People managers can be a powerful two-way communication channel for organizations. But managers aren’t just conduits to pass information from HQ to frontline employees. They are real people with personal preferences and traits; some of them will be natural communicators and some won’t.

In her 2023 webinar, the internal comms leader Victoria Dew of Dewpoint Communications suggested that if managers are perceived as “the frozen middle,” it might be because their employers are not giving them the right training and resources.

It may not be a lack of commitment or talent that is freezing them, but a lack of information. She pointed out that if managers are frozen, internal comms, HR, and people experience leaders must thaw them back to life.

If you need to thaw some people in your organization, we’ve got tips that will help.

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Why you should be using managers to cascade information

It’s no secret that the manager-employee relationship is the most important “official” personal and professional connection in every organization. 

Whether you look at quantifiable data (managers account for at least 70% of the variance in employee engagement) or just turn to workplace cliches (“people quit bosses, not companies”), managers matter. 

In dispersed and flexible work environments, a manager may be the main connection between employees and senior leaders. If you are working remotely or in a retail location, you probably won’t see the CEO much. In these cases, managers become organizational substitutes. 

That’s good news for CEOs. 

Analysis of the Edelman Trust Barometer found that employees who trust their managers are more likely to trust the CEO. The researchers found that “corporate leaders can improve how credible they seem by focusing on the relationships employees have with their frontline leaders. Trust, in other words, trickles up. “ 

If manager communication matters for employees and business leaders, they should matter even more for communicators and HR teams. Why? Because their position, presence, and support make them an exceptionally relevant channel for cascading information. Managers can also gather on-the-ground feedback and help communications get seen and understood. 

Why should you try to get buy-in from people managers? Managers are often responsible for cascading information; they are the first port of call for questions; they are well-placed to receive direct feedback or gauge staff sentiment. Here are some more reasons why they are a good fit. 

• Senior and middle managers are already more satisfied and committed than anyone else. OECD data shows that managers report higher job satisfaction than senior and junior professionals. They’re already well-disposed to act as advocates. 
• They are physically present in locations such as stores, warehouses, fulfillment centers, healthcare facilities, and more. They may be the only person there with access to the intranet or a corporate email address. For retail and other frontline-dependent industries, managers are an essential connective thread. 
• Engaged properly, they are perhaps the most resource-friendly channel. If you work in a small comms team or as a solo communicator, managers can enhance your multichannel communications strategy without adding the cost of a new comms platform.  
• It is more effective to deliver some news in person (and from someone you trust. For example, it may be more impactful in terms of software adoption to announce news of a new learning and development platform with the help of middle managers. Rather than a centralized dictat, managers can contextualize the announcement as part of a person’s professional growth and current responsibilities.

Why are managers a barrier to communication?

Given their obvious importance to cascading information, line managers should be a shoo-in for IC and HR teams, but there are a few barriers to activating manager communication in a meaningful way. 

People managers don’t typically get promoted solely for their communication skills. Instead, they ascend to managerial roles primarily due to their experience, technical education, or proficiency in their field. Consequently, there might be a skills gap since these managers may not have received adequate training in effective communication.

“Two-thirds of managers are uncomfortable communicating with employees” 

Harvard Business Review 

For more on the skills gap in manager communication, please read our article on How to improve communication between managers and employees 

In these cases, it isn’t just managers who struggle with communication breakdown. In one survey, a troubling 91% of employees think their bosses are bad communicators. 

Despite this – and the knowledge that line managers may lack the necessary soft skills to become effective managers – few organizations invest in formal training or upskilling.  

The resulting impact of poor communication on staff is significant, damaging, and far-reaching; triggering everything from employee disengagement to potential safety incidents and staff turnover. 

But a skills shortage isn’t the only reason. After all, managers can’t pass on information don’t have. 

As Victoria Dew noted, frozen middle managers need IC support to thaw into action.

How can internal communications support line managers?

There is no magic bullet to activating and engaging every manager or employee with company news and events. When planning out different tactics to improve manager communications, however, it’s worth bearing in mind the following tips.

#1. Consider manager personas as well as employee personas

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Naming a class of people as “middle managers” and expecting them to act in a unified way is wishful thinking. Like everyone else, people managers are individuals with their own needs and preferences. 

For optimal engagement, segment managers like every other internal audience. How might you do this? Victoria Dew suggests considering which training courses people have undertaken, the role type they have (frontline or desk-based, for example), or the number of cross-functional teams they are part of. 

Understanding these and similar factors could allow you to create an engagement heatmap of High, Mid, and Low engagement managers across the organization. With this, you can create separate communications strategies with different “WIIFM” messages, action plans, and channel choices.

#2. Give managers access to different tools and skills

Internal communication is now a multichannel process that includes everything from email newsletters to AI-powered intranet pages. This is partly because different groups of employees respond to different types of communication. Corporate comms teams are already adapting to this by using a variety of tools, but if manager communications are part of your cascade strategy, then they may also need to be more multichannel and multidimensional than simply face-to-face meetings or emails. 

This may range from giving them content author training and permissions on your intranet, to top tips on using the company enterprise social network (ESN), project management tool, or collaboration platform. If employees understand information better through Asana tasks or Slack channels, that may be a consideration for effective communication. 

In today’s digital workplace, there is often an abundance of different tools available: speak with your line managers to determine what will meet their needs and provide guidance on what channel is appropriate according to the communication they’re delivering.  

Supplement this with regular skills training: covering everything from how to write an effective internal blog or update, to delivering presentations, communicating during a crisis, or delivering bad news.  

Workshops that focus on the value of internal communication are a powerful way to help managers improve, but the skills learned are also often transferrable to other aspects of their role, making IC skills a fundamental part of professional development.

#3. Get feedback from managers on the comms challenges they face

Just like the employees they’re managing, line managers are individuals with different perceptions of their challenges and opportunities. Taking the time to understand their unique situations can help to resolve potential barriers to effective line manager communication and to improve the relationship between IC and the managerial level. 

They may face geographic challenges with employees in different time zones. Or perhaps they have non-native English speakers who are harder to connect with when corporate comms are only in English. Perhaps some line managers in your organization have issues with confidence when delivering face-to-face communication, or when handling disputes or confrontational situations.  

In cases where IC roadblocks come from a lack of accessibility or resources, work with managers to find practical, workable solutions.

#4. Create a line manager communication toolkit

Providing practical resources can improve the volume, consistency, and quality of line manager communication. This is particularly true if one of the common barriers to advocating for company comms more actively is that people lack the time to create great-looking content. 

Toolkits take on a variety of formats and may include email templates, business update layouts, writing tips, examples of previous communications for inspiration, and easy access to brand materials or image repositories. 

Ensure everything in your toolkit is centrally stored and easy to access or download.  

Perhaps the most notable recent development, however, is the emergence of generative AI. Thanks to AI-enabled intranet platforms, AI-based writing assistants are making it easier for people who are not professional communicators to create, edit, and feel confident about different content formats. 

Within Interact, the AI tool allows any intranet author to perform a variety of functions, including creating content, expanding text, summarizing and simplifying, checking language for inclusivity or sentiment, and much more. 

These revolutionary technologies make it possible for managers and subject matter experts to unlock the expertise in their heads for a wider variety of employee audiences. 

For a full rundown of image-, video-, and writing-focused AI platforms, check out our article on free internal communication tools.

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#5. Give line managers early access and pre-briefs to change management projects

For major or potentially disruptive business communications – for example, a leadership change, an office move, or mergers and acquisitions – ensure that line managers are fully equipped to address the questions that will follow.  

Employee anxiety about change should be expected, and it’s a feeling that can only be cleared up by regular, transparent communication. One of the keys to managing change and getting buy-in from employees then lies in activating managers to act as knowledgeable advocates.  

Give them early access to information and provide resources such as FAQs, summaries, and talking points so they have everything they need. If possible, bring all managers together for a pre-brief to let them ask questions and collaborate on how best to manage the process. 

One powerful technology tool to support this is a permissions-driven intranet, which can surface content to specific user groups only. For example, you might change the homepages of everyone in your organization who is responsible for managing another person, so that they see different, additional content to those they manage. Having this extra content on the homepage makes it visible for the managers but means you cut down on emails and conversations. 

All this work should also help managers to focus on the “why,” ensuring they’re aware of the reasons behind the changes: and how the news will impact their teams.

#6. Remind them that it’s OK to say, “I don’t know”

Line managers can often feel the pressure and responsibility to be an authoritative source of information, which can increase stress for them and result in them not wanting to participate in future manager communication cascades. 

It’s important to debunk the false perception that saying “I don’t know” is a sign of ignorance, apathy, or a poor management style.  

If people do believe this, there is a greater danger of them not admitting they don’t have all the information and just voicing speculations or incorrect information. This could undermine trust if rumors spread and people start to believe fake news.  

Mitigate this risk by ensuring your line managers know where and who to consult if they don’t have the answers themselves. An organizational chart and fully populated profiles on your intranet are a great starting point. A single intranet page for the project can also list those who have responsibility for different aspects of the plan. 

It may also help to centrally gather, publish, and answer all the questions and ideas that managers have from their teams. You can create a single FAQ covering the questions that everyone is asking, and this will help all employees to self-service the information from a reliable, trusted source when the news is public.

#7. Plan in stages and deliver manager communication incrementally

Some areas of software development use the concept of a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) as a way of testing a product before it is rolled out to all users. 

An intranet MVP, for example, would be an early-stage version of the platform that does not have all the eventual features and content that the “full” intranet will have, but that is still an important stage in testing and learning. It is rolled out to key stakeholders in the organization to act as a prototype and gain buy-in or provide training. If flaws or challenges are identified, this is the time to root them out. 

Manager communications may be similar. Rather than releasing news to every single manager at once, you might choose to begin with a pilot group (e.g., those in one country or region) and then work with them to understand information gaps. This will allow the second rollout to be more effective. 

Another way to use the MVP idea within manager communication is to pilot comms projects with specific audiences as a way of removing blockers and increasing general engagement. Some managers will already be more engaged than others, so you may try working with the unengaged ones first, knowing that if you can increase engagement with them then you’re likely to have a bigger base when it comes to future announcements.

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#8. Create a dedicated community or space for your line managers

One of the most powerful ways to continually improve is by learning from our peers. Even if the people managers in your organization are widely dispersed and operating in completely different teams, it’s shared and relatable. They will probably already be sharing notes in small groups, but opening that to a wider audience could be productive for everyone. 

Creating a dedicated space for managers – whether that’s a virtual space, such as a team or community area on your intranet, or a physical space such as a quarterly managers’ meeting – is essential.  

Here, managers can share experiences or challenges, ask for support and advice, and gain insights into best practices. The process of talking through their difficulties will make them better at identifying, communicating, and solving problems, ultimately making them better managers.

Empower line managers to improve manager communication

Manager comms and information cascades are important in many organizations, especially those with a lot of frontline or offline employees who don’t have access to corporate news or culture updates. 

Keeping everyone aligned and engaged in those situations becomes yet another job that falls to people managers who may already be overburdened. 

It is important though as it helps information to become communication, and using managers as a trusted voice can embed information in a more immediate way than digital communications alone. 

The age-old question is “What can communicators do to get more managers on board?” 

It’s never going to be an easy solution but an organized internal communications team using an advanced intranet can play a powerful and crucial role in supporting line managers to be better at communicating. The most productive approaches still seem to be consultative and advisory rather than didactic and punitive about why people aren’t passing on the information they’ve been given well enough. 

Centrally micromanaging communication within a manager-to-team relationship risks undermining authority and confidence, or even making the manager’s voice sound inauthentic. Instead, we can help to improve line manager communication by enabling and empowering managers.

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The post Line manager communication: Tips for activating managers as an effective comms channel appeared first on Interact software.

One of the greatest challenges of introducing a new platform, process, or business change is ensuring that employees are aware and engaged. 

Without a comprehensive communication and launch plan, there is a greater risk of project failure. This is particularly true for digital transformation projects where software adoption is a driving factor in long-term success. 

This challenge has proved so significant for the consultancy firm PwC that it is investing $1 billion in helping its workforce adopt new generative AI tools. 

