7 Real-World Internal Communication Examples That Drive Engagement

Sixty percent of companies don’t have a long-term internal communication strategy in place according to Gallagher’s research, while 50% say they want to make improving leadership communication a top priority. Additionally, 85% of employees are unengaged, highlighting the critical need for effective internal communication strategies.

Failing to have a well-planned internal communication plan and effective communications can have serious repercussions. It will lead to poor morale amongst workers, high employee turnover, and lower productivity levels in teams, all of which will have a negative impact on a business’s overall success rate. Moreover, the financial toll of employee churn can be substantial, with costs for replacing an employee being as high as 3X their salary.

Internal Communication Example: A Definition and Guide

Internal communication refers to the exchange of information within an organization, encompassing various channels, tools, and strategies to facilitate effective communication among employees, management, and stakeholders. It involves the sharing of knowledge, ideas, and feedback to achieve organizational goals, align employees with the company's vision, foster collaboration, and promote a positive work environment. Effective communication within a company ensures that everyone is on the same page, working towards the same objectives, and able to contribute their best efforts. Employees whose voices are heard are 4.6 times more likely to perform at their best, underscoring the importance of robust internal communication.

What is Internal Communication?

Internal communication refers to the exchange of information within an organization, encompassing interactions between employees, teams, and management. It involves the sharing of ideas, goals, values, and the company’s vision to ensure everyone is aligned and working towards common objectives. Effective internal communication is crucial for building trust, fostering collaboration, and driving business success. When communication flows seamlessly within an organization, it creates a cohesive environment where everyone is informed, engaged, and motivated to contribute their best efforts.

Types of Internal Communication

There are various types of internal communication, each serving a unique purpose within an organization:

1. Formal Communication: This includes official announcements, company-wide emails, and policy updates. These communications are structured and often documented to ensure clarity and consistency.
2. Informal Communication: These are casual interactions such as watercooler conversations, team meetings, and social media groups. Informal communication helps build relationships and a sense of community among employees.
3. Upward Communication: This involves feedback from employees to management, including suggestions, concerns, and performance reports. It empowers employees to voice their opinions and contribute to decision-making processes.
4. Downward Communication: Information flows from management to employees, including goals, expectations, and directives. This type of communication ensures that everyone understands their roles and responsibilities.
5. Lateral Communication: This is the collaboration between teams, departments, and colleagues at the same organizational level. It promotes teamwork and the sharing of knowledge and resources.

Importance of Internal Communication in Organizations

Effective communications are crucial for organizations to succeed in today’s fast-paced business landscape. It helps to build trust, boost employee engagement, and promote a sense of belonging among employees. By keeping employees informed and involved, organizations can improve productivity, reduce turnover, and enhance overall performance. When employees feel connected to the company’s vision and goals, they are more likely to be motivated and committed to their work, leading to a more cohesive and productive workforce. Companies with higher employee engagement outperform their peers, making internal communication a key driver of success.

Characteristics of Great Internal Communications

Great internal communications possess several key characteristics that make them effective:

1. Clear and Concise Messaging: Information is presented in a straightforward manner, avoiding jargon and ambiguity.
2. Regular Updates and Feedback: Consistent communication keeps employees informed and allows for ongoing feedback.
3. Open and Transparent Communication Channels: Employees have access to information and can communicate freely with management and peers.
4. Inclusive and Diverse Language: Communication respects and reflects the diversity of the workforce.
5. Engaging and Interactive Content: Content is designed to capture attention and encourage participation.
6. Alignment with Company Vision and Goals: Messages are consistent with the organization’s mission and objectives.
7. Empathy and Understanding of Employee Needs: Communication considers the perspectives and needs of employees, fostering a supportive environment.

Benefits of Effective Internal Communication

The benefits of effective employee communications are numerous, including:

• Improved employee engagement and motivation: When employees are well-informed and feel heard, their engagement and motivation levels increase.
• Enhanced collaboration and teamwork: Clear communication fosters better teamwork and collaboration across departments.
• Employee belonging and wellbeing: Open and honest communication helps create a bond of belonging for employees and a stronger connection to the company. Research shows belonging is the biggest influencer of employee wellbeing.
• Increased productivity and efficiency: Efficient communication channels reduce misunderstandings and streamline workflows.
• Better decision-making and problem-solving: Access to accurate information enables better decision-making and quicker problem resolution.
• Reduced turnover and improved employee retention: Engaged and satisfied employees are less likely to leave the organization.
• Improved customer satisfaction and loyalty: Happy employees often lead to happy customers, enhancing customer satisfaction and loyalty.
• Enhanced reputation and brand image: Effective internal communication contributes to a positive organizational culture, which can enhance the company’s reputation and brand image.

