How do you measure the impact and effectiveness of your internal communication?

In addition to knowing who your audience is, it is also important to know where they are located. This is especially important for global organizations, where careful word choice (for example, avoiding idioms that could be misunderstood) and send times should be considered.

In my experience, working directly with subject matter experts is a place to start. As a multidisciplinary health system we don’t always have research on every specialty. Connecting with a doctor or other clinician is a great way to begin to understand your audience. Augmenting with online searches for additional research studies published publicly is an easy and cost-effective way to understand who you are speaking to. Using personas can bring your audience to life. You are now speaking to a person rather than an anonymous group.

Get to know people and truly listen to who they are. You will be surprised at the unique insights and skills the whole team have. This brings a sense of purpose and a collective identity.

Create a Clear and Consistent Message. Both types of communication need to be clear and consistent to create a cohesive message. It is also crucial to create a Two-Way Flow of Information for a clear understanding and alignment. Get Feedback on Drafts or Prototypes to provide a Better Understanding of Customer Needs and Wants.

I think you should have rules for each channel. If you use them haphazardly and in a disorganised way, they will be of poor investment.

It’s also important to consider the method used to deliver the message by channel, and what device will be used to view the content to ensure it’s optimized for viewing. While you can reinforce the same message across all channels, it needs to be in an appropriate format and length to capture the audience’s interest and attention.

Find your supporters/Influencers… senior teams or recognisable people in your business endorsing internal comms channels and messages has such a positive impact. Even if they’re the ones that ‘create the news,’ and are unlikely to read it, their endorsement of the channels used helps reach the people who need to know.

We know the importance of using clear language when speaking to our external audiences, so why do we fail to do the same with internal customers? All too often we bamboozle colleagues with jargon and acronyms while asking them to ‘cascade’ our complicated ramblings to other stakeholders. How can we expect our customers to understand us if we don’t even understand each other? If we want internal audiences to understand, support and advocate for us, then accessible language is the goal. That means: - use short sentences - avoid buzz words / acronyms - avoid ambiguity - simplify language eg avoid using negative contractions such as ‘won’t’, ‘can’t’, ‘don’t’ which some readers have difficulty with - have a clear ask / call to action

One of my favorite pieces of advice is to “use your weekend words” when writing an internal message. Our job is to translate the corporate speak into a message that resonates with our internal stakeholders. They need to easily understand what they need to know, how they should feel and what they need to do.

It is very easy to assume that all internal readers have the same level of institutional knowledge of topics and acronyms. Finding a trusted colleague who can provide feedback on communications from a different perspective is helpful to create clear and accessible messages. Ways to successfully implement this include: Develop relationships with trusted feedback experts from the C-suite to frontline staff. When you get feedback, thank the person for their feedback. Even negative feedback is an opportunity to improve. Have someone else edit your communications before you release them. Conduct periodic feedback surveys of high-level communications like newsletters. Having an openness to feedback will keep your skills sharp.

There is nothing wrong eith repeating the message three times each in a different way. This way it sticks and is at the forefront of their minds.

On the topic of avoiding jargon or "corporate speak," I've found that the following is a helpful tip to keep in mind as you write: -Write as though you're speaking to one person -That one person is a friend -The two of you are at lunch

I definitely would recommend reverse mentoring as a tool. It provides a link and breaks down the hierarchy overall allowing great discourse and dialogue.

Give people the tools to bring awareness to the events, issues, ideas, and news they find the most relevant and compelling. For example, recruit 'citizen reporters' to help shape and craft internal articles. I did this in one of my internal comms roles, and it was a hit! People felt seen and heard - they were proud to write and publish stories on our ESN (Enterprise Social Network). This is also a great way to recognize people who place a lot of value on being viewed as experts by their colleagues.

It’s good information, but nothing new. Mostly common sense. Communication is very important, but there is always a need to know factor for business to communicate to avoid loss of security.

The first step in measuring effectiveness is to start with measurable goals. For example, the goal can be to increase awareness (of a person, department, benefit, etc) or to change a behavior or perception. The measurement tool is then pre- and post-surveys to see if your communications “moved the needle” and how far. Another way of measuring would be to actually count (for example, the number of people who enroll in something). If you don’t start with a measurable goal and then actually do the measurement, you’re left with subjective evaluations of effectiveness.