By Stéphaine Bernat, VP Marketing and Communication at Cenareo. Passionate about the relationship between employees and their companies, Stéphaine Bernat has always worked in marketing and communication roles in retail environments at an international level before becoming interested in the world of SaaS. It is now on the issues of adopting digital communication on screen at Cenareo that she is exploring another aspect of the dialogue between a brand and its audience, whether internal or external.
After a tumultuous year 2020, in an unprecedented context of crisis and upheaval for each of us, both in our personal life and as a company employee, some questions are already being asked.
How can we imagine the business of tomorrow? Our expectations, aspirations or priorities for the company will no doubt have changed. What roles should companies play with their employees? This is where internal communication, which has played a major role for several years, will become even more strategic.
Amplifying the primary goals of internal communication
It has already been several years now that internal communication has become a strategic asset for the company. It is necessary to unite around a corporate vision, business objectives to be achieved together. It is therefore particularly useful for Raise the level of employee engagement and, as a result, nourish the employer brand.
It is all the more important at a time when everyone is looking to find more meaning in their work, as well as in the way they consume. This is even more true in large groups, which are sometimes spread out over several sites or subsidiaries and in which an employee can quickly feel drowned in the mass.
To be relevant, an internal communication strategy must guarantee the coherence and transparency of the statements made. It must also ensure that it is delivered at the right time and to the right recipients to ensure that the message is perfectly received and integrated. It is this chemistry that will nourish the trust of employees in their company.
Initiatives that will continue
And, what was already a necessity before Covid-19, is even more so after.
Because this crisis has directly impacted our trust; the trust we have in our leaders, in our country's economy, in our health system, and more directly, our confidence in our personal resilience, our immunity, our immunity, our employer to support us in this crisis.
For Get through this crisis well, the company must maintain this level of trust from all its employees, regardless of their situation. There are those who continue to go to their workplace, those who are teleworking, and those who are technically unemployed.
Faced with this diversity within organizations, internal communication represents a real challenge. It must make it possible to guarantee the safety of the employees present, to congratulate them, to encourage them but also to maintain the link and motivation with those who are at home.
And despite these very different situations, everyone needs authentic communication to maintain trust.
To do this, companies have multiplied initiatives with their staff, in order to maintain the link and support the most fragile: teleconference, FAQ developed based on questions and comments from employees, a toll-free number available 24/7, sharing of best practices remotely between managers, sharing best practices remotely between managers, Intranet, online community space to exchange and share... For the least digitized companies, the tool revolution took place in a few days at the speed of Enlighten! And employees use it immediately, much more natural and spontaneous than if they had deployed it in a normal situation.
Building trust even more
For the employer, there is a need to strengthen the trust and cohesion of employees in a context where teleworking is becoming widespread. This will require his ability to communicate effectively over and over again the health precautions to be adopted. But it will be all the more essential to communicate transparently the results achieved even if they are not up to par, the consequences of the crisis on business, and a reorientation of the strategy to guarantee the most effective recovery. This is to avoid gray areas, to undermine rumours and to prevent divestment.
More than ever, employees will need to be proud of their achievements and those of their company. Internal communication should be the showcase of the solidarity actions implemented during the crisis and their extension in the post-crisis period.
But beyond transmitting this very top-down information, it will be essential to show recognition to its employees: salute the resilience and adaptability they have shown.
A need that increases even more in the ability to dialogue.
Because teleworking, sometimes non-existent in some structures before the crisis, has completely become routine and may become a normal way of working, all digital tools, massively adopted in 2020, will continue to be popular.
They will be as many new communication channels and will continue to be used to maintain the dialogue created by employees between themselves and with their managers, to break down barriers between departments.
The challenge will then be to no longer limit internal communication to a top-down approach. This digitalization should give employees the opportunity to ask questions and receive answers transparently, to evaluate actions implemented internally or externally. It is also an opportunity for management teams to launch a survey whose results could be communicated live. On company sites, mandatory information that has hitherto been relayed in paper format can be relayed via dynamic signage, for greater fluidity and a repetition of messages favorable to retention.. Because preventive actions will still be essential to be transmitted to as many people as possible to guarantee the safety of all.
The role of internal communication will be key and must be prepared now by drawing inspiration from this period rich in exchanges and transparency in dialogue.
This will involve adopting the same management as for external communication: allocating a budget to its internal communication in line with the expected results, relying on useful and meaningful content, reflecting the DNA and values of the company, adopting a sincere and authentic tone.
There is no doubt that the already porous border between internal and external communication will be further refined in the post-Covid-19 world.. Employees will expect more transparency, authenticity, and commitment from their company, just as customers expect brands.
Cenareo offers a dynamic signage solution to give added value to your internal communication strategy. Its strength lies in its ability to quickly manage displays remotely, collaboratively, as well as in the speed with which content is updated.
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