To avoid this, and to reap the benefits of strong employee relations, it is essential to have a well-planned strategy in place that will ensure open communications.

Employee Motivation and Engagement

Effective internal communication plays a significant role in motivating and engaging employees. When employees feel informed, valued, and heard, they are more likely to be motivated and committed to the organization. Internal communication can:

1. Recognize and Reward Employee Achievements: Celebrating successes boosts morale and encourages continued effort.
2. Provide Opportunities for Growth and Development: Sharing information about training and career advancement keeps employees motivated.
3. Foster a Sense of Community and Belonging: Open communication helps build a supportive and inclusive workplace culture.
4. Encourage Open Feedback and Suggestions: Employees feel valued when their opinions are solicited and considered.
5. Align Employees with Company Goals and Vision: Clear communication of the company’s vision and goals ensures everyone is working towards the same objectives.

Improved Productivity and Efficiency

Great internal communications can also improve productivity and efficiency by:

1. Reducing Misunderstandings and Miscommunications: Clear communication minimizes errors and confusion.
2. Streamlining Processes and Workflows: Effective communication channels ensure that information flows smoothly, optimizing operations.
3. Enhancing Collaboration and Teamwork: Open communication fosters a collaborative environment where teams can work together effectively.
4. Providing Timely and Relevant Information: Employees have access to the information they need when they need it, enabling them to perform their tasks efficiently.
5. Encouraging Innovation and Creativity: A culture of open communication encourages employees to share ideas and innovate.

By implementing effective internal communication strategies, organizations can reap numerous benefits, including increased employee engagement, improved productivity, and enhanced business success. Organizations must ensure that all employees receive important information to avoid feelings of being left in the dark, which can hinder engagement and performance.

7 Best Internal Communication Examples: Companies Getting Comms Right

There are numerous ways in which companies can reach out to their employees through various internal communication channels, but some of the following internal communications ideas are the most successful, tried, and tested approaches that have been beneficial in helping businesses significantly improve employee engagement through good internal communication.

1. London Borough of Tower Hamlets

Empowering Change with a People-First Transformation

Driving organizational change requires internal communications that are not only clear but also deeply aligned with employee needs. The London Borough of Tower Hamlets, a local authority in East London, embarked on a comprehensive internal transformation project with the goal of putting people first—both employees and residents.

To achieve this, the council utilized Poppulo to streamline communications during a period of cultural and operational change. This helped ensure transparency, build trust, and promote staff engagement at every stage of the transformation.

Tower Hamlets successfully leveraged internal communications to:

• Establish a sense of shared purpose across departments.
• Engage staff through consistent messaging and real-time updates.
• Embed a new organizational culture focused on empathy and collaboration.
• Build employee confidence in leadership by delivering open and regular communication.

As a result, the council was able to sustain momentum throughout the transformation and improve employee sentiment across the organization.

2. Valley Health

Launching an internal mobile app as internal communication tools

Launching an internal mobile app is a great internal communications example that is both relevant to today’s workers and effective in its reach. It’s been well documented that mobile has become the preferred communications channel for a large proportion of today’s workers, including frontline workers. This is why launching an internal app for staff is an excellent way to increase employee engagement.

Towards the end of 2019, Valley Health, a not-for-profit health system of hospitals, urgent cares, and physician practices, successfully launched an internal mobile app to keep frontline and back-office employees informed, engaged, and connected.

Since the launch of the app, Valley Health Employees benefit from:

• Easy access to information via mobile.
• Security that provides peace of mind: Due to the app’s security measures, employees don’t have to worry about vulnerabilities or risks.
• Seamless integration with existing internal communications: The app is built with Poppulo, which is also the internal communications platform Valley Health uses. Keeping everything in one platform streamlines the communications flow.
• The connection of employee groups during the COVID-19 pandemic: The mobile app was beneficial during Valley Health’s response to COVID-19 by keeping workers updated and informed throughout the uncertainty.

