State of Internal Communications 2021
SIMPPLR RESEARCH SIMPPLR RESEARCH ______
State of Internal Communications 2021
Contents
Introduction...... 2
Current State of Internal Communications...... 4
Activities and Measurement ...... 8
Common Internal Communications Challenges ...... 12
Organization Alignment and Employee Recall ...... 14
Leadership Involvement with Communications ...... 17
Internal Communications Technology ...... 21
Conclusion...... 23
Appendix 1...... 24
About Simpplr...... 33 STATE OF INTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS 2021 ______
INTRODUCTION
The pandemic has been a catalyst for leaders to realize that companies can’t grow or even survive without a knowledgeable, engaged, and connected workforce. Internal communicators have long worked with antiquated internal systems and processes that have prevented them from executing at a strategic level that ensures a high level of communication and collaboration among departments.
In the age of COVID-19, leadership across all sorts of organizations have come to recognize the importance of IC. The IC function ensures that everyone has a shared understanding of the business’s goals and is aligned with the company’s strategy. Internal communicators implement strategies to improve leadership engagement and visibility across the organization, including the right technologies to embrace the evolving workforce and optimize the employee experience. In other words, IC experts have a direct impact on how successful a business is, and COVID-19 has convinced executives to give IC the attention they finally deserve.
Simpplr Research conducted the annual State of Internal Communications report to evaluate where IC is heading toward and to continue our benchmarks. While Simpplr Research’s 2020 report revealed insights on how COVID-19 has changed the role and perception of internal communications, this year’s report continues to inform readers on industry benchmarks and insights as we move forward into the next phase of the workforce.
This year’s survey was randomly distributed to What is the size of your organization? more than 400 IC practitioners in the employee experience space, predominantly in the United 10,001 + 0 - 50 States, across varying industries and company 19% 14% sizes. Each question prompted more than 400 51 - 200 responses, with the last open-ended question 12% asking IC practitioners about their top two 2,001 - 18% biggest communications challenges. The survey 10,000 11% 201 - 500 interchangeably uses “leaders” to describe “excellent” and “above average” IC programs, and 26% “laggards” to describe “below average” and “poor” 501 - 2,000 IC programs.
2 STATE OF INTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS 2021 ______
At the end of the survey, we asked an open-ended question:
“As you look ahead to the next 18 months, what are one or two of the biggest employee communications challenges that your organization will need to address?”
Based on the thoughtful, open-ended responses, we uncovered three main themes: leadership, communications, and employee engagement. We highly encourage you to read through the comprehensive responses as you prepare and plan amidst a changing workplace environment, whatever your situation might be.
The State of Internal Communications 2021 summarizes:
• The state of internal communications today as the workforce recovers from the pandemic and adjusts to the new reality
• Various methods that IC uses to measure and evaluate the success of IC programs
• The extent of involvement of IC activities and how IC professionals measure their IC programs effectively
• A list of common IC challenges across leading and lagging programs
• Organizations’ abilities to align employees with company goals and why it’s critical
3 STATE OF INTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS 2021 ______
CURRENT STATE OF INTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS
To start the survey, Simpplr Research prompted the question “how would you rate the current state of your internal communications?” to understand the general sentiment of programs from three perspectives. This question helps us understand the perception of IC programs across the organization. Note that we only surveyed IC practitioners and used them as a proxy of how top leadership and the rest of the employees would assess the current state of IC.
How would you rate the current state of your internal communications?
100%
80%
60%
40%
20%
0%
Your communications Top leadership Your employees
Excellent Above Average Average Below Average Poor
While over 60% rate communications above average, the most significant discrepancy is the employees’ perception of IC relative to the IC professionals themselves. This gap is worth paying close attention to, because it highlights the importance of regularly gathering feedback and engagement data to ensure that the tactics and messaging deployed by IC are landing.
4 STATE OF INTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS 2021 ______
How much do you agree with the following?
100%
80%
60%
40%
20%
0%
Internal Internal Internal Our management Our organization Our internal communications communications communications understands clearly articulates communications can strongly can strongly impacts our culture the importance the importance function has clearly impact employee impact business and ability to attract of internal of internal stated goals and a engagement performance talent communications communications charter
Strongly Agree Agree Neither Agree nor Disagree Disagree Strongly Disagree
In the chart above, we asked IC practitioners a series of questions about their state of internal communications. Most respondents strongly believe that IC is important and impactful to the business. Nearly 80% of respondents note that IC strongly impacts employee engagement, and close to 90% either “agree” or “strongly agree” that IC impacts business performance. This overall sentiment is similar to the results in 2019.
How much do you agree with the following?
100%
80%
60% Comparison with 40% same responses
from 2019 20%
0%
Internal communications Internal communications My management Our internal Our organization can strongly impact can strongly impact understands the communications function clearly articulates the employee engagement business performance importance of internal has clearly stated goals importance of internal communications and a charter communications
Strongly Agree Agree Neither Agree nor Disagree Disagree Strongly Disagree
5 STATE OF INTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS 2021 ______
While 90% of practitioners agree and understand the power of IC on TIP: Aligning IC With organizations, the results begin to decline when respondents are asked Business Goals about the impact of IC from a management or organizational standpoint. Approximately 60% of respondents believe that their management understands If you want your organization to grasp the importance of IC, and only about 40% agree that their IC function has the importance of IC, it is important clearly stated goals and a charter. While there has been an increase in IC’s to align your IC strategy with the perceived importance, there remains an opportunity to prioritize IC tools and company’s strategy. This involves understanding the business goals and processes to align priorities among both employees and management. defining IC’s purpose with strategy and purpose. Adopt a philosophy for On a positive note, there is an overall 20% increase in recognition of IC how to manage, how to communicate, importance among management based on survey data captured in 2019. and how to operate and stick with it. Simpplr Research COVID report found that part of this increase is attributed to organizations that transitioned to a remote workforce as a result of the pandemic in 2020.
