Using Internal Communications to Build High-Performing Working Cultures
Effective internal communication is crucial for organisations of all shapes and sizes and is a key element in driving overall business success and creating environments where people thrive. Employers are increasingly recognising the role it plays, but in order to see results, they need to source the right skills. With this in mind, how can businesses use internal communications to build high-performing working cultures, and what type of skills should they seek to deliver these results?
Internal communications plays a critical but often overlooked role, and acts as the glue that holds any organisation together. It’s far more than just the dissemination of information, and connects individual contributions to broader goals, as well as supporting trust, transparency, engagement and all other aspects that any thriving employer should look to harness.
The Role of Internal Communications
Done effectively, internal communication lays the groundwork for high performance, empowering employees to collaborate, align, and thrive. More broadly, it also binds people together behind a common goal. It can feed into wider organisational culture, which, at its core, is a set of shared values and beliefs that shape how the company operates and how staff interact.
Equally, ineffective internal comms can lead to confusion, disengagement, siloed thinking, and ultimately, underperformance, meaning it’s something that leaders can’t afford to get wrong.
Shaping organisational cultures without internal communications is highly challenging, and leads to people operating independently and without cohesion with the rest of the business. Factors like a clear purpose and shared vision, strong but flexible leadership, open collaboration and cross-functional teamwork all feed into effective organisational cultures, and internal comms binds it all together. However, leveraging internal comms to develop these types of cultures takes time, meaning that it is often an ever-moving goal for many.
Communicating a New Culture
But where do organisations start if they are looking to leverage internal communications to reshape their culture?
Firstly, a strategic approach is required, and businesses should look to move away from solely relying on top-down memos or ad hoc announcements and instead develop a more nuanced, engaging and collaborative style. This involves several complex processes, including defining communications objectives, truly understanding what is the overall aim of the activity, and ultimately what its goals are. This shouldn’t be an activity limited to the communications team, but across the business, and employers should consider the different ways that individuals learn and take on information.
Equally, organisations need to develop a clear brand voice, if they do not already have one, and deploy their messaging through the right channels. Rather than solely relying on email, for example, which quickly becomes stale and is often overused, a combination of channels like Teams, Slack, intranets, newsletters and more, should be adopted, depending on the nature and existing culture of the business.
This approach also needs to incorporate data and other available insights to support decision-making around channel use and messaging types that resonate with workers. In addition, it should encourage two-way dialogue and create practical, deliverable strategies that are built on mutual trust and cohesion.
Crucially, organisations looking to leverage internal communications to develop high-performing cultures must encourage two-way dialogue between staff and the rest of the business, and create an environment where employees feel comfortable seeking feedback and asking open questions can foster engagement and drive better results in the long term.
Skills Requirements
Of course, delivering all of the above is no easy task and optimising internal communications activity requires the right skills. But what attributes should organisations seek in their next hire?
Emotional Intelligence: the ability to show empathy and ascertain the broader mood of the workforce, and then adapting tone and messaging strategies appropriately is vital.
Strategic Thinking: any effective internal communicator will be able to align their activity with broader business objectives, and to advise senior figures on strategies that drive positive performance and results.
Change Communications Expertise: this is a skill not possessed by every marcomms specialist, but is key to reshaping internal working cultures. No one likes change, but being able to plan and map out communications activity that ensures a smooth transition, whilst being calm and acting with clarity and confidence when others are uncertain, can have a huge impact.
Resilience: internal communications can be a challenging role, and any professional operating in these positions during periods of flux will essentially act as the front line of any pushback from the workforce. Possessing the ability to adapt and roll with the (metaphorical) punches is therefore key.
Data Literacy & Digital Fluency: all of the best and most successful internal communications strategies are built on a foundation of data-backed insights, and all modern specialists will require these attributes, not only those operating in periods of change.
High-performing working cultures are not created by accident, but through robust planning and by effectively leveraging different organisational groups to reshape how people operate at work. Without effective internal communication supporting the work of HR and talent teams, building these cultures would be nigh-on impossible, particularly with huge numbers of professionals now operating remotely, or on a hybrid basis. Identifying and recruiting the right skills, and embracing their role in developing these resilient, collaborative and successful cultures, will enable organisations to truly build effective teams both now and in the future. Ultimately, internal communication is not just about keeping the workforce informed, it’s about shaping mindsets and behaviours and taking everyone on board the journey to building a high-performing culture.
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If your organisation is seeking a game-changing internal communications professional to join your team, get in touch with our specialist team to find the talent it needs to thrive.