According to one report, PwC has “some 1500 employees it calls activators embedded across the firm whose job includes helping with change management efforts—sharing benefits of the new technologies or encouraging its use.” 

You may not have a billion dollars hanging over your new intranet, but you will still be under pressure to justify the investment in your project. If so, getting employees to log on and potentially change their long-standing behaviors (e.g., if people are used to sending all communications via email rather than posting on the intranet) is fundamental. 

The tips below will help you formulate a change communications plan and intranet engagement strategy to change employee behavior and drive intranet adoption sky-high.

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#1: Get employees involved during development

If you’re in the planning or early implementation phases of an intranet rollout, one of the most powerful software adoption tools at your disposal is working with employees. Gathering opinions and user feedback can ultimately improve the platform and be more impactful than imposing change from above. 

You may want to involve small groups or individuals in design decisions. Some organizations roll out a prototype version of the new platform (sometimes called a Minimum Viable Product) to subsets of employees to test usability and gain valuable feedback. 

When people are aware of an upcoming change or have had a chance to participate, they’re more likely to understand the value of your intranet and be invested in its use and success. 

Research suggests that when people are invested in change it is 30% more likely to work over the long term. This is essential for increasing intranet adoption and engagement.

#2: Plan a launch that reaches everyone

Although the exact details will depend on your organization and intranet objectives, planning a multi-stage, multi-activity intranet launch campaign can generate engagement and embed change. 

Intranet launch ideas range from “teaser” emails and videos to naming competitions and intranet treasure hunts. 

Anything that raises intrigue and gets people using the platform will ensure that people feel informed rather than imposed upon. 

Driving intranet adoption through a change or launch campaign isn’t solely for the first time a change happens. 

The UK housing association Curo did a small-scale relaunch to drive the adoption of the intranet’s refreshed brand, content, and structure. 

#3: Improve accessibility with an intranet app

If there’s one thing that interrupts communication, slows change, and halts software adoption, it’s poor accessibility. 

Many people within your workforce, especially desk-less and frontline workers, do not have access to desktop computers or corporate email, yet they still require the same level of information and encouragement that desk-based employees receive. 

An intranet mobile app can improve change communications and broaden your intranet engagement strategy. Employees in retail stores or warehouses can easily access resources and receive comms updates.

#4: Be clear about the business challenges

Change takes hold when people understand the value of the project. After all, how can you expect employees to understand the need for a new intranet if you don’t fully understand it as a central stakeholder? 

Defining your intranet’s purpose for the company is a starting point, but you can go further. 

During the planning phase, organize user journeys and requirements by team so that you have an understanding of what each audience is using the intranet for. Mapping team objectives provides a clearer sense of what different people are lacking and how to construct a platform and a comms plan that will address their needs.

If your internal research shows that the marketing team uses the intranet for storing brand materials and promoting campaigns via social advocacy, your comms and training plan should address how to make that more impactful. This focus will drive intranet adoption across different audiences.

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#5: Provide training and “how-to” guidance

Lack of confidence is a major software adoption killer. If employees don’t understand how to use your intranet, they’ll quickly fall away. 

Most organizations deliver training as part of the launch process; our advice is to continue beyond this first flush of activity. 

Make an introduction to the intranet part of the onboarding process for new recruits, and hold regular refresher sessions for different teams when the need arises. 

How can you tell which teams require more training? Intranet analytics should reveal which departments have or have not been visiting key content (e.g., HR policies or change communications). Understanding who is missing from your audience is the first step in deciding whether increased training, access, or awareness will help to increase adoption.

#6: Make the intranet the “go-to” place for business news and content

Effective organizations have a multichannel internal communications strategy with the intranet as the central knowledge base.

Emails, digital signage, Teams notifications – or the other channels that work best for the workforce – should include a short alert and headline that draws employees to the intranet for the full story. 

One of the main advantages of this is that the main content page is easily updated and monitored on the intranet, so all the comms team needs to do is deliver short multichannel notifications that “pull” employees to learn more rather than having to write or rewrite the same lengthy emails each time.

#7: Centralize business-critical workflows

Build the intranet as a “front door” to line of business applications and daily processes – such as booking PTO or submitting expenses – and you give users a concrete and essential reason to use it. 

During the planning phase, ask the different departments and communities in the organization what are the most common tasks and applications in use. Perhaps some processes are still paper-based but could be done faster through the intranet. 

Selling the value of streamlined, simplified, and faster digital processes can help get both users and managers on board. 

The US multimedia and entertainment company Audacy uses its intranet as a central hub for the entire digital workplace.

Each time users visit the site to access something important, they find new updates, culture initiatives, and other communications that connect them and strengthen the brand too.

#8: Ask the C-Suite to set a good example

Senior leaders often set the tone for an organization, making them critical for software adoption and the success of any change management project. 

However, in large enterprises especially, many employees have little chance to interact with, or even see, senior management, so they may have no awareness of the importance of intranet adoption and behavioral change. The intranet is an ideal platform to give management a face, voice, and means for communicating their vision. This could be through regular blogs or vlogs, for example. 

Don’t underestimate the value and power of simple likes, shares, or comments. When people see those at the top being involved or engaging with them, it incentivizes everyone to follow suit. 

CEO of the Federation for Small Businesses (FSB), Julie Lillie, was instrumental in driving intranet adoption. Her comments, likes, and shares were a way of endorsing and promoting the intranet as a critical tool across the organization. 

In FSB’s internal communications survey, employees highlighted the CEO’s activity on the platform as a driver of success.

#9: Plan regular rollouts for increased intranet adoption

A modern intranet solution is a highly sophisticated platform with a wide range of features and functionality. 

Rather than introducing everything all at once, effective change management strategies typically build software adoption over time with the staggered rollout of features to different audiences. 

This best practice approach increases awareness and training over time so that everyone understands the depth of the software without feeling overwhelmed. 

Start with the core menu items and pieces of content that audiences need to understand, and eventually build to more advanced functionality such as generative AI tools for intranet content creation.

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#10: Set out the “where, what, and why” for your intranet vs. other applications

From systems of record to productivity suites like Microsoft 365, large enterprises now have over 200 different applications within their digital estates. 

If the addition or replacement of an intranet isn’t planned and communicated as a change management priority, it may become part of this enterprise noise. Low adoption rates for an intranet are often caused by a lack of understanding about why or when it should be used in place of other tools.  

Spelling out the use cases and benefits of an intranet for users will help. 

Regardless of the other platforms in use, what employees should know about the intranet is that it is the organization’s center and the place to find what they need to know about the company. For accessing company news, giving peer recognition, checking policies, or even getting access to other apps (through integrations), the intranet is the first digital port of call.

#11: Make it the default homepage on web browsers

Simple and highly effective, setting the intranet as the default homepage so it’s the first thing employees see when firing up their laptops ensures it remains front-of-mind.

#12: Give it a personality

Very few people will be incentivized to visit a dry corporate platform populated only with policies. 

A modern intranet, however, should be a digital version of your workplace: one that communicates company values and culture through design and content. 

Inject life into it by giving it a brand, a theme, an intranet name, and a logo. Creating a platform that’s visually appealing and fun to experience is a proven way to drive greater intranet adoption and achieve successful change.

#13: Don’t make it “all business”

The overwhelming success of social media shows how valuable personal, human-centric content is. While your intranet will be the go-to place for business-critical content, communications, and policies, it’s also important to add community content that drives intranet adoption and smooths out the change management process. 

Mixing up content formats and introducing informal elements can boost company culture. Ideas include “buy and sell” forums, wedding or baby announcements, hobby-based intranet communities, or personal blogs and updates from employees. 

Travelex’s intranet “The Lounge” has become the heart of a global online community. 

Everyone, from senior executives through to bureau workers, has a chance to get support and share their stories with a wider audience. Even our CEO contributes regular vlogs and comments on staff posts, engaging with all our users. 

We have staff writing about things that go way beyond their day jobs. People are supporting each other through illnesses, divorces, and other challenges—and these are people from all over the world who may never have met each other face to face. They’re also sharing positive stories and experiences, which is helping us to embed a common culture.

#14: Social tools that drive intranet adoption

Implementing a new intranet may be a significant project, so it’s critical to make sure people don’t just know about it: they need to use it too. 

Social media functionality, including @mentioning, #hashtagging, image-friendly newsfeeds, forums, commenting, sharing, and gamification options, are all effective ways to get people active in your digital workplace. 

The digital-native workforce has such a high degree of experience (and expectation) of these now-familiar tools that not offering them as standard will mean software adoption may be low. If you have a constant flow of news that people want to consume, it is possible that your intranet could be successful with only passive consumption, but a quick look at the comment sections of news websites and video platforms like YouTube suggests that true engagement comes when people get a place to add their opinions. 

To continue the momentum gained during the excitement of a rollout, schedule mini-campaigns to encourage employees to post, like, and share their peers’ posts. This gives a boost to contributors and generates important conversations and connections.

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#15: Introduce employee recognition and rewards

One of the most consistently popular and well-used aspects of Interact’s intranet is the employee recognition program.

Peer-to-peer recognition is 35.7% more likely to have a positive impact on financial results than manager-only recognition.

SHRM

How do these employee recognition ideas work? 

Employees give “donuts” to one another from a monthly allowance. These points are awarded to give thanks or recognition for anything ranging from support on a project to resolving a customer issue. 

Everyone can redeem accumulated donuts for a range of rewards. And, when individuals attach a company value to their nomination, they enter their peers into consideration for wider recognition within the company. 

It’s quick, simple, and plays a huge role in driving morale and embedding our corporate values. It also makes the intranet social and engaging so that people come back and are continually exposed to news and updates when they do.

#16: Personalize internal communication

Do the team in Atlanta need to know that the kitchen is closed in the Dallas office? Will your HR and Finance teams be interested in the number of customer support tickets resolved this quarter? Probably not. 

While there are some company-wide updates everyone must see, surplus digital noise is a major deterrent to intranet adoption and a burden on internal comms teams. 

This can be reduced by a personalized communication strategy that uses technology to ensure content is always relevant and customized. 

Geofencing is one example of this. By setting up a virtual perimeter around specific locations, each time an employee logs on to the intranet within that space, they only see content intended for them. This is extremely effective in cases where individuals move frequently and require different content and documentation across locations (e.g., salespeople or senior leaders on location visits). 

This builds value for users and keeps them returning to the intranet platform.

Software adoption as a change management project isn’t a one-off event

Engaging people with an intranet – or any new digital application – isn’t an organizational and behavioral change to tick off once and forget. 

To drive enviable intranet usage numbers and get employees to adopt new processes and platforms, you must revisit, evolve, update, and adapt based on user feedback and new realities. 

Delve into the analytics. Where are people engaged or not? Which search terms lack any internal content? Conduct focus groups or surveys. Are certain teams or individuals great supporters you could enlist as internal authors? 

Technologies and user needs are in a constant state of change. Driving intranet adoption requires a continual approach to change management too.

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The post Driving intranet adoption: 16 top tips to get users on board appeared first on Interact software.

In 2023, company layoff announcements became unnervingly common in the global news cycle. In the technology industry alone, layoffs were over 50% higher than in 2022. This included mass workforce reductions at key players such as Google, Amazon, and Microsoft.

How organizations navigate and convey the challenge of employee layoffs has a significant impact on those leaving, those staying, and those making the announcements. Crafting a well-thought-out layoff communication strategy that considers the broader implications on your business and all stakeholders is essential to safeguarding your brand, reputation, and human capital.

The impact of layoffs on surviving employees

While the primary consequences affect those leaving the company, research consistently reveals a profound effect on those who remain.

The fallout may manifest practically, such as restructuring roles, the need for training or upskilling of remaining staff, or an increased workload. Emotional consequences include the loss of professional relationships, fear, insecurity, uncertainty about the future, or potential resentment or disengagement directed at management.

Research into the attitudes of over 4,000 remaining employees found that the level of “Layoff Survivor Stress” had a dramatic impact on productivity and performance:

• 74% of employees who kept their jobs said their productivity declined after company layoffs
• 69% of remaining employees said the quality of their company’s product or service declined following layoffs
• 87% of surviving workers admitted they were less likely to recommend their organization as a great place to work
• 61% of workers who stayed with the organization said they believed their company’s prospects were worse

HR teams are often the people who have to deal with the psychological and interpersonal effects of layoffs.

