This presentation outlines what internal communication is and why it can be more important than external communication. If employees are informed and engaged in their work, and have the right access to business messages, the products and services they deliver can be completed to the highest possible standard. Too many businesses focus their energy on external communication; promoting products and services to clients and spending countless dollars on marketing and promotional material. If a business has good internal communication, then employees can become brand ambassadors and promote the work of the business because they believe in what the business is providing to its clients and potential customers. For more information about business-related communication, visit speakingofcomms.com

1. The relationship between internal
and external communication
(and why internal should come first)

2. To understand this relationship, we must first look at
how a business functions…

3. Businesses are driven by strategic goals and
deliverables.
These include…
Strategic Intent:
Mission, Vision,
Values
Corporate Plan,
Deliverables,
Objectives and
Measures of
success
Legal
Requirements/
Policy
Budget
Financial Year
Priorities
Industry trends/
market
segments

4. There are usually three primary work functions that
help the business meet its vision…
Operational, Delivery and Enabling

5. Operational and Delivery areas oversee the
business vision and manage the business’s core
functions.
These two areas are supported by the business
Enabling areas.

6. Operational areas are concerned with managing
and directing the physical and/or technical
functions of the business.
• Budget and Policy Management (Legal
Department, Accounting/Finance)
• Management of BAU tasks and existing
customer products and services
(Customer Service, Administration,
Shopfronts/ Retail).

7. Delivery areas are concerned with meeting the
strategic objectives by developing work
and initiatives.
• Project Teams
• Business Intelligence/Data
Analysis
• Continuous Improvement
• Innovation
• Forecasting

8. Enabling areas support both the Delivery and
Operational areas by assisting with the people side
of the business. This ensures that employees have
the right information, support and tools to do their
job, and also means that new initiatives or
business change is appropriately supported from
both an employee and customer perspective.
• Human Resources
• Information Technology
• Marketing / Communications
• Corporate Governance
• Learning and Development
• Quality Assurance
• Employee Engagement

9. (Both Internal and External Communication are
enabling functions)

10. The relationship between the Delivery,
Operational and Enabling areas depends
on communication.
Employees need to know when things
change or what upcoming initiatives might
influence their work or the way they work.

11. All three work areas can influence business
change or share news about their work.
Customer feedback might signal the need for
IT change, legislation might mean a HR policy
change, and a project might impact the BAU
work of a particular team…

12. Employees react differently to the
information and communication they receive
about their work and their
work environment.
Their reaction is based on their motivation,
level of engagement, and belief in
business messages.

13. The average business is motivated by two
primary goals: to provide a service to its
existing customers and to maximise its profit
in a particular market segment.

14. However, a customer is not motivated by
the same reasons…
Nor are the employees who work for
the business…

15. What motivates an employee can impact the level
of engagement they have with the business.
Employee engagement is the extent to which
employees feel a personal and emotional
attachment to their work, their leader, and the
business vision.

16. Poor levels of employee engagement means
two things for a business: work is not
performed to a high standard and there are
high rates of employee turnover.
This in turn impacts the quality of products
and services that are designed and delivered
to customers; including the ongoing support
of these items.

17. Internal Communication largely focuses on
communicating the vision of the business,
the work in progress that is contributing to
that vision, advising employees of business
change, and providing employees with
information relating to other enabling areas
that support the employee’s work.

18. Internal Communication cannot function
without engaged employees who are a result
of engaged and competent leaders.
This is why Internal Communication has its
foundations in employee engagement
and leadership.

19. Internal Communication sees the breadth of
the business.
Each box in the diagram represents a different
area of the business which also represents a
depth of knowledge related to that
particular area.
Internal Communication

20. Leaders provide information and updates to
the Internal Communication team, and may
also seek communication advice for how to
inform staff of business changes and
business messages.

21. Communicating across the entire business
allows Internal Communication to deliver on
its roles and functions:
• tell employees what they need to know about the company’s projects, business decisions,
and business direction
• gives employees a general awareness of upcoming initiatives and updates to customer
products and services
• helps keep employees on the same page by providing corporate messages about leadership
decisions and deliverables
• lets the various business areas know what is happening in another team or department
• ensures that frontline employees are aware of what customers might call and ask questions
about in relation to new or changed services
• helps give line-of-sight to the business’s strategic direction and corporate plan; often
outlining why work is being performed as well as sharing the success of completed projects.

22. When employees are disengaged, or when
leaders do not understand the role and
function of Internal Communication,
information becomes siloed both within and
across work areas.
Internal Communication

23. Poor Internal Communication means…
work is not completed to a desired standard
because information is not shared; resulting in
work that is finalised without consideration of
competing priorities, and eventually impacting
employees and the customer experience.

24. To understand how the customer experience
and employee engagement is impacted by
poor Internal Communication, we can look
at how, when, and why customers interact
with the business…

25. How do customers know or find out about
the business?
• General marketing / advertising of the business
• Media and News coverage
• Word-of-mouth
• Interaction/historical knowledge based on experience
• Shopfronts/ retail stores
• Active research/ ‘pull’ themselves towards
information
• Direct marketing/information ‘pushed’ to them

26. Why do they interact with the business?
• Access to products, services and/or information
• Legal requirement to interact (ie government agency)
• Purchase of items
• Payment of services
• Complaints

27. When and how do they interact with the
business?
• When they need to
• When they have to
• When they want to
Interaction takes place via customer service (F2F and telephony),
shopfronts, retail stores, and on digital channels such as the website
and social media.
The type of enquiry, and communication preference, can influence
what method a customer chooses to interact with the business.

