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The vital role of internal communications in any organisation

Internal communication has a vital role to play in organisational management and development and should be an integral part of business planning.

Effective communication between managers and staff improves staff satisfaction and the performance of an organisation, reducing the opportunity for confusion and misinterpretation of key policies and decisions.

Staff will be happier and more productive if they:

• Share an organisation’s vision and value.
• Have a thorough understanding of their role, what they need to achieve, why and what the benefits are for them.
• Feel they are informed about the organisation and believe that their opinions and views are valued.

Monthly newsletters, team brief meetings, e-mail, the intranet, one-to-one meetings between staff and management – these are all part of the internal communications ‘mix’.

Communications materials should:

• Promote a climate of involvement and trust throughout the organisation.
• Ensure that senior managers have an understanding of the issues affecting staff working at all levels and take these into account during the development of strategies and policies.
• Continually update staff on the Commission’s developments and its progress towards major milestones.
• Motivate staff through public recognition of organisation/team/individual successes and achievements.
• Ensure staff are kept aware of key decisions or changes at a corporate level, the reasons behind them, and how they effect individual staff members and their work.

Good communication

Good communication is relevant, honest, focused, timely and readable. Your audience has chosen to read your words because they want to be informed. You need to live up to their expectations and that means communicating well.

Relevance: the headline is probably what attracted your reader to the piece, so your words need to be relevant to the title. If it’s an article about a new human resources training programme and you suddenly start talking at length about something else it’s not relevant and you’ll lose your reader.

Focused: when you write, have a specific person in mind: that is, imagine your average reader (if the profile fits someone you know, so much the better – pretend you’re talking to that person as you write). You need to picture an average, non-specialist member of staff.

Timely: the content has to be newsy. There’s no point including a news item about an event that happened three months ago. A monthly newsletter should look back no more than a month to six weeks, and look forward by the same amount.

Readable: keep it simple (but not patronising) and lively. Ramble and your reader will simply flick to another article and may not bother reading the newsletter in the future. Always avoid management and industry jargon.

The five Ws and an H

Everything you write should revolve around ‘who’, ‘what’, ‘when’, ‘where’, ‘why’ and ‘how’. Remember these when you’re planning individual stories, preparing to interview contacts and, of course, when you write-up your stories.

what – this is the subject that you’re writing about (if it’s an appointment story it might become a who, focusing on the person rather than the event).

who – this splits into four: the audience (who you’re writing for – how is it relevant to them?), the case study (the audience needs to identify with any personal story you use); those affected by the subject of the story or those who are involved with it; and the expert (the person who is an authority on the subject, perhaps the project leader or a senior manager).

where – where did the event/will the event happen (if relevant).

when – is it topical? When did the event/will the event happen? Will readers need to respond by a deadline?

why – why is the event happening?

how – how will the event be planned, developed and implemented? What are the relevant processes and milestones?

A word about language

Spelling, grammar and presentation are important – if your article looks sloppy and is covered in grammatical and spelling errors, your audience will start to wonder if you’ve got your facts wrong, too.

Language is important. The language you use in your newsletter needs to be consistent with the ‘house style’ of the organisation and the publication.

A few quick rules of thumb about language:

• Keep to the point – you don’t have the space for convoluted arguments, and you need to get your points across quickly. If it isn’t relevant, cut.
• Keep it clear – make it easy for your audience to read. Use everyday speech and avoid management or technical jargon whenever possible. Simple, short words will help you be clear and to the point.

Remember your ABC (Accuracy, Brevity, Clarity) for everything that you write.

© Adrian Ruck MCIPR