Our Time to Shine

Never have internal communicators had more opportunity to make an impact on our organisations and colleagues.? We have a unique ability to shape organisational culture, connect people and enhance productivity.? Through the comfort of our hybrid workplaces, technology is enabling us to inform, connect, collaborate and empower.? It’s improving our ability to give colleagues a sense of purpose, enable autonomy, personalise content at scale, inspire creativity and increase job satisfaction.

The introduction of great technology is helping to free up our time to redefine and nurture our strategic priorities and stakeholder relationships.? While technology is by no means the only solution, many organisations who have invested in modern intranets have experienced profound people related improvements. This includes fostering greater employee company relationships by enhancing loyalty and bonds.

At a time when the technology available to us in the Internal Communications space is so good, what’s stopping organisations from investing in it?? It’s a question that we asked in a recent LinkedIn Poll and the results were not surprising, with an equal number or respondents saying they felt that they have too many channels or they just don’t know where to start.? But it can be easier than you think!

Many of you contacted me after the poll was published to share your thoughts about this topic.? I heard loud and clear that internal communicators would love to make more progress, but it’s a crowded market, with a lot of choice and you are confused about integrations with existing platforms such as Teams or Slack, whether you need a separate App and you are concerned that colleagues might not actually use it.??

As a previous Head of Internal Communication, I introduced this type of technology in two global organisations and as a consultant, I have used my learnings to successfully steer many other communications teams on this journey.? In my experience, while many of the platforms offer similar features and benefits, the ability of the supplier to listen to you, understand your requirements and make it easy to implement can make a massive difference to the long-term return on your investment (as well as your sanity!)

For me, Appspace (formally Beezy) is the number one stand out supplier as they are able to strike a great balance between creating an easy to use, intuitive product with a brilliant user experience and being fantastic partners to work with.? I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to introduce, and the platform connected Microsoft Teams and SharePoint with the intranet – which was also available as an employee App.? From the point of view of a user, it was easy to receive personalised content via their phone, iPad or laptop.

I asked other senior internal communications colleagues who have recently undertaken similar journeys for their thoughts.

Adam Schair is a US based senior employee communications leader “For many years, the gap between the technology employees used outside the office and what they experienced in the office grew wider and wider. With new entrants in the digital workplace space and, recently, the addition of Generative AI as part of platform updates, that gap has been shrinking rapidly.

“At my last organization, which was a Fortune 100 financial services/insurance company, the latest updates to our intranet platform introduced GenAI to make it easier for our team and community managers across the company to contribute content. Anything that makes it easier to contribute content is going to increase engagement.

“I do think that the next big horizon that we are moving towards is creating a more integrated experience across the various platforms we use so that employees can have one point of entry for all the digital tools they use during their work day.”

Alex Kinnear-Mellor is Head of Global Communications at Doncasters Group, where she spearheaded their digital journey last year.? “Like many organisations, we were busy crafting and distributing internal communications, but we wanted to achieve more effective, engaging and cost-efficient outcomes.??

?“In communications the pressure to deliver more with less is ever present, and so many of us are peddling our figurative bikes ferociously to keep up. Sometimes however, you need to be brave and stop pedalling. You need to pause, take stock of your situation, and either oil the bike’s gears and pump up the tires or better still, ditch the bike and hail a taxi instead!??

?“That’s what we did. Gone are our previous unloved communication platforms, replaced with one, far-reaching, intuitive and responsive AI enabled platform.?

?“Having installed a SharePoint platform fifteen years ago, I find that the suppliers of modern platforms such as ours are now more experienced at hand holding organisations, helping us to implement new technology in less time. I’m also seeing that there are more cost effective options available for smaller companies with restricted budgets, which is great news.”

Helen Kelley has led internal communication teams in several large organisations.? ”Creating a? seamless consumer grade digital employee experience internally is no longer a nice to have - it’s a foundational pillar for a modern working environment. Our digital experience at work should mirror the type of user-experience we are used to in our private lives.

“As Internal Communication leads, we should be restlessly championing a holistic digital employee experience that offers multiple entry points for the user, helping them to do their jobs more effectively.? Technology needs to grow with the organisation and meet its unique needs.??

“I've implemented solutions to improve collaboration, ease of search, problem solving and engagement - all of which have been adopted at pace and have supported a more effective human and productive organisation.”

?Dave Fletcher , Vice President at Appspace added "In today's consumer market, sleek and user-friendly interfaces have become the expected norm. The ease of sharing content with just a few taps or clicks has reshaped our expectations. Therefore, it's time to challenge the status quo of enterprise software. Why should navigating corporate content feel like a chore when it has the potential to be as engaging and as straightforward as scrolling through our favourite social feeds? The technology to transform these experiences already exists. Let's embrace it!”

“At Appspace we have tried to learn from and replicate the best bits of social platforms, and the user experience we have created is a fun way to hold employees' attention.? This means that they are more likely to understand and take action on the information that you share with them, quickly delivering a return on investment.”

We are at the foothills of a new technology era and have an opportunity to shape an exciting future within our organisations. Make the most of it.? It’s our chance to shine!? Please get in touch if you would like to find out more.

?