Does your company currently send internal employee newsletters?
If not, you could be missing out on a valuable way to improve employee communications and boost employee engagement, and even productivity.
Or maybe you are sending newsletters now but need creative new ideas to break out of the “same old, same old” approach you’re currently using. If so, this article will give you ten new ideas to inspire better and more effective newsletters.
But first, let’s take a look at the many benefits associated with internal employee newsletters.
Newsletters can be a great way to make groups of employees or even the entire workforce more informed. You can use them to provide the latest company news, specific or late-breaking updates, financial achievements, and just about any other kind of information.
Their design is part of the appeal. Newsletters can convey important details in more interesting formats than emails, website updates, or worse, bulletin board memos and other methods that simply don’t work.
Newsletters can go a long way toward promoting transparency about company details, improving employee engagement and morale, and aligning employees’ efforts with the company’s specific strategies and goals.
Yet they can also be a fun, creative way for executives or other leaders to share information or break away from business as usual. All of this helps build trust and comradery – a “we’re all in this together” mindset – among all employees.
Additional benefits internal employee newsletters can provide:
Minimize the use of emails and other methods employees overlook
Increase employee morale, engagement, and productivity
Build, enhance, and maintain a stronger company culture
Celebrate employee or team achievements
Collect feedback or suggestions for improvement
Many companies realize that all of these benefits are possible but simply don’t know how to get started or quickly run out of ideas.
If this sounds like your company, here are 10 creative new ideas to improve your communications efforts. Also, while you can use each idea as a standalone concept, you can also mix and match them to come up with two or three approaches in your next newsletter.
Recognizes or reward employees who recently exceeded expectations or went “above and beyond” in their efforts. This spotlight approach can highlight an individual or a team’s progress on specific projects or milestones.
A different member of the executive leadership team can share updates, company results, or any other details the workforce may not typically hear.
This can be a lighthearted way to break up the monotony of the workday – “What is the best local restaurant for next week’s company lunch?” – while helping make workers happier and more productive.
Let’s face it: Employees tend to have long commutes and work long hours and may not have the chance to get the exercise or other wellness advice they need. Many companies send a health and wellness newsletter that provides suggestions to help employees think of new ways to get better diet, exercise, and even mental health they need. These newsletters can also promote daily step count, hydration, or weight loss contests.
Show real-life examples of how a particular employee recently embodied your company’s values, especially related to service, leadership, or sacrifice. These types of updates help solidify your workplace culture with real examples, fostering a sense of community and encouraging employees to align with company values.
Provide the latest news on important projects, strategies, or initiatives. This could be updates on a corporate office move, progress on the company’s sales targets, information on new health benefits, and many more examples.
Offer valuable tips, tricks, and other resources to help employees develop or learn a new skill. Examples could include learning how to use a new software application, a new language, or even how an employee performs different roles in the company.
Highlight work anniversaries, various birthdays, and other personal milestones.
Include “Ask me anything” or other employee surveys and feedback opportunities. In these cases, employees can anonymously submit questions to the HR or executive leadership team. The team can then answer these questions and provide relevant information in follow-up newsletters.
Offer employees a sneak peek into areas of the company they might not typically. For example, this could show videos, interviews, or pictures to show how a certain department operates or overcomes unexpected challenges.
Creative, highly engaging internal employee newsletters can be a valuable opportunity to improve workplace communication. When successful, better newsletters can positively impact and improve connections, boost employee morale, and align their efforts with your company culture.
By customizing employee newsletters to represent your company’s personality and priorities, you can create a powerful resource that works for all of your employees and delivers better overall results.
Hopefully, these ideas re-energize your current approach and help you achieve your goals related to your use of employee newsletters.
1. What are internal employee newsletters?
Internal employee newsletters are regular communications sent within a company to keep employees informed, engaged, and feeling connected to the company’s culture, goals, and objectives.
2. What are the benefits of internal employee newsletters?
Internal employee newsletters can be an effective way to communicate with employees. Effective use of internal employee newsletters leads to more informed and more engaged employees, increased productivity, and a stronger company culture.
3. What are some common challenges related to internal newsletters?
Common pitfalls of internal employee newsletters can include overwhelming employees with too much content, failing to engage them with personalized, relevant information, and inconsistent delivery schedules.
4. Can technology help produce and send employee newsletters?
Yes, technology such as HR Cloud’s Workmates solution makes it extremely easy to design, personalize, and send employee newsletters. For example, Workmates delivers powerful capabilities to collaborate, automate, and engage teams and keep them informed and connected.
5. How can I measure the success of an employee newsletter?
Success can be measured through metrics such as open rates, click-through rates, employee feedback, and participation in various calls to action (CTAs) or other requests.
Author:
This article is written by a marketing team member at HR Cloud. HR Cloud is a leading provider of proven HR solutions, including recruiting, onboarding, employee communications & engagement, and rewards & recognition. Our user-friendly software increases employee productivity, delivers time and cost savings, and minimizes compliance risk.