Our organization clearly articulates the importance of internal communications
100%
80%
60%
40%
20%
0%
Total Respondents Laggards Below Average Average Above Average Leaders
Strongly Agree Agree Neither Agree nor Disagree Disagree Strongly Disagree
The chart above breaks out organizational sentiment toward employee communications functions by program success. The data shows that leading organizations have found a way to market the importance of their function effectively. In organizations with high-performing IC, over 90% of respondents “agree” or “strongly agree” that their organization clearly articulates the importance of internal communications.
6 STATE OF INTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS 2021 ______
Since 2019, there has been a 10% uptick of lagging organizations that agree on articulating the importance of IC.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
1. Since 2019, there has been an upward trend in organizations articulating the importance of internal communications.
2. While there is increased awareness the importance of IC, there is room for improvement in non-leading organizations.
3. Your internal communications strategy needs to be clearly articulated and tied to business goals in order for organizations to prioritize IC.
7 STATE OF INTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS 2021 ______
ACTIVITIES AND MEASUREMENT
To continue to add to our benchmarking data, the survey seeks to understand how practitioners spend their time and measure the success of their programs. What we found is generally, leading programs use a variety of means to measure the success and impact of their initiatives.
Which of the following do you use to measure your internal communications?
80%
60% 68%
51% 40% 46% 41% 38% 28% 20% 24% 19% 17% 22% 0%
A B C D E F G H I J
surveys feedback statistics Focus groups Organizational Email readership Company meeting Intranet usage and Behaviorcompliance changes/ ratesWe don’t measure Leadership feedback Employee engagement engagement analytics External social reviews (e.g., glassdoor ratings) Performance Outcomes internal communications
The above chart shows that most organizations (68%) use employee engagement surveys to measure IC. Employee engagement surveys are the most common method of measurement, followed by company meeting feedback (51%), leadership feedback (46%), and intranet usage/analytics (41%). On the other hand, approximately one in five companies doesn’t measure internal communications at all.
8 STATE OF INTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS 2021 ______
The chart below shows the same data segmented by IC program strength: laggards, below average, average, above average, and leaders. The primary takeaway is leading organizations use various means to evaluate the success of their IC program and don’t rely on areas of measurement in isolation.
100%
80% J A A 60% A B A B C F E C 40% B B D D C D E G I H A D E G C D E E J F 20% F G I J G H I F G I J H H J 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0%
Laggards Below Average Average Above Average Leaders
Similar to the last report, leading organizations’ most common methods of evaluating IC are a mix of:
• Employee engagement surveys
• Company and leadership feedback
• Intranet usage and engagement analytics
• Email readership numbers
• Organizational performance outcomes
In contrast, nearly 80% of lagging and 50% of below average programs don’t measure internal communications in any form.
Upon further examination, leading organizations prioritize and invest more in measuring organization performance outcomes, focus groups, external social reviews, and behavior changes/compliance rates.
9 STATE OF INTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS 2021 ______
To what extent are you involved with the following?
100%
80%
60%
40%
20%
0%
management’s Communicating of the employee inclusion topics (when applicable) (when applicable) vision and strategy related technology Communicating HR employee feedback Facilitatingevents company and logistics changes and updates Championing the voice Administering intranet related policy changes COVID Communications Updatingcorporate the organization’s announcements Encouraging and capturing Ghostwriting for executives Communicating diversity and Communicating organizational Managing crisis Managingcommunications Health, Wellness, and
Extensively Rarely Not At All
The next question aims to learn about IC’s involvement in a broad range of IC and alignment activities.
Based on past data, there appears to be an increased extensive involvement in all of the surveyed IC activities. Over 50% of respondents are involved in each activity listed, and at least 33% are extensively involved in all activities listed. Most internal communicators focus their time on the organization’s corporate announcements, communicating organizational changes, championing the voice of the employee, managing crisis communications, relaying management’s vision and strategy, and capturing employee feedback.
10 STATE OF INTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS 2021 ______
How frequently does your organization use videos for internal communications?
100%
80%
60%
40%
20%
0%
Total Respondents Laggards Below Average Average Above Average Leaders
Regularly Use Rarely Use Don’t Use
Among the various communication methods evaluated, video usage TIP: Use Video to Increase Engagement in IC has the most substantial positive impact on IC programs. (Source: The State of Internal Communications 2019) Leading IC programs use video significantly more than lagging programs. To get started, Simpplr’s Definitive Video is generally the most effective platform from an employee’s Intranet Content eBook provides many perspective as it is more engaging, faster, and easier to consume. compelling video ideas that employee According to the Visual Teaching Alliance, studies show 90% communications teams have used to of information transmitted to the brain is visual, and visuals are spur engagement. processed 60,000 times faster in the brain than text. People retain 80 percent of what they see and only 20 percent of what they read.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
1. To effectively measure your IC program, do not limit yourself to focusing on a single method!
2. The top three most common methods to measure IC are employee engagement surveys, company and leadership feedback, and intranet analytics.
