How to Overcome Internal Communications Challenges

Internal communications play a critical role in business success. But that doesn’t mean things always run smoothly. 

Data silos, misunderstandings, lack of a clear strategy—these issues can affect everything from employee engagement to your bottom line.

In the second part of our internal communications series, we take a closer look at the most common challenges and how they affect business outcomes. More importantly, we’ll show you easy and creative solutions for solving them.

Why should you care about poor internal communications?

Whether it’s peer-to-peer or peer-to-manager, poor communications can significantly impact business outcomes. 

Imagine if employees can’t access relevant information when they need to, don’t have the right tools to immediately reach out to colleagues, or are overwhelmed with too many messages and tools. It’s easy to see how this can hinder their productivity. They may also feel frustrated, which can make them less efficient and affect employee motivation.

Besides affecting existing employees within their roles, poor internal communication practices also impact external factors like how potential candidates view your company. 

Lack of transparency and clarity can hamper diversity hiring efforts and the candidate experience during recruitment drives.

In addition, poor internal communications have a knock-on effect on your customers. If teams are not coordinated in-house, they can’t handle customer queries effectively, which affects brand perception and your bottom line.

Common challenges in internal communications

Even if you’ve identified that your internal communications needs work, it can be tricky to figure out why. Here are some of the most common areas where businesses and teams struggle.

Lack of transparency

As we discussed in part one of our internal communications series, being successful means taking a company-wide approach. 

Unfortunately, many managers, team leaders, and business owners withhold valuable information that would help employees in numerous ways. It could give them insight into a particular client or project or help them understand why your company operates in a particular way.

This lack of transparency can cause lasting damage, particularly if the company is undergoing major changes that leaders aren’t upfront about. As a result, it can cause miscommunication and a breakdown in trust.

Overloading employees with too much information

Information overload is a significant issue for many businesses, particularly given the sheer number of communication platforms available today. Between collaboration tools, messaging apps, email, meetings, and company newsletters, employees can easily become overwhelmed. 

You might think it’s helpful to keep employees up to date and increase transparency. But sharing too much information (and in too many places) can actually have the opposite effect, as employees can miss important details and become confused about where to find the latest updates.

Using the wrong systems and channels

Many businesses struggle with archaic communication methods that are detrimental to employee engagement as well as productivity. For example, more traditional messaging like email threads and memos are becoming increasingly outdated, largely because it’s all too easy for information to go astray.

On the flip side, modern platforms can be confusing for some employees. They often require onboarding and a learning curve. What’s more, if not integrated properly, they can actually hamper communications as well as productivity and morale.

Failure to provide feedback

Ironically, failing to communicate feedback leads to further breakdown in communication. Employees need to understand what they’re doing well or where they’re going wrong in their role, otherwise they won’t be able to improve.

On a more granular scale, lack of feedback also means employees might be unsure if their messages have been received or understood. This can cause them to lose confidence in your internal communications strategies and stop messaging others altogether.

5 internal communications strategies for overcoming challenges

Addressing challenges requires leaders to be proactive rather than reactive. Here are some practical solutions:

1. Streamline your communication channels

Use designated platforms for different types of communication. This might be a dedicated channel for project updates, something else for general announcements, and another for team discussions. 

Find a balance, though. You don’t want employees bouncing between too many channels and platforms. Make sure all information is organized, manageable, and relevant and that everyone understands what information to share where. 

2. Categorize your information 

Create a structured approach for how information is disseminated. This might be a newsletter or a summary report where non-essential content is filtered. This allows employees to receive the most important information without overwhelming them. 

3. Create feedback loops

Develop and use regular feedback loops so employees have opportunities to make suggestions and voice any concerns. This ensures your messaging is clear and that your actions are aligned with what’s been understood by employees. 

4. Use a risk management program

Having an enterprise risk management program can help address any communication challenges that are related to security and compliance. These programs mean that businesses handle sensitive information properly, ensuring that all communication practices align with organizational policies. This means there is a reduced risk of data breaches and improved compliance.

5. Invest in modern tools

There are so many new communication tools out there. Though resistance to change is sometimes an issue, modern communication tools and technologies are likely to change internal communication for the better – provided that they’re introduced to good communication themselves.

Solutions like integrated communication systems, CMDB tools, and cloud-based platforms help streamline communications and improve the overall business communication effectiveness.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is also changing things. AI offers advanced communication capabilities through the likes of chatbots and predictive analytics. This can streamline your communication processes and provide employees with more personalized communication. 

Conclusion

There will inevitably be hurdles as you strive for better internal communications, but you can overcome them with a clear plan and the right tools. Make sure there’s a structure for sharing and storing information, and for giving (and responding to) feedback.

It’s also important to adopt more advanced communication tools and measure their impact. Of course, these need to be reviewed and updated regularly to ensure that they continue to meet organizational needs.

With modern approaches and strategies, all employees, from new hires to top-level managers, will be on the same page. Having a seamless flow of information can only help drive business outcomes.