5 employee communication trends for 2022

The last two years have shown how critical employee communication is to a company’s success.

Through the pandemic, we’ve learned that employees come first, and there is the pressing need of leading internal initiatives with empathy and authenticity while keeping everyone positive. And this is no exception going into 2022.

There is no doubt that this emphasis on employee experience and people-first culture isn’t going away any time soon. Especially with the emerging hybrid workplace and the “great resignation” speeding up around the world, as we’ve seen it in the last few months.

So what can internal communication teams do to prepare their organization for another year of global uncertainty and rapid change?

Here are five of the top internal communication trends for 2022 that every communicator should know and act on.

Nearly half of all employees report being at least somewhat burned out, McKinsey found. With employee burnout at alarmingly high levels, it’s no surprise that wellbeing will become the permanent focus of organizations in the next years.

Accordingly, the majority of companies are set to up their spending on employee health and well-being in 2022, per Mercer’s report. Employers are planning to establish and design a variety of new employee wellness perks, health benefits and social activities with the goal of improving workplace health.

The role of Internal communications in this is to make employees aware of what support is available. It will take effort to make well-being become a part of the company culture.

To enhance employee well-being, more and more organizations are exploring technology solutions with the goal of improving individual performance, productivity, mental and physical health, and job satisfaction.

For example, the company intranet helps to connect people, provides a space for social interaction and employee recognition, enables workplace flexibility and autonomy, etc. For communicators, it is a great tool to boost engagement with targeted communications and measure the effectiveness of the communication efforts.

Now more than ever, people want reliable information. While the trust in media and government is low, businesses should prove to be a reliable source.

With employees working from home, trust is what businesses need to succeed. Companies everywhere are quickly realizing just how much trust plays a role in business.

To earn and maintain employee trust and engagement, communicators need to ensure information quality, accuracy and relevance. Be honest and candid. Also, listen to your employees and keep the lines of communication open between leaders and employees.

Your intranet is a valuable tool for building a culture of trust. It provides a space for leadership to share information and connect with employees, it allows two-way communications and acts as a tool to listen to employee opinions and ideas.

The latest Edelman Future of Corporate Communications Report found the role of communications has become more materially important to CEOs, board members, and the C-Suite.

Also, according to Edelman’s Trust Barometer, 86% of people expect CEOs to publicly speak out on societal issues, and 68% believe they should step in on issues where governments fail.

There is no doubt that it’s time for business leaders, especially CEO’s, to take a more active role in communication. Here are some tips for effective leadership comms:

• Using video and audio content for CEOs’ messages is a great way to boost visibility, transparency and authenticity.
• Dedicating a site or area on your intranet to leadership comms helps everyone find this information easily.
• Involving leaders in all internal comms activities and campaigns, asking them to set examples for all practices and values of the company.
• Hosting Q&A sessions, giving employees a chance to ask questions to leadership or raise any concerns.

The reasons why it’s critical to measure internal communications is clear to organizations. Accurate and insightful metrics help communication teams to inprove their strategy, as well as to prove the ROI of their efforts.

The good news is that with a modern intranet platform like Involv, communication managers can easily track everything they need, including usage, engagement, adoption, etc. Involv analytics offers direct insights and sheds new light on employee behavior.

Employees’ feedback and opinion are also valuable and reliable data for internal communicators. Within Involv, you can easily collect this data through forms, surveys and quizzes.

Information overload is real, and its impact on employee wellbeing is hazardous. Research found how much infobesity, as some call it, hurts us:

• 25% of workers experienced significant stress and poor health due to the volume of information required to process.
• 36% of managers reported poor health due to the excessive information they were required to process in the workplace.
• 68% of those managers felt information overload had had a negative impact on their personal and professional relationships.

This is why the demand for more personalized and targeted communication will be more important than ever. It’s time to think about how to communicate with your employees the same way as communicating with customers.

Relevant, personalized, interactive and with an omnichannel approach. Make it easy for everyone to access the right information when they need it. Find creative ways to engage with employees.

Having a centralized company intranet can help you achieve this. It cuts through the noise, supports the omni-channel comms strategy and provides employees with a great tool to connect and collaborate with colleagues.

There you have it – the top trends that will have the greatest impact on employee communication in the next year. Not unsurprisingly, communicators have a busy year ahead.

Is your IC team ready to act on these trends? If you think you might need help, let’s get in touch. Schedule a call and discover how Involv can help you to spruce up your internal communications and set your organization up for a stellar 2022.

(image: Freepik)