11 STATE OF INTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS 2021 ______
COMMON INTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS CHALLENGES
This section discusses the frequent challenges encountered by internal communications professionals and segments how those challenges differ among leading and lagging programs.
Which of the following are communications challenges?
50% 49%
40% 45% 41% 40% 37% 30% 29%
20% 25% 25%
10% 11%
0%
A B C D E F G H I
Other Too much Bad internal Leadershipnot engaged is Employees aren’t No clear strategy Too many disparate strategic or critical My role is not seen as Lack of help producing (that it reduces focus) engaged or incentivized for me to communicate communication channels communication happening continuous communications to partake in communications communications technology (e.g., creating news and content
100% A
80% F G
60% B C D H A
B F A C D C H B D 40% B A E E B E E C D G H A G F E 20% F D G C I F I I H G I I H 0%
Laggards Below Average Average Above Average Leaders
12 STATE OF INTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS 2021 ______
Generally, the most prevailing challenges are extensive across the board for lagging IC programs except for not enough communication. IC programs rated above average experience far fewer challenges in employee engagement, communications technology, leadership engagement, and clear communication strategy. However, dealing with too many disparate communications channels is a challenge shared across every segment. This risks leaving employees drowning in information overload, and eventually, it becomes difficult to distinguish between noise and pertinent information.
Interestingly, “leaders” in IC generally report struggling with too much communication. We see that leading organizations do not experience the same level of challenge when engaging employees with communications compared to others. In this case, it would be wise for organizations to measure the impact of type of communications and the channels used to understand employees’ communications preferences, frequency, and mediums to optimize IC.
Diving deeper into the data, the same leading organizations have a strong separation from the pack when it comes to leadership engagement. Even after COVID, still only 40% of organizational leaders are engaged in communications, signaling there is still a big opportunity to improve.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
1. Over 50% of organizations of all IC programs struggle with an over-abundance of communications channels.
2. Less than 50% of leaders are engaged in communications, suggesting there is still a lot of room for improvement.
3. A notable challenge in IC isn’t often the message itself, but rather the channels used to convey it. Know what channels to use in order to effectively increase employee engagement and content readership.
13 STATE OF INTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS 2021 ______
ORGANIZATION ALIGNMENT AND EMPLOYEE RECALL
Two of IC’s primary functions are to deliver company updates and crystallize strategy. One way to gauge the success of an IC function is to test employee recall for critical information, such as your company’s stated values, vision and mission statements, and strategic priorities. Employee recall is critical for several reasons:
1. Organizations can only execute to their full potential when all employees understand how they contribute to the common goal.
2. Knowing a company’s essential statements and priorities is critical to driving employees’ success and the purpose of their work.
3. Beyond execution, strong employee engagement hinges critically on whether employees feel that their work has a purpose toward a greater mission.
How well do you think employees at your organization could recite:
100%
80%
60%
40%
20%
0%
Your company’s Your company Current strategic How their job aligns Your company’s Your financial stated values vision and mission priorities to company goals long term strategy performance statements
Very Well Across the Board It’s Hit or Miss Not Well or It’s Rare
14 STATE OF INTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS 2021 ______
The responses in the chart above show there is considerable room for improvement across a variety of metrics on corporate alignment. What’s promising: a 10% increase in awareness of these corporate alignment metrics compared to 2019. Still, roughly half of employees cannot recite various strategic markers comfortably across all segments.
How well do you think employees at your organization could recite:
Your company’s stated values? Your company vision and mission statements? 100% 100%
80% 80%
60% 60%
40% 40%
20% 20%
0% 0%
Total Total Respondents Laggards Below Average Above Leaders Respondents Laggards Below Average Above Leaders Average Average Average Average
Your company’s current strategic priorities? How their jobs aligns to company goals? 100% 100%
80% 80%
60% 60%
40% 40%
20% 20%
0% 0%
Total Total Respondents Laggards Below Average Above Leaders Respondents Laggards Below Average Above Leaders Average Average Average Average
Your company’s long term strategy? Your company’s financial performance? 100% 100%
80% 80%
60% 60%
40% 40%
20% 20%
0% 0%
Total Total Respondents Laggards Below Average Above Leaders Respondents Laggards Below Average Above Leaders Average Average Average Average
Very Well Across the Board It’s Hit or Miss It’s Rare
The set of charts show leaders of IC programs consistently outperform the rest in every critical organizational aspect (company values, mission statements, strategic priorities, alignment, etc.). Unsurprisingly, laggards underperform and over 55% of their employees are disconnected from company priorities. This is concerning especially when Simpplr Research data suggests that the top three drivers of employee engagement and culture are: purpose, alignment, and community.
15 STATE OF INTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS 2021 ______
Top executives must be aware and acknowledge the problem with company and employee alignment. Then, they must agree on the company’s Where do strategic priorities and ensure that their direct reports understand the you start? objectives. Lastly, executives need to make sure that leaders at every level communicate what the corporate priorities mean.
Our management understands the importance of internal communications
100%
80%
60%
40%
20%
0%
Laggards Below Average Average Above Average Leaders
Strongly Agree Agree Neither Agree nor Disagree Disagree Strongly Disagree
The chart above measures management’s understanding of the importance of IC. Comparing this chart to the previous charts, the data suggests management who understand the importance of IC tend to have employees who are more involved and engaged in the company’s priorities and goals. The more involved leadership is in IC, the more they tend to beat the drum, and the higher likelihood employees are engaged. Leadership must recognize that they need to corral employees to steer in the same direction.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
1. An effective way to evaluate the success of your IC program is to measure how well employees can recite company priorities and goals.
