Internal Company Communications For Large Organizations

Every organization, large and small, needs great internal communication in order for it to function effectively. Employees need to have the information they need to do their jobs well, and should also have tools at their disposal to communicate effectively with management and their colleagues. 

If you are working in a large organization, it can be especially challenging to deliver internal communication campaigns and ensure you reach everyone. When you have hundreds, if not thousands of employees, what works well in a small business with one office location is not necessarily going to work for a multinational with offices all over the world. Looking closely at how to communicate effectively in large organizations can help you to make the necessary improvements that will deliver best practices in this space.

So how do large companies communicate internally?

Large organizations that do internal communications well will do all or most of the following:

1. Have an internal communications strategy

Trying to communicate to thousands of people without a clear strategy is like flying blind. Communication in large organizations should be guided by an internal communications strategy. You need clearly set out goals of who you are going to communicate to, when you are going to communicate, what you are going to say, how often you are going to deliver your key messages, who will deliver the communications campaign and what channels are going to be deployed to get your messages out there.

You also need to have actions that you can measure on your strategy – if you have no measurement tools in place you can’t be clear if your strategy is working.

Read more: Internal communication KPI examples

2. Rethinking internal communications tools

Large organizations are more likely to have teams with members across different offices or time zones – or even have remote workers – who need to collaborate on projects and communicate effectively in order to do so. These organizations are ensuring their people have access to project management tools. Messaging apps, better document sharing functions and encouraging more use of video conferencing.

3. Encouraging employees to send less emails

Email is one of the biggest productivity killers in the modern workplace. Around 23% cent of an employee’s time can be spent dealing with them.

But we receive so many every single day that not all of them are even opened or read. This is, of course, a disaster for internal communications – how much important information is missed as a result of digital clutter?

Some large organizations, like the French information technology company Atos, have enforced “zero internal email” policies and opted for other solutions instead. Employees in that company who were previously suffering from email overload received 64% less emails in their inboxes.

Learn how to avoid information overload in the workplace.

4. Delivering knowledge-sharing solutions

According to statistics from International Data Corp, Fortune 500 companies lose around $31.5 billion every year through a failure to share knowledge effectively.

These businesses are investing in knowledge management systems and encouraging their employees to use face-to-face communication more to share information. Sometimes you can’t beat the good old office water cooler!

5. Going digital

It might sound surprising that even in this day and age, not every business does everything on computers. Large, bureaucratic organizations can still drag the chain and insist on doing many functions using paper-based systems for a variety of reasons – from not being agile and willing to change, or because they think if it isn’t broken why fix it and sink money into new tech systems.

If your important company information for employees is paper-based – such as policies, procedures and handbooks – it’s not as easy to find and share as it would be if you adopted digital solutions.

Recent research from McKinsey found that many long-established companies lose as much as half their annual revenue and one-third of their earnings growth to competitors who embrace digital technology.

6. Embracing enterprise social networks

Linking in with using less emails, going digital and sharing and collaborating with peers has been the rise of corporate social networking platforms. These work just like traditional social media, but are used so employees within an organization can share information with colleagues. Tools include Facebook Workplace, Yammer, Slack and SharePoint news feed.

7. Integrating internal and external communications branding and storytelling

Savvy organizations ensure they keep the same look and feel whether they are talking to employees or communicating with external stakeholders – all communication, whether internally or externally, is part of your organization’s story.

Employees, of course, should always hear big news first before it is released to the general public. It can be quite demoralizing to hear about something important second-hand or through the media.

Read more about internal branding.

8. Using video more effectively

Video conferencing is a better option than emails or traveling to meetings over vast distances, - which can be a frequent method of communication in big companies.  Video content can also be used to deliver internal communications campaigns.

Hosting webinars, for example, where employees can all attend and hear the same information from the same person at the same time is a brilliant way to ensure consistency in messaging and information sharing across the organization.

Using video to record events and make them accessible is another way to improve information sharing. The world’s largest hedge fund, Bridgewater Associates, records every meeting that’s held and makes it available to all employees. Not only is this a great internal communications tool, but it can be used as a learning and development tool and it keeps meetings more transparent and accountable.

More information on the topic: Importance of sharing information in a team.

9 . Don’t be afraid to innovate

If traditional communication methods just aren’t cutting through, it’s important to think outside the box and try something new. Companies with great internal communications are often looking for and investing in new internal communication solutions to stay agile and ensure that their employees know about important issues.

Companies House is a British government organization that handles business registration across the whole United Kingdom. The organization needed a reliable way of delivering information to staff based in four regional offices. They invested in DeskAlerts, a powerful software solution that delivers internal communications to employees via pop-up notifications on their computer screens, bypassing traditional information channels such as email.

Alun Gerard from Companies House said that “DeskAlerts has certainly improved communications across the whole organization. Prior to using DeskAlerts it was difficult to ensure information was delivered to all staff working in satellite offices.”

DeskAlerts also has a range of tools and features that lets large companies contact their employees no matter where they are or what they are doing. Messages can be sent to different audiences in different time zones and can be scheduled in advance. In addition to the pop-up notifications, you can communicate with employees using features like desktop tickers, corporate wallpaper, corporate screensavers, digital signage and via a mobile app.

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If you are wondering how do large companies communicate with their employees and are looking for ways to overhaul your own internal communications, get in touch with our team of experts today to find out how DeskAlerts can assist.

FAQs

How to companies communicate internally?

Within companies, there are several different types of internal communication. These are:

• Management communicating to employees from the top down about important priorities, strategies, results, policies, procedures and other important company news and initiatives.
• Team members communicating with one another to achieve organizational goals.
• Face-to-face communication where people attend meetings, briefings, one-on-one conversations etc.
• Informal chats between team members to share information and get to know one another better.
• Using tools and resources such as an intranet, email, collaboration platforms, pop-ups, surveys, instant messenger, etc.
  

How do large companies communicate?

Large companies need to have effective communication strategies in place in order to break down internal information silos and share information across the organization. This involves using internal communication methods and appropriate tools to ensure that every employee who needs to know about something is sent the relevant information.

What are internal communication strategies?

An internal communications strategy is a document that defines a company’s goals about how it will communicate with employees and the associated plans that will be put in place in order to achieve these goals. 

What are examples of internal communication?

Internal communication is the action of sharing information within a company to help achieve its goals and objectives.  

Examples include:

• Knowledge management tools and other ways of sharing knowledge
• Video and audio files
• Intranet content including articles, blog posts and newsfeed items
• Corporate events such as townhalls, workshops and meetings designed to communicate information
• Telling stories
• Building a strong internal culture that is focused on information sharing and collaboration
• Visual communication elements such as graphics
• Internal marketing campaigns and branding
• Training and development
• Messaging applications
• Employee apps
• Meetings.