Internal communication is important in every organization, large and small. Sharing information, news, advice, directives and celebrating success and achievements help to form a cohesive team environment where everyone is working together towards the same common goal.
There are many different tools and channels for communicating internally. One of the most popular methods is an internal newsletter, which can help to break down internal information “silos” and let everyone across the company find out what’s happening in other areas.
Table of contents
What Is an Employee Newsletter?
Why Employee Newsletters Are so Important
How to Create an Employee Newsletter
What Should Be in An Employee Newsletter?
Company Monthly Newsletter Ideas to Boost Readership
Employee Newsletter Templates and Examples
HR Internal Weekly Newsletter Ideas
An employment news letter is a regular publication distributed within an organization to inform, engage, and connect employees. Typically delivered via email, intranet, or in print, it serves as a vital communication tool for disseminating company news, updates, achievements, and upcoming events.
The primary goal of an employee newsletter is to foster a sense of belonging, keep employees informed about the organization's activities, and promote internal communication and cohesion among team members.
There are many reasons why it is important to have a company newsletter:
Whether you’re starting an internal newsletter from scratch, or you have one you want to give a makeover, there are some internal newsletter best practices you should be including in the one in your company.
The basic principles of any good communications apply to creating an internal newsletter: all articles for the employee newsletter must be timely, engaging, well-written, clear, concise, and be relevant to the readership. Your newsletter should also be visually appealing and well-designed. Include photos and graphics, and don’t be afraid to adopt a less formal tone of writing where appropriate.
The content of a team newsletter can vary widely, covering topics such as company announcements, employee spotlights, industry trends, upcoming projects, training opportunities, and organizational changes. Additionally, it may include articles on workplace culture, wellness initiatives, and tips for professional development.
Employees want to read about interesting topics, share ideas about issues affecting the company, find out what work their colleagues are doing and be kept in the loop about important company news.
Getting the right mix of content can ensure you have an engaging newsletter that employees look forward to reading whenever it arrives in their inboxes. If it seems daunting to come up with great content ideas, we’ve got suggestions for the best newsletter ideas for workplaces.
Consider adding these monthly company newsletter ideas to the mix:
This is a place where your CEO can share important news about the organization to employees, including milestones, new policies, new products or projects, and other significant announcements.
In many organizations, particularly large ones, employees don’t get a chance to interact one-on-one with their CEO very often, and sometimes not at all. Giving your CEO a platform in the employee newsletter is a great way for employees to connect with the CEO.
This can be a regular feature of your company newsletter content – or it might be semi-regular. Writing a regular column for the CEO shouldn’t become a millstone for the communications team. If there’s nothing of note for the CEO to say, don’t write a column just for the sake of it. It will only diminish the impact of the CEO having a section in the newsletter and employees may tune out to the more important messages.
This is a great way for employees to “put a name to a face”. They may pass a particular colleague in the halls or the lunchroom but not know who they are. Or in large organizations across different geographic regions, they may talk to a colleague on the phone or Skype them but not really know them beyond that.
How your profile an employee is up to you. You could ask them about their current work, professional achievements and career/employment history. Or you could make it more personal and focus on who they are and what they do when they’re not at work.
Regardless of the industry, your organization operates in, there will always be things happening in the industry that will affect you or affect your competitors. Your internal newsletter is a great place to share industry news such as regulatory changes, compliance challenges, innovation, and other issues.
Break down silos by writing articles that feature specific work teams within the organization, explaining to colleagues in other areas who they are, what work they do, what their current projects or focus are and what services and/or expertise they have to offer if people in other parts of the company need it.
This is a way to be creative and engage employees. A list of the top 10 greatest anything can include tips for work-related activities or even the top 10 places to get coffee around the neighborhood the head office is located in, or top 10 places to get lunch, top 10 cafes that are good for a business meeting with clients and so on.
Newspapers, magazines, and online publications often run op-eds – opinion editorials – where someone opines on a subject they are familiar with. Your senior managers and technical experts will most definitely have opinions on issues and topics facing your company and industry. Invite them to contribute an opinion piece on a topic of interest for your internal newsletter, or help them to write it.
Whatever industry you’re in, whether its healthcare, tech, manufacturing, legal, you will most likely have customers or other stakeholders who rely on your organization.
