Internal Comms Maturity: Where Do You Stand?

Simply having an internal communication platform and a cadence of leadership updates doesn’t guarantee impactful employee engagement. Many organizations find themselves striving to create the level of connection and involvement their employees need (and deserve). As such, understanding your organization’s current internal comms maturity is the first and very crucial step in identifying areas for growth to implement actionable strategies to elevate your company’s communication effectiveness. This article outlines three distinct stages of internal communications maturity — broadcasting, collaborative, and community-driven — along with a self-assessment to help you pinpoint your current position and a roadmap for improvement.

The Stages of Internal Comms Maturity

Stage 1: Broadcasting 

In the Broadcasting stage, internal communication is predominantly leadership-driven, often disseminated via email and/or static intranet content. Employee involvement is minimal, frequently resulting in low engagement due to the inherently one-way and disconnected nature of these communications. Usually, communications fall into one of two categories: using a one-size-fits-all approach, or a scattered attempt at numerous communication types. Regardless, both of which lack strategic intent. Moreover, the use of corporate jargon can lead to information being overlooked, misunderstood, or quickly forgotten.

Stage 2: Collaborative 

The Collaborative stage marks a transition towards regular, two-way communication and engagement. Employees are provided with some avenues to ask questions, share feedback, and contribute to discussions, although consistent participation across the organization can often remain a challenge. This phase emphasizes using appropriate platforms for more real-time communication, which can introduce complexities in maintaining channel consistency and structure, particularly in effective content management and aligning information with its most appropriate platform. As internal communications evolve into a more trusted and dynamic source of information, content is more consistently tailored to its intended audience, aiming to enhance overall engagement.

Stage 3: Community-driven

The Community-driven stage represents a significant evolution towards an employee-driven experience where individuals become content creators and contributors, take ownership in sharing knowledge, celebrate achievements, and drive peer-to-peer engagement. While this stage thrives on employee contribution, maintaining a healthy balance with consistent and visible leadership presence remains top of mind for platform owners. Communication becomes highly targeted and personalized, underpinned by a clear purpose and benefit for both collaboration, and knowledge sharing. This stage is further characterized by well-established and consistently maintained governance and management norms, along with a clearly defined use of communication platforms.

Self assessment: what stage is your intranet in? 

Use the following questions to gauge the current maturity stage of your intranet and internal communication practices: 

Broadcasting stage: 

• Does your organization primarily rely on email, newsletters, or other forms of static communication to disseminate important information to employees?
• Is the majority of your intranet content presented in a one-way format, flowing mainly from leadership to employees?
• Is there a noticeable lack of personalization in how internal communications are delivered to different employee segments?
• Do employees have limited opportunities to ask questions or provide feedback in real-time on the information shared?

Collaborative stage: 

• Does your organization use real-time messaging platforms or interactive features on your intranet to encourage active employee engagement?
• Are employees generally able to ask questions and engage in dialogue with leadership through these communication channels?
• Does your organization regularly gather or actively solicit feedback from employees regarding the content and effectiveness of internal communications?
• Are different departments or teams enabled and encouraged to share their own content and information across your organization?

Community-driven stage: 

• Do employees routinely contribute content, proactively share knowledge, or actively collaborate on projects through the intranet or other internal platforms?
• Is there a sense of ownership and contribution among employees regarding your organization’s internal communications and knowledge sharing?
• Does your organization have an integrated communication ecosystem where employees feel consistently heard, valued, and actively involved in the flow of information?
• Are internal social platforms or dedicated digital hubs widely adopted and effectively used for cross-team collaboration and efficient information sharing?

Scoring your intranet stage

Mostly ‘yes’ to broadcasting questions: Your intranet is likely in the Broadcasting stage. The immediate focus should be on strategically introducing more two-way communication channels and establishing platforms that encourage real-time interaction and feedback. However, simply putting these tools in place isn't enough: a fundamental cultural shift led by leadership is necessary to drive adoption and engagement.

Mostly ‘yes’ to collaborative questions: Your intranet appears to be in the Collaborative stage. The next steps involve focusing on fostering deeper and more widespread engagement among employees, strategically integrating and clearly defining the purpose of different communication platforms, and empowering employees to take greater ownership of content and conversations.

Mostly ‘yes’ to community driven questions: Congratulations! Your intranet is likely in the Community-driven stage. The focus now should be on continuous optimization of communication strategies, ensuring that inclusivity, transparency, and trust remain core values as the intranet evolves, and employee contributions continue to shape the internal landscape.

How Happeo helps teams move through the stages 

Happeo is a powerful platform that can enable organizations to move through the stages of internal communications maturity.

From broadcasting to collaborative with Happeo

Happeo’s collaboration tools and interactive features, such as Channels, empower employees to actively engage in discussions, seamlessly share feedback, and collaborate effectively on projects. This functionality directly addresses the limitations of one-way broadcasting by enabling both formal and informal communication flows, adapting to the specific context and needs of the situation.

From collaborative to community-driven with Happeo

Happeo’s Channels and Pages empower employees to become active contributors of valuable content, share best practices, and engage with one another. This fosters a vibrant community-driven culture where information flows freely, employee voices are amplified, and collective knowledge becomes an indispensable asset to every team.

A roadmap to internal comms maturity 

1. Evaluate the current stage: utilize the self-assessment checklist above to gain a clear understanding of the organization’s current internal communications maturity level.
2. Set clear objectives: defined specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals for your team to achieve at each stage of maturity. Clearly articulate what success looks like as you progress towards a community-driven environment.
3. Choose the right tools: invest in comprehensive platforms like Happeo that provide the necessary features to enable easy, real-time communication, collaboration, knowledge sharing  and content creation across the organization.
4. Empower your employees: proactively create opportunities and provide the necessary training and support for employees to contribute content, share their expertise, and take ownership of internal communication initiatives and knowledge sharing.
5. Measure and optimize: leverage analytics and feedback mechanisms within your chosen platform to track employee engagement metrics, identify areas for improvement, and continuously adjust your internal communication strategies based on data-driven insights and evolving employee needs. 
   
   
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