28. This means that the knowledge and trust
that a customer has of a business is
determined by the quality of products and
services they use, their customer service
experience, the medium they communicate
with the business, and the perceptions their
peers have of the business…

29. Any direct message a customer receives from
the business comes directly from
internal sources…
If the internal sources (the employees) do
not have the right tools, information or
interest in aiding the customer experience,
the entire business’s brand, image and
reputation suffers.

30. Let’s take a journey…
Let’s pretend that a business product is released
onto the market and the Customer Service
Department were not told about it…

31. The Customer Service Department keep getting
calls about the product – leading them to feel
disgruntled and frustrated that they do not have
the right tools, information or access to perform
their job…

32. The Customer Service Department contact different
departments within the business to find out who
released the product and to get more information
about it.
This is so that they can answer customer questions
about the product…

33. The Customer Service Manager also contacts their
Director and tells them that they were not
informed of a newly released product…

34. The Director investigates where the product came
from and discovers that it was released by the
Business Improvement Department…

35. The Business Improvement Department tell the
Director that information about the product has
been published on the website and the business’s
social media channels.
They tell the director just to refer customers to the
external communication messages…

36. (The Web Publishing and Social Media team
published the information on behalf of the Business
Improvement Department)…

37. During lunch, the Customer Service Director tells a
colleague about the new product that no one
knew about…

38. The colleague works in Governance and tells the
Director that they also didn’t know about the
product. The Governance employee investigates…

39. He finds out that the product is a new app that
helps job-seekers connect with employers…

40. The app uses satellite systems to connect travelling
job-seekers with local businesses looking
to recruit intermittent employees…

41. The Governance employee contacts his Policy
co-worker and tells her about the new app…

42. She asks to see the strategy for the app to see if it
addresses the upcoming legislative changes
surrounding the use of satellite systems…

43. She finds out that the Business Improvement
Department never knew about the upcoming
legislative changes…

44. The Legal Team and Information Technology Team
are now involved…

45. They have to work with Business Improvement to
determine what needs to happen to the app to
meet the new legislative requirement…

46. It is determined that the app will need to be taken
off the market in order to be re-developed so that it
meets the new legal standards…

47. Over 2000 customers had already downloaded
the app…

48. These customers receive notification via the app
that it will be going offline until further notice…

49. Despite the fact the business spent $1.2 million
developing it and each download cost the
customer $1.50…

50. Impacted customers vent their frustrations because
they want to, feel the need to, and feel like they
have to warn others about the poor product they
just purchased, and the lack of knowledge provided
when they contacted Customer Service…

51. Employees within the business are then questioned
about why the app was released without
consultation with other departments…

52. Their response is…
“We didn’t know the other areas existed or that
they needed to be involved”

53. The CEO of the business attributes the failure of the
app as “Poor communication and poor consultation
between departments”…

54. Employees who spent almost six months working
on the app now feel as though their project has
been taken off their hands…

55. Instead of receiving praise for delivering the app,
they are being punished for delivering a product
that had to be taken off the market…

56. These employees feel as though their leader should
have known that other departments needed to
be consulted…

57. An employee working on the app contacts Human
Resources to speak with someone about the failed
app and how its making them feel unhappy and
unvalued at work…

58. In addition to this, the finance and forecasting
teams now have to figure out how the update of
the app can fit into the budget…
…as well as assess what impact the failure of the
app had on business revenue.

59. Overall, the failed app resulted in three things:
Unhappy employees
Unhappy customers
Poor business reputation

60. And all because external communication took place
before internal communication…

61. How do you think the impacted employees felt
after the disaster surrounding the failed app?
Do you think the impacted customers will remain
loyal to the business after their failed
app experience?

62. Imagine the same app story as though Internal
Communication came first…

63. The entire business knew about the design,
development and launch of the app…

64. Some employees knew friends and family who
would benefit from using the app…

65. Without incentive, these employees promoted the
app on their own social media pages and directly
sent links about the app to their friends…

66. Each department within the business also knew
about the app, and the Business Improvement
Department were able to find out about the
upcoming legislative changes…

67. A Design team also got wind of the project and
were able to assist in the information architecture
and graphic design of the app…

68. The final product ends up being more user friendly
because of the design work that went into it…

69. This is something the Business Improvement
Department had never even considered as being
important to the app…

70. Customers calling the Customer Service
Department are provided with accurate and timely
advice about the app and its usage…

71. Customers who downloaded the app love it and
encourage their social media networks to do
the same…

72. This generates more traffic to the business’s
website and means more people are downloading
the app…

73. Which means more money for the business and
free promotion of the business brand…

74. So, do you get the picture now?

75. Too many businesses focus their energy on
external communication

76. The most important asset to any business is
its people

77. Engaged employees are informed employees

78. And informed employees are the result of good
Internal Communication

79. When Internal Communication is good, the
External Communication largely takes care
of itself…

80. For more information about business and
professional communication, visit
www.speakingofcomms.com