An internal communications strategy answers one question: how do the right people hear the right thing, in a form they will use? Most plans that fail skip the audience and start with the channels.
You do not need thirty pages. The six steps below fit on one, and you can change them after the first quarter.
Six steps
For each step: what to decide, what a good answer looks like and what to avoid.
Know who you are talking to
- Decide
- Who your people are, where they work and what they use during the day.
- A good answer
- A short list of groups with a sentence each: desk, floor, field, shift, language.
- Avoid
- Treating ‘all employees’ as one audience.
Choose what should change
- Decide
- What should be different because of your communication.
- A good answer
- Two or three goals, each visible in behaviour: fewer questions, faster adoption, better attendance.
- Avoid
- Goals about activity, such as ‘publish more’.
Pick the channels
- Decide
- Where each message lives.
- A good answer
- One main channel per audience and one backup.
- Avoid
- Adding a channel without retiring another.
Set the cadence
- Decide
- How often, and when.
- A good answer
- A calendar people can predict: weekly news, a monthly leadership update, a quarterly all-hands.
- Avoid
- Everything arriving on Monday morning.
Match format to message
- Decide
- Which format fits which message.
- A good answer
- Text for reference, video for people and change, audio for people on the move, short clips for phones.
- Avoid
- Choosing the format before the message.
Decide how you will know
- Decide
- What you will check, and how often.
- A good answer
- A handful of numbers you can look at monthly: reach, completion, replies and questions to HR.
- Avoid
- Reporting views as proof of impact.
What usually goes wrong
The same four problems show up in most plans.
- Too many channels. Each new channel splits attention. Retire one for every one you add.
- No way to reply. Communication that only flows down is not believed. Give people a way to answer.
- One language only. A message people cannot easily understand has not been communicated.
- Leaders appear only with bad news. Regular, ordinary messages from leaders make the hard ones easier to hear.
Start small
A one-page plan with audiences, goals, channels, cadence, formats and measures is enough to begin. Review it every quarter against the measures you chose, then twice a year.
