Sally, an internal communications manager at a healthcare provider, faces challenges in capturing employee attention amidst information overload. The document outlines eight strategies to improve internal communications effectiveness, including using diverse communication tools, tailoring messages for different audience segments, and keeping messages concise. Additionally, it emphasizes creativity in messaging and tracking communication effectiveness using technology.

1. Get Employee Attention
Learn the best ways to get employee attention and improve the
success of your internal communications

2. Meet Sally…
In her role as Internal Communications Manager for a leading
healthcare provider, Sally is responsible for keeping all 3,000+
workforce up to speed with important company news. Staff
training, compliance, risk management and project updates are
just some of the areas Sally’s tasked with communicating.

3. Sally’s challenge
Her biggest challenge is get employee attention. She
knows her emails get missed. Staff complain of email
overload, and don’t have time to read lengthy emails. Even
worse, Sally has no way of knowing who’s received, read -
and more importantly - understood the communication.

4. There’s increasing pressure from senior management to ensure all
staff are properly informed. Sally needs to find a better way to
communicate.
To help Sally, we’ve come up with 8 tips to improve the success of
her internal communications program.

5. 1. Use the right tools
These days the ‘all staff email’ simply gets buried amongst all the noise.
Look for better ways to issue important company news. Effective
techniques to get cut through now include alerts, desktop wallpapers,
RSS feeds and more.

6. 2. Tailor to your audience
If you have a multi-generational workforce, think about
creating your message in a variety of formats. For example,
instant messaging might work best for millennials whereas an
explainer video may work best for baby boomers.

8. 3. Short is sweet
Keep your message on point. Make it clear what action
needs to be taken and by when. Latest research implies
any text more than 100 words is only read by 20%.

9. 4. Write right
A good tip is to write for a 12 year old. Ditch the corporate
jargon. Tone of voice is a subtle but incredibly powerful
communication element that’s worth spending time to get
right. Before you send anything, read your communication
out loud first; you’ll know instinctively which words aren’t
right.

10. 5. Hone up the Headline
A bold headline will grab your employees’ attention
and lure them into your message. Take the time to
get this right, ideally run some A|B testing.

11. 6. Get Visual
A short video can get so much more across than a
lengthy email – and in less time. You don’t need to
hire a film crew either. These days, the recording
facility on a smartphone is more than adequate for
internal comms purposes (but it does pay to invest in
lapel mic, to ensure good sound).

13. 7. Be Creative
Humans are emotional creatures. Tell stories, use
cartoons, add humour. Look to your own colleagues
who can often be a great resource for creating the
kind of content to get employee attention.

14. 8. Time to Track
There’s no excuse nowadays for not measuring internal
comms’ effectiveness. Affordable software lets you track
everything from who’s viewed your video the whole way
through, to which staff member still needs further training
according to their quiz responses.

15. SnapComms is a global leader in internal communications software.
Its products enable organizations to communicate more effectively with
staff by ensuring message deliverability directly onto devices.
It serves 350 major organizations in more than 45 countries.