2. Quiz your employees! Survey your employees on values, mission, strategic priorities to help assess how well your message is landing. This data can be leveraged to share with leadership to help them understand the gaps in communication to support buy-in for more investment in this area.
16 STATE OF INTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS 2021 ______
LEADERSHIP INVOLVEMENT WITH COMMUNICATIONS
One of the defining factors for a successful IC program is leadership engagement. Naturally, internal communicators must garner leadership’s attention and explain the importance of IC in a strategic manner that speaks to executive priorities.
Leadership engagement is vital to IC because leadership ultimately defines the behaviors and values of the organization. Executives must acknowledge their impact on IC programs since their involvement directly impacts the organization’s culture and every employee. Otherwise, organizations will continue to struggle to communicate the company vision and fail to align the workforce.
Our management understands the importance of internal communications
100%
80%
60%
40%
20%
0%
Laggards Below Average Average Above Average Leaders
Strongly Agree Agree Neither Agree nor Disagree Disagree Strongly Disagree
Generally, organizations that excel in internal communications have leaders who understand the importance of their role in IC. Among respondents in organizations with excellent IC programs, almost 100% of respondents agree that their management understands the importance of internal communications. In stark contrast, none of the respondents in lagging organizations responded “agree” or “strongly agree” to the same question. More than half of the respondents with lagging IC programs strongly disagree that leadership understands the importance of IC, if at all.
17 STATE OF INTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS 2021 ______
Next, the respondents were asked about executive engagement in their internal communications. As expected, the trend is consistent: higher executive engagement levels are associated with higher-performing IC programs.
How engaged are your executives in internal communications?
100%
80%
60%
40%
20%
0%
Total Respondents Laggards Below Average Average Above Average Leaders
My Leadership constantly beat the drum and do a great job
Leaders engage periodically (maybe monthly or quarterly) but it’s not top of mind
Leadership engagement is lacking
Frequency matters! Executives must constantly reinforce and repeat Avoid “one company initiatives, goals, and messages to keep employees engaged and and done” focused. Doing so will enable employees to row in the same direction and deliver more impact.
18 STATE OF INTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS 2021 ______
In the chart titled “What tactics do you use to promote your leadership?”, the “leaders” and “above average” cohorts show collective usage of a more extensive blend of activities. IC teams must assess which activities they’re using to promote leadership and facilitate their communications.
100% What tactics do you use to promote your leadership?
80% 85%
70% 60% 57% 49% 40% 46% 32% 20% 27% 25% 4%
0%
Emails Posts Other videos Intranet Internal Employee webinars Site visits meetings Leadership Company-wide (Q&A Forums) Informal town halls feedback sessions
100%
A A 80% A A B
B B B 60% C C C E D D F A E 40% C D D E
F E G F H H G H G 20% H F G B C D E H I
0% 0% 0%
Laggards Below Average Average Above Average Leaders
19 STATE OF INTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS 2021 ______
Based on the results, the three that show the most substantial separation among cohorts are: leadership engagement with the company’s intranet, videos, and employee feedback sessions. The most widespread tactics across the board that have least impact among the cohorts are email communications, company-wide meetings, and informal townhalls. Interestingly, this was the same in our 2019 report.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
1. Leaders have an immense impact on IC program performance. For leaders to create a lasting impact, they must continue to reinforce company priorities to the broader organization.
2. Posting intranet content regularly, conducting employee feedback sessions, and involving leadership in communications show the strongest impact and separation among leading vs. lagging groups.
20 STATE OF INTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS 2021 ______
INTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY
In the “Common Internal Communications Challenges” section, the data shows that technology usage has improved since the last report. While technology is no longer the biggest pain point for underperforming programs, we’re starting to see organizations struggle with having too many communications channels. This section dives deeper into technology adoption and usage in IC programs.
Which of the following tools does your organization use for formal employee communications?
100%
80%
60%
40%
20%
0%
Emails Videos
mobile apps Digital signage Email newslettersEmployee intranet Printed employee
Employee communicationnewsletters or magazines Printed posters and signage Direct text messaging/SMS (e.g. Slack, Yammer, Facebook) Employee communication apps Non-intranet social and messaging
Regularly Use Rarely Use Don’t Use
According to the data, communication and technology usage vary widely across the survey respondents. On one end of the spectrum, email remains the most ubiquitous method of communications across all IC programs. On the other hand, nascent technologies like employee communications apps, mobile apps, and SMS are not widely adopted.
21 STATE OF INTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS 2021 ______
Targeting and reaching employees is critical to today’s new reality. As more organizations evolve into either a fully remote or hybrid workplace, it’s never been as important to corral your employees to keep them engaged and aware of company updates across the organization. Where email is the most commonly used method of communication, and especially where email is used exclusively, employees are likely drowning in their inboxes. It’s crucial to be responsive to which channels are more successful at engaging employees, and to utilize the various communications channels more intentionally.
Start by taking stock of the types of the communications in your strategy and separate them into longer form vs. shorter form. Then, survey your employees How do and ask how short form vs. long form communications would like to be I start? received. Encourage them to leave open-ended comments — we guarantee you will gain useful insights!
