12 Internal Communications Best Practices (For 2024)

Ineffective internal communications cost businesses $2,000,000,000,000 (that’s $2 trillion 🤯) a year, according to the 2023 report on workplace communications for US businesses.

It’s not because leaders don’t care. They do, spending up to 10 hours/week just toiling over employee communications.

Here’s where their issue comes in: Despite 77% of leaders thinking they’re giving employees the context they need to perform well, only 46% of the employees agree.

That divide of opinion isn’t too surprising. A lot has changed in the last year alone in terms of communication. People are online more than ever, and how we pay attention is fundamentally shifting.  

If you want to help your employees perform, the following internal communications best practices for 2024 are exactly what you’re looking for.

Why internal communications best practices are so important

Internal communication is a way for employees at every level to connect. When employees interact and connect frequently, you cultivate a positive culture of teamwork and productivity. For more than 80% of employees, communication is more important than office perks, and you've got all the reasons to improve communication.

With a solid internal communications strategy, your internal communications department will manage to:

• Get everyone on the same page.
• Give the lowdown that different departments and teams need to adjust to changes.
• Help widely distributed workforces feel in the loop and valued, making employees feel happier and more dedicated.
• Create trust and clear up any mix-ups or wrong info floating around in the company.

1. Promote employee resources and training

57% of employees expect to learn on a ‘just-in-time’ basis. In other words, rather than learning a new skill in advance, they want to pull up training when the need arises quickly.

The only issue with this preference is that training often gets made in advance, then forgotten in their moment of need. That’s a frustrating scenario that can quickly reduce efficiency and waste time.

Therefore, internal communications best practices require that you constantly promote your learning resources to employees, no matter how long they’ve been at the company. Market these resources like you would any other library. Here are a few quick internal comms best practices to encourage employees to adopt your training materials:

• Remind managers that when onboarding new employees, they should be able to answer 50%-80% of questions with pre-made videos and documents.
• In monthly or quarterly communications, remind folks where they can find the resources they need to upskill and what those resources can teach. 
• Invest in making your training more engaging and consumable. For example, turn lengthy documentation into micro-videos or make complex material more engaging with interactive elements.

2. Publicly recognize top performers

Another best practice is to acknowledge your employees' contributions publically.

Employee recognition is an essential component of internal communications that improves productivity by 31%. But people don’t need fancy bonuses or rewards to feel satisfied. They just need to be seen and applauded by their peers and management.

So, employee performance recognition doesn’t have to be taxing or time-consuming for you to give. Something as simple as running an internal poll to vote for ‘team member of the month’ and giving out company swag as a reward can boost employee morale and make them feel appreciated.

In larger organizations or even decentralized companies, employee recognition can feel like a lot of work. After all, you need to personalize messages to more than a few employees and make each message feel personal (as opposed to automated). 

Still, following internal communications best practices, you could achieve personalization at scale by:

• Turning your boss into an avatar
• Using your employee's native language
• Using personalization tags in email service providers
• Getting ChatGPT to write a personal-sounding letter using a template

3. Create a space to share industry and company news

Sharing industry-specific resources and news internally keeps everyone in the loop about the bigger world outside your office walls. Informed employees can also bounce conversations and ideas, making other employees engage as well.

For this purpose, you could dedicate a portion of your week to finding and sharing the latest industry news or other industry-related blurbs. But here's a better communications strategy — set up a communal space for your organization (or departments if you’re at a company with 50+ employees). 

Create a channel in your instant messaging app and inform employees that this is where you'll all share industry news and cool new tools. For the first few months, internal communications best practices require that you encourage employees to use the channel. Post to it once a week to keep sharing on people’s minds and comment on what others post. Once the habit exists, this type of internal communication will start to happen naturally. 

4. Avoid communication overload

There’s a fine line between valuable internal communications and micro-management that leads to communication overload and unnecessary pressure. 

One daily communication best practice is to keep your messages highly succinct. You want it to require little effort to respond from employees. 

Weekly communication, such as finding out who will be in the office next week or sharing progress updates, can be a bit longer. Still, it should be consumable within a minute or two so that, again, you avoid communication overload.

Monthly internal communications can be much longer and link to internal blog posts, industry news, or new training resources. 

Finally, with quarterly and yearly communication, you don't need to worry that much about how to avoid overwhelming employees. This one's best when it’s long and comprehensive.

Keeping employees in the loop and giving them context into where the company’s going, how the culture will shift or stay the same, and bigger initiatives will help people feel involved and hopeful about the future.

5. Always do quality assurance on scheduled communication

Imagine accidentally sending a 'Happy Friday!' email on a Monday. It's a small mistake, but it lets everyone know you’ve automated how you’re communicating with them. After that, you can kiss your employee engagement metrics goodbye.

To ensure each message is the best it can be before everyone sees it, you need an approval process and extra eyes to review and give the thumbs up.

Internal communications best practices require you to have at least two people review important internal communication before it’s scheduled and sent out.

6. Keep your communication style consistent and transparent

Internal communications success requires consistency. With consistency in communication, there's no room for mixed-up messages and no head-scratching over what the company's up to.

Saying, "Here's the full picture, folks!" isn’t always easy, but it builds trust and makes everyone feel included and informed about what's happening in the company. 

