If you want to inspire your team to do better, more efficient work it starts with creating better internal communication within your organization.
According to data from RingCentral, a whopping 97 percent of workers surveyed said that communications impacted their work daily—while nearly half (44 percent) said they wanted a wider adoption of internal communication tools.
The right internal communication tool can have a huge impact on your team’s productivity and employee experience—but in order to make that impact, you need the right launch strategy.
So what, exactly, does that strategy look like? Let’s take a look at the four steps you’ll want to take to launch a new internal communication tool with your company (and improve internal communication within your organization in the process):
Identify your internal communication challenges
When you launch a new internal communication tool, the goal is to have that tool provide a solution to a problem.
But before you can find a tool that provides a solution, you need to know what, exactly, the problems are.
Or, in other words, before you can launch a new internal communication tool, you need to get clear on the internal communication challenges your organization is currently experiencing.
Before you choose or launch a tool, take the time to evaluate your current internal communication systems and processes and identify where the challenges lie. That way, you can choose a tool that will ultimately help you overcome those challenges. For example, is your team struggling to communicate and collaborate while working remotely? That’s going to require launching a different tool than if your main challenge is organizing project-related communication or sharing important news across your company.
Also read: 3 good reasons to launch an internal communication project in 2022
The point is, getting clear on the problems you’re experiencing with internal comms will ensure that you choose and launch a tool that provides a solution to those problems.So make sure to identify your challenges before you make any steps to launch a new internal communication tool.
Do your research
Once you’ve identified the main internal communication challenges facing your organization, it’s time to start researching potential tools to improve communication within your company.
There are a variety of internal communication tools out there—and to start, you’ll want to narrow down your options based on the features and functionality you need. For example, if you need to better disseminate information across your organization, you’ll want to look for a tool that allows you to quickly and easily share information with all of your employees. If you’re looking to foster better and more open communication between remote employees, you’ll want to look for a tool with a robust chat platform.
Talkspirit offers a host of features that can help enable better internal communication within your organization—including the newsfeed feature (which allows companies to more easily push out information across the organization), groups (which helps leaders and teams better tailor their communication), a customizable homepage, chat, webinars, and videoconferencing. Essentially, whatever you need to more effectively communicate with your team? You’ll find it on the Talkspirit platform.
Are you interested in learning more about Talkspirit? Schedule a demo with our team or contact one of our experts to know more about our communication platform:
Once you’ve identified tools that offer the features and functionality you need, you’ll want to compare each tool to see which is the best fit for you. Some criteria you’ll want to consider when researching internal communication tools include:
- Maximum number of users (compared to the size of your company)
- Price
- Data storage
- User reviews
- Customer support options
Also read : How to choose your internal communication tool
Doing your research will help make sure that you choose the right tool for you, your team, and your organization’s needs—which will help to ensure the launch is a successful one.
Train your team
Once you’ve locked in which tool you want to use, it’s time to launch it across your organization. But if you want that launch to be successful, you need to invest the time, energy, and resources into training your team.
Create clear policies and procedures around how and when the new internal communication tool should be used—and then hold a meeting with your team to review the policies and procedures, answer any questions, and ensure everyone is on the same page. Draft training materials and tutorials and distribute them to your team. That way, your employees have a step-by-step guide on how to use the tool if they get stuck. If the tool offers onboarding or training, consider taking advantage of those resources. For example, Talkspirit offers custom coaching services to ensure that every client is going to have a successful implementation of the platform.
The point is, when you launch a new internal communication tool, its success is dependent on how well that tool is adopted by your team—and how well the tool is adopted by your team depends on how well you train them. So, if you’re aiming for a successful launch? Make sure to invest in training.
Offer ongoing support
Launching a new tool is only the first step in the process of improving communication within your organization. But if you want your new internal communication tool to deliver measurable improvements over the long term, you’re going to need to offer ongoing support to your employees.
Schedule regular check-ins with your team to see how everything is going with the new tool. Ask for their feedback about what’s working, what’s not working, and what they’d like to see improved. And then take action to fix what isn’t working and make any improvements necessary to maximize the tool’s efficiency.
For example, when you check in with your team 30 days after launch, you may find out that there’s some confusion around when they should use the internal communication tool and when they should use other communication methods, like email—in which case, you might consider scheduling a follow-up training to review proper use cases. Or, after 90 days, you may get the feedback that there are some redundancies between your new internal communication tool and the platform you use to share files while working remotely—in which case, you might consider consolidating tools to make things more streamlined for your team.
Bottom line? You can launch a new internal communication tool successfully—but if you want it to continue to support better internal communication within your company, you’ll want to provide ongoing support to your team long after the launch is over.
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To sum it up: launching a new internal communication tool will require you to identify the problems you want to solve, choose the tool that can best solve those problems, and then train your team every step of the way. This, of course, can take time and resources. But with the right support, your new tool can go a long way!
Are you looking for more best practices to launch your tool? Contact one of our experts to receive personalized support throughout your project:
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Author: Deanna deBara
