Many organisations have now begun a hybrid working model. Some people are based at home, some are back in the office. Some people are working a mix of both.
Effective internal communication is at the heart of employee wellbeing, motivation and understanding. As everyone gets used to these new ways of working, organisations will need to be sure their messages and channels work.
Communications teams work hard to ensure all their audiences are kept informed and involved. For many during the pandemic, this has required new channels and different ways of working. This time has highlighted the importance of getting communication right.
But what if your internal comms aren’t hitting the spot? There is no shame in recognising that; in a time when the world has turned upside down several times over, even previous best practice may no longer be what is needed.
Now might be the time to take a (quick, if necessary) look at what’s going on and make a plan for improvements.
Carry out an internal comms audit
If you want to gain a better understanding of what’s happening comms-wise at your organisation, here are the 3 stages I recommend for an internal comms audit:
Feel free to keep this infographic somewhere handy for future reference.
How will this help?
By speaking to a range of people representing the charity’s directorates, locations and hierarchical levels, you can find out about their experiences of internal comms. How is it contributing (or not) to their ability to do their jobs in the current climate? You can also have a look at your internal communication channels to see what is going on there.
Once you analyse all this feedback, you will highly likely find clear themes emerging. You can use these to inform your next steps. It is only when you look at a wide-ranging body of input like this that you realise that, for example, the people who want to understand other teams better are not isolated voices. This gives strategic weight to the need to inspire improved cross-organisational communication.
With these insights, you can identify clear options and list the pros and cons of each one. If you need senior leaders’ sign-off for your way forward, these strategic and actionable steps will help them see what needs to be approved.
If you would like an independent person to carry out an audit for you, please do get in touch to discuss how I can help. I can carry out full-scale audits, conduct a couple of conversations to give you a flavour or coach you through the process so you can do it yourself.
Until next time
Sarah