At a recent event I was asked the following question by several delegates: “What’s the difference between internal communications and employee engagement?”
It’s a simple enough question, but if you are not knee-deep in the day-to-day delivery, it might feel a little confusing, especially when the terms become interchangeable in the minds of leaders and managers in the business. And being able to clearly spell out the difference to board is never a bad thing.
So, let’s go back to basics.
As ever, there are as many definitions for these terms as there are stars in the sky, but I don’t think you can go too far wrong with Jenni Field, who defines internal communications as: “everything that gets said and shared inside of an organisation. As a function, its role is to curate, enable, and advise on best practice for organisations to communicate effectively, efficiently, and in an engaging way.”
David MacLeod and Nita Clarke define employee engagement as a way to “ensure that employees are committed to their organisation’s goals and values, motivated to contribute to organisational success and are able at the same time to enhance their own sense of well-being.”
We can also muddy the water by introducing the idea of engaging communications. That’s content that engages colleagues. Engaging communications are well written or produced, specific to the audience, relevant, meaningful and timely, but that’s not the outcome described within our earlier definition of employee engagement.
Internal communications is the input, employee engagement is the outcome, and engaging employees is the tactic.
Clear?
If we are looking for a non-expert friendly way to summarise the difference, perhaps the lanyard test is an easy way to explain the distinction.
The Lanyard Test
At many companies, when you walk through the office door in the morning, you put on your lanyard with your security badge.
Effective internal communications is how you know that you have to wear it, why it matters and what is expected of you. You know all this because you watched an on-boarding video that wasn’t too long or patronising, and received a good brief from your line manager, which is the role of engaging content.
How you feel when you put that lanyard on and the emotions and thoughts that the act generates – pride, commitment, alignment to purpose, valued, motivated – is an indicator of employee engagement.
So next time someone asks you to explain the difference, and we’re sure they will, the lanyard test should give you a simple and real example of the difference between the three definitions.
Get in touch
Are you struggling to deliver effective internal communications? Is your content failing to engage colleagues? Are your employee engagement levels where you would like them to be? Are you clear on the measures that demonstrate these things?
44 Communications can help you build great internal communications strategies, driven by brilliant content that builds employee engagement all backed by robust measurement. Why not give us a call?
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