22 STATE OF INTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS 2021 ______
CONCLUSION
Now that uncertainty about the workplace model has begun to settle, IC has the opportunity to reimagine the employee experience, both from a communications and organizational level. The world has changed the way business is run, and organizations are increasingly discovering that they can succeed in a world of distributed and/or hybrid work. But effective communications must be a priority coming from the top, or else you risk the entire organization becoming disengaged and confused.
Final Takeaways
1. Continue to market your function and its purpose.
2. Don’t rely on just one metric. Focus on outcomes!
3. Measure how employees can recite your messages.
4. Bulldoze, guilt, beg, and pressure leadership into doing their part.
5. Communication can’t be done in a vacuum. Get support!
6. Prioritize technology to your advantage.
This report summarizes the changes and trends we’re seeing in the IC industry and highlights various areas of improvement. As IC becomes more visible within organizations and in executive settings, we’re excited for what’s to come and how IC can elevate and transform communications and employee engagement in our new world. Until next year!
23 STATE OF INTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS 2021 ______
APPENDIX 1
The State of Internal Communications 2021 surveyed more than 400 respondents and asked an open-ended question at the end.
As usual, we are excited about respondents’ willingness to share their experiences and the top challenges facing their organization today. There is a plethora of insights in these responses and we highly encourage you to read through these to help you prepare for returning back to work!
Here’s a selection of open-ended responses we received when we asked, “As you look ahead to the next 18 months, what are one or two of the biggest employee communications challenges that your organization will need to address?”
• Would like to address the fact that • Managing virtual meeting fatigue • Communicated to a dispersed our internal comms are not up to and balancing what’s really workforce who aren’t connected.
par with external Comms. There important with technology and • We’ve moved to a completely is also a lot of clutter and the various channels. remote office with team approach is disconnected. I am • Need to figure out how we will members in different states/ hoping to influence this but am adapt to at least a part time time zones. I expect we’ll run not the ultimate decision maker. return to office. into timing issues or situations
• Combining Communication • Return after COVID. where people are out of the loop platforms to standardize on one. because we can’t easily have a • Priority in internal quick team huddle. • Our firm has been acquired communications for everything and we are combining multiple important. • More organized internal companies together. communications strategy. And • Lack of engagement due to a utilizing existing tools (or find • Making internal communication growing remote workforce. a consistent and symmetrical new ones) for social selling. • Overflow of communications and exchange resulting in • Maintaining culture in a its impact on what’s important engagement instead of one-way workforce that is far flung and while balancing out survey fatigue. traffic or just an echo chamber. not congregating regularly. • To engage employees in virtual • We have a new CEO starting, so • Workforce that is recovering and digital formats. looking at ways to introduce him from the pandemic and changes and his leadership style. Also, • Leadership engagement. in work modality (remote vs. in- while working remotely, looking • Controlling the volume of person). at ways to improve our intranet. communication employees • Cutting through the noise — with • Figuring out how to manage receive. Making information move to distributed workforce, our Zoom/virtual meeting fatigue more accessible and less org has upped communications with a healthy work/life balance. overwhelming. from many directions — need • Keeping employees engaged more governance. constantly.
24 STATE OF INTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS 2021 ______
• Continuing dialogue on COVID • Keeping the communication • Engaging comms earlier in and returning normalcy to aligned so employees see how all of our company’s strategic the workplace and campus/ the information being shared initiatives.
classrooms. fits into the bigger picture and • Post-COVID workplace flexibility • Identifying successful tactics and helps us achieve our strategic and more/better engagement engaging employees in a post objectives/mission. with employee comms.
covid hybrid work environment. • Return to the office post-COVID. • Reaching “deskless” employees.
• Continue to connect a hybrid and • Cutting through the noise to • Establishing more coherent and global workforce focus our communications to unified communication across • 1. More efficient communications increase traffic and engagement agency programs. to drive business acumen. platforms; 2. Quicker responses • Updating technology globally to feedback/questions. • It was abruptly announced we with better tracking/KPIs of • Vaccine availability @ on- are going back to the office two employee communications. days a week in June but that was site medical clinic and office • Finding a way that people absorb the extent of the announcement, construction/guidelines for the messages being conveyed or no details or explanation. physically returning to offices. reading the communications and • Better processes/technology for • Ensuring that a blended not just ignoring it because it’s distributing and following up on workforce, having transitioned not tied directly to a performance communication + continuing to from mostly remote for over objective. a year, remains engaged and engage employees and ensure • Rapid expansion = growth pains focused on our highest priorities. they feel heard, especially related and being able to communicate to COVID. • The only thing i can think of is them to employees. employee participation. We have • Aligning everyone behind a new • Reaching a deskless many tools to use but it looks like strategy and driving engagement workforce and having enough the same handful use them all. while bringing employees back talent to support all of our post-pandemic (some will remain • Expanding real-time reach to communications needs. remote, some will be hybrid and frontline workers. • Engaging an increasingly and others will be full-time in office). • Getting employees involved in permanently remote workforce. • Intranet platform upgrade and the communications process. • Actually using Microsoft Teams global expansion (translating • With more employees working the way it is intended, as both content to fit the needs of our remotely, it can be challenging to a casual chat/meeting app and global teams). get engagement on non-standard a full-scale collaboration space • COVID vaccine communication work related communications. with both internal and external and what our return to office will Communications related to customers. really looking like after COVID. normal work is functioning • Better governance (decision- well, but unique requests are • Promoting our shared intranet making and operational levels): challenging. and gaining adoption. agreement on communication priorities, messages and timing.
