How to Build a Brilliant Internal Communication Plan
What is an internal communication plan?
An internal communication plan is a strategic business plan that outlines the important messages that need to be conveyed to employees and details how the messages will be distributed, including channels that will be used. The internal communication plan, like any strategic business plan, should include measurable goals.
Internal communication is all about your employees and how they are receiving the needed information to conduct their work. That’s why a crucial part of your comms plan should be collection and analysis of employee feedback (your corporate intranet is a good channel for this). Give your staff a voice and make them feel like their opinions matter.
An effective internal communication plan discloses information and includes key elements like:
- Organization’s objectives, mission and values
- Key business messages
- Communication channels
- Staff responsibilities and processes
- External marketing and communication plan
- Deliverables
- Staff roles & responsibilities
- Timing and deadlines
The internal communication plan should be written and kept up to date in line with the overall communication strategy.
A good practice is to split the plan into company, team, location goals or other functional areas to avoid confusion and information overload. It needs to be concise and easy to refer to at any moment.
Why do companies need an internal communication plan?
For a company to achieve successful growth it needs to communicate with its employees regularly. Internal communications should be engaging and make employees feel part of the bigger picture.
A well-crafted internal communication plan keeps employees informed of current initiatives and events and future plans. It also shows each member of the organization how they fit in with the plans and the importance of their contribution.
→ Check out our complete guide for internal communications best practices
Checklist: How to Build a Communication Strategy
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How to write an internal communication plan?
The development of the internal comms plan is done by multiple stakeholders in order to align all business areas. For example, the HR manager will be able to give recruitment or employee growth information in order to build an extensive internal employee onboarding or recognition program.
Depending on the size of your company, you may or may not have a dedicated person or a team for internal communication. However, there should always be one person responsible for building the cohesive action plan and following the execution. If you do have an internal comms staff, that person will likely be the project leader to develop the internal communication plan.
Whoever is responsible for drafting the plan should coordinate team meetings and start by identifying each department and project to be included. For inspiration you can also explore different internal communication plan examples and comms best practices.
It can be helpful to use an internal communication plan template, both to oversee the project and for each department to work with. This makes it easier for the coordinator to pull all the ideas together. Remember, the best way to get buy-in on implementing the new comms plan and getting employees to adopt the change is to include teams and stakeholders in the decision making process.
1. Tracking internal communication
To build a successful business it’s essential to have a stable and working internal communication plan. But first, it’s important to understand what is the success level of your current internal comms, and where it can be improved. Is the company interacting and communicating with its employees well or do they feel obstructed from essential information?
This can be done through various tracking methods:
Each method should include simple questions to help better engage employees in the surveys and understand if your internal communication strategy is effective. Question examples:
The data captured from the above results is the core of an effective internal communication strategy. It can demonstrate whether employees are engaged, aware, motivated, or not happy at work.
Reviewing the results of the surveys will show what employees expect from the company they work for. The results will also show interaction patterns , for example, you may find that store workers don't engage as often as head office workers. Or perhaps more people watch videos than read articles. Nevertheless, including everyone, at all levels, gives the opportunity to revise the communication methods and improve employee engagement. Only by analyzing these results in depth will a company understand the communication channels that work and those that can be improved.
Think of this as a marketing campaign, using the results of the surveys.
2. Defining goals and objectives
The next step to creating this valuable document is to analyze your current communication goals in order to build a better plan and define the right objectives.
One of the most effective and easy ways is to use the SMART approach:
It’s also important to consider how employees are integrating with the goals. Do they understand them and their part in achieving them?
To determine the goals you should ask a series of questions:
Once the goals are established and their success (or failure) has been determined it’s time to plan how to achieve the goals, in conjunction with the support of all members of the organization.
Remember, your internal communication plan will only be successful if everyone is onboard.
Internal Communications – Measurement to Mastery
Enhance your internal communication strategy and learn the impact of communication done right.
3. Identify the target audience
It’s particularly important when producing an internal communication action plan to understand whois the recipient of the message.
The final internal communication plan should be available to everyone in the company, from the key stakeholders to the management to the administration and frontline workers. Each of the teams should be consulted when developing your comms plan. Once you have identified the target audience and developed the comms plan with these teams in mind, these individuals will be more likely to adjust to the change since your plan will include elements that appeal to their needs.
It’s also vital to explain to the whole workforce that everyone’s opinion counts. This
4. Choosing the right internal communication tool
There are so many communication tools and channels to choose from so it’s vital to select the right one for your audience. This means understanding the audience and what they are likely to engage with.
One of the most commonly used tools for internal communication in the intranet. Built to be a single source of truth, the intranet is the perfect communication channel for reaching everyone in an organization across multiple locations. Modern intranets can be the digital hub of your business, and can include powerful integrations and various communication tools like:
An intranet solution like LumApps includes many features that you can use to execute your internal comms plan. For example, LumApps Journeys is a personalized employee journey workflow engine that optimizes employee engagement and experience through flexible orchestration that improves over time. Journeys helps to guide employees through key moments in their life cycles with automated, integrated, and personalized touches. These key moments usually include onboarding, cross-boarding, job promotions, and returning from leave. It provides a seamless experience and ensures that no employee is left out by personalizing communications with hyper-segmented audiences.
LumApps Campaigns is an internal communication tool that enables organizations to deliver relevant information to the right people at the right time. It helps communications teams build campaigns that prioritize employees, align the workforce with targeted messaging and personalized content, and deliver broadcasts across channels. LumApps Campaigns supports multi-step internal communication strategies across numerous applications and channels, including text and email. It is meant to improve employee engagement and experience by providing a better way to personalize employee communications.
