To hear some people talk, effective internal communications is really just a matter of common sense. In truth, getting communications right in complex organizations is a matter of executing well-crafted strategies. This requires an understanding of which strategies will work and which won't under various circumstances.
Simply defined, strategy is a systematic plan of action, a course designed to produce specific results. In employee communications, strategies produce
business results. That is, a plan that generates more readership, higher hit counts on the intranet or greater satisfaction with communication vehicles aren't really strategic.
An employee communication strategy, then, can be defined as:
A planned series of steps that employ communication tools and tactics in order to achieve specific goals that support the business.
This section contains key strategies every employee communications professional should know. Of course, the
specific strategies applied will depend on the unique circumstances that exist in each organization. The strategies listed here explore the broad nature of the strategies and not the specifics.