3 Ways Strong Internal Employee Communications Can Improve Your Organization’s Success

Jul 8, 2021 | Healthcare, Public Relations

Employee relationships start with successful internal communications.

Executives are busy people. They’re working to build their organization, tackle complex markets and handle a myriad of day-to-day strategies to move their companies consistently in a forward direction. To do this successfully, employee engagement and communications require keen attention, but it’s often one of the easiest oversights in a busy, fast-paced company.

70% of the current workforce feels either disengaged or not engaged. That’s a scary statistic if you’re leading your team to achieve revenue goals. This lack of engagement costs US companies more than $300 billion in lost productivity and retention.1

Leveraging internal communications through integrated marketing strategies that establish values and rituals can motivate and engage employees to feel part of the company’s journey and vision for the future.

More organizations are opening their eyes to the importance of internal communications, not just from a recruiting perspective, but to foster a culture that truly speaks to its core values, mission and vision throughout the organization.

Over the years, Gavin has helped regional and national companies craft compelling stories and communication strategies that drive success and bottom lines. Here are a few examples.

Inspiring your staff with purpose

A great example of internal communications success and motivation is with Community Progress Council (CPC), a York, PA non-profit organization helping individuals reach self-sufficiency. The organization developed an external fundraising campaign, called ‘I Am Progress,’ with great success.

Our team felt that this was a great opportunity to utilize the momentum of the campaign for an internal communication effort to build a sense of pride, purpose, and ambassadorship.

Our goal was to provide a platform to showcase the work their employees did to help those in need in the community by equipping them with the skills and support needed in order to move toward self-sufficiency. We wanted to shine a light on those who made progress happen every day and their role in others’ success. We believed it was vital to help their staff feel empowered about their role at CPC and see how their work makes a difference.

Our team collaborated with organizational leadership to integrate campaign messaging and marketing into their annual all-staff meeting of more than 250 people. Efforts included:

  • Testimonial video
  • Campaign social elements
  • Billboard campaign
  • Internal poster campaigns
  • Leadership messaging
  • Internal mission ambassador efforts

Take ownership of your core values

This ability to humanize organizations beyond transactions can deliver big in building relationships with employees and customers. Doing this is even more important when only 41% of employees strongly agree that they know what their company stands for.2 That translates to how your team understands how your company values are relevant to what they do and who they serve.

Industries that are viewed to be more transactional run the risk of having the price be their only point of differentiation. In working with Apple Automotive, Gavin uncovered that they had a foundational value of being driven by so much more than selling. With extensive community involvement, a commitment to transparency and honesty, they had a brand story to share with their more than 800 employees and thousands of customers.

Gavin’s strategy team got to work, digging into what would provide a launching pad for telling the complete story of their culture in relation to their services and offering. ‘At Our Core’ was the solution. At the core of Apple Automotive’s mission and vision was its people.

Our creative team adopted the brand standards to visually incorporate the values into the core of the brand image, reinforcing the concept of “at our core.”

Efforts included HR onboarding materials, employee poster campaigns, employee communications, managerial tools, and incorporation into external marketing.

Own your point of difference

Our work with C.S. Davidson, a south-central PA-based civil and structural engineering firm, showcased how our team listens closely to our clients’ story to pinpoint elements that amplify their point of difference while ensuring relevance to their customers point of view.

With C.S. Davidson being an employee-owned company (ESOP), that gave our team the impetus to craft an empowering brand voice for taking ownership of outcomes with teammates and client objectives.

As an ESOP, employees have ownership involvement, helping to direct strategy, services, and growth through having ownership of company stock. That means that every employee is an owner. As a team of owners, the C.S. Davidson team brought a higher level of attention to customer’s needs, as they owned the outcomes every day. Their performance was an investment in their company.

Out of this concept, the ‘Owners Work Harder’ theme emerged as a mantra for employee-owners to take great pride in how C.S. Davidson’s services surpassed the competition.

We took it one step further by helping C.S. Davidson share the ‘Owners Work Harder’ story with their clients and how being an employee-owned company provides them with added value to the services they provide through a series of case studies using the campaign messages.

The national ESOP Association awarded the ‘Owners Work Harder’ campaign national recognition.

You’ve seen what we can do to help a variety of companies create a lasting, impactful internal communications strategy. Let’s talk about how we can help you.

Sources:
1 Gallup.com
2 Gallup.com