25 STATE OF INTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS 2021 ______
• Reaching staff who don’t regularly • The external market for recruiting • A lack of passion for or use computer workstations. has gotten very hot, particularly engagement with any
• Effective and efficient with the opening up of so communication around diversity, communications throughout the many companies to work from equity, and inclusion from a organization. anywhere.We are having high company perspective. attrition issues and are increasing • Ensuring the employee’s voice is • Returning to the office. our focus on communication and heard. • Method of communication that stronger delivery of our employee will engage staff across a wide • We’ve been doing a great job, so value proposition in order to age and technological aptitude not sure how to change. There are retain talent. a few colleagues who can cause spectrum. Fostering bidirectional • Transitioning to being on campus problems and I guess it would be communication and engagement for some degree; work/life nice if the leadership recognized between senior leadership and balance shift again. that and did something. employees. • A company cannot be successful • Reintegrating teams after working • Many employees were forced if 5 (max) people are making all from home for over a year while to learn new technologies due the calls for the company, without adjusting to hybrid models of to the sudden shift to remote knowing what is happening at working from home part-time and working conditions in 2020. If the company. Executives (at all working in office part-time. not for that, many people would companies) need to take a step never have bothered to learn • Ensuring newly acquired down from the mountain, and them at all. With few exceptions, companies feel part of the larger take a walk in the village at the leadership does not engage the business and integrate happily base of said mountain. There college as a whole, and rarely and effectively. are MANY things Executives engages their own departments • Reaching deskless employees, miss or take advantage of. This directly. Eliminating department conducting an internal- is a backwards and antiquated silos should be a top priority for communications audit, drafting system that must change moving us to help educate and engage an internal-communications forward. Executives should be employees across the college strategy. providing a clear end goal, and about important processes, and then departments should be • Communicating vaccinations and that would in turn help us to allowed to determine how that/ return to the office strategies. better serve our students. those goal(s) are achieved. • Working from a hybrid situation, • Lack of an intranet tool that Currently, our Executive team it is important for us to enables analytics and lack of Slack simply tells us to work harder, communicate changes effectively analytics. Clearly articulating the faster, and better without any to the right people at the right company vision and mission. care for the humans they are time (regional timezones and Manager comms capability. demanding it from. locations/ different departments). • Communication gap with line • Fostering communications as a Making sure that official comms. managers and their staff and grass-root level movement. are searchable and easily located inter department. • Continued organizational in one location. changes; return to the workplace.
26 STATE OF INTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS 2021 ______
• Need to figure out employee • The timing of communication • 1) Leaders and Top Management engagement and networking and content. Most of the time to NOT only to recognize when many staff are working communication is at the last the importance of Internal from home still. minute, which doesn’t provide communications and its
• Engaging employees to use the time to read, retain and react influence to other aspects of communication tools that have (something I developed). employee engagement and been developed. Management Additionally, inclusion and business performance, but trickle down communication consideration of all departments to also support it well with of the initiatives being taken to and players when making resources, budget for new improve employee experience. decisions and developing the technologies-apps, systems, etc.; communication as well as looking 2) Address the frustrations • Upgrade the review strategy ahead at long term impact. and challenges of the Internal to facilitate communications There is a lack of consistency in Communications members between Team members. internal communications to keep who are always thought of as a • How to talk about a global return employees engaged and informed. cost centre, demanded to work to ‘normal’ and the need to • Senior leadership has been and craft miracles, forced to be keep consistent safety policies consumed with developing an the company’s photographer, while countries across the world EOS and neglecting regular videographer as well as are still at different stages of communications. designers and video editors, the pandemic management copy writers with on-going tight • Engaging employees in the (vaccinations, lockdowns etc.) schedules. When it comes to communication process and • Work from home and keeping resources, business will always considering the employee voice. employees engaged, feeling comes first. a part of the team. Constant • The new situation with 3) There is a confusion between check ins and communicating colleagues working at home a lot Employee Engagement (HR) and the importance of mental health more. Internal Communications (usually during these COVID times. • Keeping the message simple, in a Communications, PR or Corporate Affairs set up/dept). • Mass communicating to a large clear and focussed. Avoiding The resources for Internal Coms inflow of newly hired employees over communication. role will always come last, even and managers. • Attendance/Tardy Policy after HR. But the demand will be enforced. SOG’s and • A new social and mobile intranet expected from the Internal Coms accountability for following them. + reducing information. role. How can this be sustainable • Developing a policy for employee • Practical and cultural changes for people responsible for communication which would of move to mixed office/remote Internal Communications role in state how well to communicate working. Visible leadership Coms/PR/Corp Affairs? ownership and communication strategies and Deployment • Refresh creaking intranet of strategy (as opposed to of technology for internal technology to support more centralised comms) to aid lack of communication. modern, engaging comms. colleague engagement.
27 STATE OF INTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS 2021 ______
• Keeping communications regular, • While we have regular team • Organisational change, appropriate, and useful as we meetings, there isn’t enough alignment to strategic priorities.
continue to scale up. focus on giving EEs the • Keeping communications • The return to face-to-face opportunity to get to know one flowing through Zoom and business meetings and being another informally. other electronic communication efficient in our communications • Implementing a new Intranet and venues.