3. National Grid

Creating a Better Employee Experience and Delivering Business Value

At National Grid, one of the world’s largest investor-owned utility companies, the internal communications team faced the challenge of aligning a dispersed workforce with the company’s evolving strategy. They knew that the key to delivering business value was through improving the employee experience—and communication was the foundation of that goal.

The team implemented a structured internal communications framework using Poppulo, allowing them to deliver more targeted, relevant, and measurable communications.

With this approach, National Grid achieved:

• Higher engagement through personalized communications based on role and location.
• Improved consistency in leadership messaging with scheduled and well-planned content.
• Data-driven insights that allowed ongoing optimization of communication strategies.
• Stronger employee alignment with corporate values and business goals.

Ultimately, internal communications helped National Grid unite its workforce around a shared vision while also demonstrating real business impact.

4. Encompass Health

Conducting Campaign Outcome Surveys

When it comes to an internal communication strategy, measuring how well employees are responding to the plan is an essential component of a successful internal communication strategy. This helps employers understand whether or not their chosen communication tactics are succeeding. Encompass Health, a patient care company, decided to focus their attention on this area by introducing Campaign Outcome Surveys as a way to monitor how efficiently employees are being kept up to date with company goals.

The organization was able to take a baseline of employee sentiment before running any messaging by sending out a survey to random employees. By re-running the outcome survey post-campaign, they could clearly see how the information gathered in their original survey and then implemented in their communication with staff, had helped to improve employee understanding across the company.

5. E.ON’s

Improving Event Management

Attempting to plan events without the right tools and great internal communication can be a challenging task for any business. This was exactly how the events management team at E.ON, one of the UK’s leading power and gas companies, felt before finding the solution with Poppulo Events. By using this feature, E.ON’s event invitations are now fully branded with images and videos included in the invite themselves.

This has helped to engage employees and boost attendance. The team can now also easily track registration and record those that show up, in addition to capturing special requests from guests, such as dietary requirements or travel arrangements.

6. ERM

Focusing on Analytics

In order to effectively analyze a communication plan’s efficiency and ensure effective internal communications, it is important for organizations to have access to metrics that give them accurate and meaningful insight across the organization’s digital channels. This is why ERM, a consultancy that offers end-to-end services across the sustainability spectrum, decided to implement advanced analytics. This way, they could receive real-time detailed reporting across their internal digital channels. ERM now benefit from:

• The ability to manage active campaigns - because engagement is now being monitored in real-time throughout campaigns, ERM can have informed conversations with business leaders, focus on areas where engagement is lower, and make changes mid-campaign.
• Downloadable dashboards - Well-packaged measurement dashboards to download and use in presentations.
• Tailored reporting- Rather than producing one report, ERM can now tailor presentations to specific audiences, e.g. senior stakeholders, team leaders.
• The elevation of IC to a strategic role – The internal communications team now has a strategic role to play within the organization and is considered a valuable business asset. 7. Wentworth Institute of Technology

7. Wentworth Institute of Technology

Having a Crisis Plan in Place

Before a crisis ever hits, it’s imperative to ensure that a communications infrastructure is already in place to prevent further issues from arising and to ensure successful change management. A great example of this is the manner in which Wentworth Institute of Technology was able to successfully handle the coronavirus outbreak by quickly and effectively reaching all students, faculty, and administrative staff to inform them the University was going to be switching to a remote learning environment.

Fortunately for Wentworth, who had already been using Poppulo’s platform prior to the outbreak, audiences were familiar with receiving messages in this manner. Users trusted the platform as a single source of truth for COVID-19 information. Having the system in place allowed the comms team to move quickly, delivering effective messages, and keeping audiences informed and reassured throughout the uncertainty.

Key Result

It’s clear that implementing a strong internal communication plan is an important process that has many benefits for businesses. With a strategy in place, companies have the ability to understand whether or not workers are engaging with their communication methods, if the tactics used are having an effect on employee sentiment, and if they align with the company’s vision, providing a way to gain meaningful business value by examining key communication data.