Internal communication examples from successful campaigns

No matter what information you are working to communicate to employees, the message must be delivered clearly and effectively to have the most impact. If you are looking for inspiration, here are a few internal communication examples from successful campaigns that you can pull from to incorporate into your comms efforts.

Internal communication examples from successful campaigns

It is common sense that communicating with your workforce would be good for business. Still, the challenge for communicators and HR professionals is defining what success looks like for different kinds of internal communication campaigns and whether or not their efforts are making a difference in employees’ lives.

While “success” can mean different things depending on the situation, there are ways to ensure your internal communication efforts meet your organization’s goals, provide visibility into corporate initiatives, distribute vital information, and increase employee engagement. 

Through optimizing, studying real-time analytics, and using the proper channels to meet employees where they are, internal communication at your organization will be better prepared to deliver positive outcomes.

This post will look at successful employee communication examples, how campaigns are used, and how the Firstup intelligent communications platform improves how over 500 people-first companies worldwide reach and engage millions of employees daily.

The impact of effective internal communication campaigns

There is a business advantage for a company that has a successful internal communication program in place. Employees will be more informed, understand the company’s mission, and see their role as an essential part of achieving goals. 

An added bonus? They’re more likely to share the company’s story with the broader world.

Simply put, when a company is forthright and transparent about news—both good and bad—employees will respond positively. And let’s be clear: Today’s employees not only appreciate it, they expect it.

A recent survey found that 74% of employees have the feeling they’re missing out on company news because the internal communication department is non-existent or doing a poor job.

This is why internal communication strategies have become the centerpiece of creating a great employee experience. It also explains the growing recognition that digital tools for internal communication help businesses reach their workers and can have a measurable impact by:

Growing the business

Better internal communication increases employee satisfaction, productivity, and innovation through meaningful engagement. People want to know how their efforts contribute to the company’s success. 

When they understand the mission, they’re more likely to go above and beyond to help achieve it.

Reducing risk

Clear internal communication can decrease risk in a multitude of ways. When employees understand the right way to do something, they will. This can improve the physical safety of employees at work through the dissemination of proper safety procedures, especially during crisis communication. It also can mitigate liability to the company—such as ensuring compliance on social media. 

internal communication risk reduction

Effective communication can also keep employees safe during times of crisis.

Increasing brand and employee advocacy

Employees are more likely to become passionate advocates when they have access to information that makes them knowledgeable and excited about the business. They will be more eager to share the company story with their networks on social media when they feel like a valued part of the company culture.

Reducing costs

A consolidated platform home to all internal communication results in lower operational and technology costs. Think of all the ways and places employees are asked to find information. A company intranet, email, and collaborative tools (Slack, Trello, and so on). It can be overwhelming, distracting, and ultimately self-defeating. Streamlining that information into a single platform made employees more efficient. 

It also saves money by reducing systems.

Improving business agility

Perhaps the biggest reason why internal communication can have a profound impact is that companies gain a competitive advantage. They can mobilize all their employees to react quickly to meet changing market and business needs.

Things happen fast in the business world. Successful internal communication helps ensure employees respond quickly to company-wide announcements.

Creating authentic engagement

By creating engaging internal communication, HR and internal communicators encourage two-way conversations between employees and companies, a key aspect of a healthy work environment. When employees feel heard and their opinions/ideas are valued, they are far more engaged in the company culture as well as in the success of the company. 

employee engagement

Elements of a successful internal communications campaign

Being successful at internal communication in your organization takes more than setting up a company intranet and hoping for the best; it takes many different parts working in sync to deliver an amazing employee experience.

A good communication strategy can help increase employee morale, engagement, and align employees with an organization’s vision and mission. 

Here are a few elements you need for a successful internal communications campaign, all provided by the Firstup intelligent communications platform, which engages your employees at every moment from hire to retire, and delivers engagement insights to help you support, promote, and retain your people.

Connected… everything

Firstup unifies employee communications on a single platform, with upcoming new HCM connectors (including Workday, SAP Successfactors, Oracle HCM, and UKG), and more systems will be able to send notifications directly into Firstup. 

In addition, a new employee hub will serve as a single access and action point for all important employee tools and systems, and enhanced integration with Microsoft Teams that provides an in-app experience and eliminates the need to switch in and out of apps.

Research shows that 88% of new employees don’t believe organizations do a great job of onboarding.

These features were designed to eliminate unnecessary complexity for employees and improve the signals of what matters most.

Engaging and automated content

Pre-built journeys, and customizable brand features, with a centralized asset library, make it easy to build campaigns at scale, eliminating complexity and delivering what matters most.  

You can also automate the delivery of campaigns using data-driven orchestration—tripling engagement while reducing digital noise.

Personalized communications

The Firstup platform connects all your systems, creating a Universal Employee Profile for each employee. Combining multiple data sources allows you to create rules using employee attributes, engagement data, followed groups, location, department, and more. 