Beyond the written contract of employment between employees and employers, there is a psychological contract that exists. Although unspoken, this influential agreement between the two parties is what brings trust and a feeling of security to the relationship. If your employer has made certain roles redundant, it’s likely that the psychological contract between remaining employees and the business has been damaged. The “survivors” may have lost trust in the business and may worry that the same could happen to them. This can cause employees to withdraw from engagement, create a decrease in continuity and lower productivity levels.

Source: HR News, Handling Redundancy in the workplace

Mishandling this sensitive process significantly increases the risks of negative reactions. If employees discover upcoming company layoffs through social media or co-workers, the resulting impact may be long-lasting.

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However, if it’s planned well and handled sensitively, communicating layoffs to remaining employees can present an opportunity for fresh direction. It can also be a chance to demonstrate transparency and human-centered leadership. Empowering staff to understand why the process is happening – and what comes next – makes them more receptive to change.

How to handle layoff announcements as a company

Although individual management and personal conversations are more likely to involve HR teams, communicators and business leaders should also consider building a comprehensive business-wide change management and communications plan.

Tip one: Engage the comms team early

A layoff program is a sensitive organizational change—meaning it will probably be confidential and have few initial stakeholders.

Internal communications professionals are highly skilled at shaping (even difficult) messaging, however, so involving them early on supports the development of a comprehensive communications plan for remaining employees too. As with sensitive announcements for mergers and acquisitions, it will likely be necessary to create a steering group of comms, HR, marketing, and senior managers. Make sure you have all these voices in the mix if you want to create aligned messages that reach internal and external audiences at the right moments.

Tip two: Be clear about the “why” when communicating layoffs to remaining employees

There is unlikely to be only one reason why layoffs need to be made. Despite this, internal and external audiences will still expect a main change narrative. Your organization may be self-correcting after overhiring during a boom period. Or, slow sales in a territory may have led to a change in strategic direction.

A clear and consistent narrative reassures remaining workers about their roles and the future of the company. Articulating the “why” behind the decision to implement layoffs is crucial then, and leadership must play a central role in “owning it”. When thinking about talking points for the change, avoid turning the explanation into a justification or convoluted story with too much detail. Clarity and honesty matter, as does sticking to the agreed message.

Tip three: Identify everyone affected by job cuts and downsizing

While the focal point of your layoff program is those facing potential job loss, the impact ripples far beyond. Understand the wider network of people affected by change and offer what you can in terms of communication.

In addition to supporting those responsible for external or customer-facing communications, such as Customer Support, you can create separate messaging strands for teams impacted by the loss of co-workers.

Topics such as how individual roles may be impacted, or what the knock-on effect will be on a team’s workload, can be included. You can also outline what steps the company is taking to account for the workforce reduction (such as changes in targets or financial bonuses). Document these steps on intranet pages and in FAQ sections to keep them accurate and easily updated.

These actions show that people’s work and feelings are important enough to be documented even though the company does not have all the answers yet. This will also provide some reassurance and fill the vacuum that happens when people do not have enough information. Utilizing the range of personalized communication options now available will also help you segment employee audiences and deliver more targeted content manually and through AI-based intranet content automation.

Tip four: Anticipate a wide range of reactions

It’s important to recognize that people are individuals and will respond to news in unpredictable ways. Some will feel disengaged by the loss of co-workers. Other people may increase productivity as a means to achieve professional growth.

Two things to include in a layoff communications plan are how the organization will assess how people feel, and where to provide information. First, pulse surveys are useful for taking the temperature of different groups of people. Surveys allow you to ask short, simple questions that encourage an emotional response and can indicate where people may need better support or more transparent communication. Rather than asking simply how they feel about the news, you may ask whether they understand the rationale or have enough information about their futures.

Secondly, in your layoff communications plan, anticipate potential FAQs, and provide information about the next steps, consultation contacts, and additional support resources like your Employee Assistance Program (EAP). People may simply need to know where to go if they have questions, which a comprehensive intranet resource page can provide.

Tip five: Provide direction and support for people managers

Manager cascades are one of the most effective methods of distributing internal communications, especially in organizations with many frontline or desk-less employees.

A successful information cascade relies on two things: 1. Managers must have all the relevant information in time to distribute it, 2. The goodwill and support of managers should also be factored in—if middle managers feel out of the loop and disaffected too then they’re unlikely to make reliable ambassadors.

The Interact intranet platform is a permissions-driven system that surfaces content to individuals based on several configurable options, including whether they are a people manager or not. Through this, you can automate content so that it appears on their homepages, in blocking notifications, and many other areas—without the same content appearing to other employees. This is a fast and easy way to target communications to managers without having to rely on out-of-date email distribution lists or support from IT. Empowering line managers with information and support will assist them as they direct the concerns of their co-workers.

Tip six: Timing is everything

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When distributing any kind of sensitive information, it’s essential to orchestrate internal and external communications.

When communicating layoffs to remaining employees, you also want to think about when the news will reach different groups and how it will affect them.

For example, if you are announcing layoffs that will potentially affect more than one territory, different time zones and shift patterns need to be considered.

If the comms and senior leadership teams are in New York City, 3 p.m. might seem a practical time to release the information to US-based employees. The announcement may take place effectively via email, on the intranet, and through manager cascades, but what about employees in different time zones who aren’t working at that time? If the organization has workers in Mumbai, India, for example, it would be around 2 a.m. there. The plan could be to announce the same information to those workers the following morning, but if US employees mention the news in Teams or Slack channels, or on external social media, the chance of bad news leaking increases. This can turn a challenging situation into an unmanageable one and lead to greater employee distrust and disengagement.

Tip seven: Channel choice is paramount

Your communication channels must be well planned if everyone is to receive information during a very narrow time window.

Frontline workers won’t have constant access to email; remote employees won’t see digital signage or be part of physical meetings.

It’s difficult then, but not insurmountable if you devise a multichannel communication strategy.

Even having a high-level matrix that shows which channels typically work best for different audience groups in your organization will give you a clearer sense of which to use.

Organizations may schedule layoffs comms through a mix of email, all-hands meetings, managerial one-to-ones, intranet pages (and notifications), Slack/Teams, employee mobile app alerts, and digital signage. The weighting and timing will all vary according to the specifics of the workforce. Generally, bad news is best delivered face to face (failing to do this has led to bad press and employee resentment in some companies), so it’s critical to consider who will announce news and communicate layoffs to the surviving team members. This may not be the same person as the one who speaks with employees affected by the workforce reduction. If it’s the Chief Operating Officer or Chief HR Officer who knows more about the future impacts on employees when the layoffs have happened, they may be best placed to answer questions and allay concerns.

Tip eight: Acknowledge the change before moving on

The unexpected loss of colleagues and friends can be a traumatic experience. And, while it’s natural to want to immediately focus on the positive, not allowing sufficient time or space for people to voice their issues can paper over the cracks and lead to engagement and employee retention challenges down the road.

When communicating layoffs with remaining employees, managers and leaders may want to show a human-centered approach by encouraging frank conversations in a climate where it doesn’t feel like people will be seen negatively for being anxious about the future. Motivational speeches about the future will inevitably happen if you want to get everyone moving forward as a team again, but allowing some time first is sensitive. There is no rule on how long is “right,” but pulse surveys and employee feedback may give a sense of when the initial emotions have waned.

Tip nine: Once acknowledged, move ahead with change

All remaining employees will need direction and motivation in addition to empathy. This is where the strategic vision can be voiced, and the change narrative may switch gears.

As part of your change communications strategy, this is also a phase where channel choice, timing, and audience segmentation all differ.

It may be that the Chief Financial Officer or CEO is more appropriate as a spokesperson for change, and there could be a greater focus on virtual meetings that gather everyone together.

It can also be a moment to reflect not just on the challenges of a smaller workforce but on the successes that are still being achieved. This can spread best practices and encourage collaboration between teams.

This kind of community and connection could be a welcome antidote if people feel enervated by the layoffs.

Life after layoffs

Moving on as an organization may take time, and communication around the process mustn’t cease the day staff leave. The employees still at the company won’t stop having concerns, so it’s essential to keep channels open and conduct regular feedback-gathering exercises.

Layoffs aren’t terminal for employee engagement. However, they need to be handled fairly and without misdirection or too much corporate jargon. Ultimately, the best thing the business can do is make a success of the current situation and treat remaining team members with respect and honesty.

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We talk a great deal about the value and importance of leadership communication, particularly at the senior level.

Those in the driver’s seat of an organization become a figurehead for your external and internal brand. They influence the overall company culture, have a tremendous impact on employee engagement, and are often the most credible and trusted sources during times of change or crisis.

We assume, given that level of responsibility, that our leaders are competent communicators. However, as many employees agree, this isn’t a given. In fact, one study of 1,000 employees found a staggering 91% felt their leaders lacked effective communication skills.

The trouble is, they’re your boss, and how can you tell your boss their behavior is a problem?

Poor leadership communication can be costly though, so here are some tips on how to tell your boss (nicely) that there’s room for improvement on the comms front.

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What does bad leadership communication look like?

Before we dive into how to manage it, it’s worth looking at what falls under the category of poor communication at work. This list isn’t exclusive to those residing in the C-suite: they’re traits often seen at the middle or line management level, and among your colleagues.

The non-communicator

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the worst communicators are those who simply don’t communicate at all. If you have a boss who elects to sit in their glass office, speak exclusively to a select handful of “trusted advisors” and leave the job of internal communication to others, you may have a bad one.

The introvert

We have to cut our leaders a bit of a break here: not all are born natural public speakers. It’s a skill that can take time to master and standing in front of a room of people can be pretty terrifying. But if your leader hides behind emails, avoids public situations, or is simply “of few words” when placed in the spotlight, it becomes a challenge.

The waffler

Ever listen to someone explain something for a solid 15 minutes, only to come away no clearer on what they were trying to say? Vague communicators can say an awful lot without actually communicating anything. But when you’re trying to take instruction, get briefed on a task, or understand something important to your role, that lack of clarity can have dangerous repercussions.

The informant

There’s a huge difference between information and communication. There are those who hear of the need for increased leadership communication and elect to fire off more emails, updates, briefs, links to various websites, documents, or policies. Ironically, this information overload can actually be a barrier to effective communication and understanding.

The shirker

With great power, so they say, comes great responsibility. This means for those at the top, there will be occasions when it’s on their head to take ownership for wrongdoings, shortcomings, and failures, or to make those tough calls that are necessary for change. If your boss shirks responsibility, points the finger of blame in the direction of others, or refuses to step up and communicate when the heat is on, issues will only escalate.  

The jargonist

Ah yes, we know them well. Our workplaces are filled with an array of business jargon, and depending on your industry, it can also get pretty technical or verbose (I speak as a comms professional in a software business surrounded by engineers and developers.) If you need to dig out the thesaurus each time your boss talks to you, you’ve got a problem.

The aggressor

Unfortunately, not all leaders are diplomats and we have to accept that they are, after all, only human. But if you have a leader who consistently adopts the wrong tone, gets aggressive, defensive, accusatory, or simply has a knack for saying the wrong thing, effective leadership communication becomes near impossible. We don’t want robots for leaders, but we also want to create psychological safety in the workplace, so reining in the knee-jerk displays of emotion is pretty important.

The inappropriate talker

Inappropriateness can span a whole range of sins. Sadly, we don’t yet live in a world where sexism, racism, homophobia, and discrimination are extinct. We’d hope those at the top would know better, but these behaviors continue to be seen even at the highest level.

There are also those who seem to forget they’re the boss. The art of effective leadership communication calls for knowing boundaries and setting the correct tone for an employee-manager relationship. If your boss oversteps and likes to tell you how “wasted” they got over the weekend, gossip about rumors flying around the office, or generally talk to you like a friend rather than someone they manage, there can be all manner of issues.

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How to tell your boss they have poor communication skills

Just so we’re clear, we’re not advocating subordination or trying to create an uprising against leadership communication fouls in the office. There’s a right time, a right place, and a right way to address your boss’s shortcomings and we definitely don’t want to leave them feeling threatened, inadequate, or defensive.