Use internal communications to share the good news and the challenges.

7. Measure your engagement

There’s nothing worse than sending out a message or email and getting a few pity emoji reactions and no comments.

Instead, track the key metrics and internal benchmarks for your internal communications program. And once you've measured results, take steps to improve employee engagement to ensure effective internal communications.

It's best practice to monitor and set quarterly goals for:

• Views and open rates
• Comments
• Shares
• Likes
• Employee feedback survey scores
• Participation rates in events or initiatives

8. Try out internal blogs or monthly newsletters

Internal blogs or newsletters are a great way for everyone to stay connected and keep up with the latest ideas within the company, all at their own pace.

One of the internal communications best practices that would make you stand out is creating a Synthesia video newsletter with engaging, bite-sized videos. You’ll craft these micro-videos faster than you can write a blog post.

Alternatively, you could send out a newsletter using a template with a personal note from your CEO that includes relevant updates and industry news.

9. Build spaces for cross-departmental communication

Everyone hates silos but frequently finds themselves inside of one, unable to escape. 

Breaking down the virtual walls between departments can result in truly innovative ideas and projects. Still, people don’t just get to know each other organically. Someone needs to get the conversation going, especially if your team’s remote. 

Try to implement the following internal communications best practices:

• Host interdepartmental meetings, cross-training sessions, company-sponsored seminars, and career-building workshops or other off-site training opportunities.
• Organize internal networking events and friendly competitions.
• Run a ‘day-long internship’ where employees swap roles for the day. 
• Start fun communication that breaks the ice (like silly Friday polls with topics such as “Have you ever learned to play an instrument?”)

10. Organize in-person team meetings and events

In-person team meetings are a chance to step away from screens and have real face-to-face conversations, much like gathering everyone around a campfire.

These meetings aren't just for general internal communications. They can spark great ideas, strengthen team bonds, and add a personal touch that sometimes gets lost in digital communication.

Company events are another essential component of effective internal communication. They help employees leave their usual work setting and bond over different activities. 

Think of it as creating moments where everyone can relax, chat, and get to know each other beyond their job titles. These events can be anything from a casual picnic to a formal gala.

11. Say 'yes' to feedback

41% of employees left a job where they didn’t feel listened to. Set up employee communication feedback channels to give them a voice and a space to share their thoughts, ideas, and concerns.

Whether through surveys, forums, or regular meetings, you want to:

• Maintain transparency.
• Make employees feel heard and valued.
• Gather insights for more effective internal communications.

Internal communications best practices aim to collect and analyze first-hand employee feedback at least once every six months. You could also run internal AMAs in your instant messaging chat by asking team members to submit questions to managers. 

12. Use video for internal communications

Using video for internal communications makes your company updates and guides more interesting to go through.

You can turn a long, snoozy email into a short, fun video with Synthesia without even having to show up on camera.

Synthesia lets you sit at your desk and type in what you want to say. Then, it turns your words into a cool video with a talking head from its 160+ diverse AI avatars (digital versions of real actors). 

It's handy for making all sorts of videos without needing to be a tech expert, have fancy cameras, or record yourself. And it gives your internal communications strategy a makeover with mini-movies everyone wants to watch.

How to upgrade your internal comms using best practices

Now you know the best practices of 2024, it’s time to dig in and start making high-impact changes. 

Step 1: Audit your current internal communications program

See how information flows in your workplace, who talks to whom, and through what channels. If you can, find employee communication engagement metrics to prove what’s currently working and what’s not. It’s also a great idea to send employees a feedback survey at this stage. 

Step 2: Set your goals for reaching internal communications success

Decide what you want to achieve with your communication. One big goal is ensuring everyone understands their role and how they contribute to the company's success. Another could be cultivating a company culture of teamwork and collaboration or spreading the word about the professional development opportunities you provide.

Step 3: Know your audience and what makes your employees engaged

Classify your employees by relevant segments like department, role, skill level, location, age, culture, communication preferences, etc. Knowing these upfront can help you diversify your language, jokes, and general content to have more engaged employees.

Step 4: Craft your key internal communications messages

Using the best practices, decide how your current internal comms need to adapt and change to an increasingly remote workforce and how you can encourage cross-departmental communication. Try also to make internal communications fun and reflect your company culture through it, keeping ideas consistent with your core values.

Step 5: Choose your most valuable internal comms channels

Instead of a single internal communication channel, use a mix of internal communications tools and methods like video, emails, social media, etc., based on each message type and audience segment. Consider getting some help from your marketing team as well.

Step 6: Schedule important communications like meetings and updates

Make an internal communications plan with specific internal communications initiatives. Assign responsibility for sending out each message and ensure you’ve scheduled time to connect with your peers. 

Enjoy next-level internal communications with affordable AI videos

In the modern business world, transforming your internal communications plan is about:

• Following employee communications best practices to increase employee engagement.
• Leveraging rapid innovation tools to give your organization a major strategic advantage.

For example, Cohesity used the AI video maker Synthesia to ramp up its internal communication strategy for training. The result was a 200% increase in video view retention with $100,000 savings in video production.

Want to remain competitive and leverage AI to produce compelling video internal communications that get heard, felt, and remembered by all your internal stakeholders? 

See how you can use Synthesia's free AI video creator to create engaging internal communication videos in minutes!