Internal communication is considered as the soul of the business, so the use of a communication plan for the business brings great and practical values. So the construction steps internal communication plan how. How to run the business to achieve the highest efficiency? What are the key benefits of building a media plan?
6 steps to build an internal communication strategy
How can I build an effective communication plan that is suitable to the goals and situation of the business? Share the following steps with CoffeeHR:
- The policy of internal communication (communication policy)
- Assessing the situation
- Define target audience
- Define goals and messages
- Define strategy
- Define action plan
Here are the steps to build internal communication in detail:
The policy of internal communication (communication policy)
To internal corporate communication To be effective, it is necessary to understand the following basic policy principles:
- Provide all necessary information of the business to employees about communication content, plans, purposes and objectives.
- Provide important information about the company's outstanding activities, events, or achievements.
- Encourage employees to provide feedback to build a stronger organization. Constantly motivating and promoting the creativity and development of employees.
- Take a positive, tactful approach to controversial, sensitive or negative issues
- Honest, two-way, regular communication between managers and employees in the enterprise.
- Important issues and content of the company's work must be communicated quickly and promptly to all employees, absolutely not allowing employees to receive information from other communication channels.
- Building a corporate culture that encourages creative thinking, invention and initiative.
- There should be timely reward policies from management levels for the progress and good achievements of employees.
>>> See more: Internal communications what? 4 Core role of internal communication
Assessing the situation
To solve a problem you need to know what it is at its core. Therefore, a detailed situation assessment will be an important basis for you to develop your next goals and strategies. Even if your business has not conducted any internal communication activities, you need to assess how it is causing problems in the business.
The following criteria need to be comprehensively reviewed to complete the initial construction internal communication plan:
- Evaluate the situation of your business (business situation, personnel, forecast changes, departments, ...)
- Internal communication activities have been implemented by your business.
- How effective is internal communication within your business right now?
Define target audience
Knowing what information the business needs to give and to whom is extremely important before discussing internal communication plan. However, in a few key moments such as an imminent change in personnel, special attention should be paid to those directly affected by the change. Answer the questions below to identify them. The right audience for internal communication:
- In your business, who needs to know the information? What do they need to know?
- Who has the closest relationship with the personnel in the enterprise?
- Is one person enough to effectively connect your entire staff?
Define goals and messages
This is the core point of the version internal communication plan. In order for the goal setting to really work as desired, you need to follow the principle SMART: Specific goals – Measurable goals – Attainable goals (A) – Realistic goals (Relevant) – Goals with a specific deadline (Timebound)
The key to this step is the answers to the questions:
- What are the key goals of the business (especially HR goals)?
- To achieve this goal, what do your employees need to understand? What beliefs do employees need? What actions should employees take?
- The message of internal communication is the result of the message that the business wants to convey and the information needs of its employees
>>> Explore more: 51 Core values of the business leading corporations
Define strategy
Strategies are the methods and approaches that you will use to achieve your ultimate goal. Sometimes there is confusion between strategy and action plan, but looking at it from a strategic perspective will limit omissions.
In version internal communication plan, please clarify the following aspects:
- Employee recognition form
- Internal training roadmap for employees
- Advancement route
- Transparency of information between the Board of Directors and employees
- Enterprise internal communication network
Define action plan
Action plans are specific actions that you will implement to put that method into practice in the future internal communication plan.
- What activities will serve strategy X?
- When will the activity be launched?
- Who will be responsible for implementing this activity?
Measure effectiveness
Measurement is the only way for your business to know whether it is reaching its goals and making reasonable adjustments. Develop an internal communication plan. You can use the following criteria as a basis for evaluating internal communication effectiveness:
- Employee engagement and reflection on information?
- Change in employee's thinking/behavior/action after the information?
- Basic indicators of employee retention rate, turnover rate, employee satisfaction at work, etc.
Some common forms of internal communication
Currently, while making internal communication plan There are many different internal communication methods for reference, some of the main ones can be listed below:
- Message board, Standee: Just print the poster and stick it on the bulletin board, almost every employee will see it often for events.
- Newsletter Email: Use for the purpose of announcing new events, news or policies of the business.
- Radio: Every week, you can organize a radio program for the employees at the company. Content can be employee confide, update information from management, or play songs on demand.
- Internal magazine: When email was not yet popular, internal magazines were one of the most frequently used methods of internal communication. The content of the magazine is usually articles sharing about the outstanding issues of the month, interviews with employees in the business, summarizing events, short stories, etc.
- Weekly summary event: As the name suggests, this program will summarize activities, events, honor outstanding individuals and departments during the week. Every week, there will be an MC from different departments, they wear the same uniform to take a group photo,…
- Word of mouth: Word of mouth will be an extremely effective channel, can inform the department head, team leader and they are responsible for communicating to the staff in the room and in the group.
- Competitions, game events on an internal scale: Create your own contest that many members can participate in such as internal rubik tournament, poker tournament, etc. You can bring some hot gameshows into internal gameshow like The Voice, Vietnam' Got Talent, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, Ring the Golden Bell...
- Join the community event: Businesses can completely register for community events such as Earth Hour, Uprace, ... and then call on employees to participate, not only helping to improve the image in the eyes of candidates but also an opportunity for colleagues to work together. friendly and cooperative with each other.
Suggest some ways to improve internal communication
Some forms should be applied at the enterprise to improve the effectiveness of internal communication as follows:
Build a friendly channel for internal communication, especially for smartphones
In the age of technology, your company or business should ensure that the internal communication channel you provide to employees is accessible by phone. As a result, information can reach them wherever they are in the most timely manner.
Use online communication tools like Skype
To update information quickly or join meetings with the company most conveniently, online meetings and conferences are the tools that you need to exploit to be effective and help save costs for communication. communication, while ensuring the correct message is delivered to employees.
Internal social media
At work, social networks such as Facebook Workplace, Slack, .. will allow employees in the enterprise to communicate with each other more quickly than other face-to-face forms.
Organize internal events
Besides traditional communication methods, organizing internal events will use word of mouth information to announce news, which is also an opportunity for corporate employees to exchange and meet.
5 common mistakes when planning internal communication
While developing a detailed communication plan, planners are often prone to making some mistakes as follows:
Choose the wrong communication method
It is a mistake to use thinking instead of actual quantification, failing to evaluate whether this communication plan is really effective or not for further implementation or new construction. This is taboo to do create internal communication plan.
When the communication method is not suitable internally, it is necessary to review the current communication method and come up with more suitable alternatives.
Confusing message
Listeners can hardly understand the message that the speaker wants to convey when the form is too complicated, too much. To avoid giving confusing messages, use the clearest, simplest and most accessible message. Since this can affect the plan of an entire organization, running the business will not be as effective as it should be.
Watch the video How to Create a Strong Message to Internal Communications
Measuring results is not effective
Inaccurate measurement will limit the most effective internal business plan. From this mistake, it is necessary to learn from this mistake when planning later.
Deployment is not yet connected
Each individual in the business is a different being with different thoughts, not to mention that between levels often creates distance. Therefore, creating cohesion in the implementation stage is a common mistake encountered when setting up internal communication plan but very necessary.
How to use words and attitudes when communicating
Each company will have its own culture of behavior, you must understand that culture to plan to communicate effectively internally. Mistakes when making are the use of non-standard words, unscrupulous attitude, not suitable for the corporate culture.
Ending
If an organization or a business is a body, then human resources are the elite, and internal communication plays the role of the soul. Therefore, in enterprises, leaders should change their thinking, catch up with trends, and pay more attention to long-term benefits to build internal communication plan Only then can we develop effectively in today's competitive environment.
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