Each week in this newsletter I tackle a question from a reader. This week's question comes from a Head of Internal Communications at a large company in Australia. She writes:
“I am hearing feedback from around the company that suggests our communication channels aren’t working as well as they should. There are comments like ‘no one told us about that’ related to important updates that we sent out several times, much to our frustration! I suspect our channels are a bit of a problem. Any advice?”
This is a great topic. Let's talk about it.
Because every communicator, at one time or another, has sent an important update multiple times, through multiple channels and yet somehow people still say they never heard about it and start complaining. Sound familiar to you? I know it's definitely happened to me.
Now the reflexive, reactive fix can sometimes look like this: Work harder. Create more content. Use more channels. Send more updates. Put in longer hours.
See the theme? Add more, do more, send more, work more.
But is this going to fix the problem? Probably not, because you're reacting quickly to the complaints without understanding what the problem actually is.
If you take some time to pause and do a mini-audit of your communication channels then you may uncover issues like:
1. Your channels aren’t reaching everyone they should. Maybe you think your frontline workers are getting your updates and messages but they're actually not, and you've been operating on flawed assumptions about their channel access or how they work.
2. Your messages are getting lost in the noise. Maybe every channel is used for everything, so that means that no messages stand out as important. Urgent updates get buried under routine announcements and employees don't know what to pay attention to.
3. Your channel mix might not match how people actually work. Perhaps you’re relying heavily on email when your employees spend most of their time in Teams. Or posting important updates on the intranet when people rarely use it. This can be very common if you've inherited a channel stack from a colleague and you're operating on what they've done before.
4. Your content might be in the right place at the wrong time. Maybe you've got the perfect message and the perfect channel, but if it arrives when people are too busy to engage then it might as well not exist. For example if you're sending out important news during the last couple of days of the quarter then you should know that your sales team are laser focused on hitting their quarterly targets and are not going to pay attention to anything else in those few days.
Understanding what's driving the complaints of "no one told us about that" will help you to fix the actual problem rather than just create a larger volume of communications in response.
Are you the next member of The Curious Tribe?
Building a career in internal comms is bloody hard.
You’ve likely spent hours painstakingly creating content, managing channels, organising events, influencing leaders, putting out endless fires. Maybe you’ve tried to prove the value of your work and stop being more reactive and yet you're still viewed as the internal postal service. Being stuck as a tactical order-taker is disheartening.
It’s not your fault though. Your workload is immense and you haven't been focused on your own development and skills... yet.
That’s why I’ve built The Curious Tribe, for people like you. The Curious Tribe is my membership community for curious, ambitious communicators who want to make more impact at work and operate more strategically - while having fun at the same time.
Are you the next member of The Curious Tribe?
(PS Use this letter to get your boss to cover your membership fee.)
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If any of these feel familiar to you or you have a nagging feeling your channels aren't as effective as you would like, here's a simple exercise you can do today with zero budget and very low effort:
Go and ask 5 employees from different teams where they usually get their company information from. Are they relying on their manager to tell them important news? Are they staying updated through the front page of the intranet? Maybe they rely on the office grapevine to hear about news. Their answers might surprise you and can help you understand how information is actually travelling around the organisation - and what you need to do to influence that for the better.
I hear about issues with channels a lot from my clients. And it seems that most communication professionals know they need to review their channels properly, but they put it off because they don’t know where to start or they think they need to a hire a consultant for major €€€. Reviewing your channels can feel overwhelming, especially if you've never done it before.
The key is having a systematic way to understand your channels as they are now, understand what's working and what's not and find evidence-based opportunities for improvement. If you’re looking for a DIY approach to auditing your channels and content, I have something coming soon that will help you.
Thanks for reading and stay curious,
Joanna
Find me on YouTube, TikTok, LinkedIn and check out my book
Want to work together?
- Join The Curious Tribe. This is my membership community for ambitious, curious communicators who want to achieve more in their roles and have fun at the same time. Membership allows you to work directly with me for 12 months, make deep connections with other communication pros who 'get it' and improve your skills through training and learning. More info here.
- Take a shortcut. I've developed a collection of tried-and-tested templates, checklists and how-to guides for the key processes you'll need in your role as an internal communicator. You can download my Internal Comms Cheat Sheets here.