However, 44% of employees say communication barriers have delayed or derailed projects; a third say it causes low morale, and a quarter attribute poor communication to missed performance goals. 18% report that a failure to communicate effectively has caused lost sales, sometimes totaling into the six-figure range (Source: Fast Company).

Poor comms is, in a word, costly.

Here are some ways to help address and manage the issue:

Go in with a plan for how to tell your boss

If you have a pre-planned meeting, a project you’re working on, or anything you know you need your boss’s input on, go in armed with a plan.

Identify what particular brand of poor communicator they fall under, and how best to overcome it. What do you need from them? What questions do you need to ask to get that information? If you have pre-defined objectives, you can tell your boss about them, steering the conversation so you stand a greater chance of getting what you’re looking for.

Active listening and mirroring

Communication isn’t a one-way street: there is a giver and a receiver.

So play your part. Active listening and mirroring back what you’re hearing from your boss can ensure you’re both clear on what’s being asked, and keep the communication flowing. When we talk, we’re thinking on the spot and the chances are, it won’t be polished or carefully considered. Mirroring or repeating back forces the person speaking to hear what they’ve said and highlights any gaps or issues they may have missed.

Plus, if you’re showing interest and giving them affirmative conversation cues – even just the occasional, ‘Right, yes, OK, great’ – they’re more likely to keep engaging with you. A silent and disengaged listener can shut down a conversation in 30 seconds flat.   

Reframe and clarify

If you’re not sure what your boss is trying to say or ask of you, don’t leave it to chance. Reframe what they’ve said in a different way or seek clarification by filling in the gaps. For example:

Boss: “It just doesn’t look right to me.”

Reframe: “Is there one element in particular that you don’t feel works, or does none of it meet the brief? Do you have an example I could take a look at to understand a bit better what you’re looking for?

Boss: “I need those figures as soon as possible.”

Clarify: “You’d like the Q1 pipeline sales projection figures by the end of the week?”

These actions don’t just help clarify in the moment; when done regularly, they subtly tell your boss that more detailed leadership communication is needed. In time, they’ll shift to giving more information unprompted.

Question, question, question

Most of the time, when a senior leader comes to you with a brief, directive, or request, they’ve already gone through the thought process and decision-making leading up to it. They come to you with the conclusion – and without any of the context.

So ask. Questions are perhaps the most powerful tool at our disposal in the face of a poor communicator: they draw out the introvert, hone in the focus of a waffler, and get clarity from the jargonist. They can help steer the direction of the conversation and encourage better understanding. Questions will again let your boss know there are gaps in their leadership communication.

Don’t be afraid to interrupt

We’re raised to steer clear of interrupting or talking over someone; it’s rude and antagonizing, and if that individual is your senior, it’s often perceived as disrespectful. However, it can be done successfully and may be the saving grace of effective leadership communication.

If you’re dealing with a waffler or you’ve had a jargonist drop a load of nonsensical instruction your way, a simple “excuse me, sorry – I want to ensure I’m understanding and meeting your expectations. Could I ask you to repeat/clarify/explain?” can help get things back on track. You can even revert back to high school and raise your hand if you’re uncomfortable chipping in – it’s a simple action, but wonderfully effective.  

Tell your boss what you do like

Time to manage your manager. Recognizing and providing positive feedback for the behaviors you want to see more of is a powerful way to highlight what they do well – and what they don’t.

Hopefully, your boss isn’t a complete failure on all communication fronts; so next time they give a great brief, host a productive meeting, or deliver a well-executed update, shoot over a quick “thanks for that, I found it really helpful,” or a “thanks for the clear, well laid-out brief.” They’re more likely to replicate the approach if they understand it worked well. And if they do a bad job… silence will speak volumes by contrast.

Follow up

It’s the salesperson’s trick of the trade for a reason. If you’ve had a meeting with your boss, follow up with an email to confirm what you understand has been discussed or asked of you. Or, alternately, if they’re the ones who have shot over an email, give them a quick call or swing by their desk to confirm what you’ve understood from it. It’s mirroring, but on the next level, and provides both of you with the opportunity to reflect on the communication and ensure mutual understanding.

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Work with their comms strength – or ask for alternatives

Is your boss a natural talker, but terrible at giving written briefs? Or perhaps they do well with informal, at-the-desk chats, but not so well when placed in the more structured environment of a meeting room? Work to their strengths where possible.

If you receive a poorly written email, don’t be afraid to tell your boss you’d like to schedule a meeting to go over the details. If their typical company update is a 2,000-word, jargon-filled employee email newsletter that causes glazed eyes around the office, but they’re known to be good on-the-ground chatting to staff, maybe ask for small town hall meetings or even a video alternative.

Tell your boss it’s about you

It’s their job to manage, support, direct, and develop you. So, rather than going with a direct attack of, “You’re not communicating clearly with me” or “You’re bad at providing written briefs,” re-position it to be about helping you.

For example, “I find it really helpful when you follow up on our meetings with a bullet-pointed email of what you’re looking for from me,” or “I sometimes struggle to recall all the information we discuss – could I ask you to write it down?” This shifts from being an attack on them to a need on your side.

Tell your boss directly – but pick the right time, place and mindset

Shooting your boss down in front of their peers, their own manager, the rest of the team, or in a public meeting is clearly not going to sit well. If you have a reasonably good relationship with your boss and feel this is something you can address face-to-face, ask for a private and informal chat.

Go in prepared with a recent example and select your words carefully. You aren’t going on the attack; you’re providing constructive feedback. There’s a big jump from, “The update you gave on the Anderson project made no sense and I didn’t understand anything you said”, to “I’ve been having some difficulties getting all the information I need about the Anderson project. I want to ensure I’m delivering everything you need, so can we chat about how we can overcome the challenges I’ve been facing?”

If you’ve been feeling frustrated, agitated, or angry at the poor leadership communication you’ve been receiving, ensure you give yourself some cooling down time before telling your boss about the issue. Going in guns blazing is a recipe for failure.

Tell your boss in a burger

One of the oldest feedback tricks in the book is the hamburger technique: sandwiching the negative feedback between two positives in order to lessen the sting. If you’re worried about bruising an ego or landing yourself in hot water, cushion the blow.

“Hi Luke, I really appreciate you taking the time to send regular updates and information about the project, it’s hugely helpful. (BUN)

“I do find that sometimes the information is difficult to read and digest as it’s quite long and technical. (BURGER)

“But you’re great at breaking down and explaining things when we talk, so I wondered if we could schedule in regular catch-ups to chat through the updates instead.” (BUN)

Try to address leadership communication problems by always providing an alternative or a solution.

Get an internal translator

If your boss is jeopardizing your internal comms strategy by failing to communicate effectively with staff, the impact on morale and engagement can be significant. Use internal resources where possible to ‘translate’ their communications into something you – and your peers – can better digest.

For example, using a ghostwriter or a content writer to proof and “rejig” written words going out over various internal communication channels; a designer to “tidy up” their presentation, or someone from Marketing to cast an eye over the employee email newsletter. If their verbal comms leave something to be desired, go for the communication cascade and use line managers as the translators. This can be positioned tactfully as taking some of the time or pressure off them, or simply helping them to make the most of their message.

Speaking up when you need to tell your boss to change

Communication is an art, and sadly, despite being the foundation of effective management, not all leaders master it.

Fear of offending or overstepping the mark leaves many employees suffering in silence, but it doesn’t – and shouldn’t – have to be that way. It’s the crux of being able to perform your role and engage with your organization: so next time you find your boss falling afoul of one of these communication sins, call it out. Diplomatically, of course.

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The “holiday season” is a misnomer at work because many organizations have their busiest periods when everyone else is taking a breather. People on the frontline of retail and leisure businesses see their workloads increase — while those in less seasonally-sensitive roles may have more time to reflect on the previous 12 months. 

Whether your organization is busier than usual or not, the holidays are also the perfect time to show employee appreciation and develop exciting seasonal activities. People working hard to deliver Black Friday and Christmas sales will appreciate them during the moment, and those who are ready for a break will see them as a well-deserved reward. 

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As US Thanksgiving in November signals the start of the Winter holidays, we’re starting there and offering some Thanksgiving-at-work ideas to help get your gratitude into gear. 

Even if you don’t celebrate US Thanksgiving, all of these employee engagement activities and thematic intranet designs can easily be adapted to whichever holiday is most relevant for your organization.

Celebratory Thanksgiving at work ideas

1. Find a star baker with a pie-making contest

Food is at the heart of Thanksgiving. Encourage co-workers to get involved by sharing their own perfect pies.

You may have to judge the winner from images alone if you have a dispersed workforce, but it’s still a great opportunity to stimulate engagement on your intranet. Rewards for the winner might be a gift voucher, points on your company’s employee appreciation platform, or even just the approbation of your colleagues.

Here’s how you can set up a pie-making contest on your intranet: 

Step 1: Do a call for photos of your workforce’s best pie-baking efforts. Choose a form hosting solution such as Interact, Microsoft 365, or Google Forms, to allow employees to upload photos of their creations. If creating forms isn’t your thing, simply ask your employees to send in photos via email, Teams, or Slack.

Step 2: Showcase the submissions on an intranet page. Ensure you number the images so employees know how to vote when they get to the next step.

Step 3: Create a voting form. You can easily create one using Interact’s Workflow and Forms or another form solution of your choice. Just be sure to embed the form directly into a blog or landing page for easy voting.

Step 4: Ask your colleagues to vote! Be sure to share the link to the article page or homepage and ask everyone to vote for their favorites.

Step 5: Celebrate the winner on your intranet and/or via an all-hands meeting.

2. Thanksgiving Zoom and Teams backgrounds 

Using tools such as PowerPoint or Canva, you can easily create gratitude-filled backgrounds that go well with the theme of the season. 

If you want to spread good cheer and enable colleagues to use these new backgrounds, simply source some stock photos or designs online (unsplash.com is a great resource for royalty-free images) and add your logo and custom messages.

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If celebrating Thanksgiving at work in your organization comes especially from senior leaders, creating a themed background for your all-hands meetings can give a good platform for a company-wide message. 

These backgrounds may also be useful for the sales team or customer-facing employees who want to show some holiday spirit. Collate resources in your digital workplace. This makes sharing easier than having them buried in a SharePoint folder with obstructive security permissions.

3. A gratitude-themed virtual scavenger hunt

One fun way to increase intranet engagement is a virtual scavenger hunt. There are several ways you can achieve this, and many organizations use scavenger hunts as part of their intranet launch activities. 

One easy way to conduct a scavenger hunt for Thanksgiving at work is to take a phrase or set of words associated with gratitude. For example, you could take this famous phrase from the ancient Greek storyteller, Aesop:

“Gratitude is the sign of noble souls.”

Break up the phrase into individual words and “hide” them across the intranet using a unique font, color, or marker. You might, for example, change the text on those intranet pages so that <Gratitude> is emboldened and bracketed with less than/greater than chevrons. Let your colleagues know that throughout the month of November, seven words will be hidden in this manner across the platform. The first person to find the words, put them together, and send the completed phrase back to your comms team will win a prize. 

Not only will it generate some good feelings, but people will find and engage with more of your intranet content.

4. A virtual thankfulness basket

It can be hard to keep our teams connected and engaged now that more people work remotely or on a hybrid basis. In some cases, remote hiring during the pandemic has resulted in the creation or expansion of teams where co-workers have never met in real life. 

This lack of physical interaction doesn’t mean that colleagues can’t be collaborative and productive, but it may be more difficult to break down social barriers and encourage important workplace friendships. 

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To get over this hurdle, dispersed teammates may enjoy taking part in virtual icebreakers that inject a little Thanksgiving-at-work spirit into regular meetings. 

A virtual thankfulness basket takes a common party game and gives it a Zoom-era makeover. Simply have your meeting’s organizer set up a shared PowerPoint presentation where everyone can anonymously add a slide or message outlining what they’re grateful for this year. Everyone on the team can guess or vote on who they think wrote it, learning a little more about their colleagues in the process.

