Important Internal Communications Trends for 2019

We’re already one month into 2019 so, if you haven’t already, it’s time to start looking at the key internal communications trends for this year. Preparing yourself and getting onboard with these trends now could give your business a big advantage over your competitors.

Employee Focus

One trend that we expect to continue to grow is the focus on employees. We can’t highlight enough how important is to have employees fully engaged and included in your internal communications. You can’t expect to have successful internal communications without a good understanding of what employees want and need. Employee focus is a broad topic so we are going to highlight the leading 2 areas for this year.

1 – Increasing Peer-to-Peer Communication

Step away from the traditional internal communications methods. Many organisations are now moving away from top down communications in favour of peer to peer communications. Create champions for various topics who you can count on to spread whichever message you are promoting. Employees will usually respond more openly and honest to their peers which is great when you’re looking for feedback on what’s working well and what could perhaps do with some tweaking.

Workplace Wellbeing

60% of companies don’t have a standalone wellbeing strategy! Although we are taking great steps towards having more open and honest discussions about mental, and physical, health there’s still a long way to go. The cost to UK businesses linked to employee wellbeing is around £73 billion a year! This includes everything from absenteeism, loss of productivity to sick pay. Focusing on your employees in 2019 will result in you seeing huge positive changes in your organisation. We put together our own mini guide for mental health in the workplace, what to look out for in others and what employers can do to help.

Flexible Working

In an increasingly mobile world, the workplace is no different. When searching for a new job, one of the top deciding factors between organisations is which offers the best work-life balance. The option to work from home, or work from anywhere in world, on any device is a key factor to achieving successful internal communications.

Learn more about deskless workers, they make up 60% of our workforces but are they being looked after? Discover the problems they face and what organisations can do to help them.

Gamification

Gamification isn’t as simple as turning work into a game. It should be used to improve employee engagement levels and motivation. Without going into too much detail, the key to making gamification a success is to include employees along the process. In addition to being fun, the game also needs to show workplace value too. This could be through weekly quizzes, rewards for hitting KPIs and more. When completed to a high standard, it has been shown that employee productivity increased by 90%.

Internal Content Creation

Creating content for internal eyes is just as important as creating external content. When you regularly present your employees with relevant, interesting content they will feel valued and engaged. As we have discussed before, a more engaged workforce will result in higher productivity. Keep an eye out for upcoming posts on how you can encourage internal content creation in your organisation. The perfect way to share and encourage internal content is through the use of an enterprise social network platform.

Less Text, More Visuals

A trend we saw grow rapidly last year was an increased focus on video content. People are more stimulated, and likely to interact, with something visual. This could be anything from short vlogs, interviews to educational snippets. There are plenty more to choose from so we encourage you to take a look and see which content type would fit with your organisation’s branding and culture.

Data Rules

We know we run the risk of losing you here, so we promise to keep this point short. GDPR – it isn’t going anywhere so make sure you understand what it means for your organisation and that you’re compliant. We know it’s like hearing a broken record, but it is important.

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