Internal communications for beginners

Modern technology enables us to be as connected as never before. The world is small now, and so it can be rather surprising that spreading the word isn't easy in a company.

Be it a new company policy or a new event after work, sometimes people just don’t get the message. How come?

To communicate well in an office environment, you need to be aware of the portion, packaging and placement of your messages.

Simply said, your message must be delivered at the right time and place, and be nicely packaged. And of course, it also must be in digestible portions.

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Portions of information

If there is too much information, people won't read it all, and they will have less attention for what they do read. So figure out what your colleagues want to know, and then offer the information in bite-sized chunks. If the subject matter is interesting, people are much more likely to read it.

Businesscollective.com describes how almost all the employees in a company were interested in the current projects. There was a database with all the information about ongoing work. Every week two projects were chosen and featured in the company bulletin with some basic information. The result? The employees were informed, not overwhelmed.

Packaging and placement of information

In order to be easily digested, the information you provide should be structured, short and to-the-point. Use large pictures and colorful headlines to grab people's attention. People don’t have to read everything, so when you can, keep the message visual.

Where should you place the information? Bulletin boards are often in overlooked locations. Emails can be ignored. For big announcements, take advantage of company-wide meetings – but keep unnecessary information to a minimum, so you don't annoy your employees.

-jk-

Article source BusinessCollective - a US website for entrepreneurs
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