5. A thankful intranet

Festooning a physical workplace with pumpkins and maple leaves may feel a little pointless if there’s no one there to see them, but a digital workplace can be decorative too. 

Thematic decoration is something we routinely see among Interact users, and having an intranet with a customizable design makes it easy to change logos, backgrounds, and homepage content.

One thing that people often don’t know about intranet pages (and webpages too) is that with a little knowledge of CSS code, it’s relatively simple to change your cursor to something more related to the holidays than a white arrow. Obviously, if you’re not confident with computer code then our advice is to seek out expert help before making any changes.

6. Use your intranet to diarize parties, charity drives, and more

What characterizes the holiday season above all is the number of events and initiatives that happen around the same time. 

If different departments or work locations organize their own events or charity donation drives, for example, the calendar can become siloed and lead to staff missing important company-wide news and events because they’re engaged elsewhere. 

Your intranet should stand as the main digital hub throughout this period, with the calendar acting as a front-page reminder of upcoming events. The comms and HR teams can collaborate on key dates, giving other teams plenty of notice when and where to organize their own events. 

With people aware that initiatives are taking place on certain days, you can provide more information within the same network. We know that Thanksgiving at work is often marked with extra charitable giving, for example, so why not use your intranet to give everyone more information on how, when, and where they can donate to the company’s supported causes. 

Creating centralized resources in this way can help employees to self-service and reduce the number of inquiries sent to HR or comms. Many people will likely have the same questions, so rather than email everyone individually, set up an FAQ section that answers common queries.

Giving thanks should be more than a holiday

Showing gratitude and acknowledging someone’s work or support can increase employee wellbeing, boost productivity, and improve morale across an organization. And, although the tips above relate to a specific month, there’s no reason why these ideas should be relegated to the tail end of November. Spread some of the same ideas and energy throughout the year and you may see a more positive workplace culture emerge.

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Born from the merger of CBS Radio and Entercom, Audacy has the United States’ best collection of local music, news, and sports brands, and is a premium podcast creator, major event producer, and digital innovator.

Audacy’s workforce connects over 200 million customers monthly, bringing people together around the news, sports, podcasts, music, and entertainment that matters to them.

Audacy is one of the premier podcast creators in the world.

During a radical transformation that included the company’s name, brand, and values, Audacy elevated the internal comms function by creating a new intranet to replace an outdated, unmanaged SharePoint intranet.

The new intranet, AudacyAtWork, was a critical part of the rebrand and has become an essential workplace platform that elevates communications, celebrates employees, and gives everyone access to the information they need to work efficiently.

Katherine Ide – VP Corporate Communications & CSR, Audacy – gave us the lowdown on how Audacy worked with Interact to create a better intranet for everyone.

The background: A new company with new objectives

Following a high-profile merger between Entercom and CBS Radio in 2017, the company’s workforce and services grew rapidly. 

By 2021, the company recognized that its old systems were no longer sufficient and that it needed a way to unite thousands of team members under a single banner. The company knew that only a radical overhaul of internal systems and processes would match the ambitions of the new external brand known as Audacy. 

• Internal communication and knowledge-sharing were outdated and cumbersome.
• The company relied on neglected SharePoint folders and overlooked emails, which resulted in information silos and a fragmented employee experience.
• There was no dedicated internal communications leader, which resulted in a lack of strategy and frequent gaps.

Audacy saw the pressing need for a centralized intranet platform and strategy that a small core team could manage for a large and dispersed audience.

Building comms, content, and culture

When Katherine Ide took on responsibility for the company’s new intranet and internal communication strategy, she had a big remit. 

“We had two radio companies merge, we acquired several podcast companies, and our 45 local markets needed to live in the same house together. We needed to make an umbrella strategy that would help us communicate and share information.”

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Coupled with the company’s culture gap, internal communications needed more direction and scalability for different audiences within the organization.

“We had functional updates, sure, but we wanted to do more for the team that went beyond an infrequent all-team email. We needed to build our voice internally like we did externally.”

To meet these multiple challenges head-on, the senior leaders at Audacy decided that only wholesale external and internal change would do. They seized on the company’s rebranding to Audacy to launch a revamped internal communications strategy, including a new intranet. 

“We launched our Interact intranet on the same day we rebranded from Entercom to Audacy. So, in a matter of a few hours, we changed everything about our organization: our name, our brand, and launched an intranet, which we had never had before. I helped project manage the rebranding, part of which was the creation of better internal communications. No one was running internal comms before, but I had been lobbying for about a year to create better comms for our organization. I give our leadership credit for recognizing how important internal comms is and for giving our team the tools to succeed and the freedom to experiment.”

Katherine knew that Audacy’s intranet needed to be advanced enough to handle complex communications with thousands of employees, but user-friendly enough to be managed by a busy comms professional.

“A new intranet had to be one that even a person without a vast communications background could walk into and say, “I want to build this from scratch”. We had to make this valuable and indispensable for our team but easy for a non-technical person to manage. SharePoint wouldn’t do that because we couldn’t even figure out how to update it without skilled coding professionals. We needed something that could be the gateway to access the entire organization. We found that with Interact.”

Creating and launching a new digital home for Audacy

As Audacy was building a brand, an internal comms function, and an intranet simultaneously, Katherine Ide and the team worked tirelessly to prepare the ground for a successful new comms platform. 

“Our biggest challenge was building the entire intranet under the cover of darkness. Maybe eight people in the organization knew we were doing this, and it would be launched with the new brand. All the discovery, documents, and policies were delivered to me and my very small team to recreate on AudacyAtWork. We built around 300 pages to be ready for launch day. The whole process was intense, but we had lots of help from our onboarding team at Interact, who helped both map the site and coordinate with us. Even they didn’t know the name of our rebranded company until the very last weeks of the project.”

At 9:05 AM on launch day, Audacy’s CEO sent an email to the entire organization. His message was the first email under the new company name and with the new email address. Then, as a sign of how integral AudacyAtWork would become to the company, the CEO announced the rebranding and asked everyone to meet to celebrate virtually.

“That meeting was launched on the intranet; the first thing we did was build a landing page so it could host the introduction video. So, the intranet was the first way we introduced Audacy as a brand to our team. In one day, we had done all the internal and external announcements, everything from changing email addresses to logos on everything. The buildings took a lot longer than that.“

In the first three months post-launch, the Audacy team saw 98% of active users visit the site each week. That number has averaged a steady 91% after the first two years.

At Audacy, strategy and technology work in tandem to elevate employee experience

Following a successful rollout of the new platform, AudacyAtWork went from strength to strength. 

“A critical problem to solve was how do we get people to visit AudacyAtWork regularly and make it a habit. We didn’t want to beg them; we wanted to make it indispensable to their Audacy experience.”

To ensure this, Audacy built its intranet as the gateway between its people and the tools they use. To access email, HR, business applications, and digital tools, you must first log onto AudacyAtWork.

“AudacyAtWork is our front door. You can’t get into the house without passing through it, and when you do, we’ll also show you the latest company news, expose you to our values, tempt you with some fun, and inspire you with stories of success from around the organization.”

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This marriage of strategy and technology makes the intranet a must-visit destination and a town square for employees to learn more about the company. 

“One thing that we really, really value is the searchability of everything. Truly, we never had anything like that before. All of our important things were in email; if you send an email, you acknowledge it for five minutes, and then it dies. Nobody searches email for historical things. The intranet is now where people find documents, policies, forms, and other important things.”

Driving culture and values through a recognition program

Today, in addition to being critical to communications, work processes, and culture, AudacyAtWork is an employee listening and engagement tool brought to life through the company’s values-led use of employee recognition features.

“Audacy Rewards is the name of our employee recognition program. It’s based on rewarding people for living our four values. Audacy Rewards was also tied to the new brand, company name, and intranet because the rebrand was the first time we had ever created and celebrated a set of corporate values. The intranet has been essential to this because there was no program before the new platform. Around half the team gives or receives quarterly for living our values. Thousands of people are physically going to the site, writing out their recognition, and tagging others, all just to say thank you. We’ve had almost half a million points awarded since Q1 of 2022.”

As with any business, an employee recognition program must balance employee satisfaction and engagement with operational efficiency and cost-effectiveness. Audacy manages this through the intelligent management of rewards.

“We always make a point not just to have physical goods that people can spend their points on, but also things like a quarterly contest for $1,000 and fun stuff like tickets to the big concerts we have every fall and winter. You enter the contests by spending your points, which is great for employee experience and Audacy because we reduce the operational costs of producing and sending physical goods in favor of those experiences.”

At Audacy, effective communication is now critical, not just a “nice to have”

Before the implementation of the new intranet, Audacy’s internal communications were sporadic, information sharing depended on email and SharePoint, and the company was trying to reconcile multiple brands and thousands of employees with a new corporate identity. 

By building a new digital workplace where communication, culture, and work processes are unified, Audacy now ensures that employees can be at their best. 

With easy access to critical tools, culture-boosting recognition programs, and a searchable knowledge base, Audacy has combined strategy with technology to drive positive change.  

“We have seen some unexpected things during our journey. Our IT and People support teams have benefitted from many more (and more correctly submitted) tickets because our support is easy to find. Our onboarding has been greatly enhanced with a customized experience through the intranet that helps guide new hires through their first 60 days. In fact, we’ve increased onboarding satisfaction by 40% in the last year. AudacyAtWork is not the sum total of our communication strategy, but it is a huge part, and it would be much more difficult to do our job if we didn’t have it. Email is still a valid and effective communications tool—and we use it daily. But email is about action and tasks. We move well beyond that with AudacyAtWork to be functional, informational, and inspirational.”

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What is employee satisfaction and why does it matter?

For Human Resources expert, Susan Heathfield, the definition of employee satisfaction is one which describes:

“Whether employees are happy and contented and fulfilling their desires and needs at work.” 

Why does job satisfaction matter then? Heathfield argues,

“Employee satisfaction is a factor in employee motivation, employee goal achievement, cost savings, customer satisfaction, employee productivity, positive employee morale, and more in the workplace.”

Aside from the impact that job satisfaction has on individual and team performance, there is also a clear effect on organizational success too. Dissatisfied employees are disengaged employees, and workplace disengagement is causing major losses for companies worldwide. In 2022, Gallup suggested that only 21% of employees were engaged, causing $7.8 Trillion in lost productivity, the equivalent of 11% of global GDP.

Many organizations now take the view that positively improving job satisfaction and increasing employee engagement can bring significant benefits for company culture, productivity, and profitability.

Which factors influence job satisfaction?

Contrary to popular belief, financial compensation alone has a limited impact on job satisfaction. In a recent survey on what makes employees happy at work, Indeed.com found that pay ranked last on the list of things that increase job satisfaction.

Instead, the research pointed to factors beyond salary alone, including company culture or values, career opportunities, and leadership.

According to Indeed’s Workplace Happiness Report, these are just some of the factors driving employee happiness.

• Feeling energized by work
• Feeling like they belong
• Having a sense of purpose
• Achieving goals
• A culture of inclusion

When looking to address employee satisfaction and morale, what practical steps can managers, HR professionals, and leadership take?

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How to improve job satisfaction in your workplace  

1. Be flexible 

Giving employees greater control, autonomy, and responsibility for their own time within the workplace (and externally) is paramount. With the rising popularity of work-life balance as an employee demand, particularly amongst the Millennial generation, empowering employees with flexible work schedules and the option for telecommuting according to individual needs is a key first step. Being open to staff coming in and leaving earlier or later also addresses the stress of the daily commute.

2. Allow employees to shape their own roles 

Individuals who have the opportunity to shape their own roles and work according to their strengths also demonstrate greater job satisfaction. Regular job reviews that allow the opportunity for employee feedback and encourage a proactive approach to role development address this need; however, managers will need to exercise judgment in aligning an individual’s wishes with the greater needs of the business.

3. Stop micro-management 

Support middle management in achieving a balance between supporting their teams and stepping over into the dangerous territory of micro-management. Evidence against the practice shows managers who persistently make all the decisions, are unable to delegate, and tend to assert their authority at will just ‘because they can’ create a negative culture for employees: resulting in low morale, lack of employee innovation, disengagement, and, ultimately, high staff turn-over.

