pivotal role to play

All these roles should be represented in some capacity:

- editor

- technical support

- designer

- community manager

- communications support

- servant leader

"Our smileguide on The Changing Role of Internal Communication is now available as a free download is available to all our registered readers. If you are not registered just sign up (it takes less than a minute and is completely free). 

It is clear that the arrival of social media and digital communications has changed the role of the IC professional forever. As I started investigating social networks in the enterprise I quickly saw that we are just at the beginning of an evolution that is going to transform forever the practices of this industry. Indeed, all the indications seem to suggest that the speed of technology will continue to occur faster and faster."

Read the full article to access this free 23 page smileguide which identifies the key trends in the marketplace and what practitioners can do to develop themselves, covering the need for internal communicators to:

• be digital experts with a background in both internal and external communications

• have journalistic skills

• think like a marketer

• be relevant in the new era of social business

• also have experience in public affairs, marketing, and media relations

"They say that if you don’t know whether or not you’re on schedule, it’s a safe bet that you aren’t.

One time you really need to be certain of your direction is during your first days and weeks in new internal comms role.

When you’re promoted to a bigger role, you need a big plan to go with it. And you need to deliver results fast."

Read the full article to access the link to the downloadable guide and find out more about these 10 tips to make the most out of your first 100 days in a new internal comms role:

1. Get started before you get started
2. Understand the business
3. Clarify your remit
4. Identify the players
5. Sit up and listen
6. Deliver some quick wins
7. Don't change everything overnight
8. Commission an audit
9. Review your capability
10. Invest in yourself

"When I worked for Zappos.com, I found myself in that very situation. I joined the online retail giant when the Technology department was delivering its most aggressive roadmap to date. With all the changes coming down the pipeline and without a Communication department, Zappos knew they needed somebody to help them communicate the changes to employees within Technology and the rest of the company. Operating as a “team of one”, I came up with a solution to cope with the challenge that lay ahead."

Read the full article to discover the author's roadmap to help any one-man-band deliver a strategy that hits the right note:

- Define the problem

- Find the appropriate channels

- Mind your sources

- Mind your content

- Engage others

- Pay attention to the company's culture