I think that internal communication is important because it encourages people to connect and share their work and ideas. It ensures that all team members are on the same page, making projects more cohesive and consistent.
Photo credit: Ipsia Mishra from "Literally Communication"
The Corporate Communications department puts together a internal communications newsletter every two months. The next newsletter is due to come out this month and I'm hoping to get the chance to work on it. The newsletter:
- informs employees of current news, activities and events,
- includes staff member photographs,
- includes updates from key individuals in the organisation;
- introduces new staff members through short bios.
Within the department, both Corporate Communications and Stakeholder Engagement team members communicate effectively through a series of practices, such as:
-weekly meetings, to discuss current and potential issues, monitor activities, present research findings, collaborate and delegate roles,
- office structure. The layout of the department allows for discussion and collaboration conveniently
- after discussing a project I have observed that it is common practice for staff members to confirm key points discussed via email;
-feedback on others performance through saving document edits and verbal discussion allows staff to evaluate what they need to improve. Majority of staff are open to feedback and give it when others want to check up on their performance.
Other examples of internal communication practices at Tourism WA is bulk emails from key figures of the organisation, such as the CEO Stephanie Buckland.
On my first day I had a direct experience with internal communication, my placement supervisor Kelly sent out an email to a majority of the organisation informing them that I had started my placement with them, my dates and intensions.
Internal communication assists in ensuring staff members are in a comfortable, enjoyable and rewarding environment. Workplace culture can be improved by focusing and improving internal communication. During my time at Tourism WA in the Corporate Communications department I have experienced a office culture that is:
- open and easily accepting environment. From day one I felt welcome,
- supportive The office has a strong sense of mateship, people seem to have mutual support for one another,
- respectful;
- flexible.
Tourism WA offices are located on Mill street in Perth CBD. Photo credit: realcommercial.com.au
Here is an example of a modern style of office structure in Singapore, known as an "agile workplace," I would like to one day work in an office with this structure.
If anyone is interested in reading more about workplace support, I've found a great article produced by Californian University-Berkeley's University Health services. The article is easy to understand for people wanting to improve their supportive skills. The article assists people through providing guidelines on how to be supportive to co-workers as well as friends and classmates.
- Caitlyn :)
2 comments:
Interesting topic to write about! I 100% agree that internal communication is vital, and it is especially important to upkeep in larger companies. I completed my internship at a very small company where everybody worked out of the one office, so communication was easy. In the past however, I have worked for larger companies where communication channels could have been improved. I believe it is important in order to maintain consistency and a welcoming, workplace culture.
I hope your internship experience is going well!
Kodee
Hi Caitlyn
It's great to read about internal communications as it's not really an area of PR which I had much experience with during my internship. Although having said that, I did also find that weekly staff meetings and open plan offices were really important aspects of my internship which allowed for greatly improved communication. I remember on my first day having to send out an email to the entire office introducing myself and I was super nervous! By the end of my 20 days I sent out a similar farewell email and felt so much more confident. It's great that we can have experiences like this before even leaving uni so we can feel much more confident in 'the real world'!
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