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4. Recognize and reward – outside financial remuneration 

Employees need to know that their work and performance are both recognized and valued. Deploy recognition processes, whether that be a company-wide intranet announcement, internal newsletter, or a staff meeting, to ensure hard work is celebrated. Consider the ‘smaller’ yet equally significant perks your staff may appreciate: whether that be vouchers, a day’s additional holiday, a lie-in, ad-hoc gifts, or simply use of the best parking slot for the month. Set stretching yet achievable targets employees can aim towards and strive for.

5. Drive communication and transparency 

When change occurs within the workplace, dissatisfied employees are those who feel they haven’t been kept informed. The result is disengagement and the potentially poisonous spreading of rumors and false information.

Adopting a transparent approach to keeping employees informed is essential. Using internal communication tools or platforms such as intranet software, company emails, newsletters, manager cascade meetings, or ‘town hall’ announcements, ensure your staff is in the know. Communication should also be a two-way process: adopt an open-door policy to invite feedback and encourage a collaborative culture in which employees feel they are heard and their opinions respected.

6. Promote good health  

Looking after employee health is no longer the sole responsibility of the individual; due to the significant cost to employers, it now lies with organizations to promote and drive good health. Workplace stress is attributed to $190 billion in US healthcare costs (Joel Goh, The Relationship Between Workplace Stressors and Mortality and Health Costs in the United States) and causes associated health concerns including hypertension, high blood pressure, gastrointestinal issues, fatigue, and substance abuse.

Organizations can support employees by educating them on health issues through materials or seminars, ensuring staff take regular breaks and annual leave, providing kitchen facilities and healthier food choices in-office, and offering discounted gym memberships or company communities for weight-loss or fitness goals – for example, having employees complete a race together for charity or similar.

7. Look after the work environment and housekeeping issues 

Small things make a big difference. Employees are more likely to be disgruntled if they are regularly using sub-standard facilities or facing frustration caused by slow servers, insufficient software, or broken equipment. Deal with staff complaints swiftly and embed reporting processes to identify issues. Additional personalized touches to the office, whether that be pictures on the walls or a full-scale Google slide, will create an atmosphere that will engage employees and improve their perception of coming to work. Allowing employees to take responsibility for their own workspace and apply small individualized touches will embed a sense of belonging and support job satisfaction.

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8. Training and investment  

Support your employees in striving for more and drive their career development. Investing in employees by offering training, up-skilling, mentoring, or coaching is proven to enhance their satisfaction and engagement with the business. As an employer, you not only benefit from happier employees but the additional skills and expertise they are subsequently able to offer.

9. Embed a strong, sociable culture  

According to a Gallup poll, close friendships at work improve employee satisfaction by as much as 50%. Creating a strong company culture isn’t achieved overnight; however, employers can help facilitate its development by encouraging socialization and communication.Intranet software that embodies social tools and encourages collaboration is a key driver in achieving this, particularly for workforces that are not centralized in one location – a growing theme with globalization. Consider the workplace environment and whether colleagues can talk and share ideas. Organized social activities outside of work hours are beneficial; organizations that encourage birthday celebrations or attend events together demonstrate greater engagement and contentment at work.

10. Reduce bureaucracy, red tape and time-wasters 

As organizations expand, processes must evolve to allow for the change. Failure to adapt will result in frustrations and time wasted as individuals wait for the red tape. Is it really essential for your CEO to personally approve every PO? Can your processes be streamlined, automated, or assisted, perhaps through the implementation of a company intranet system that digitalizes HR processes or provides a centralized point for communication and collaboration.

Finally, look at the greatest time-stealers within your business. Meetings rank as one of the biggest causes for lost time: an average of 31 hours wasted every month,according to Atlassian, which estimates the cost to US businesses at a staggering $37 billion annually. Of those surveyed, 91% confessed to daydreaming, while 45% felt overwhelmed by the number they attended. Removing time-wasters relieves stress and anxiety, increases productivity, and drives employee satisfaction in the workplace.

Happier employees make for a more productive, innovative, and engaged workplace. By even implanting small changes to improve employee satisfaction, organizations will benefit from significant long-term rewards. Why not try and see what you could do to support your employees today.

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The post 10 Ways to Improve Employee Satisfaction in Your Business appeared first on Interact software.

The Internal Communications team is valued in organizations because business leaders know that communication is much more than distributing information. An effective Comms team can help shape a better employee experience, drive productivity, and boost company culture.

As with any other department in a business, those in charge of communications will have a detailed plan containing goals and KPIs. Inevitably, this internal comms plan will also contain forthcoming projects that tie into the organization’s roadmap and needs. So, whether it’s open enrollment or a planned campaign for communicating a company acquisition or merger, an internal communications plan will have detailed timelines and deliverables for every project. 

If you are charged with developing, improving, or delivering that plan, a communication matrix can help. This article sets out how to use a communication matrix when it comes to an internal communications project, such as the rollout of a new intranet.

What is a communication matrix?

A matrix is a simple planning tool that can be constructed without any special software or project management tools; all you need is a sheet of paper and a pen. If you want to be neat then you might also need a ruler—although a collaborative spreadsheet might do the job a little better. 

The goal of a planning matrix is to have an up-to-date, accessible overview of key milestones and stakeholders for any project. This may include the people involved, key dates, objectives, audiences, deliverables, and KPIs.

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Although the details you include will vary according to your project (e.g., an intranet rollout may include which features are planned at different times), the document should give everyone involved a high-level overview of progress and accountability.

Why use a communication matrix? 

As our workplaces become more dispersed across a global landscape, running internal communication projects is becoming challenging. But even if you don’t have to accommodate multiple languages and time zones, you may still have to include more than one location or employee cohort. 

A communication matrix could include whether your audience is remote or in-office, which devices they have access to, and what kind of shift pattern they work. All of these aspects may impact how you connect with that audience and so could be considerations in the delivery of your internal comms project. 

Additionally, a communication matrix: 

• can improve communication between different teams because everyone can see what they need to deliver and when. 
• streamline projects by laying out all the needed outputs in advance (rather than on an ad hoc basis). 

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Communication matrix examples

The matrix you design will depend entirely on your internal comms project. Most matrices have areas of overlap though, so here are some examples of how you might categorize information you need to track. 

Content – What information do you need to deliver? Is it a one-time announcement that needs a multichannel approach or a sustained campaign that will only be distributed via one channel? 

Format – Which communication channels will you be using? This can be extremely varied so it may be best to restrict the format to just one channel, such as email, and use subsequent lines in your communication matrix for additional options.  

Frequency – Will this recur on a monthly or annual basis, for example?  

Creation deadline – The date on which the communicator needs to have a draft complete.  

Editing deadline – The time for final edits. 

Delivery dates – The time and date of distribution. 

Creator – The person responsible for the output.  

Approval – Any stakeholders with editorial or managerial approval. 

Purpose – Inform? Educate? Entertain? What is your goal?  

Audience – As with format, this may vary widely, so be prepared to target specific subgroups of employees per line. It may be just managers or frontline workers for a specific piece. 

Measurement – Are there any data measurements you want to take? This may include email open rates, intranet pageviews, or some other engagement metric. 

These are just a few of the possible inclusions; your matrix will vary according to the complexity of your project and the size of your organization.

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How to construct a communication matrix for an intranet rollout

Preparing to launch a new intranet should be exciting and well-planned. As a project that has consumed time, cost, and resources reaches its release, your workforce will need to be engaged and educated on how they should use it and what the benefits are for them.  

In many cases, the senior leadership, tech teams, and other stakeholders will already be involved in the development of the new initiative, but the finalized details should still be communicated across the wider business to maximize engagement. 

Here’s an example. Let’s say you work for an organization with 10,000 employees spread equally across four countries. You may decide that the most effective way to roll out your new intranet is to cohorts of 2,500 employees defined by their country of residence. 

Your communication matrix may then be a series of communicational outputs that build to internal launch events (virtual, hybrid, or in-person) for each phase. This can be an optimal way to work because it allows communicators to test and learn from each phase—to see what went well and what can be improved for the next time. 

An intranet launch communication matrix may start by looking something like this:

Each following phase can replicate the same content and formats or be adjusted to account for the different audiences within each country. 

Similarly, if a small percentage of employees attended the event then perhaps there was not enough communication in advance, so more should be added in. 

However you choose to communicate your intranet rollout, a one-page communication matrix is one of the simplest ways to compile details on all the outputs, deadlines, and stakeholders that you need to keep your project on track.

What does a good intranet launch look like?

Now that you’ve started thinking about intranet launches, why not check out these additional articles for lots more information on the best launches that we’ve seen: 

• 7 essential questions for a successful intranet campaign launch 
• An intranet launch is a milestone, not a finishing line 
• Launching an intranet: 4 award-winning launch campaigns to inspire you

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Gartner Digital Workplace Summit, SAN DIEGO, June 12, 2023

Interact Software today announced a significant expansion of the AI-powered content generation tools available within its intranet platform at the Gartner Digital Workplace Summit 2023. In addition to existing AI enhancements for sentiment and inclusivity analysis, Interact AI’s GenAI functionality enables intranet authors to save time and publish more compelling internal content.

Using Interact AI, an author has several options to improve internal communications and intranet content: 

• Create new content: Allows distributed authors (often separated by language, brand, and communications skill level) to write prompts or bullet points into the Interact AI assist box and the system will automatically draft an article that fits the specifications. 
• Improve: Interact AI can suggest more positive, casual, straightforward, confident, or friendly edits to existing content, a significant assist to the infrequent contributor. 
• Shorten or Expand: When space is at a premium or a more detailed explanation is needed, Interact AI can help lengthen or shorten a piece to fit the given format. 
• Simplify: Interact AI will help remove unnecessary words or overly complex concepts, ensuring your message is understandable and accessible to a wide audience. 
• Migrate content: Interact AI makes it easy to auto-adjust lengthy historical policies/procedures from incumbent intranets into a modern alternative. 

In most enterprise organizations, there exists a core group of intranet authors whose job is to create and distribute internal communications and maintain valuable company resources. The most effective intranets also include authors from other teams and departments, who may not feel confident in their ability to tell accurate and engaging stories. 

“Interact AI helps employees who aren‘t natural writers to create higher quality content by making it easier to simplify, enrich and improve the relevance of written pieces,” said Simon Dance, CEO, Interact. “Through Interact AI, more individuals within an organization can have a voice, which strengthens culture, improves employee engagement and ensures all perspectives are heard and considered.”

These new AI enhancements to Interact’s Block Editor CMS will come as standard within the product and augment existing AI functionality, which includes sentiment analysis, non-inclusive language detection, and content summarization. The AI functions can be removed if an organization chooses.

GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and is used herein with permission. All rights reserved. 

About the Gartner Digital Workplace Summit 

Collaboration and workplace technologies for hybrid work will be discussed at the Gartner Digital Workplace Summit taking place June 12-13 in San Diego. Follow news and updates from the conferences on Twitter using #GartnerDW. 

About Interact Software 

Interact supplies over 1,000 organizations with an award-winning employee experience platform that boosts productivity and drives engagement. Through enterprise-grade intranet software and decades of expertise, Interact provides Fortune 500, FTSE 250, and globally recognized brands such as Levi Strauss & Co., Domino’s, and Teva Pharmaceuticals with a powerful way to inform and connect their greatest asset: their people.

In 2023, ClearBox Consulting named Interact a “Choice” intranet provider, the top honor in its Intranet and Employee Experience Platforms review.

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Why does cloud computing matter for intranets?

Back when internet connections were too slow and unreliable to support commercial data, organizations commonly bought and maintained physical data centers and servers so they could manage their digital operations from a specific location.

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As internet speeds increased in the early 2000s though, many of these businesses underwent a revolution – they moved their digital operations to ‘the cloud’ and gave up this expensive on-premise hardware. This included how they ran their intranets. Many companies changed model and began using cloud storage for their intranet sites. 

By allowing businesses to store and manage data through remote third-party providers, cloud computing has enabled them to operate without a central server, which in turn allows greater flexibility, scalability, and a reduction of costs.

