Here are 10 ways to make internal communication better in your business. 

1 – Set Clear Expectations

Setting clear expectations on projects, deadlines, behavior, and communication is the right place to start. Team members help develop these expectations so that they are aligned with them. 

But having clear expectations is just the beginning — you should continually revisit your expectations. (See the section on OKRs and KPIs, below – objectives and key results as well as key performance indicators – vital tactics for managing internal communication)

The reason why is simple…people forget expectations. It’s only natural.

Trainings, meetings, and SOPs are opportunities to declare and reinforce your expectations. Then, test how well your team understands them and track their alignment as you go along.

Let’s now delve deeper into what SOPs are and how they help with internal communication.

2 – SOPs Are Key Internal Communications Tools

Standard operating procedures give step-by-step breakdowns of action items.

A great SOP can take a completely new person from knowing nothing to knowing everything about their role in your business (like magic!).

You can create SOPs around onboarding, automation, hiring, training, sales, marketing, admin tasks, etc. 

When you have clear SOPs, team members tend to do better on tasks. SOPs also save you from answering the same questions repeatedly, making things more streamlined. 

3 – Create OKRs And KPIs to Guide Internal Communications

Outcomes and key results are related to SOPs and KPIs but are not the same thing. Setting OKRs is a process that involves every single person on the team – and ties each team member’s objectives directly to their department’s objectives, and then to the company’s objectives. Team members are actively engaged in creating their OKRs and they can see everybody else’s OKRs, including those of their managers. They can then see with crystal clarity where they fit in, and will understand what they have to do – and by when – to have their contribution count for the team. 

This single practice has proven to be highly motivating.

4 – Make Internal Communications Updates Routine 

KPIs and OKRs are dynamic measures. Even SOPs should be adjusted as necessary. 

Used together, these tools create and maintain a personalized connection with your team members, whether they’re employees or contractors. 

Successful companies revisit them continuously, on a schedule, meeting with team members one-on-one, especially for ongoing tasks. Meetings allow everyone involved to ask questions, and to give and receive updates and feedback. Managers also can track with precision what each of their team members is doing – all along the way (this is crucial!).

Those regular meetings might cover topics such as:

• What they’ve done
• Where their roadblocks are 
• What they have questions on 
• How on track are they with KPIs and OKRs

Without meetings, there is usually a disconnect between where you think a team member is on a task and where they actually are. 

5 – Leverage A Team Communications Tool

There are many communication platforms today for teams to use to stay in sync. 

These range from project management-specific and chat-based tools to a mixture of both. 

You can use these platforms to improve how your team communicates thanks to a plethora of features:

• Tasks and due dates
• Group and individual chats 
• Video conferencing 
• File sharing 
• Note-taking 
• App integrations 
• Text and email capabilities 
• Company directories 
• Calendars 

Using these features consistently is a surefire way to make internal communication better. Training team members on how these apps work and holding them accountable to use them is essential (Conduct training sessions on your chosen communication platform).

Here are 8 team communication platforms to consider and some of their features:

1. Asana – tasks, calendars, templates, reporting (I use this with my team)
2. Trello – project management using pipelines 
3. Slack – chat communication, team video, and integrations 
4. Hubspot – calendars, contact records, file storage, pipelines 
5. Workplace – group work features, instant messaging, knowledge libraries, and more 
6. Microsoft Teams – activity feeds, calendar, file sharing, and usage reports 
7. Basecamp – milestone tracking, tasks, idea management, activity dashboard
8. Monday.com – A project management CRM that includes tasks, templates, reporting, activity feed 

6 – Encourage Transparency Across the Enterprise

Whether in meetings, documents, or communication platforms, be transparent at every level of the enterprise. 

Being honest about what’s happening at every stage ensures everyone is on the same page. It eliminates confusion and assumptions. It also makes team members genuine stakeholders.

Here are a few ways to keep transparency at the forefront:

• Explain the true reasons behind decisions 
• Ask and address burning questions 
• Lead by example 
• Welcome team feedback 
• Use analytics for tracking performance 

Tracking team progress with analytics and KPIs is pivotal to transparency and aligning all team members with your organization’s goals. Let’s look further into it. 

7 – Track Analytics And Communicate Your Numbers Internally

Success with your business’s goals starts with regular and objective communication on how close you are to the goal at any given point. 

For this to happen, transparency about your objectives and your indicators for key results are crucial.

Start by setting key performance indicators with each team:

• How much does my team need to do each day/week/month to reach our goal (quantity-wise)
• How fast does my team have to perform specific tasks 
• What results does my team have to achieve in x amount of days/weeks/months 

Once your OKRs get set, you can track progress using analytics. 

A CRM (customer relationship management) or project management tool helps track your numbers (honestly, they are both life savers).

Here’s a scenario involving using OKRs to reach a goal:

Say you’re looking to generate 10 appointments from your email list of 8,000 recipients next month. How many emails would your email marketing specialist need to send per week to generate that number of meetings? By understanding your numbers, the team member can construct and schedule the right outputs to get you in front of enough prospects to meet your goal. You can further have secondary OKRs for open rates, reply rates, clickthrough rates, etc. 

OKRs and analytics keep the end goal and weekly expectations top of mind.

8 – Use Visual Aids And Encourage Note-Taking in Meetings

We all absorb information differently. 

Images, videos, and data visuals are helpful ways to communicate information to almost everybody. 

You can incorporate visual aids into:

• Presentations 
• Training content
• Reports

Additionally, frequent meetings can generate lots of information, so encourage detailed note-taking. 

Consider recording your meetings so team members can revisit them later. (Past recorded sessions also help with training future team members)

Another best practice is emailing post-call summaries to everyone. A post-call summary is a simple bullet-point list of what happened in a meeting, sent out to attendees as well as those who couldn’t make it.

9 – Encourage All Questions And Utilize Feedback 

Better internal communication happens when people are encouraged to engage with company information. Keep an open line of communication with team members, and continuously encourage questions. 

Inspire questions and feedback in meetings especially, since that allows for quicker answers. Consider rewarding questions and feedback, too. 

10 – Keep Workflows And SOPs Up-To-Date

Changes happen constantly in business, meaning if your SOPs aren’t updated almost continuously, they’re very quickly outdated. 

Keeping your information assets up to date helps avoid problems like wrong tasks or compliance issues (depending on your industry), and will save everyone a ton of time. 

Newer team members will also have smoother training and onboarding experiences. When you find top talent, they expect a well-organized employee onboarding process.