Internal communication is among the fastest growing specialty in public relations, and it is garnering increased attention as a result of a number of causes, including the emergence of employer branding and the uncertainty in the workplace brought on by the Great Recession. Organizational identity theory provides a platform for studying internal communication. Organizational identity is defined as members’ perceptions, feelings, and thoughts concerning the enterprise and also, widely held awareness of an enterprise’s unique ideals and traits. Internal communication is the exchange of information between a company’s management and one of its most important audiences: its employees. It refers to social contact via messages and it displays management’s capacity to foster relationships among internal stakeholders throughout all levels of a company. Customers are looking for solutions that support their own value-generating activities, rather than products or services per se. When a client recognizes value being created as a result of using a product or service, the latter occurs. Therefore, effective internal communication tools would determine organizational success in exceeding customer expectations. This paper offers a broad description of the most useful internal communication applicable in service organizations.
Whereas many firms have different divisions or people devoted to internal communication, due to the overlapping of various stakeholders and channels, some are working toward a more integrated approach to communication. However, there are some approaches to internal communication that best suited for service industry as detailed below:
Firstly, social media channels form the newest tendencies in communicating internally. Chatter, Jive Yammer and SharePoint are some of the more popular systems for creating intranets and collaboration tools. Employees can make reviews, like intended content, and remark on other aspects of these platforms. These channels, when used, promote collaboration and three-way communication. Employee retention, enhanced performance, readiness in suggestions at the workplace, desire for a stand during organizational crisis, and readiness in engaging in campaign concerning community affairs all benefit from a dynamic internal social media environment. Internal communicators will be able to reach employees in new ways and in new places as a result of this. Internal communications workers may access staffs that are not constantly at their desks using mobile technology that is within arm’s reach and reachable weekly without fail. It may also generate communication, which fosters stronger collaboration. Companies can utilize social media to enhance employee collaboration in addition to employees using it to communicate with customers (Mishra, Mishra & Walker, 2019).
Secondly, utilization of editorial calendars, promotional videos, and workforce testimonials are some of the Public Relations techniques that an organization could use to engage employees while servicing their clientele, where they purposefully arrange content related to essential principles upheld by the organization. This way, employees get to learn how to engage their customers in actively doing business with the respective organization. A company whose values are engrained in their service provision, makes a stronger statement that would enable it out-smart its competitors on their service offer.
Thirdly, face-to-face communication works well in passing across the message in the most desirable way that could easily be understood by the intended receiver of the said communication. When using this approach to communication, the message should be precise and clear for ease of understanding. This method of internal communication in the service organization could be used when performing performance appraisal and meeting employees for coaching sessions. Such reviews are instrumental in gauging worker performance so that those areas that require corrections can be highlighted and a corrective action taken to that effect (Mishra, Boynton & Mishra, 2014).
Fourthly, the organization could decide to establish corporate intra-nets as their platform. It is an effective method of internal communication since the company could use it as a way of communicating via forms, references and company news. Such intranets could also have a provision for socializing. Creating a sociable environment brightens the mood in the entire organization, which has a spillover effect on the final consumers of the organization’s products. Both implicit and explicit information can be found on organizational intranets. Employees are more dedicated to their brand when they are allowed to engage in communication. Those networks foster trust, which in turn fosters brand trust and credibility (Mishra, Mishra & Walker, 2019).While the intranet is concentrated on making connections to information and people to people, newbies’ adoption of intranet techniques has profound impacts on socialization in terms of how well they master their job, describe their role, discover about their organization’s culture and goals, and thus become socially integrated.
Fifthly, correspondence via e-mail has lessened the task for most employees who have distance working relationships since they could work remotely from their convenience. Whenever customers complement or raise complaints on the service provision, they appreciate immediacy of feedback, which is offered via prompt email replies. Most e-mails are detailed according to the magnitude of the issue at hand and thus deemed essential in the speedy running of organizational affairs.
Sixthly, employee engagement is another strategy that works well in organizations. Engaging employees requires that the organization factors in employees’ intellectual and emotional commitment to the planned organizational success (Mishra, Mishra & Walker, 2019). Employee engagement is strong when an employee initially joins the company, but it drops after afew years. Furthermore, employees respond by being more involved in their jobs when they consider their managers to be more supportive. Employee engagement requires clear and consistent communication with employees, with evidence suggesting that more engaged employees have a better culture in the workplace.
Texting is another avenue that is frequently applied by employees in an organization, as means for internal communication because it is immediate compare to emails and other forms of written communication (Neill, 2015).
Conclusion
Internal communication determines the kind of response customers will offer the organization. Successful enterprises thrive on having a motivated workforce. Motivated employees communicate to each other on how best to serve their clientele. Establishing proper channels of internal communication is the only way that employees will understand customer needs and wants so as to tailor-make a package in terms of market offer that would exceed customer expectations in the service industry. Intranets and face-to- face communication are some of the commonly used approaches in internal communication.
References
Mishra, K., Mishra, A. K., & Walker, K. (2019). Using innovative internal communication to enhance employee engagement. In Handbook of Research on Strategic Communication, Leadership, and Conflict Management in Modern Organizations (pp. 445-468). IGI Global.
Mishra, K., Boynton, L., & Mishra, A. (2014). Driving employee engagement: The expanded role of internal communications. International Journal of Business Communication, 51(2), 183-202.
Neill, M. S. (2015). Emerging issues in internal communications: Generational shifts, internal social media & engagement. Public Relations Journal, 9(4), 1-20.
write