(1) Invest time and effort
There’s no more important audience than your team. Allocate an increasing amount of marketing/HR to internal communication as you grow. A company cannot succeed unless you keep everyone updated on key happenings, and where the company is going. It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking this will all happen organically – it won’t.(2) Repeat yourself
People are busy. I’ve learnt that most will need to be told something more than once, and in different ways, to get the message across. So while you might cover something in the team meeting, that doesn’t tick the box. You’ll probably also want to have an in-person conversation about it, and send an email too.(3) Target and segment
(4) Use instant messaging for quick and instant updates
Emails can be the right medium for longer updates – but there’s a risk they can get buried in an ever-increasing inbox. And while an internal company magazine or intranet is a great for large organisations, most SMEs don’t have the budget. We’ve found instant messaging is a good way to get a quick update across with impact. (And add an image to really get your message across – as relevant here as it is for customer communications).(5) Check in with people on a regular basis
(6) Reiterate and reward
People feel tuned in if you have a defined workplace culture and shared sense of belonging. This has always been a strong feature of life at PrivateFly, but we’ve had to make a conscious effort to develop this as we’ve grown. When we re-branded earlier this year, it was a great opportunity to involve the whole team in redefining our company values. We now reiterate these on a regular basis through competitions, workshops and reward programs – including a peer-to-peer recognition scheme. And while it gets more challenging as numbers rise, it’s essential to create regular opportunities to socialise as a team. Going out is great – and we do this often. But it can also be as simple as a regular lunchtime barbecue or bring and share lunch in the office.This article is part of a wider campaign called Founders Diaries, a section of Real Business that brings together 20 inspiring business builders to share their stories. Bringing together companies from a wide variety of sectors and geographies, each columnist produces a diary entry each month. Visit the Founders Diaries section to find out more.
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