Why Internal Communication is Important in the Workplace

What is Internal Communication?

Internal communication refers to exchanging information among people of different levels or internal members within the same organization.

Today organizations pay a hefty amount on public relations and marketing to improve their external communication but fail to improve their internal communication.

Like a human being, a company has to have an internal communication mechanism, a "nervous system," to coordinate its actions. - Bill Gates

How we communicate with others and ourselves ultimately determines the quality of our lives. Similarly, how employees or members of an organization communicate with each other determines the health and productivity of the organization. Therefore, you cannot put your organization's internal communication on the back burner but understand its importance to improve it.

Here, I will discuss the 7 Reasons Why Internal Communication is Important in the Workplace.

1. Internal Communication Increases Employee Engagement:

According to Engageforsuccess.org -

Employee engagement involves providing the right conditions for all organization members to give their best each day. These conditions are essential to make employees committed to their organization's goals and values and motivated to contribute to organizational success, with a strengthened sense of their well-being.

Employee engagement is thus related to people's physical, cognitive, and emotional components.

Therefore, good internal communication holds a powerful position because it can influence these components at work and improve employee engagement.

According to internal communication expert Rodney Gray, the best tools to increase employee engagement are:

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2. Build Stronger Teams:

It is not possible to build stronger teams with weak internal communication. When I say 'weak communication,' I mean the improper transmission of information among all the different levels of an organization.

A team with good internal communication performs better and has a good understanding of the?company culture. They are more aware of the organization's goals and objectives and helps each other forming a symbiotic work relationship.

3. Shows a Clearer Picture:

You can only build a better workplace when each member of an organization knows where they are heading. Often the management fails to explain its employees about its goals and objectives adequately due to ineffective internal communication. Important messages of the organization are often miscommunicated when it follows a hierarchical communication system.

We also see that often employees (mostly new hires) are unaware of the organizational history. Many of their confusions remain unanswered. This often creates a roadblock and is one of the significant reasons behind employee dissatisfaction and productivity.

Organizations can create a website or a platform for employees to get any company details and ask questions to clear any doubt. Doing so would not only save time but also keep employees updated.

Communication should always be a two-way street. Management must give feedback and also keep everyone aware of its goals. In the same way, employees should have a platform where they can provide their feedback too. This would help the management to improve their culture and be adaptive to change or any crisis.

An employee survey tool can solve this problem.

4. Reduces Conflict:

Conflicts are inevitable in the workplace. Clash of ideas, misunderstandings, or a sense of lack of recognition can often create internal and external conflicts.

Poor, ineffective communication ... results in missed deadlines, missed opportunities, and misunderstandings. - Caren Merrick, founder, and CEO of Pocket Mentor.

Now here is a thing, it is not that people cannot resolve these conflicts. There is nothing good communication cannot solve. But for that to happen, an organization should deliberately foster a culture of respect, diversity, listening, and addressing issues immediately.

Each one of us sees the world through our lenses. And our perceptions are built with our experiences, values, individual culture, and diversity. Recognizing these factors and allowing everyone to give their views and openly share their issues can help resolve workplace conflicts.

5. Improves HR Practices:

Internal communication doesn't only serve to create an inter-link among the different departments of the organization. Purposefully designed communication tactics can also be an excellent human resource management practice.

Your?Human Resource Management is incomplete unless you communicate with your employees, care for their well-being, and are open to taking feedback from them. This not only helps you understand what your employees want but also helps you build policies that would address their concerns and needs.

6. Motivates Employees:

No, I am not talking about giving lengthy motivational speeches in your meetings to?motivate your employee. This is not possible if you are a large company and have thousands of employees.

On the other hand, this can be leveraged very effectively by Internal communication channels where employees could appreciate and recognize each other on completion of any tasks or milestones. This communication tool can not only motivate your employees but create a culture of celebration and appreciation in your organization.

7. Enhances Transparency:

Active internal communication in an organization creates a rumor-free work environment. Most importantly, information is transmitted to all without any secrecy. This helps employees to be more aware of facts and cut the bag of confusing informal communication.

This enhances transparency and trust among the employees and their management.

If you are reading this line, then you are pretty aware of the importance of internal communication in the workplace by now. It engages your employees, reduces conflicts, builds relationships, motivates your workforce, and keeps a mutual trust and respect between you and your employees.

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