Designing an internal comms strategy for frontline teams - your step-by-step guide
Are your frontline teams fully engaged and aligned with your business goals and objectives? Do you know if your internal communications effectively reach and resonate with your frontline employees?
In this step-by-step guide to designing an internal comms strategy for your frontline teams, we'll share insights built from findings in our 2024 state of frontline comms report that engage frontline teams and drive business results.
So, how well are your frontline teams receiving and understanding your internal communications? Are they equipped with the necessary information and resources to excel in their daily tasks? Are you seeing tangible results and behavioural changes due to your communication efforts?
These questions underscore the need for a strategic approach to internal communications for frontline teams. While ad-hoc messaging may be okay for a short period, most successful businesses require a structured, step-by-step internal comms strategy that ensures consistency, clarity, and effectiveness in reaching and engaging frontline employees.
Step 1 - Split your internal comms into categories
Effective communication with frontline teams goes beyond just sending messages; it's about ensuring that employees read and understand the information, which means ensuring they engage with it.
By categorising internal communications, you can streamline your efforts and ensure they’re delivered in a format that resonates with your frontline teams.
For example, while company-wide updates or policy changes may be best communicated through formal channels such as email or company-wide announcements, training materials or operational guidelines may be more effectively delivered through interactive workshops, team meetings, or internal comms apps. Social updates to boost company culture are best left to tools such as Workplace by Meta or Yammer.
By categorising communications in this way, you can reduce information overload, increase engagement, and ensure that frontline teams receive the critical information they need to perform their jobs effectively. Additionally, it helps prevent essential updates from getting lost in the noise and ensures that employees remain informed and aligned with organisational goals and objectives.
Step 2 - Decide which platforms or methods are suitable for sharing which kind of information
After categorising your internal communications, it's essential to carefully consider which platforms or methods are most suitable for sharing each type of information with frontline teams.
Not all messages are created equal, and choosing the right channel can make all the difference in engagement and effectiveness.
Having clear categories and instructions about which delivery method should be used for each category makes it easier to build a comms framework using diverse comms methods.
Why is this so important?
Specific messages are more relevant on certain channels and less so on others. For example, sharing birthdays or new baby announcements is great for huddles or social news feeds but can clutter the email inbox.
Again, monthly business progress reviews are best suited to a huddle or town hall meeting where frontline staff members can ask questions and interact, but not so great for an email as it may come across as quite dry and unappealing.
Here’s an example of what your list may look like:
Emails - Best for formal official announcements such as policy updates, changes to procedures or process changes.
Internal comms platform - Ideal for policies, how-to guides, news, quick announcements, event calendars, event details, and anything formal that employees may need to reference later. Most of the good internal comms platforms allow you to track open rates, target the message by role or location and send acknowledgements which means you have an even higher chance of ensuring it was read and understood by employees.
Internal Social Media - This is great for building community and sharing informal updates. It is also suitable for sharing non-work-related content such as birthdays or team celebrations.
Town Halls are perfect for hosting interactive sessions where leaders can share strategic insights, review business progress, and engage in Q&A sessions with frontline staff.
1:1 employee meetings - Useful for providing personalised feedback, coaching, and addressing individual concerns or questions that may not be appropriate for broader communication channels. It’s also important to remember that if you are covering a sensitive topic in your town hall meetings, some employees may not like to speak in front of others about the subject. Therefore, you may include a 1:1 meeting with employees after the group meeting to ensure they can voice their concerns or opinions.
Step 3 - Assess email usage in your internal comms strategy
Excessive email usage within frontline teams is a common struggle for most internal comms managers.
In fact, too many emails make it hard for people to pay attention and understand what's important. It's like having too much information, and it can be easy to miss the important stuff. Researchers at the University of California, Irvine, conducted a study on email usage and productivity and found that employees who received a high volume of emails experienced higher levels of stress and perceived email overload. This overload led to difficulties in prioritising tasks and focusing on important information within the emails.
Internal comms managers understand its negative impact on communication effectiveness, as frontline employees become overwhelmed and desensitised by the constant influx of messages flooding their inboxes.
Additionally, frontline staff who are often on the move or need more consistent access to email may need help promptly engaging with essential communications, further worsening the issue.
To address this challenge, it's essential to assess your email usage and implement strategies to optimise its use throughout your business.
Begin by evaluating the types of emails sent out and determining if they align with the framework established in earlier steps.
If not, consider communicating with senior team members to outline guidelines for when and how email should be used within the business. Be sure to emphasise prioritising essential messages and minimising unnecessary clutter.
To improve the effectiveness of internal communications efforts targeted at frontline teams, it is important to provide senior leaders with the framework, which can serve as a reference point for aligning their communication practices with communications goals and objectives.
