Why Businesses Should Prioritize Internal Communications
The lines are blurred when it comes to defining the purpose of Microsoft Teams and SharePoint intranet. Organizations often combine elements of both to elevate their internal communications strategy and enhance collaboration within the company. However, each platform serves its own purpose, and integrating elements of both does not mean SharePoint will be going away anytime soon.
SharePoint is the underlying structural layer that can be weaved into your Microsoft Teams environment through Viva Connections. Let’s dive into why organizations must prioritize developing a sound internal communications strategy and how to leverage Viva Connections to make the most of your technological investments.
Why an Internal Communications Strategy is Essential
With the hybrid work model expected to continue its reign in 2023 and beyond, it is crucial that your organization makes an effort to help employees feel engaged, involved, and give them a sense of belonging at work, even when they may not be physically present at the office. Due to this, taking the time to assess and improve your internal communications strategy is essential.
Millions of companies worldwide use Microsoft Teams as their internal communication platform, and while it is a robust platform that allows you to connect and collaborate with anyone from anywhere, maintaining your SharePoint intranet can provide all employees across the organization with a shared portal for news and updates, helping them relate more positively to the company culture.
While Teams and SharePoint both facilitate communication, Teams is more focused on instant communication and file sharing, while SharePoint focuses more on storing a large repository of content that can easily be searched for and accessed, as well as providing company-wide updates. Both are equally important and should be utilized to create a holistic internal communications strategy for your organization to boost employee productivity and satisfaction.
How to Develop an Effective Internal Communications Strategy
When it comes to creating an effective strategy for internal comms within the Microsoft ecosystem, there are a few things you should consider:
- Assess your current strategy.
You likely already have a strategy in place for internal communications. Assess how your current strategy is performing by reviewing who is involved in your internal communications team, who is responsible for shaping and executing your plans, what the weaknesses of your current strategy are, and where you aim to be. - Scope audience preferences.
Since your internal communications strategy directly affects the employees across all departments in your organization, identify some key metrics to track how employees are engaging with your content. While you cannot measure anecdotal feedback, examine where employees spend most of their time, what channels they seem to prefer, and how often they engage with your internal content. - Review the communications tools you have in place.
Examine all the tools you currently have in place for updates, announcements, document sharing, event planning, and more. Identify whether your internal communications tools are doing what you need them to do, and ensure you have the technology infrastructure in place to make your employees’ jobs easier. - Formulate a plan.
Now that you have evaluated how your audience engages with your content and the communications tools you have in place, it’s time to decide whether you need to implement an updated internal communications strategy. Are there ways to integrate the various tools to use to further elevate employee experience within your organization?
Your internal communications strategy needs to be updated and monitored constantly as employee preferences may change over time or tools may no longer be serving their purpose. Ask your employees directly how they feel about your internal communications strategy periodically and adjust accordingly.
Leverage Microsoft Viva Connections
If your aim is to streamline content from across SharePoint and Teams into one curated and branded employee experience to engage, inform, and help workers feel connected to each other no matter where they are, then setting up Microsoft Viva Connections is a good solution for your organization.
You can elevate your internal comms strategy by sharing essential information with all employees, building community and culture, and ensuring that employees can easily participate and engage in social channels. Viva Connections will empower you to do just that – allowing workers to feel connected and informed while providing access to common tasks and tools all in one place.
To get started with Microsoft Viva Connections, you need to have a plan for its three main components:
- Dashboard
This is your employees’ digital toolset, bringing together the tools your employees need for quick access from wherever they are working. - Feed
This is what delivers updates to the right people at the right time and integrates closely with SharePoint news to display a personalized feed to keep hybrid workers informed. - Resources
This is where navigational links to the most important and popular portals live, so your audience can access them from the SharePoint app or the Teams app when Viva Connections is in place.
Microsoft Viva Connections is designed to help users across your organization complete high priority tasks and access important information easily. Once you have mapped out what Viva Connections should look like for your organization, you can continue to expand on it over time as your company adapts and scales.
Let the Experts at Klarinet Solutions Help Improve Internal Communications
Prioritizing your internal communications strategy is important to help elevate levels of employee satisfaction and increase productivity within the company. However, it can be difficult to find the time to brainstorm and implement an internal communications strategy that fits the needs of your organization perfectly, which is why Klarinet Solutions is here to help.
As digital workplace experts, we can help you come up with an optimal internal communications strategy for your organization and evaluate whether Viva Connections is a good fit for streamlining internal communications. Get in touch with us today!
