AMA Symposium: How to communicate effectively and efficiently to your internal audience

This session is presented by John Roberts, director of Internal Electronic Communications at Furman University.

Internal audiences (faculty, staff, etc.) helps institutions define their brand outside of campus, especially with the recent paradigm shift in communication.

According to the Families and Work Institute, the main factor in employee satisfaction is “providing and understanding and supportive work environment.”

10 years ago, Furman had a newsletter and communication took place in informal settings in the hallways, at lunch, etc.

Then, they launched FUnet, an internal news website (I would give you the web address, but it requires a username and password – weird for a news website even if it’s an internal one IMHO)

They require login information so everybody commenting on stories is identified by name automatically – to prevent anonymous posting.

It’s produced (written and shot – for videos and photos) by a team of students. Roberts has a background in journalism and acts as the editor of this online publication.

87% of employees report they check the website once a day.

But, not everybody has access to the web on campus (facility, cafeteria, etc.)
At Furman, this group represents a third of the employee.

So, Furman launched the FUnet Flusher, a flyer – more than 200 copies – available in restrooms across campus and designed as a piece of… toilet paper. Gets a lot of positive feedback on campus.

They also redesign Inside Furman and switched it to a quarterly format with an appealing design.

Some good advice for internal communications

• Find your voice and keep it real
• Use employee photos because it help people make connections, crop them in creative ways
• Write about people, profiles have high readership
• Develop an internal communications policy where you spell out how the different communication tools should be used.
• Keep face-to-face meetings (gatherings, games, forums, etc.)
• Use humor