What is internal communication, and how is it managed?
It’s ten past nine. The official email hasn’t gone out yet. But everyone queuing for coffee in the kitchen is already talking about the new appointment. The news is right, the details are wrong. By the time the email lands, close to eleven, nobody even opens it.
Internal communication is about where, from whom and when employees find out what’s happening in their organisation. It isn’t a noticeboard or a newsletter. It’s the relationship an organisation has with its own people.
Why does it matter so much?
Employees are an organisation’s most credible spokespeople. Ask a friend “How are things at your place?” and their answer will carry more weight than anything on the company website. Whatever is said outside, what happens inside eventually leaks out.
Internal communication that works does three things. People know where the organisation is heading. They can see how their own work connects to it. And they hear important news from inside, not from outside.
The first channel is the manager
Mention internal communication and most organisations think of email, the intranet and the newsletter. Yet the source employees trust most is their own manager. The CEO’s email says one thing. If the team lead says something else in the weekly meeting, it’s the second version that sticks.
That’s why important news goes to managers first. A day before the announcement, or at least a few hours. Managers know what’s going to happen, why, and what questions their teams are likely to ask. A manager caught unprepared ends up saying, “I know as much as you do.” That one sentence undoes even the best-written announcement.
Which news, through which channel?
Not every piece of news deserves the same channel:
- Routine information (holidays, a new system, an event): email, the intranet, screens around the office.
- Significant changes (a new structure, an appointment, a new strategy): face to face from the manager, then in writing.
- Bad news (job cuts, budget cuts, a mistake): face to face first, from senior leadership, in a meeting open to questions. The email comes after, not before.
The rule is simple: the more a piece of news affects someone’s life, the more it should be delivered in person.
Who delivers it?
Who delivers bad news is remembered as much as the news itself. Leaving a tough decision for HR to announce tells people that whoever sits at the top isn’t standing behind it. Good news can come from anyone. Bad news needs an owner.
One-way communication isn’t internal communication
Announcing things from the top down is only half of it. The other half is listening. People need places where they can ask questions, raise concerns and actually get an answer.
That doesn’t take elaborate systems. A monthly Q&A, regular one-to-ones with managers, short surveys. What matters isn’t that the question gets asked, but that an answer comes back. A survey nobody responds to is worse than no survey at all.
Common mistakes
- Telling the press before telling employees.
- Putting everything in an email and hoping it gets read.
- Letting managers know at the last minute.
- Saying things like “we’re a family” that don’t match what people are living through.
- Saying nothing when someone leaves, or a single cold line in an email.
- Only speaking up when there’s good news.
How do you measure it?
Email open rates give you an idea, but they can mislead. A better measure is to ask people one simple question: “Where do you usually find out about important developments here?” If the answer is “in the corridor” or “from outside”, internal communication isn’t working. If it’s “from my manager”, you’re on the right track.
An announcement is read once. Who you heard it from is what you remember.
