7 Internal communication trends in 2024

Gone are the days when workplace communication was carried through phone calls, emails, and instant messages.

Nowadays workplace communication trends are changing within the blink of an eye, while the impact of the Big Rona is here to stay in 2024.

To keep up in this unpredictable environment, it's essential to focus on how organizations communicate internally, as nearly 74% of knowledge workers miss out on important company news.

What is internal communication?

Internal Communications (IC) keep the workforce informed and connected by sharing information. This helps employees do their job without facing any issues. Internal Communication keeps the information flowing in the workplace between all departments. This approach keeps the employees up-to-date on every initiative and makes communication in the workplace clear. 

Why is communication important in the workplace?

Essentially, communication is what keeps organizations on the same track. Effective communication fosters a productive culture, while it helps managers assign the right task to the right team and increase overall efficiency. 

How large companies communicate with their employees

It’s good to figure out how enterprises communicate internally. In reality, the situation remains more challenging for them as employees’ strength grows considerably more than other firms.  Surely all companies make attempts towards the use of advanced technologies to communicate and engage their employees. And for a very long time, an intranet has been working as the true source to communicate, collaborate and improve the workflow. In a remote working culture, the focus on implementing the intranet system has increased. 

Today communication trends are rapidly upgrading to make internal communication more potent: 

• Focus on the formation of a clear strategy to better perform actionable insight into it
  
  
• Emphasize using collaboration tools, project management tools, video conferencing tools, and instant messaging apps
  
  
• Reduce internal emails to avoid overloaded mailboxes
  
  
• Adopt digital solutions to share important information without creating silos 
  
  
• Use videos to increase meeting effectiveness and training sessions. Use a meeting agenda template to increase overall efficiency 
  
  
• Implement knowledge-sharing tools to keep employees informed     

Latest developments in internal communications

Since remote and hybrid work became the new normal post-COVID, organizations put more effort into delivering their messages properly, taking real-time updates, and notifying policy changes to their employees using different platforms.

Some focus on developing a sustainable workplace, while others fast-track digital transformation adoption to continue the flow of information with their employees to mitigate the impact of this pandemic. 

All these approaches led to better valuing of the need for Internal Communication in the workplace. Still, the unpredictable nature continues; therefore, businesses tighten their shoelaces to keep ahead in the race. 

The statistics below show the current situation of internal communications:

• 44% of the employees want more involvement in internal communication tools 
  
  
• Since the pandemic occurred, 75% of the employees feel more lonely, while 53% are emotionally exhausted 
  
  
• Among all the communication trends in the workplace, employee satisfaction is ranked as the highest one
  
  
• The difficulties faced in measuring internal communications lowered in 2021 from 72% to 56% 
  
  
• 83% of the respondents say that leadership is the potent source that defines leadership in a company

Key internal communication trends to watch out for in 2024

1. Increase in mobile-based communications
   

   
   With the passage of distant and distributive working cultures, the mode of communication is changing drastically. Due to such a flexible and new working mode, the need to establish a more simplified and intuitive interface for the workers to communicate is generated.   

   Mobile applications are the future of workplace communication that is indeed required to form continuous connectivity internally. Moreover, as today’s workplace is accomplished with millennials and Gen Z, tech-savvy employees require speedy communication channels.

   This led to ample transformation in the internal communication methods that were previously limited to emails, phone calls, and meetings. With such dedicated communication, employees can easily share and get the latest company updates.  

2. Continuous focus on employees' well-being
   

   
   Big Rona's drastic impact will stretch into 2024 as well. In this situation, the need to support employee well-being is crucial to avoid burnout. Having stressed and burnout employees can only bring tons of disadvantageous results, including disengagement, decrease in productivity, and high turnover. Due to the pandemic, mental health and safety concerns have also been generated – about 51% of employees said that their mental health got worse since the beginning of COVID-19. 

   As a result, HR managers needed to bring more innovative tactics to lower employee stress levels and improve connectivity with the company. As stated by factoHR, 91% of employees feel motivated if their managers care about their well-being. To upscale employees’ well-being offerings, virtual tools, feedback surveys, portals on the intranet, or employee assistance programs that let employees feel supported for approaching when required can work. 

3. Turning HR leaders into (better) communicators 
   

   
   An essential and inevitable Internal Communication trend to look for in the year 2024 is the transformation of all the leaders like managers, and senior authorities into better and effective communicators. 

   As HR is the sole identity that handles all employee-related concerns, the primary focus relies on them. With the continuation of so many challenges and changes in the working approaches due to the pandemic, the need to wear the hat of effective communicators rises. As per the Edelman Trust Barometer report, the CEO possesses the last rank to deliver an outstanding job based on the demands placed on them due to the pandemic. With this result, it is even more crucial to emphasize being a more effective communicator to form an effective communication channel with the employees.  

   To be approachable communicators, HR professionals have to come up with time devotion tactics to give proper attention to the workforce. Further, they need to frame innovative ways to let the employees consider them as an informative source to approach for getting necessary details.  

4. HR putting more effort into recognizing employees' efforts
   

   
   Recognition is the most appreciable word to hear from employers for employees. This is a continuing trend that undoubtedly will continue in the coming time as well. Doing so gives “n” numbers of benefits that upscale the overall performance. 

   By recognizing employees,  you keep the workforce motivated to aim for the best. HR managers should listen to their people, implement their feedback, and recognize their achievements. This trend acts as one of the most delicate approaches to bringing more enthusiasm inside the team to perform their job.

5. An emphasis on employee experience
   

   
   Employee experience is an inseparable part of employee communication trends as it lets them be involved, connect, and remain informed about the organization. It's a trending aspect that every HR department considers to focus on for the last few years. 

   In 2024 employee experience will take the front seat and companies will have to find ways to provide it. This trend will lead to more positivity in the workplace and make each workforce interaction memorable.

6. Lateral communication
   

   
   Lateral communication, a.k.a horizontal communication, is the mode of communication in which information is shared among peers working in the same or different departments. The primary focus of such communication is for better coordination and sharing of information, problem-solving, and building rapport.

   Lateral communication makes teamwork more potent by making collaboration fruitful. This trend will take considerable importance in the coming year, where managers have to focus on peer-to-peer collaboration by motivating and pushing them towards team communication. 
              

7. Visualization as a communication mode

Visualization is surely going to set the biggest trend for the year 2024. Visual content can wake up the employees-engagement rate as the human brain is more perceivable towards visuals than texts. That’s why today, the use of GIFs, screenshots, and videos is in so much demand to use.

As per Techsmith’s report, organizations that use visual communication can unlock $167 billion in productivity yearly. Now think how beneficial it remains to use it in your workplace. All the efforts made to develop a visual communication channel will assure that the workforce is actually in connection with the information you shared.