You can showcase case studies about how your organization has helped other organizations or individuals to solve specific problems. This helps to show your employees that the work the organization does is meaningful and is possibly one of the most useful employee newsletter topics to illustrate your work.
With an online newsletter, it’s easy to include a regular online survey or poll for employees to fill in on any topic of interest and then publish the results in the next newsletter.
When employees have the opportunity to undertake learning and professional development activities in the course of their employment, it’s great for their personal growth, but it can also be an opportunity for the organization at large.
Encourage those employees who have participated in these activities to share what they learned with their colleagues to foster a culture of knowledge exchange.
The communications team will always be familiar with any recent media coverage featuring the organization. But most employees won’t necessarily have read or seen any articles or TV coverage. You can have a regular section outlining your recent media successes and include links to online articles and video stories.
The newsletter is a great place to give advance notice of upcoming corporate events so that you can get them into peoples’ diaries and boost attendance. You could create a “what’s on” calendar to inform people what’s planned over the coming months so that they don’t schedule any conflicts.
Whether it’s sharing information about your corporate health and wellbeing programs, tools and other resources or providing advice to employees about how to remain healthy and active at work, the newsletter is a great place to share this information.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, it has been important for organizations to share this information with their employees in as many ways as possible to help people understand hygiene and safety protocols, access mental health and wellbeing programs while working remotely, vaccine information and more.
An internal newsletter should be people-centric. A great way to do this is to include photographs of your employees… think of it as like the social pages from a newspaper. Take pictures of employees at social events, training activities, launches and other initiatives, or even just include photos of them “in action” doing their work. This is a great way to reinforce your corporate culture in a visual way.
Employee feedback initiatives, such as surveys and suggestion boxes play an important role in fostering engagement and improvement. In the newsletter, introduce these efforts, share insights gleaned, highlight actions taken based on feedback, and encourage ongoing participation.
A customer spotlight showcases satisfied clients or their success stories and can feature interviews or testimonials from these customers, highlighting how the company has met their needs or exceeded expectations.
Incorporate product updates in the employee newsletter by announcing new releases or features, highlighting customer success stories, providing tips for using the product effectively, and inviting feedback or suggestions for future enhancements.
Spotlight training program highlights by featuring success stories, participant testimonials, and key takeaways. Highlight the program's impact on employee development, share upcoming training opportunities, and encourage participation.
Provide practical advice on workplace hazards, emergency procedures, and best practices for accident prevention. Share relevant regulations, highlight safety success stories and encourage employees to prioritize safety in their daily tasks in your organization newsletter, promoting a culture of well-being and accountability.
Offer advice on software usage, troubleshooting common issues, and optimizing productivity with digital tools. Share useful shortcuts, introduce new technologies, and invite employees to contribute their own tips, fostering digital literacy and efficiency across the organization.
Innovation spotlights showcase creative solutions, projects, or product developments within the company. In the corporate newsletter, feature these innovations with descriptions, success metrics, and testimonials.
Celebrate diversity by sharing stories, interviews, and events that highlight diverse perspectives and experiences within the company. Emphasize inclusivity initiatives, employee resource groups, and diversity training programs.
Offer remote work tips by providing strategies for effective communication, time management, and maintaining work-life balance. Share technology recommendations, wellness resources, and remote collaboration tools. Address common challenges and encourage employees to share their own experiences and best practices, fostering a productive remote work environment.
Employee anniversaries celebrate loyalty, dedication, and contributions to the company. Recognizing milestones fosters a sense of appreciation, strengthens employee morale, and enhances retention. It acknowledges individual achievements while reinforcing the company's commitment to valuing and investing in its workforce.
Highlighting employee achievements outside of work in the staff newsletter acknowledges their diverse talents, passions, and contributions beyond the workplace. It fosters a supportive company culture, strengthens employee connections, and reinforces the importance of work-life balance and personal growth.
Featuring new hires in the staff newsletter introduces them to the team, fosters a welcoming environment, and encourages collaboration. It demonstrates the company's growth and investment in its talent pool.
