Being an internal comms professional in a growing and scaling company comes with plenty of challenges.
To help you along your journey, we sourced a number of helpful insights from a range of companies and consultants who have been down this road before.
Communication Is Everything
“Every mistake in business stems from a failure of communication. We use communication to structure productive meetings, build the culture that informs our brands, bolster organizational efficiency, foster inclusion and belonging, increase employee engagement, inspire teams, move projects forward, sell our products and services, build trust, work through problems, make informed decisions, develop our teams and to teach important skills.”
- Tina Mulqueen, CEO, Kindred Marketing Company
Choose The Right Communications Platform
“Assessing which digital communication platform works the best for your organization after communicating with the HR and department heads. This platform will then help to provide the clarity, consistency, trust and organizational efficiency you are looking for. Part of your responsibility will be choosing the right platforms for your needs, optimizing for intuitiveness, efficiency, and cost. You’ll also need to make sure your employees will be able to use these tools quickly and easily.”
- Serenity Gibbons, Contributor, Forbes
Never Stop Listening
“Listen first, last and always. Frame your internal communications based on employees’ top wants and needs. Since we live in an unprecedented time of change, it’s critical to constantly ask employees not only how they’re doing, but also how they are feeling. The latter will tell an empathetic CEO what they need to do to continually adjust and update internal communications.”
- Steven Cody, Founder and CEO, Peppercomm
Prioritize Your Employees
Prioritize your employees over all other audiences. When they are informed and engaged, they can help share the message with other audiences. Also, let your personality and personal style come through in these communications to employees. Gone are the days of having a stiffly worded memo to “All Personnel” or “To Whom It May Concern.” Those messages have low readership and little impact. - Martha Holler, Founder, ShinePR
Keep Communication Lines Open
“Create face time (even if virtual) and make a habit of providing regular updates and holding company-wide town halls. Create a reliable cadence of communication, sharing openly and honestly. Remind your employees of your core values and make sure your messaging reflects those values. Encourage departments to participate in updates and rotate contributors to give everyone at all levels an active voice.” - Clark Waterfall, Founder and Managing Principal, BSG - Boston Search Group
Keep It Simple
“Don’t overcomplicate things by adding too many programs to work within. Streamline communication by having one major communication platform and maybe one project management platform. I think people think programs streamline interactions when, in essence, there is something about keeping things simple. No one wants to input meaningless things into another program. We’re still human, so talk to one another.” - Hoda Mahmoodzadegan, Founder and CEO, Molly’s Milk Truck
Consider Employee Communication Preferences
“Make communication as easy as possible for everyone involved. Is time lost just trying to schedule a meeting? Switch to a tool like Calendly where no messages need to be sent. Does one person abhor email or texting? Do they get video anxiety? Make sure they state their preference in their team messaging profile. Everyone communicates differently to produce their best work—make space for that.”- Chris Gerlach, CEO, Synergy Life Science
In a small to medium size business that is growing and scaling, it’s completely normal to face internal communication challenges. These incredible insights confirm that you’re not alone on this journey.
Learn how Sparrow Connected platform helps growing companies scale internal communications.
