.

Not-so-fun fact: Employees who work remotely have higher attrition risk than those who work from the office.

In a time when most of us have struggled with feelings of isolation and disconnection, the engagement of meaningful and rewarding work is as vital as ever.

Communication professionals are faced with the daunting task of successfully aligning workforces with the strategic mission and objectives of their organization. Suffice to say while managing costs. These priorities are often competing, yet they don't have to be.

Does your work sometimes feel like this?

Isn't the overall goal of Internal Communication to turn strategy into action?

Whenever I ask organizations how they communicate with and get their message across to their entire workforce - including their non-desk workforce that performs their work on-the-go - I often hear, “Oh, internal communication with our mobile workforce? We have it covered. Everyone is on WhatsApp.”

This makes me very concerned and uneasy. 

Have you ever asked yourself the question, "What could be so wrong with using a consumer tool for internal corporate communications?"

While the end of the Covid-19 may not be in sight and the full extent of its impact remains unclear, leaders must embrace this time as one that will help them be better prepared for future hardships.

Are people really your "most important asset"?

Then would it be fair to say that you should focus on the physical safety of your people first, the mental health of your people second and then worry about collateral damage and the P&L next.

If I were to head a large company, I would pay my Head of Internal Communications more than my Head of External Communications.

Why?

Because I know that if this company is really to change, and to persuade the outside world it has changed, it has to change on the inside first.

Internal Communication is here to enable change and execution of the strategy.

We all know the basic ingredients for high employee engagement:

A meaningful purpose, recognition, open communication, involvement, personal growth and some autonomy in performing our work.

But all of these don’t work if the basic ingredient is missing:

"The more you know, the more you think you don’t. The more you don’t know, the more you think you do." - inspired by Aristotle and Albert Einstein 

As a leader you need feedback from your team to succeed.

Collecting employee feedback regularly and frequently through employee surveys is an essential part of assessing internal communication strategies, operational efficiencies, and improving workplace culture.

Companies are now turning to employee surveys to gain organizational insights they can take immediate action on. Best of all, there are now ways to collect the feedback you need to make concrete improvements in real-time.

Connecting people in the workplace and helping teams work together more efficiently is at the core of our mission. When Beekeeper first set out seven years ago, we were determined to digitalize traditional top-down communication channels.

We wanted to make information easily accessible to everyone, regardless of their location. In many cases, Beekeeper also enabled employees to give direct feedback to company management for the very first time.

Over time, it became clear that top-down communication channels like bulletin boards and newsletters are only the tip of the communication pyramid. For operational communication that’s truly transformative, information must also flow from the bottom-up, across departments, between functions, and diagonally into different teams.

Employee experience (EX) is our journey within the workplace. It must include the entire organizational journey; starting from the application process and continuing after being separated. This includes recruitment, on-boarding, our role within the organization, how well we understand the goals of the business, how the company rewards us and how it develops us to be the best that we possibly can be.

Is it optional?

Certainly not. We will have an experience anyway. Whether it is a good one that we enjoy for many years or a bad one we want to quit quickly will make or break a business in the long run.

How?