Company culture highlights showcase the values, traditions, and unique aspects of the workplace environment. In the newsletter, feature employee stories, team achievements, and events that exemplify the company culture. Share photos, anecdotes, and testimonials to foster pride, engagement, and a sense of belonging among employees.
Incorporate employee discounts and perks in the staff newsletter to showcase the benefits of working for the company. Highlight exclusive offers, savings opportunities, and wellness programs available to employees, fostering satisfaction, loyalty, and a positive workplace culture.
Employee volunteer opportunities are chances for staff to engage in community service or charitable activities. Include these in the staff newsletter by announcing upcoming events, sharing stories of past volunteer experiences, and providing information on how employees can get involved, fostering a culture of giving back and social responsibility.
Feature customer feedback in the staff newsletter to showcase client satisfaction, highlight areas of improvement, and recognize exceptional service. Share testimonials, success stories, and insights gained from feedback surveys, reinforcing the importance of customer-centricity and continuous improvement within the organization.
Incorporate inspirational quotes and stories in the staff newsletter to uplift and motivate employees. Share anecdotes of perseverance, success, and personal growth to foster positivity, resilience, and a sense of camaraderie within the workplace community.
Want more internal newsletter ideas? Read this article.
Using staff newsletter templates helps to streamline the creation process, ensuring consistency, professionalism, and efficiency. Templates provide a structured framework for organizing content, saving time for the newsletter creator and ensuring that important information is consistently communicated to employees in a visually appealing manner.
This is an example of a newsletter template format you can use in your organization:
CEO Message:
Employee Spotlight:
Company News:
Department Newsletter Updates:
Training and Development:
Employee Recognition:
Upcoming Events:
Health and Wellness Tips:
Employee Feedback:
Closing Message:
Once you’ve decided on your good newsletter topics and written your content, you need to evaluate the delivery method. If you have been struggling with open rates on your employee newsletters, it might be time to rethink sending them by email. One of the major reasons newsletters don’t get read is that they are often lost in overcrowded inboxes.
With DeskAlerts you can create employee newsletters directly from within the system and they will be sent directly to employees’ computers or mobile phones as alert notifications. You can still send via email or even broadcast by SMS notifications if you’d like to do that as well.
You can also create your own newsletter templates within the system to ensure you have consistency.
DeskAlerts is an intrusive internal communications tool, and to that end, you can be sure your newsletters will be seen by ensuring the settings are checked to continue to remind the staff member that there is a new newsletter to read, which will continue to appear on their screens until they have read it. You can also insist on a reading acknowledgment.
DeskAlerts’ powerful statistics module will let you know who has seen the newsletter and who hasn’t – right down to the device that they accessed it from.
Learn more about DeaskAlerts for internal communications.
Internal HR newsletters play a crucial role in keeping employees informed about HR policies, benefits, and initiatives while fostering a positive workplace culture. Here are some company weekly newsletter ideas:
By incorporating these ideas into HR internal newsletters, organizations can effectively communicate important information, promote employee engagement, and contribute to a positive and supportive workplace environment.
A good company newsletter topic can vary depending on the organization's goals, culture, and audience. However, topics such as company updates, employee spotlights, industry trends, professional development tips, and community involvement are often well-received by employees and contribute to a positive workplace culture.
A company-wide newsletter should include updates on company news, achievements, employee spotlights, upcoming events, relevant industry insights, and opportunities for professional development or engagement.
Corporate newsletter examples typically include updates on company news, product or service announcements, industry insights, customer testimonials, employee highlights, upcoming events, and valuable resources or tips relevant to the audience's interests or needs.
A leadership newsletter is one of the most common examples of company newsletters.. It may include insights from executives, industry trends, strategic initiatives, and leadership development opportunities. It could feature interviews with top leaders, case studies on successful leadership practices, tips for effective management, and updates on organizational goals and achievements, fostering a culture of transparency and inspiration.
The first page of a newsletter should typically feature the newsletter title, date, company logo, and a brief introduction or welcome message to engage readers and set the tone for the content.
Employee newsletter samples might include messages like: "Welcome to our latest newsletter! In this issue, we're excited to share updates on recent company achievements, upcoming events, employee spotlights, and valuable resources to support your success. Happy reading!"
This article was originally published in 2019, but updated in 2024 with more information.
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