This Tuesday in London there was a can’t-miss event in the area of internal comms – The Internal Communications Conference. A lot of experts from retail, healthcare, education etc. shared their views on the latest internal communications challenges and trends. Our team couldn’t miss it and we prepared an overview of the key highlights for you:
One voice
Many brands now share the same philosophy – the way you communicate with your employees should be exactly the same way as you communicate with your customers/audience. Jo Bleasdale, Head of Internal Communications & CSR, BT Consumer and Nicole Dempster, Internal Communications Director, ITV hosted separate talks where they both highlighted the importance of the “one voice” approach.
You should use the same tone of voice and share same values with both external and internal audiences.
Your employees (especially non-desk workers) are the ones who talk to your customers on a daily basis and you should make sure there’s no discrepancy between the internal culture and your sales/marketing philosophy.
Not to forget about the engagement aspect, employees who are treated like customers feel appreciated and valued by the company.
Change is scary, but manageable
John Peet, Head of Communications, Mobile Networks, Nokia, hosted a very interesting talk on the changes the company has gone through (major restructuring, deals with Microsoft and Siemens) and the problems their internal comms team faced during this period.
Managers are taking decisions around your life. And people are concerned whether these decisions are right.
According to John, people are afraid of two things during change:
1. Managers are taking decisions around people’s lives. And people are concerned whether these decisions are right.
2. Your colleagues have better access to the information than you do. Employees want to have full visibility over what’s happening to the company during change and they want to have as much information as possible.
One of the ways to address these fears is to ensure proper planning: comms timing, rhythm, consistency across channels. And another important thought – how you communicate should fit your company values.
Green field approach
Another interesting thought from Nokia: the green field approach (no constraints imposed by prior work) could be applied to internal communication.
Every department has their own needs and asks for custom features which makes it impossible to find the best solution that fits everyone’s needs.
Instead, the right approach would be to find the best communication technology, implement it and explain to every team how they can use it for their needs. This approach will help avoid over-customization and improve communications operations efficiency.
“Online + offline = oneline!”
Gordon Dowall-Potter, Head of Internal Communications, Kier Group, shared their success story on the multi-channel approach. They connected online and offline channels and in every offline paper communication they tried to move people to online to read more. Connecting offline and online with the right tracking links helps you see the full picture of your company’s communication and streamline it.
At the conference, Beekeeper presented the innovative communication app for mobile teams. Despite there being a lot of communication solutions on the market, many companies still struggle to reach every employee. Do you want to learn how Beekeeper can help your company reach and engage every employee? If so, submit the form below and we will be more than happy to show you a demo.
