INTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS

Communications are an essential part of any organisation to succeed. Communication’s meaning is to transmit information between two or more parties. The information is encoded by the sender and sent through a communication channel to a receiver who needs to decode the message. The role of communication is to create a common understanding between the sender and receiver of the message. 

We can consider the communication as being effective, only when the receiver understands the message the way the sender intended.

Organisational and corporate communication, have a similar meaning, with the remark the corporate communication term is used by many authors as being the communication related to private sector companies. 

Corporate communication is a management function that offers a framework for the effective coordination in all internal and external communication with the overall purpose of establishing and maintaining favorable reputations with stakeholder groups upon which the organisation is dependent.

The reputation of an organisation is the sum of employees’ behaviour and performance plus communication.

Aligning employees’ behaviour and performance with the organisation’s goals and values can be done only through a strategic organisational communication defined as: the process of aligning employees’ “hands, minds, and hearts” with the organisation’s reputational interests – as a way to produce competitive advantage.

Organisational communication includes both, the internal and external communication functions, but for the purpose of this study, we will tackle only the internal communication concept.

Internal communication

As the definition presented in the previously, the internal communication is a specialized discipline of corporate communication’s function. Internal communication, often named as employee communication in specialized literature, is a planned communication strategy, aiming to influence employees’ attitude and behavior and to provide them new knowledge in a systematic manner. 

The main points to remark about internal communication are:

• Internal communication is planned – process is planned in advance and is not happening accidentally.
• Internal communication is systematic – the process is repetitive and implies knowledge and discipline.
• Internal communication is about influencing – employees should be able to choose what they do and how well they do, but in order to influence their decision, they have to be persuaded, not forced.
• Internal communication is more than telling – it creates awareness, but in the same time it should influence attitude and behavior. Employees should be inspired to accept the change or new idea.
• Internal communication is multi-disciplinary – information alone cannot influence people’s behavior, the reason why employees need to be trained, rewarded or motivated to follow the change.
• Internal communication refers to mutual understanding – involves two-way communication. 

Organisations cannot just send information to employees and expect everything will suddenly change. Employees need to be involved, engaged, to be able to ask questions and make sure they understand the idea correctly.

Employees usually complain that inside organisations the flow of information does not work properly and the communication is very poor. To be easier to understand the concept of Internal communication, I suggest to consider differentiating it into four dimensions.

Internal line management communication refers to direct communication between employee and its supervisor, is most of the time two-way communication which can include along other roles of employees, appraisals and team briefings.

Internal team peer communication refers to direct communication between an employee and another employee, is usually two-way communication which includes informing the team, discussions about tasks and team meetings.

Internal project peer communication refers to communication between employees (including the project manager) about a certain project, as two-way communication which includes informing about a project and project issues discussions.

Internal corporate communication which is sent usually by top management to all employees, predominantly one-way communication strategy and include organisational issues such as future goals, objectives, activities, changes, new developments and achievements.

The Internal Corporate Communication is the dimension we will focus on in this study, representing the continuous communication with all employees what has as a role to build employees’ engagement.

Internal Corporate Communication has followed the trend as the external communication, social media transforming the way employees communicate. New technologies have been introduced inside organisations, offering employees the possibility of having a voice and become the company’s ambassadors. Internal Corporate Communication now has a greater importance, becoming a strategic function which creates positive internal relationships and enables organisational communication. 

The internal corporate communication dimension is defined as communication between an organisation’s strategic managers and its internal stakeholders, designed to promote commitment to the organisation, a sense of belonging to it, awareness of its changing environment and understanding of its evolving aims. 

Internal Corporate Communication is directly influencing the employee’s engagement, having the potential to create a clear understanding and awareness among all employees about the organisation’s values. In addition, involves them to commit in the process of reaching the organisation’s goals, satisfying at the same time their need of belonging.

As presented in the figure above, we can conclude that Internal Corporate Communication’s roles, is to help the organisation to achieve employees’: commitment to the organisation, awareness regarding changes, good understanding of the organisation’s values and sense of belonging to the organisation. 

Professionals in Internal Communication believe it is almost useless to push information to people without giving them the opportunity to ask questions or express their opinions. When expressing verbally or in writing form their thoughts, psychologically it works like the idea belongs to them, making them respect it even more, to take action and to apply it.

Different channels have been developed to facilitate communication within the organisation. These channels can allow employees to express themselves, ask questions, engage in discussions, advise others, check their understanding, give feedback or follow the leaders. In today’s work environment when people are so used to freedom of expression on social media, a one-way communication approaches do not function anymore. 

Internal Communication is done using various communication channels which can be divided into three main categories: verbal, non-verbal and written communication. 

Non-verbal communication, so called gestural or visual communication, is difficult to predict and is mainly used as an addition to verbal and written communication.

Verbal communication is defined as formal and informal, individual or group conversations between employees or employees and management. It is transmitted through direct communication channels such as: meetings, conversations, group discussions and briefings. 

Written communication includes all information transmitted within the organisation in written form. This can be realized through various channels like: intranet, email, newsletters, notice boards, internal magazines, memos, annual reports and social media. 

Verbal and written communication can occur through direct or transmitted communication and each of these include several communication channels which on their turn can be divided into close and distant channels (figure bellow).

Inside organisations, the Internal Communication function can also belong to the Human Resources (HR) department, but most commonly will be part of the communications and marketing department, if the company doesn’t have its own Internal Communication department. This is perfectly understandable, since the social media age has raised many serious issues and the organisations are struggling to have a consistent voice. Internal messages have to be clear and transparent, and have to match with the message sent outside the organisation. Some companies have already realized that employees are the best ambassadors to communicate their message externally. This is why the employee advocate started to be a valuable asset used more and more often in both internal and external communication, stepping outside the boundary between these two functions and integrating. 

The change within the organisation would be impossible or very difficult to realize if the employees do not understand it, they lack interest, ignore it completely or they are not engaged and motivated. Here is coming into play the Internal Communication, which creates awareness about the change, explains the rationale behind, creates excitement and discussions about it, offering all the tools and channels to be implemented. The easier way to communicate a change is to communicate the added value it creates for society and environment, benefits and implications on employees’ lives, as well as, on the organisation’s image and reputation.