It’s imperative to understand what each tool can do and how it can be used effectively for internal communication. If you don´t have an intranet now may be the time to consider one. Or if you do have one, is it time to review its effectiveness? Could an intranet be part of your internal communication plan strategy and tactics?
5. Creating the right message
Different target groups need different styles of message. But one thing is relevant to all groups. Internal communication should be:
The tone should be right for the group it is addressing. Keep a professional tone, but at the same time humane and social. It’s important to draft your messaging right and you can always look for help from your external communications team or your copywriters to ensure your content addresses the audience in the right way.
Some examples of different internal communications are:
We mentioned before that you need to devise your plan by functional areas or department, but this doesn’t mean you need to create a separate plan for each department. Streamlining communication by location or business unit can be done easily in your intranet platform with the help of profiling and targeting. This means that employees will receive only the most relevant information according to their function.
For example, factory technicians may only find information on new health and safety procedures interesting, marketing may only want to know what products a competitor is launching, while everyone will be interested in the annual pay review. Add a section in your plan where you assign all employees to internal groups. This will allow you to make the right configuration in your intranet and provide the personalized experience your employees deserve.
6. Providing engaging communication
How often do you bounce off a website page if it doesn´t immediately attract your eye ? You have approximately 15 seconds to capture the reader’s attention, and this goes for internal communication too.
How to create captivating internal communication message? Internal communications should be direct, transparent and using the right tone. Your message, no matter the form you use (post, newsletter, email, article, etc) should not contain excess words or flowery language (this doesn’t impress). People are busy and want to read clear and comprehensible communications.
Here’s how to write messaging employees will refer back to and share:
Successful messages should be enjoyable to read, attractive to the eye, and motivating. Whether you’re writing an email or coordinating the complete internal communications plan, it’s all about communicating with employees and stimulating them. All documents should engage and encourage.
The layout is also important – always be consistent to present a professional image. An intranet is a great way to ensure consistency as it can store all kinds of documents from blogs, articles, post templates or even email templates.
7. Scheduling internal communications
Timing is critical when delivering internal communications. If you send an important message out late on a Friday afternoon it’s likely not many employees will read it. But send it on a Monday or Tuesday morning when people are ready for the working week and you’ll get more employee engagement.
Think about the type of messages you are producing. Social, internal, and external news messages are better sent during the lunch break or at the end of the day as they can distract from work. Similarly, people tend to work more effectively in the morning, so important communications will be better understood then.
If you have an intranet you can also analyze the times when people interact the most. You can measure:
Adapt your communication according to your employee engagement habits and find the best time of the day/week to communicate.
Information overload is something many of us suffer from, at work and at home. The in-box always seems full and getting around to clearing it seems an impossible task. If you establish a balanced and consistent timetable for your communication, employees are more inclined to open,read,and take action. Send it at the wrong time and it might make it to the to-do list, but will soon sink to the bottom.
Internal Communications – Measurement to Mastery
Enhance your internal communication strategy and learn the impact of communication done right.
8. Providing an employee advocacy tool
A successful internal communication can promote and boost employee advocacy. Engaged and motivated employees who love to work at their company tell people about it. They are probably your strongest brand promoters and can extend your reach more cost-effectively than advertising. If an employee believes in the company they work for and its mission they’ll spread the word. This can result in greater employee retention and higher caliber new hires.
So how can you translate this to internal communication? If you are already good at sharing information internally and your employees are engaging with your content, you can extend this externally. Internal communication is all about creating a stronger corporate culture and by boosting external sharing and advocacy you can build your brand reputation and improve your employer's image.
There is of course confidential internal information, but encouraging employees to share public information externally on social media will only benefit the company. Share information such as:
Having an inhouse employee social advocacy tool, gives you control over what employees share and allows you to advise them on the message they use to share the information. In addition employee advocacy is a great tool to save on external communication expenses. If your employees are sharing your press releases, this can save you money on press coverage and external agencies.
You could even offer rewards for the most active ambassadors or to the ones that bring the most traffic or even to the once thanks to which a new top talent joined the company. Employee advocacy promotes company culture both internally and externally.
9. Identifying ambassadors
Who are the best people to promote your business and help carry it forward? Identifying these key people will reap benefits. These people are often the key stakeholders in your business who will have external contacts. This kind of promotion can work on all kinds of levels, including:
But this doesn´t only apply to key stakeholders. Finding out who has connections in your industry and could benefit your business applies to all employees. This form of marketing could be included in your internal communications plan but must be handled sensitively and in a professional way.
Ambassadors for your business can represent you at trade shows and networking events to promote your organization. Depending on the type of business there can be numerous opportunities to build your business using ambassadors.
Ambassadors often take on the role as an ‘extra’ task and are happy to do this because they believe in the company they work for. This can be a way to make employees feel valued. Finding your ambassadors can be also very beneficial for internal purposes, as those ambassadors will set good example to many other employees.
10. Measuring the internal communications strategy
At the beginning of this article, we asked ‘How do you develop an internal communications plan? When you’ve set your plan in motion it’s time to measure the results.
Once you have answers to the above you should look at what can be improved and consider how you’re going to do it.
Measuring a communications strategy is a rolling task that will continue to evolve as the business develops. Each part of the plan has an impact and the strategies and tactics you use will define the success of your business.
