8 Top Trends For Internal Communications In 2024
Top Trends for Internal Comms in 2024
Clear internal communication is crucial to the success of any organisation. Internal communication facilitates the flow of information between departments and colleagues, to ensure that everyone is on the same page.
What are some examples of Internal Communications?
Examples of internal communications include awareness campaigns, employee education, sharing of internal company policies and guidelines, instant messaging, email, newsletters, intranet and more.
In 2024, there are a number of internal communication trends that are gaining popularity. Read on to see if you are on trend with your communications.
Table of Contents
Internal Communications Trend #1: Employee advocacy
The term employee advocacy simply refers to the promotion and awareness of company and/or product offerings by employees. This can include thought leadership articles by employees and employee influencers.
What is thought leadership?
A thought leader is an individual who through years of experience has now become an expert in their field and can now share information that influences others in their field and become a reliable source of insight and information.
What are employee influencers?
An employee influencer can positively impact how external or internal audiences perceive, interact, or evaluate your brand, product, or service. An employee influencer can influence audiences regardless of the size of their network.
At Halo, we’re big on employee advocacy. Our team is encouraged to write thought leadership pieces and promote our social media content on their social platforms. It’s not compulsory, but as a team who actively live the brand there is a natural engagement in sharing and engaging with content. https://www.linkedin.com/company/choosehalo/
Internal Communications Trend #2: Employee Engagement
Employee engagement is all about creating a positive workplace and culture where employees feel connected and invested in the company’s vision, mission and values.
There are 3 types of employees
Engaged Employees: Engaged employees are passionate about what they do. They wake up in the morning feeling excited about going to work and making a difference. They feel a strong sense of commitment to the company and do whatever they can to drive the company forward.
Disengaged Employees: Disengaged employees have no energy or passion for their job. Getting to work is a struggle as well as the tasks they perform.
Actively Disengaged Employees: Actively disengaged employees are extremely unhappy at work. They are so unhappy that they openly show their unhappiness. They demotivate engaged workers and have no interest in performing any work-related task.
Obviously, you want to ensure that your employees are engaged. So how do employees end up actively disengaged? Employees want caring employers who are invested in their development and recognise them for their efforts. Once this stops, it’s easy for employees to go from engaged, to disengaged and then finally actively disengaged.
Keeping employees engaged requires ongoing effort and conversations. Are you doing the following:
- Being clear with employees on what is expected of them
- Giving them the tools they need to perform their job
- Giving them the opportunity to do what they love
- Regularly recognising employees for a job well done
- Genuinely caring about employees’ well-being
- Driving them forward
- Listening to and implementing their ideas
- Making them feel valued
- Giving them opportunities to learn and grow
How to improve employee engagement?
- Push for diversity and inclusion
- Use clear or simple language
- Build trust with employees
- Communicate with employees regularly, and learn how to communicate with them. People have different personalities, so you you’ve got to adapt your communication style accordingly
- Learn about their strengths and weaknesses
- Use the correct communication channels. For example, do your employees prefer Skype or Microsoft Teams?
- Run surveys to find more about employees’ needs. Be sure not to overdo it with surveys as you don’t want employees experiencing survey fatigue
- Have a zero tolerance for sexual harassment and bullying
- Keep employees informed and educated on important topics like bullying, sexual harassment, HIV/AIDS, etc.
Have you heard of Workforce Campaigns? Workforce Campaigns creates professionally designed communication campaigns for the workforce, which connect across key touch points to ensure your message is continually communicated – on time, and on budget! It’s a unique solution for effective communication for your workforce.
Internal Communications Trend #3: Company values
It’s important that your internal comms reflect your company values. It shows employees that you take your values seriously. Do you have a mission, vision and values statement? At Halo, we recently created our mission, vision and values statement. We always knew what we stood for, but hadn’t actually officialised it. Our team members were split into two groups and we wrote down everything we believed we stood for. Then we consolidated and refined our ideas, and this is what we came up with for our values:
- Cultivate creative collaboration
- Be an authentic and inclusive team
- Have the bravery to challenge ourselves and others
- Create a safe place to be me and have fun
- Embrace discomfort
- Be a force for good
- Be a little different
- Feast on food and knowledge
- Think beyond expectations
- Strive for balanced abundance and keep the faith!
Internal Communications Trend #4. Artificial Intelligence (AI)
AI is shaping the future of internal communications at work. Many people fear that AI will ‘steal’ their job. However, there are many ways AI can benefit you at work. It can automate tedious tasks that take up unnecessary time, freeing you up to focus on more important tasks. Software like ChatGPT can assist you with writing copy or crafting headlines when you’re suffering from writer’s block.
Internal Communications Trend #5. Data-driven insights
Gain insights into employee engagement, preferences and needs using data analytics. Thereafter, use this data to customise campaigns and communication strategies according to what employees want, thereby improving employee engagement.
Internal Communications Trend #6. Ditch the emails
Emails are not the only way to communicate with your team. Have you tried digital signage to communicate with employees? Digital signage is a great way to optimise workplace communication. Attention-grabbing messaging in the form of video or stills can relay important messaging to employees and up engagement.
Internal Communications Trend #7. Employer branding
Employer branding is about showcasing a company as desirable to current and potential employees. This involves creating a positive perception of the company with the end goal of attracting and retaining top talent.
Examples of successful employer branding include Google for its innovative and inclusive culture; Patagonia for its commitment to the environment; Airbnb for its work-life balance; Zappos for its happy and positive work environment; and HubSpot for its employee growth and development.
Internal Communications Trend #8. CEO comms
Communication is vital to the role of any CEO. Employees want to hear from their CEO – is he/she delivering the company’s mission? Is the company performing? What difference is the company making to the lives of employees and the community at large? No one wants a CEO who makes an appearance once a month. Find ways to communicate and engage with employees at least once a week. Consider a weekly emailer, or even weekly sessions where the CEO addresses groups of employees on current affairs within the company.
How many of these trends have you implemented so far? They aren’t that difficult to achieve, and if you do them well, you will benefit from a workforce that is happy, engaged and committed to you. After all, it is employees who are the driving force of any successful organisation.
Halo Media is a specialist B2B Brand and Communication design agency.
Do you need help with your brand? Reach out to us today and let’s chat!