Cloud computing is now so universal that: 

• 90% of Fortune 500 companies use the Microsoft 365 suite 
• 70% of business software apps are licensed from SaaS providers (cloud-based) 
• Enterprises with over 1,000 employees use an average of 177 SaaS applications 

Before we get into the detail of cloud intranet software vs on-premise solutions, here’s a look at why so many companies trust the cloud with their data. It’s also worth noting that businesses considering cloud solutions should also compare web hosting options.

Cloud intranet vs on-premise: The role of SaaS

The cloud computing revolution has enabled the emergence of ‘software as a service’ (SaaS) vendors. 

SaaS applications are third-party providers that use cloud technology to host and manage software applications and underlying infrastructure for other organizations. They then deliver this as a service over the internet, allowing organizational users to access relevant services and information via web browser and mobile app. 

Companies use SaaS applications to perform every kind of operation, from sending email to launching employee surveys. Popular examples include Salesforce, Hubspot, Microsoft 365, Slack, Dropbox, and many, many more. 

The SaaS market is worth approximately $3 trillion, and estimates suggest it may reach $10 trillion by 2030. 

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Just like these other systems, most modern intranet software projects have also moved from their on-premise origins (built and maintained by internal IT staff on location), to SaaS vendors such as Interact.

Cloud intranets explained

Cloud-based intranets are hosted on the internet and are accessed through a web browser. This means that as long as they have an internet connection, employees can access their intranet from anywhere, on any device. 

Cloud intranets are typically more scalable and cost-effective than on-premise systems because the organization doesn’t have to pay for the hardware, data, and human resources involved in set up and maintenance. 

Because cloud intranets are provided by specialist vendors who have designed the product for that particular purpose, there is always a flow of managed updates, customer support, and new features. These things may be missing in a system that the company chooses to build and maintain on its own.

On-premise intranets explained

On-premise intranets are hosted on the organization’s own servers and may be kept in a monitored location. Because the organization is managing this storage for itself, it may have a greater degree of control over the security of its data.

Although an on-premise solution gives businesses more control, it also requires a significant upfront investment in hardware and software. Buyers should also necessary factor in the cost of specialist staff to manage and update it over the long term. 

Additionally, on-premise IT systems can be difficult to scale as businesses will need to purchase and install additional hardware and data storage if they grow.

What’s the debate?

Despite the ascendancy of cloud computing and the cloud intranet model, some organizations still require the control of on-premise servers. 

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This is particularly true in highly regulated industries, such as healthcare or financial services. These sectors may have reservations about cloud storage if they believe that using a third-party provider to store the organization’s data will make it more vulnerable to outages and data breaches. 

However, when it comes to security, cloud providers now have extremely strict privacy and data protection rules. Intranet vendors will provide details of their intranet security policies, along with compliance information on the certifications they hold. 

Ultimately, the best choice for a business depends on its specific requirements. Businesses that need more control over their data and have unlimited access to internal IT support may prefer on-premise systems. Businesses looking for a more scalable and cost-effective solution with regular developments and support may prefer cloud-based systems.

Pros and cons of cloud-based intranets 

Pros:

• Easy to set up and use 
• Affordable 
• Scalable 
• Secure 
• Managed and supported 
• Have their own development infrastructure 

Cons: 

• Less control over security and privacy 
• May be less suitable for organizations with specific compliance needs 

Pros and cons of on-premise intranets 

Pros: 

• More control over security and privacy 
• Suitable for the largest organizations 
• Can be customized to meet specific hardware and data needs 

Cons: 

• Expensive to set up and maintain 

• Difficult to update 
• Not as scalable as cloud-based intranets 
• Hard for non-specialists to update, leading to a higher workload for IT

Which is the best intranet for your business? 

The best intranet for your business will depend on your company’s requirements. 

If you are looking for an affordable, easy-to-use intranet that is accessible from anywhere, then a cloud-based intranet may be a good option for you. 

If you need more control over security and privacy, or if you have a large organization, then an on-premise intranet may be a good choice. 

Nothing is simple though and you’ll want to connect with an expert to discuss it.

Cloud intranet FAQs

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If you’re reading this, you already know what the internet is; a global computer network of information, communication, collaboration, and a lot of cat videos and memes.

4.9 billion people across the globe are connected to the internet, using it to help them with all aspects of their lives, from connecting with friends to keeping up to date with news, and from tracking their health to working more effectively. Although intranets are also used by organizations globally (from schools to businesses and even countries), not everyone has an intranet definition. That leads them to ask ‘what is an intranet?’ and what is the difference between the internet and an intranet.

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What is the difference between the internet and an intranet?

The main difference in the internet vs intranet split is that an intranet is a closed, private network. The internet on the other hand is a public network available to everyone with a connection.

In short, the internet is for all but an intranet is for a select group of people, such as company employees or charity volunteers.

The internet

The worldwide system of computer networks allows the access and exchange of other computers’ information, enabling an array of services that cover communication, entertainment, and news.

Data from 2023 suggests that 62% of the world’s population – nearly five billion people – are active internet users.

From entertainment to finance, to learning and innovating, the internet underpins every area of our lives. With the Internet of Things, the applications are endless (and in some cases, risible). You can heat your home, power a driverless car, even help you eliminate noisy slurps while eating ramen – all with the help of a WiFi connection.

An intranet

An intranet, on the other hand, is primarily aligned with helping employees within a business or other organization to accomplish tasks and stay connected.

Although there are some differences when it comes to the internet vs an intranet, they are very similar. An intranet is still a computer network that shares information to remote users, but the advantage of an intranet over the internet for businesses is that it operates strictly within a closed network.

This is beneficial for organizations who want to submit and exchange company information privately. After all, most companies won’t want to share all their internal communications, policy documents, and other content with the world.

So, an intranet is a restricted version of the internet that offers greater security because it doesn’t allow access to anyone outside its network. These networks are chosen by the organization itself and typically include employees, volunteers, contractors, and franchisees. In some cases, an organization will also want to share information with commercial partners, investors, and shareholders. The use of ‘public pages’ and extranets can help to accomplish this by giving access to some intranet content, but not all.

Intranet vs internet…vs extranet?

We’ve introduced another term there, so before we go on, what is an extranet?

An extranet is an intermediary point between an intranet and the internet. Although it is still a secure, private network, an extranet gives controlled access to authorized external users to a company intranet.

So, an extranet carries the concept of an intranet but takes it outside of its normal parameters. This platform is more open, and allows third parties in, like vendors and partners. They can either have full access to the intranet, or a selected part of it.

Extranets can sit on existing intranet software or be completely independent. The primary purposes are to aid collaboration, communication, and insight for the most important people outside of your business.

You may use an extranet for:

• Customer relationship management (CRM): Extranets may provide customers with access to information about their accounts, orders, and other customer-related data.
• Supply chain management (SCM): Extranet pages offer key suppliers access to information about your inventory, schedules, and other data.
• Project management: For company projects involving external personnel, extranets can show project plans, documents, and other project-related data without having to constantly send emails or update documents in a DMS.

How do companies use an intranet?

Although the history of the intranet as a digital system began in the 1990s, an intranet is really an extension of the information architectures that companies have.

Communication, shared knowledge, training, and policies have always existed within files and folders — it’s just that those things now live on cloud-based intranet networks too.

Their introduction into the working environment in the mid-nineties saw intranets act as simple storage systems for files, information, and top-down communication.

Now, however, intranets are the hub of a business. They facilitate communication, culture, knowledge-sharing, collaboration, and more. In fact, the reason why they’re still relevant (and the intranet market is expected to grow by $15 billion by 2026) is because as work grows more dispersed, workers are keen to have online tools that support them to connect with others and to do their work effectively.

Three examples of intranet use cases include:

Automation of routine tasks

From reserving meeting rooms to booking vacations, every organization has necessary tasks that a corporate intranet can help to automate. Whether it’s through the publication of FAQs or the integration of ticket-based submission systems, the intranet can ease these often manual jobs.

Creating a shareable knowledge base

Fortune 500 companies lose approximately $31.5 billion per year when internal personnel don’t share knowledge. Our customers use their intranet platforms to create easily updated knowledge bases that everyone in the organization has access to, which supports everything from onboarding to customer service.

Developing an enterprise hub

Work no longer takes place solely in the locations it used to. Organizations are more dispersed, and communicating with staff is no longer as easy as posting a message on a physical noticeboard or calling everyone together for a meeting. Large enterprises, especially in industrial, healthcare, retail, or manufacturing settings, also have frontline staff operating in a variety of locations.

This mix of work arrangements is necessary, and can be beneficial, but it also has an impact on company culture and communication. In the same way that a public website on the internet draws people together and creates a community, a branded, customized intranet with lots of interesting content can be the center of a digital workplace and its people.

Why use an intranet vs the internet?

For most businesses, an intranet is, without a doubt, a significant investment. But there are numerous benefits of an intranet over the internet for those who do invest in a system designed to support their company.

In order to function as a business, there needs to be a way of sharing news and knowledge and creating one source of truth in a secure environment.

Organizations, particularly larger ones, need a private platform to connect and unite all their personnel, and intranet software can be shaped and modified to allow this, whether it’s one office block in a city, or a global brand with hundreds of locations across the world.

Having this internal site can also:

• Increase productivity by giving people instant access to internal content
• Cut down on admin by automating information and tasks
• Create operational cost savings through digitization of content
• Reduce errors through the provision of relevant, up-to-date information
• Encourage collaboration globally
• Enable crisis communication when it’s needed

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Intranet examples

In addition to other similarities between the internet and an intranet (such as the use of TCP/IP protocol and the use of web browsers and mobile employee communication apps to display information), the best intranet designs also now resemble consumer-grade webpages.

These intranet examples show how homepages offer a similar user experience but also allow staff to accomplish goals and receive communications.

Summary: Internet vs intranet resolved

In conclusion, though they are related, it’s important to remember that there are critical characteristics of intranet software that set it apart from the internet and extranets:

Intranets are a closed network: Within the internet, intranets are like private islands where businesses can congregate.

Corporate intranets are designed to solve a specific set of problems: The whole purpose of an intranet is to remedy existing issues in a business, namely data storage, knowledge sharing, and the distribution of information.

Intranets are smaller and more secure: Like a mini-internet, intranets are solely for the use of a business and act as a secure way to help organizations function. However, despite the differences between an intranet and the internet, they do have one thing in common: a business operates far better with both.

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The post Intranet vs Internet: What’s the Difference? appeared first on Interact software.

There are many different definitions of internal corporate communication, but the truth is, the term is a bit of a catch-all. There are a multitude of different types of internal communication: from top-down memos to peer-to-peer acknowledgment: from crisis comms to information campaigns and more.

Each internal comms campaign or initiative is designed to serve a different purpose, a different audience, to deliver a different outcome.

Many of these campaigns will already be happening in your business, with or without a dedicated plan. And, while we may pay more attention to certain types of internal corporate communication as an organization, each has its own value and is important to your overall internal communications strategy. 

Internal communication is the sharing of information for business purposes.

Business Dictionary

For those charged with managing, driving, or overseeing internal communications, it’s critical to understand the different types. You won’t necessarily be responsible for every type: but you will be a key facilitator.

Identifying, nurturing, and promoting the different types of internal communication requires us to understand their different goals, what tools work for different types, where each type has its place in the wider internal communications strategy, and the appropriate tone or style for each.

Many types of business communication will overlap, but all deserve a spot on your comms line up.

What are the different types of internal communication?

We identify 8 common types as:

1. Leadership and top-down comms (vertical communications)
2. Change communications
3. Information comms
4. Crisis communication
5. Bottom-up or two-way communications
6. Peer-to-peer communication (horizontal communications)
7. Culture comms
8. Campaign communications

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1. Leadership and top-down communications

They’re first for a reason; when internal comms rises onto the business agenda, it’s traditionally to facilitate the distribution of top-down information from the business to its people.

Senior leaders play a crucial role in defining corporate culture and setting the direction of a business, so getting them visible and heard across the workforce is essential. In larger organizations where many staff may never meet their senior leaders in person, internal communication has a challenging task and even more important role to play.

Hearing from the boss makes a difference to how staff define purpose in their work – one of the increasingly important components of employee engagement, according to Gallup.

