How to improve internal communication in your organisation

Internal communication concerns all forms of communication within your organisation. The more your company or organisation grows, the more internal communication is required. Agreements between departments, consultations, new rules, new work schedules, in fact everything that you need to discuss with your colleagues falls under internal communication. It might not sound so complicated, but it can be quite tricky to organise this efficiently.

In this article you will learn what you need to know in order to make the internal communication of your organisation or company run smoothly.

What does internal communication mean for your organisation?

Many organisations have extensive documents with guidelines on how to communicate. In addition, (often expensive) communication training courses are organised or people are hired purely to manage internal communications. The question is: does it all make sense? And couldn’t it be a lot easier?

Why is internal communication important?

Let’s first look at why internal communication is so important. Imagine, your company receives a new order. It’s a big order, so the production department has a lot of work to do. Extra material needs to be bought in, more staff need to be scheduled and transport needs to be arranged. You need internal communication for all of this.

If your organisation has organised this well, it means that the material arrives on time, production can get enough people to work and transport leaves your company location on time (with the right goods, of course). Internal communication therefore has a direct influence on your ‘external’ business results.

In addition to this ‘must’ for your business processes, internal communication, if properly organised, also ensures an increase in the involvement of your employees. This in turn ensures a lower turnover of personnel, less absenteeism, etc.

What is ‘good’ communication?

When is your communication ‘good’. According to research by Involve (2017), a specialist in internal communication, good communication should achieve the following goals:

• Connect people with each other;
• Ensure employee engagement;
• Provide clarity about the path your organisation is taking (mission, vision, goals and values);
• Make employees work together faster, more effectively and more efficiently.

Does the communication within your organisation ensure that these goals are achieved? Or do you find that there is a widening gap between employees?

Why internal communication often fails

In large organisations, internal communication is becoming increasingly difficult. After all, you have more people to connect with, to get involved with and to inform about your strategy. The problem, however, is that you can’t easily check who has understood your message – or who hasn’t. So good communication is more than just a matter of getting a message across.

Good communication is therefore more than just sending. It is also listening! Especially in organisations with a tight hierarchy, this often goes wrong. The lowest levels are not listened to, or don’t even get the chance to contribute to the conversation at all. A real waste, because your employees are full of knowledge and often know what works best on the floor.

So give your employees the space and opportunity to also contribute to the conversation. Everyone has a right to be heard. And who knows, maybe your colleagues will come up with some great new ideas.

5 Tips to improve your internal communication

Internal communication is tricky. It remains human work and a small miscommunication is unavoidable. Yet there is a lot you can do to improve the internal communication of your company. Check out these tips!

1. Avoid information overload

Less = more. In this case, this means not sending a memo, message or e-mail for everything that happens in your organisation. Not all information is equally important to all your employees. Make sure the right messages reach the right people. Do you send an e-mail every week full of information that is not necessarily important for all recipients? Then you can count on it that these will no longer be opened after a while.

2. Feedback

We already said it… Communication works both ways, it is sending and receiving. Make sure there is room for feedback on new plans for all layers in your organisation. Or even better, make sure that every department includes someone in the making of plans. This prevents everything being arranged top-down.

3. Connecting teams

Connecting people is one of the four main goals of internal communication. By connecting teams, you create more solidarity. The people from Sales know what they are doing in Marketing and vice versa. This ensures a better understanding of each other’s work, planning and objectives.

In addition, this connection can lead to the exchange of ideas and knowledge, which affects the effectiveness and efficiency of your employees.

4. Use a platform

Internal communication is best streamlined by using a clear platform. There are various intranet solutions that make this easier for your organisation. Intranet is a private platform that is only available to members of your organisation. On it, you can post messages for everyone to read or send messages to individual employees or groups.

Is all internal communication still done by e-mail? That could be better. Mailing works fine, but it becomes increasingly confusing as more people respond or want to contribute. It is better to use your own communication platform.

5. Keep it light

Communication can be fun! It doesn’t always have to be strictly defined and regulated. Make sure people know where to find each other for fun discussions and bonding, for example during a Friday afternoon drink. This increases the collegiality among your employees and gives your employee satisfaction a big boost.

Improve your internal communication with Bundeling

With Bundeling you can easily streamline the internal communication within your organization. Our platform ensures that all communication can be found on one conveniently arranged platform. You benefit from a communication platform that is set up entirely according to your choice and house style.

Our app is suitable for both mobile and desktop. This means that you can stay in touch with your organisation anytime, anywhere. One push of a button and you have a new update. Internal communication has never been so effective, efficient and clear.

Request a free demo or read more about our smart communication platform.