I’m fresh from the Ragan Future of Communications Conference, and I have to say it’s always refreshing to gather with other internal communicators. The unspoken sense of shared experience can be felt from the start.
We may come from different industries, but we all face similar challenges: increasing engagement, managing endless last-minute requests, and measuring the value of our work. You feel it through the audible sighs that echo through the conference room when a common roadblock is addressed and in the frantic scribbling when a presenter shares a particularly exciting idea.
It was also great to hear from customers like Giulia Fitzgerald, Internal Communications Specialist at BenefitMall. She shared how a modern intranet has transformed her company’s culture, dramatically improving leadership communication, knowledge sharing and overall productivity. And Jeremy Woolf, VP of Internal Communications at FIRST, spoke on a panel tackling how internal communicators can stay abreast of new technologies.
This is exactly why I left the conference feeling energized for what lies ahead within our industry. I had many aha moments, both while listening to presentations and chatting with other attendees. We compared notes on how Simpplr had solved many of these common intranet challenges — not only for them but also for me when I went through the vendor selection and implementation process with a previous employer.
There was so much to take in, but let’s dive into the five key themes that emerged from the Ragan Conference and what I believe it means for the future of internal communications and employee engagement.
1. Keep it simple — really!
How many times have we heard this as communicators? And yet, sometimes we still feel like what we have to say is so important and well-written that we don’t want to do a ton of trimming. But alas, we know full well the length of the human attention span. We don’t need to sacrifice content quality for the sake of brevity, but we need to organize employee communications to ensure effectiveness.
Consider breaking your content into bite-sized chunks with headers to help people understand what you’re communicating, why it matters to them, and what action items need to be taken.
A TL;DR (too-long, didn’t read) hard-hitting summary at the beginning can help your employees come away with the most important information.
2. Stay laser-focused on your people.
Don’t sacrifice the human-centric aspect of internal communication. You can keep communications simple while also maintaining empathy, transparency and that sense of connectedness we’re all after.
Pursue two-way communication. Get feedback in small bites through sentiment checks and one-question surveys. Build rapport with colleagues across all business areas to understand their own personal challenges and communication preferences. And, as you’re gathering feedback, share the action plan generated from their input.
3. Know and show your worth.
It’s vital to show leadership the value of internal communications, but where do we even begin? With analytics. Simpplr made it easy for me as an internal communications lead to monitor daily, weekly and monthly engagements to see how employees were consuming information, how they were engaging with one another, and what trends I could report to leaders.
The Simpplr analytics dashboard provided quantitative data, our newsletter revealed open rates and click-through rates, and surveys and sentiment checks offered qualitative data. Thanks to the insights from these sources, I was able to easily show the value of my role and prove the power of investing in a top-notch employee engagement platform.
4. AI isn’t going anywhere, so use it to work smarter.
Now that our initial fears of being replaced by AI have subsided, we should shift our focus to integrating these tools into our processes, saving time and adding value to our communications.
Have you ever been given a list of bullet points from a stakeholder who needed to get a message out ASAP? Me too, and I have taken those exact points, added some additional context, dropped them into Simpplr’s Writing Assistant, given inputs for the tone/format/intent via the tool’s dropdown menu, and voila! I now have a great starting point that I can add human touches to and further edit.
Figure out which tools help you write better and learn from the outputs — how can you be more concise and intentional with your words?
Here’s a helpful resource from Simpplr on making the most of AI: 50 best ChatGPT prompts for communications workflows.
5. It’s all about the tools and channels.
We know from research that employees are tired of bouncing around different platforms to get IT updates, HR resources, company news, social posts and more. I’ve been there.
Close your eyes and imagine a world in which you are operating a platform that allows you to:
- Customize and personalize your homepage content so that it’s relevant to all employees (frontline, desk workers, leaders, etc.).
- Promote authentic engagement through a social feed and built-in employee recognition, making it a one-stop shop that not only informs but also connects.
- Empower stakeholders to craft and publish their own high-quality posts using an AI-supported content management platform.
- Create your employee newsletter without rewriting content or using yet another platform because it can all be done by dragging and dropping existing intranet story modules within a highly customizable but user-friendly built-in newsletter feature.
I geeked out when I realized how life changing this would be for me as an internal comms manager. And it’s possible for you too with Simpplr. Intrigued? You should be! It really can revolutionize the way you work, the way you engage with your employees, and the way you can show the value of internal communications.
There were so many more takeaways I had from the Ragan Future of Communications Conference. I have pages of notes and content ideas I’m still combing through. It reignited a passion in me and reminded me that this work matters — using words and tools to foster a genuine sense of connection not only to each other but to our companies.
If you’re ready to maximize employee engagement and transform internal communications at your company, Simpplr is a great starting point. Request a demo or connect with me on LinkedIn – I’m always happy to chat about all things internal comms.