In addition, Audience Builder supports complex segmentation so you can ensure personalization to the right audience.

Firstup provides a seamless experience with content delivered to where your people are most likely to consume it.

personalized internal communications

Optimized delivery

Organizations can optimize the delivery of employee campaigns with the new Engagement Boost feature that intelligently predicts and orchestrates the optimal delivery channel and time, resulting in up to 3x increase in engagement results.

With new delivery connectors being added, teams can now deliver content into even more employee experience platforms such as (e.g. MS Viva Connections, ServiceNow, Workday People Experience, Oracle ME, SuccessFactors), and new real-time delivery reporting capabilities.

Real-time analytics

Experience analytics serve as an early warning for employee dissatisfaction, burnout, or a need for change in the business. Continuously updated delivery and engagement results ensure the next message is personalized and meaningful.

The Firstup communication pipeline connects your employee channels, reduces digital noise, and delivers data-driven insights.

Effective internal communication examples

Internal communication done right pays off in spades across an entire enterprise.

Next, we will take a look at a few ways companies are using internal communications campaigns—including some using employee apps—to distribute information, engage employees, share resources, provide company updates, reduce costs, and implement company-wide change.

Effective internal communication examples

Let one (or more!) of these internal communication examples serve as inspiration for your own internal comms needs!

Internal communications example: Information comms

Southern Company Gas launched the FirstUp platform to give employees the same digital experience at every endpoint, including on mobile and SharePoint, providing the entire team with greater access to relevant content and news through communication channels, leading to improved employee engagement.

Plus, it had the added benefit of positively impacting the company’s bottom line!

Internal communications example: Crisis comms

Being able to centralize internal communication and reach every worker on their preferred communication channel is critical for an industry like healthcare, where workers must mobilize quickly.

When COVID-19 hit, Providence could view unified analytics for their pandemic messaging with the FirstUp Analyze dashboard

Seeing the employee response to their messaging across all the segments of their worker population helped the company foster company-wide alignment across the entire workforce around their pandemic response.

Internal communications example: Culture comms

Consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton was concerned that its workforce of 24,000-plus mostly dispersed employees had become a “lost tribe” because they lacked a connection with the home office. 

Adding an internal communication platform accessible on multiple channels created richer, real-time connections with every employee.

Internal communications example: Reducing costs

After modernizing with Firstup, Lincoln Financial was able to reach 100% of its workforce on employees’ preferred communications channels, aligning and coordinating action around key line-of-business strategies. Implementing these changes has resulted in significant time and cost savings. 

The internal comms team can publish 2x faster as they did before using Firsup, simplifying their stack for greater efficiency.

Internal communications example: Corporate change comms

Wawa, the East Coast convenience store company with 33,000 employees, had trouble reaching frontline workers spread across 800 locations. 

Wawa dramatically improved response time to supply-chain issues when employees had access to information on their mobile devices and employee apps and could offer immediate feedback and voice job concerns.

Conclusion

Compelling and practical internal communication is vital to the success of any organization. It drives employee engagement, promotes positive company culture, delivers a streamlined onboarding experience, raises the bar for effective crisis communication, and strategically improves two-way communication between leadership, managers, and employees.

“Firstup was a way for us to include all of those employees, whether you sat at a desk in our corporate offices, or you’re on the floor servicing customers, or you’re part-time and might only work a couple of days a week, we were able to reach all of those employees with the same communication at the same time.”

Michelle DiTondo, Avion Consulting, MGM Resorts

The Firstup intelligent communications platform delivers it all and more. As demonstrated in the internal communication examples, it’s a single platform to connect the employee experience, unlock real-time intelligence, and deliver personalized communications at scale.

FAQ

What is included in internal communications?

Internal communications is the communication between companies, leadership, and employees, creating a shared understanding of company goals, values, and guidelines. Internal communications is critical for keeping employees up-to-date on a company’s latest initiatives, establishing a voice of authority and trust to combat rumors, and facilitating streamlined, clear communications among different departments.

What makes an effective communications campaign?

An effective communications campaign is one that is driven by the purpose of the campaign.
Goals must be set, correct audiences must be targeted, sent communications must resonate with recipients, and any required actions/responses should be clear.

What is a strategic communication campaign?

Strategic communication campaigns are purposeful messages and engagement used by organizations to communicate with employees about policies, initiatives, information, as well as products and services.

Related resources

Firstup

Firstup

Firstup is the world’s first intelligent communication platform. More than 40 percent of Fortune 100 companies use our platform to connect with their people, design and deliver personalized communications, and gain engagement insights throughout the employee journey. With Firstup, employers can view engagement data in real time, by organization, department, or employee. That helps leaders better understand their workforce, make informed decisions, and provide better experiences from hire to retire. Companies like Amazon, Tesco, Ford, and Hilton use Firstup every day to improve outcomes for their employees.

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