• Consistent communications and gaining employee adoption. • Leadership talks at us, but does good technology enablers. • Measuring impact and truly not listen to us. When surveys
• Loosening control of content using that data to make changes. are done, feedback is provided at a leadership level so that Also, really understanding what generally to tell us we are wrong. employees are empowered to employees want and need. • The rate of change in the use and interact with our internal • How to address the needs of organization and communication communication platforms so employees of all levels and roles. overload is the biggest challenge
that communication becomes • Rate of growth (integration) and we face over the next 18 months. two-way. The other challenge is high level of workload across the • Spread out method of weekly working within the limitations of company. company updates to include these products to communicate • Digital communications fatigue. more than only an email. to our different internal Too many emails, too many zoom • Streamlining, figuring out how to audiences in a way that works for meetings, etc. get the most important messages the business and is reportable for to cut through the noise. audit purposes. • Communications tools all want to be at the centre of the • Communication about our • Coordination across organization application ecosystem. But there changing priorities and reduced and ability to meet suddenly very is no one-size-fits-all, and even budget past COVID. high expectations with same those that talk the integration resources as in the past (minimal • Reducing the complexity of the talk, do so from the perspective budget, one woman team). communication and knowledge that they will be the ‘hub’ in the sharing ecosystem to increase • We need to address the lack middle. In moving away from productivity and effectiveness. of two-way communication open protocols, to proprietary • Returning to normal channels and making our messaging and content delivery, operations and the changes communication timely and our decentralised approach is communications will need to consistent. made more difficult, as choice communicate. • COVID cutbacks resulted in the of tooling for both publisher layoff of the social/PR team. We and consumer is reduced. • Helping employees understand need to get the position back and Organisations are left having the dos and don’ts of using the a new person up to speed. Need to go with a more limited set of elements from our new global to re-establish communication tools if they want to avoid the brand campaign. channels. silos created through a lack of • Continued employee engagement true interoperability. and executive involvement.
28 STATE OF INTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS 2021 ______
• Communicating during covid and • Launching new intranet, • 1) Technology that can keep up getting feedback from employees. employees investment in the with the speed of our growth and
• We have a great company culture organization (lots of unhappy provides the functionality and and leadership is concerned that workers). layout we want. it will be diluted with so many • Engaging them in a more social 2) Keeping focus on the key people working remotely versus media platform for internal priorities enterprise wide and rubbing shoulders day-to-day. communication. then building more localized and consistent communication • Reaching a newly remote • How will leadership practices for non-enterprise wide workforce and maintaining communicate working from needs. communication parity between home opportunities as we inch clinical (on-site) employees and closer to normal. Will it be • CEO engagement and return to administrative/business (off-site) dialogue with our employees or office. employees. simply dictated by leadership • Disconnect of executive team
• Bandwidth and changing habits. and pushed down. Also mental with employee needs, lack health challenges faced by of consistent managerial • The vast majority of our our employees, will leadership expectations, low morale. employees are teleworking, and consider this a priority and make it looks like many of us will be • Inter-office communication and it a communications priority. teleworking even once we’re able communication of leadership/ to come back to the office safely. • Getting leadership on board and strategic goals. We will need to strategize ways more involved. Getting the rest • Too many tools/channels and to continue keeping employees of the company used to involving employee burnout. comms in all new initiatives or engaged and informed from a • Volume and the number of roll outs because I feel as though distance. sources. Too many dept sending I’m not as involved as I should be • Communicating what the future communications without because people don’t think about will look like in terms of work from aligning. communication until it’s too late. home versus coming to the office. • A lot of our employees are feeling • The return to the physical Also how open they are to a burnt out with COVID-19; how workplace with the hybrid model complete WFH situation or hybrid. do we meet them where they of work — some employees in • Metrics. Our tracking could are? Also addressing the critical the workplace, some working definitely be better and needs importance of speed, simplicity, remotely. to be more standardized across and action — and are making all formats. The other one is • Growing team and a need for what we do unnecessarily people managers not engaging more formal internal comms complicated and slow. strategies. with employees, resulting in low • Having a cohesive comms utilization across pretty much • Driving integration for a strategy that includes both all communication formats, but transformational merger that the WFH and in office employees particularly for town halls. company expects to close later concentrate on what’s relevant to this year. the associate.
29 STATE OF INTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS 2021 ______
• 1) Large, multi-silo corporation • We’ve gone from having one tool • Communicating with and which faces, among other to communicate (email) to having engaging employees who are challenges, establishing synergy many tools (Teams, Yammer, working remotely.
across silos. Communication of email SPO) and our employees • Reaching all audiences — those overall company goals/objectives are not always sure where to go at computers, those in the field so employees can actively for what information. We need and those in manufacturing; time engage in bridging these gaps is one source of truth that pushes zones and translations. a significant challenge. out to the employee’s preferred • Dispersed workforce and 2) Rewards and feedback message of communication. We communicating effectively is currently secondary to still have a hard time reaching with them. Centralizing all the performance reviews in our remote workforce. communications into singular of evalulating the performance • Continuing pandemic/return to just a few platforms. of employees, which causes work covid comms. Revenue • We are looking for a centralized a problem because the latter decline — how all employees way to communicate important is weighted against fellow affect this decline to some news with employees and also employees rather than against degree but can help with specific a way for them to refer back to the business and development steps; and expressing without important comms vs searching objectives that are clarified at the degrading, creating panic, or email. beginning of each year. And we crushing morale. have a great team with a lot of • Diversity and inclusion. • Integrating employee feedback very strong performers. How do into any organizational and • The coming together of two we tell them, ”congratulations, strategic planning processes. different organisational cultures. you walk on water, but then, so does everyone else, so • Reaching employees that are • Better understanding the you’ve met expectations”? both back in the field, as well as employee experience and This communicates the wrong working from home. Continuing helping employees adjust to new message to the people who make to engage employees around ways of working permanently. us successful. D&I, when there is so much • 1) Working to establish the content and fatigue. • Competing priorities at the client new director’s vision; 2) COVID level. • Making sure everyone has recovery. learned and are correctly taught • We are actively looking at • Keeping information flowing and our new systems. upgrading or improving our be more pertinent to audiences. current intranet platform. Our • Improving very low employee • Keeping employees focused on readership has plummeted since morale through implementing executing against the strategy employees started working more bottom-to-top and evolving the intranet to its from home. So we are exploring communications strategies, next stage. new platforms and trying to rather than all top-down • Return to office after COVID-19 keep employees engaged is a communication. and new policies regarding flex very difficult task with everyone • The biggest challenge is time and remote working. working from home. for management to clearly communicate goals and status.