Step 4 - Assess “in the moment” support
Create a knowledgebase where you send out your messages and store them.
This way, frontline teams receive the messages and have a simple place to find them later.
For instance, you could send a message about a new company rule requiring everyone to suggest extra items for each shoe sale and include a step-by-step guide on how to do it.
This guide can be beneficial for frontline workers to refer back to. By keeping everything in a knowledgebase, you give them the tools they need right when needed. Other valuable things to include in an '’in the moment’ knowledgebase could be simple guides, rules, and how-to guides.
A great way to decide what to include is to ask frontline workers what they find tricky and managers what their teams often ask about. This way, the knowledgebase is full of stuff that helps them do their jobs better.
Step 5 - Create a follow-up framework in your internal comms strategy
A follow-up framework for internal comms ensures that frontline teams deliver, understand, and act on messages.
Your follow-up plan should start with how you first shared the message. Then, follow up thrice using different communication methods over a suitable period. The more important the message, the more times you should follow up and the more ways you should use it. For less important stuff, a few follow-ups might be enough. You'll need to use your judgement here. But having a flexible plan will help guide you.
Research suggests that people typically need to remember about 50% of new information within an hour and up to 70% within 24 hours without reinforcement or follow-up. So remember that if you’re questioning whether it’s essential to follow up.
Step 6 - Target your comms by audience
Targeting your comms messages by job or where people work is vital in your internal communication plan.
Firstly, it helps because each department has its issues to deal with. For example, sales teams might need updates on sales goals, while customer service employees need to know about new customer rules. Sending the correct info to the right people shows you get what they do, making them feel valued and involved.
Secondly, different places might have different needs. For example, a store in one area might need information different from that in another location. By tailoring messages to each place, you ensure they get what they need to do their jobs well.
Targeting messages by job or location helps ensure everyone gets the information they need to do their best work. It shows you care about what they do and helps them feel connected and involved in the company's happenings.
Instead of simply sending out mass messages irrelevant to certain frontline employees, this is a sure way to disengage them.
You can easily do this with an internal comms platform.
Step 7 - Look at how your employees can communicate back with you
Making your internal communication strategy work well for frontline teams is about how you talk to them and how they can talk back to you.
Besides sending messages from the top down, giving them ways to share their thoughts and concerns is essential.
It's also essential to consider different types of employees. Some people love chatting and bouncing ideas off others, while others prefer quieter settings.
For example, outgoing employees might enjoy group discussions, while quieter ones might feel more comfortable in one-on-one or private feedback sessions. By offering various ways for people to communicate, everyone can get involved and share their thoughts, strengthening the team.
Why is this step so important?
It's crucial for frontline teams to talk openly and feel heard in a company. They feel valued and part of the team when they can share their thoughts and ideas.
When people feel like their opinions matter, they're more likely to be happy at work and want to do their best. Listening to frontline teams can help solve problems and improve things for everyone.
Feeling listened to also makes the team feel closer and happier. It boosts morale and makes people want to stick around, which is excellent for the company.
And when frontline teams can speak up about what's working and what's not, it helps the company improve and grow. They're dealing with customers and everyday challenges, so their input is valuable for improving things for everyone.
Step 8 - Use a follow-up training method to embed critical information
As internal communications professionals, your goal isn't just to send out messages; it's about making a real, measurable impact on your business.
Take, for instance, when you roll out a new sales process policy. It needs to be more for employees to skim through it; you need them to grasp it and feel confident to implement it truly. Research shows that employees need more confidence in using a new process.
That's why it's crucial to implement a follow-up training method to ensure essential communications stick. For example, many of our customers use microlearning alongside their communications on our comms platform. This offers bite-sized learning opportunities for employees to digest crucial information like policies or procedures. It's quick, easy, and takes just three minutes of their day, ensuring they understand and remember the information.
Step 9 - Try to avoid cascading information
Cascading information through hierarchical levels should be a last resort if no other means of reaching the frontline are available.
This traditional method can lead to delays, distortions, and a lack of engagement as messages pass through multiple layers of management.
Instead, you should opt for a frontline-specific comms app such as Ocasta Engage. This frontline comms app, used by Virgin Media O2 and Next, ensures direct communication with every employee, which improves clarity and immediacy.
Engage has a proven 98% engagement rate, 3.75x more recognition in businesses and 94% of comms being read. Bypassing the cascade creates a more connected, informed, and engaged workforce.
Is your internal comm strategy for your frontline teams up to scratch?
Is your frontline comms health score good enough? If unsure, why not take our quick frontline health score quiz? It only takes a few minutes, and we’ll tell you exactly what to focus on to drive improvements in your business today.
