3. Striking The Right Tone

Every internal communications programme has to satisfy two opposing requirements. On the one hand, it has to act as a channel for messages from the management that is funding it. On the other, if it is to be accepted by the employee audience it is aimed at, it cannot appear to be a corporate mouthpiece. Most good internal communications programmes get round this dilemma by at least appearing to retain some semblance of objectivity.

They do this by facing up to tough issues like redundancies or pay cuts and talking about them honestly, albeit with a likely bias towards the more positive aspects of the news. They may also feature ‘softer’ topics like fundraising events or personal hobbies, both to make the communication more varied and readable and to show ‘it ain’t all work’.

Do these measures have any bearing on employee attitudes and behaviour? I think they do, but only insofar as the employee communications programme is usually a reflection of the underlying culture of a business.

I have certainly had first-hand experience of employee magazines with surprisingly loyal and enthusiastic followings, but it is fair to say that these have tended to belong to businesses with relatively honest, transparent employee policies. Under these circumstances, I believe most employees recognise the corporate nature of internal communications, but take a pragmatic view that any news from the business they work in is better than no news, and so are happy to go along with what they are being told. Provided, of course, it is not too much at odds with the information they get from other sources, like the grapevine.

Even assuming you are working with a business that recognises the value of open and honest communications it is still essential to recognise that the purpose of internal communications is to impart corporate messages to a mainly sceptical audience.