Top-down comms are used to inform staff of the overall business strategy and direction, and therefore are largely company-wide and traditionally formal in their nature.

Delivery channels can range from a town hall meeting or video stream to a corporate newsletter; for the most part, they’ll tend to be scheduled or come with decent notice, with supporting input from Internal Comms, Marketing, HR or any other number of departments.

Under this category, we tend to see comms including: 

• Business strategy overviews
• Company updates
• Performance or progress
• Formal announcements
• Company-wide accolades, awards, or recognition

Due to the senior level interest and input, it’s likely these types of comms are already firmly placed on your internal communications calendar. However, reviewing the channels used, the reach and response from staff, and sanity-checking for ‘corporate speak’ can help keep employee engagement up.

2. Change communications

They’re closely related to the first type, but still deserving of a category of their own.

No matter what your industry, size or strategy, change is part of the natural evolution of business: whether that comes from within or something external that will impact your organization. And communication is perhaps the most fundamental ingredient for successful management of change.

Communicating change internally requires careful planning and an understanding of your staff concerns and needs. Manager cascades, small group face-to-face meetings and drip-feed campaigns of information over time are all powerful tools for this type of internal communication.

Tailoring change comms to distinct employee groups is also proven to be more effective than a company-wide blanket approach, as it enables us to focus on the ‘why’ or ‘what’s in it for me?’ (WIIFM) factor, securing greater buy-in from employees. Leaving room for staff to feedback, ask questions, and have their voices heard can also reduce negative response.

What sort of comms fall under the ‘change’ category? Examples include:

• Structural business change, such as a merger, acquisition, or internal restructuring
• Changes to organizational brand or offering, such as new/discontinuation of products or services, new branding/website, entering new markets or territories
• Office openings, moves, or closures
• New software, tools, suppliers, distributors or internal processes
• Industry-related change such as regulatory or compliance changes
• Political, economic or social change, such as a change in law or policy, shifts in financial markets or social campaigns (for example, the current ‘war on plastic’, which is leading to packaging and production changes in many FMCG organizations.)  

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3. Information comms

In today’s knowledge sharing economy, we trade in information. This is true both within organizations and society as a whole.

Information ensures our employees are equipped with everything they need to perform their roles efficiently, safely, and to the best of their ability. It impacts on the service and experience they, in turn, deliver for our customers and clients. Accessible communication and information improves productivity and morale, reduces risk and improves employee engagement. It is – in a word – crucial.

It can also be messy to manage. Information tends to live in many different places: buried in folders in your company DMS, stored on your intranet software, your HR or payroll systems, within emails, or on colleague computers.

Gathering, auditing, organizing, and distributing that information effectively is a central responsibility of the internal communicator, even if the information itself isn’t owned by you. You need to consider how to create a ‘single source of truth’, avoiding duplicates or the risk of outdated content, and ensure every employee – regardless of where or how they work – can access it when needed.

Who has responsibility for updating it and when? Who owns it, approves it or signs off on it? How do you pull information from across different systems or folders? What governance do you have around tagging up and naming of information? Do you have an effective search function, to ensure it’s found? Can staff access it from different devices, or without a company email? 

All these questions need answering as part of your internal communications strategy, to ensure information comms is effective.

Information-focused comms will often include:

• Policies and procedures; for example, HR or IT information
• Legal or compliance information
• ‘How to’ information for common business processes
• Organizational information – about the business, brand, products/services, positioning and more
• Colleague information for when staff need to connect with others for additional support or help
• Training tools and content

4. Crisis communication

Getting the right information to the right people in a timely, efficient and effective way, is never more important than during a crisis situation.

Unlike other types of internal communication, crises don’t tend to come with much notice. However, having a solid crisis communication plan in place before a situation arises can mitigate risk, reduce impact, and keep staff safe.

Channel options are one of the biggest considerations for this kind of internal communication. Simply put, can you reach everyone you need to, regardless of where they are? This includes front line or transient staff, who aren’t sat at a desk or don’t have easy access to a computer.

A multi-channel approach is normally the safest bet; however, in the pressure of a high-stress or timely situation, ensuring they’re all set up and that messages can be pushed out efficiently is crucial. A broadcast tool is invaluable as it will push a single message out through multiple channels, including text message, push notification, email and more. Ensuring you have a way to confirm staff receipt or safety is also vital.

Alongside this, pre-crisis protocols are a crucial part of the internal comms portfolio. Falling under the ‘information comms’ category as well, these cover the responsibilities and response protocols for staff in light of a crisis or emergency situation. What constitutes a ‘crisis’ is surprisingly broad:

• Natural disasters, such as earthquake, flood, or extreme weather
• Technological crisis: cyber attack, outage, virus
• Environmental crises, like a pipeline leak, or spillage of hazardous materials or waste
• Employee or management misconduct
• Leak of privileged or internal information
• Product failings, faults, or recalls
• An external threat to business or employees; which can range from a terrorist threat to fire, sabotage, or police incidents
• Conflict with interest groups, whether political, social, environmental, cultural or purpose
• Financial crises such as significant losses, fraud, bankruptcy, going into administration
• Organizational misdeeds such as deception, or collective management misconduct
• Process disruption, such as issues within the supply chain or distribution process

While responsibility for managing a crisis tends to reside with senior management, the act of information flow before, during and in the wake of the crisis is one of the most important jobs for internal communicators. If you haven’t already factored crisis comms into your internal communications plan, you need to.

5. Bottom-up and two-way communications

Information flow in an organization shouldn’t be purely top-down. To engage everyone and encourage knowledge sharing among staff, two-way and bottom-up communication is vital.

As employee engagement and the employee experience at work become more widely recognized as big contributors to the business bottom-line, we’re understanding the value of this type of internal communication more than ever. It’s the job of internal communicators to ensure staff have the right tools, support, and channels to get their voices heard and contribute employee-generated content.

Discussion forums, staff blogs and social tools such as the ability to comment, like or share are all informal ways for staff to contribute. Virtual ‘suggestion boxes’ and focus groups can get people innovating, while the rise of pulse surveys shows the need to tap into how our staff are feeling.

Bottom-up or two-way communication requires us to facilitate:

• Ideation – resulting in encouraging staff to put ideas forward
• Employee feedback – presenting something to staff and requesting their input, or creating a process and space for staff to air concerns and complaints
• Question and answers, when staff require further information or clarification
• Staff surveys and pulse surveys, to gauge employee sentiment, employee engagement, or mindset
• Polls or staff votes, to gather popular opinion or input on specific issues and decisions

Giving staff – all staff, regardless of role, seniority level, or location – a voice and active role in contributing to the organization and its direction can be hugely empowering. The best organizations don’t talk at their employees; they talk with them. This type of internal communication is arguably the one that can have the biggest impact on overall business performance.

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6. Peer-to-peer communication

Connecting staff to one another in today’s workplaces comes with a range of different challenges.

Peer-to-peer communication isn’t something internal communicators do, so much as facilitate.

Our workforces are increasingly diverse and dispersed. However, being able to collaborate with others, find a peer who can provide help or share knowledge, or simply build connections with our colleagues all make for more engaged and productive workplaces.

Again, peer-to-peer communication isn’t something internal communicators do, so much as facilitate.

Making room for it on your comms plan includes offering staff a comprehensive and accessible People Directory – rich profiles that go above and beyond the standard job title and email address can help staff find peers with shared interests, specific skills, and more.

Different channels are suited to different types of peer-to-peer communication. Group collaboration on a project or piece of work, for example, may call for specific project management platforms or a DMS; one-to-one and group conversations may be best suited to an enterprise social networking tool, such as Slack, Yammer, or Microsoft Teams.

When staff share their stories and experiences with peers, it can support positive corporate culture, facilitate greater ideation, improve morale and retention rates, drive greater problem-solving, and more. Peer-to-peer recognition is also a powerful tool in today’s workplaces.

Peer communication can cover:

• Collaboration taking place on a specific task, project, or event in-person or through tools such as an online whiteboard
• Connecting with individuals who can help or provide knowledge on a specific topic or task
• Team or community communication, including the sharing of information and files, discussion, imagery, events and more
• Storytelling or knowledge sharing; for example, through blogging or within a discussion forum
• Peer recognition
• Problem-solving and ideation
• Private and small group conversational communication

7. Culture comms

Company culture is an often intangible yet hugely influential aspect of an organization that can follow internal PR best practices and is linked to everything from talent attraction and retention, through to employee engagement, financial performance, business stability or longevity, and more.

Organizational culture can be defined as the shared values, beliefs, perceptions held by employees within an organization.

Purpose-driven organizations are shown to outperform those that are profit-orientated and drive engagement among staff; 49% of employees would trade a portion of their salary to continue in their current role with an added sense of purpose.

But how is a collective mindset, that typically evolves over time, the responsibility of internal comms?

Defining and then pinning a set of values on the office wall doesn’t define or create a corporate culture. However, there are a variety of types of internal communication that can help nurture, communicate, and facilitate its foundations. It’s the sum of these multiple elements that help grow and embed a healthy common culture among staff over time.

78% of CEOS & CFOs believe culture is within the top five value drivers for an organization.

(Corporate Culture: Evidence from the Field)

‘Culture comms’ can cover everything from:

• Company mission and values
• Onboarding communication
• CSR comms, including any initiatives, campaigns, events and policies – such as charity events, or your commitment to environmental initiatives
• Leadership comms: although we’ve pulled these out as a separate category, senior leaders play a central role in shaping organizational culture; hearing from those at the top helps communicate that to your organization
• Rewards, recognition and encouragement: recognizing individuals, teams, or communities – especially those demonstrating desired behaviours or the values of an organization – further embeds organizational culture
• Social communication; whether organized social events within an organization, peer to peer sharing and engagement, or non-business news and information

Often, communication that helps portray your company culture won’t come from those invested in creating it: it comes from those living and breathing it, your employees.

8. Campaign communications

A campaign typically consists of a set of communication activities, designed to generate a specific outcome or objective in a specified period of time.

Many of the other types of communication we’ve mentioned can be executed as a campaign: delivered through a course of different methods over a period of time. From an internal communications perspective, campaigns are a valuable tool to deliver a message across multiple audiences, channels or audience demographics, because they provide a multi-faceted way to deliver a core message.

If you have a dispersed workforce, or perhaps staff who work on shifts or out on the frontline, one-off communications can be easily missed. When it’s important the message gets through, a well-crafted internal communications campaign covers all the bases.

Campaign communications are typically assembled around a defined goal, ranging from:

• Promotion, for example of an event, activity, or initiative
• Education, using the campaign as a drip-feed to provide bite-sized information or to embed a message through repetition: for example, of a forthcoming change in process, law, or procedure
• Awareness, using a multi-channel or multiple exposure approach to maximize the visibility of a particular message: perhaps of a company HR benefit, or a safety message
• Interest, buy-in, and engagement: ‘teaser’ campaigns that pique interest are a particular hit for these types of internal communication, providing staff with sneak peeks or hints of a forthcoming announcement, for example.
• Participation, for example, to garner staff support and participation for a survey, or to opt-in to the company pension – a campaign can provide multiple ‘touchpoint’ reminders

In today’s overcrowded, busy and high-volume digital workplaces, an internal campaign can help cut through the noise and capture attention: whether that’s to communicate change, gather support, build anticipation and more.

Their more diverse and flexible nature also allows for a little more creativity and fun than other types of communication. Try out a mix of media, a play with the tone of voice, and use of imagery, color, and outside-the-box approaches to hammer the message home.

A communication type for every business need

The process of passing information and understanding from one person to another

Definition of ‘communication’

Communication is perhaps the most powerful act we undertake every day: at work, and in our day-to-day lives.

As internal communicators, it can feel overwhelming to consider just how many different forms that can take. However, as these types show, it’s often not the communication itself – the ‘what’ – that needs to be picked up by internal comms, so much as the process, or the ‘how’.

When mapping out the types of internal communication you want to include in your communicative strategy, make room and time for everything that suits your needs. A successful comms plan is diverse, agile, and adaptive: providing a 365-degree experience of connecting your people, information, and organization overall.

For more information on the one form of comms that’s less well practiced, please take a look at our article on intrapersonal communication.

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