30 STATE OF INTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS 2021 ______
• 1) Starting to travel again. People • That there is now a new view of • Culture change to improve speed on the road interact differently how a workforce can function of execution and performance.
than sitting at a desk; 2) both in person and at home. • Returning to the office buildings Accessing the same materials at Maintaining communications post-COVID. We went 90%+ a customer site as you did when between all employees regardless remote all at once in March 2020, sitting at a desk. of location is imperative. When and the communications will • Communicating efficiently with remote employees become be critical when some or most staff who are remote and not in ghosts to those who are still employees return to on-site work. the office. in the traditional workplace, Desk assignments, in-person the divide between these two • Keeping staff connected and meeting protocols, sanitation/ groups not only hurts morale but engaged, with increase in disinfecting, how to handle productivity. Leadership must remote working and caution over physical mail (and routine desk model effective communication pandemic, it is getting everyone waste), copier/fax machines. strategies, and when they do not, involved. We need to inspire and • Moving into a new intranet making use of the lessons learned connect more. system and teaching through COVID are nullified. • Better measurement of metrics employees to utilize it for all • Getting message out in a and analytics. communications. meaningful way to a population • Not having an internal • Since I work for a large company, that is spread out geographically communications strategy/plan each department tends to work and is a 24/7 environment. only among themselves and and taking shotgun approaches • Engaging all levels of employees lacks connection with other to messaging. — including those who aren’t on departments. • How to navigate through computers regularly. • Prolonged remote working is company growth, change, and • Address questions that are for going to reshape the office restructuring. the whole company while also communication approach. • Engagement given COVID trying to keep some information communication challenges (lack • Identifying and implementing that needs to sit with the of face to face for front line a technology platform that leadership. will help us build community. employees). We are scheduling • Positive morale during the COVID Bringing together different site visits to connect with pandemic. companies and cultures and employees this year. creating a culture. • Identifying, coordinating, • Communication needs to leveraging new vehicles to reach • Conversion of content for the improve for our company’s goals, internal audiences through the limited number of employees values, direction, and how each noise of email (podcasts, other without email addresses. position is working to achieve social media...). those. • Ensuring what they are reading is • The biggest challenge is to effective. Using channels that are • Keeping employees engaged engage leadership in employee working. with relevant/compelling communications efforts. content.
31 STATE OF INTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS 2021 ______
• We need to increase employee • Constant change, and working • How to “broadcast” messages engagement and let them with Simpplr to build a new from disparate channels to know they’re part of our overall unified intranet across a de- consolidate messaging.
success. As an org that has 70% centralized global organization. • Continuing a sense of community of our employees overseas we • Defined strategy. Having with remote/ lack of face to face have a remote structure but deal a dedicated team with a meetings. with time zone issues at times. cohesive strategy, rather • 1) Cutting through the clutter — • Getting our messages to than each department doing too many emails and too much employees out in the field. their own thing without any communication on all different Working on approvals for a direction. The team will work platforms (email, Yammer, Teams, mobile app, but leaderships has with all departments on best Sharepoint, etc.); 2) Keeping been a bit unsure about it. practices, messaging, etc. And employees engaged and in the • We are in a period of transition to also handle larger firm-wide loop in a remote environment. communications. make it easier for our newly global • Our CEO is retiring, along team to communicate, and this • Converging our communication with a high number of senior means getting everyone onto the channels and get responses on managers. There is a succession same communications platforms posting information. plan in place, but employees and establishing guidelines for • Building a unified landing space are concerned. We’ll need to their use. The simple foundations (intranet) that contains a variety make sure they’re informed need to be set. of relevant materials for an and comfortable during this employee. transition.
32 ABOUT SIMPPLR ______
Simpplr is today’s modern employee intranet. Our software helps companies connect their workforce by streamlining internal communication and forging employee connections. Simpplr partners with many leading brands, including Workday, AAA, Vertex Pharmaceuticals, DocuSign, Eurostar, and Columbia University. Our customers are improving productivity, increasing employee engagement, and reducing employee turnover. More importantly, the improved internal communication is helping employees find work meaningful and fulfilling.
SIMPPLR BENEFITS:
Designed for the way you work
Ready to use in weeks, not months
Built for business users
Unified, engaging experience across mobile and the web
Powerful integrations
Secure and scalable platform See Simpplr in Action
TRUSTED BY:
CONTACT US:
Request a Demo
simpplr.com | +1.800.750.8330
© 2020 Simpplr All rights reserved. State of Internal Communications 2021
SIMPPLR RESEARCH