Internal communication – Your checklist for a better way to work

Organizations are increasingly restructuring around geographically dispersed teams, which means that the performance of managers must be measured by how well they manage information flow. You can ensure that your employees embrace any new approaches or initiatives by listening to them before, during, and after the change takes place. Listening will help you understand what your employees value about your organization and identify ways to improve those aspects as well as capture their feedback on how well the new approach or initiative meets their needs.

The questions in this checklist are designed to help companies initiate a more effective employee listening program and to use the results as a guide as they develop their novel approaches.

When to listen

You should upgrade your listening program when you notice the following signs:

 Strategy and implementation in the post-pandemic phase are off course and leaders are ignoring early warning signs

Managers express a lack of clarity on what is expected in the new normal

 Employees are suggesting they feel disengaged, disconnected, hopeless and/or lack confidence in leadership

Increased employee attrition rates

 Employee feedback suggests a widespread shift in morale and/or productivity, with a greater number of employees reporting lower levels of engagement, productivity and/or innovation.

What to measure

If you’re using a listening program to track employee experience, you’ll want to make sure it allows you to measure the following:

Technology satisfaction. Are your teams equipped with the tools they need to work at their most effective in their evolving work environment?

Productivity. Are your employees working efficiently in their new environment? Are they working as productively as they were in their old environment?

Well-being. Do team members feel overwhelmed by the number of tasks they have to accomplish? Do they feel that working from home has improved or worsened their situation, relative to office work?

Sense of belonging. Do employees feel that they belong – in their environment, team, and in the company more broadly?

Employee intent to stay. Has the average length of time that your staff members intend to stay with your organization changed?

Work environment. Are your employees happy with how they work? Are they able to suggest ways of improving things, and do you seriously consider those suggestions?

How to measure

What exactly does a future-proof approach to employee experience measurement look like?

Listening and measuring continuously

Continually looking for opportunities to improve your program based on insights gained

Understanding gaps and drivers in key employee metrics

Speeding up decision-making and automating actions

Using the expertise of your customer experience and research and insights teams in your people operations

Having every employee’s voice heard at crucial points in their journey – such as when changes involving the make-up of teams, policies around flexibility or new technologies are implemented

Establishing key relationships with senior leaders, particularly the CIO, is key to effective internal communication, especially in the remote setup.

The outcome to aspire to

 Signs that you have a fit-for-purpose listening program in place include:

Human resources, operations, policies, and investment decisions are based on data

Employee feedback is actionable, HR teams and people managers can design experiences that better support your employees.

The people who are involved in future work policies understand the impact that these changes are having on the workforce, as well as culture and workplace experience

Insights are accessible via a team health dashboard

You are starting to detect patterns that would allow for greater predictive potential – the coming frontier in employee experience management

Conclusion

The company’s vision, mission, values, and culture need to be communicated effectively through internal communications to create a sense of belonging among employees. Internal communications form an important part of employee engagement as it helps build a positive culture.

At the end of the day, communication is key to employee engagement. When employees feel engaged, they will perform better in their job, thereby creating value for the business.

If you want to learn more about knowledge flows and how to approach any issue through the power of data-driven methods for studying communication within your company take a look at this course.