Join host Chellie Phillips in this episode of Culture Secrets as she explores the pivotal role of internal communications in fostering a thriving workplace culture. Discover the significance of transparent leadership, psychological safety, employee engagement, and effective collaboration. Gain valuable insights into creating a value culture through a multifaceted approach to internal communications. Don't miss this episode to uncover actionable strategies that will help you build a strong and successful organizational culture. Subscribe, rate, and share the podcast to spread the secrets of culture transformation. Visit www.chelliephillips.com for more information.
Thanks for listening. Grab the book the podcast is based on at https://mybook.to/culturesecrets . Check out my website www.chelliephillips.com for more great content. Follow me on LinkedIn.
Join host Chellie Phillips in this episode of Culture Secrets as she explores the pivotal role of internal communications in fostering a thriving workplace culture. Discover the significance of transparent leadership, psychological safety, employee engagement, and effective collaboration. Gain valuable insights into creating a value culture through a multifaceted approach to internal communications. Don't miss this episode to uncover actionable strategies that will help you build a strong and successful organizational culture. Subscribe, rate, and share the podcast to spread the secrets of culture transformation. Visit www.chelliephillips.com for more information.
Thanks for listening. Grab the book the podcast is based on at https://mybook.to/culturesecrets . Check out my website www.chelliephillips.com for more great content. Follow me on LinkedIn.
If workplace culture is your jam, you're in the right place. Check out this episode of culture secrets, the podcast dedicated to creating workplaces where both employees and the companies thrive. Building a strong company culture isn't easy, but it can be accomplished if you make sure the message is the same across the whole organization. Welcome to the culture secret podcast. I'm your host Chellie Phillips and this is where we share ideas and conversations about what it takes to create human centered workplace cultures where both the business and the employee thrives. Today we're talking about the role internal communications plays in growing culture inside an organization. I just recently got back from speaking at a conference in Portland, Maine. And it became very clear to me that this was a topic that we needed to really discuss and it's near and dear to my heart. I'm sure I'm biased when I say communications is key to making so many things in the business world work and function at a higher level for full transparency. I'm currently the VP of Communications and PR for an Electric Co Op located 45 minutes south of Atlanta. However, I've worked for more than 30 years in the communications world. To build a strong company culture, you need an effective internal communication strategy. In fact, that needs to be one of your top priorities. It's key to developing an environment where listening, sharing trust and feedback are encouraged. In fact, I think now as we have more remote or hybrid work schedules, it's even more critical. Before I go further, let's make sure we're all on the same page. What is company culture, I like to think of a company's culture as its unique internal brand. It involves a unique set of values, communication styles, company structures, and behaviors. I believe in creating a value culture. In fact, so much so I wrote a whole book on it called culture secrets. When you create a value culture, you're setting both the company and employees up for success, it changes everyone's perception on how they feel about coming to work. Internal Communications is really any kind of work related communication that happens inside an organization. That means everything from an event announcement to a CEO strategy brief to a conversation that takes place in the break room. It includes producing and delivering messages on behalf of management and enabling dialogue between everyone in the organization. It's announcing new policies talking about upcoming events or managing an employee engagement survey. For some businesses, it's an HR function for others, the PR and marketing department are involved. For it to be done effectively, I think both areas need to work together. Now that we have a starting point, let's look at how internal communications can affect a company culture. First, when you have a strong culture, employees feel a greater sense of engagement in gallops recent 2023 state of the global workplace report, they report up to 85% of employees are disengaged in the workplace at some level, that means they know are no longer committed to the company's vision or goals. They aren't coming in with the mindset of putting their best foot forward, they're also less likely to believe in the company leadership and the future success of that organization. Internal Communications can help with that. You need a multifaceted approach to reaching your employees, you need to use a wide variety of formats and platforms to include the now common multi generational workforce we all have. psychological safety is also a cornerstone of strong cultures in the workplace. An internal communications plan that takes into account employees and the safeguards that are in place should a crisis occur can help foster an environment where employees feel cared for and build the trust necessary between them and the leadership. Internal Communications can keep people calm during a crisis. announcements of change need to be treated extra carefully, because the morale of the organization can be at stake. Internal comms can help you with employee retention as well. It can cost a company as much as 1/3 of an employee's salary to hire a replacement and get them up to speed. By keeping your employees informed and reinforcing the shared values and behaviors. You need to keep your employees aligned with the vision of the company. So if you work in communications, how can you help create a value culture using effective internal communications, one, encourage leadership to be transparent. It helps everyone know where you are coming from and where you're going. When people are aware of why they're usually more willing to help achieve the goal. It's important that leadership helps employees understand how their jobs connect with the goals and when employees believe their work matters. It creates accountability and a feeling of ownership. Use recognition when possible. Recognition is more than just dollars in your paycheck. Expressing or highlighting positive things happening in the workplace can go a long way to building a thriving culture. Make this a regular part of your newsletter or internal comms platform. Three, keep your pay Pull informed and help them see the big picture. People don't like surprises or to feel left out. Internal communication should be a sharing of events, policies, work initiatives, and overall business updates involve as many people as possible to make sure you provide an accurate representation of what's happening in the organization and where it's headed for analytics are your friends. Without data you don't know if you're investing your time on projects that are being seen or heard. Do you track your open rate for emails? Do you know if video or written content is being consumed more don't waste time putting information in places no one is looking. And finally, the fifth way, employee feedback is a must for strong culture. The more a company encourages open dialogue, the stronger the culture will be. Use surveys polls, or even asked for comments to help gather employee feedback. Create a culture of collaboration by asking each department to provide content for your newsletter or intranet and highlight your unique workforce whenever possible. Not all internal communications come in the form of a newsletter. You can even get others in the office involved in the process. All employees can help build a culture of transparency by sharing information. One simple way to do this is have team members document decisions and processes and housed them in the central digital space so that everyone can access create checklists about what has worked well, so that others don't have to start from scratch debrief at the end of a project you just completed and take time to note what worked, what didn't and what could be improved for the next time. To me, there's no question that strong internal communications must be a part of every successful workplace culture initiative. In fact, I think it's everyone's job. You just can't assume it's the responsibility of HR or the communications department. If your internal communication strategy isn't up to par, and you need help in turning your top down messaging into two way conversation. I recommend you reading culture secrets and see what areas of your current plan fit. In the value culture model, you'll find real world examples of what's working for other businesses, as well as some guidelines for you to consider as you build your own unique culture. Ultimately, creating a strong value culture revolves around people sharing information and their willingness to talk to one another. Thanks for listening to this episode of the culture secrets podcast. I hope you've jotted down a few ideas to try over the next coming weeks that will help you grow a value culture inside your organization. If you've enjoyed what you heard, please like subscribe and share this podcast with others drop me a rating too. If you have a topic you'd like for me to discuss, feel free to leave a comment or connect with me on social media. I'm on all the major platforms. You can also find more information on my website at WWW dot Chellie phillips.com. That's C H E L L I E P H I L L ips.com. That's it for this episode. And remember, building a value culture is your competitive advantage and the backbone of any successful organization.