Ideas & articles // Top tips // developing an in-house newsletter
- fe3’s Top ten tips for developing an in-house newsletter
Communication in organisations is vital – to celebrate success, to motivate, to praise, to raise
issues, to learn from failure. Internal newsletters are a traditional method of communicating with
employees, explaining direction and propounding management messages. However, many do not acknowledge
the true interests of the employee audience. In order to communicate, internal newsletters have to be
interesting enough to be read in the first place - something managers often seem to forget. Below are
fe3’s tips to ensure your newsletters are essential reading.
- Identify your audience and write for them!
It sounds so simple, doesn’t it? But writing about the latest management training programme may not be of breathless interest to your shop floor workers – unless they can go on it too. Also, what do you think your audience reads as their daily newspaper? The Sun? The Daily Telegraph? The Times? If you’ve got one type of audience to consider, this is an easy way to identify style and content. If you have a more mixed workforce, you may need to compromise – a Daily Express style, for example.
Regardless of your style, the content should be taking in the issues of the day, those which are of most
relevance to your employees – new premises, new people joining, new structures, new products. Y
our copy should always try and answer the question –“Why should I be interested in this?”
- Use selected professionals
If you can afford it, professional writers and reporters - particularly for very senior management interviews, or very delicate subjects – can be a huge advantage.
They can ask the “stupid” questions which everyone else was too scared to ask. They can also ask the MD difficult questions which might be career-limiting for a member of the communications team. In addition, they write copy for a living, and can simplify complex issues to make them accessible to all readers, regardless of their role.
- Web-based vs paper based
Many organisations have moved from printed newsletters to the intranet to inform employees. There are pro’s and cons for each method and a few are below:
Paper-based: Pros
- Can be read anywhere by employees (on the train/bus home, in break times away from work place)
- Can be shown to family and friends (employees able to act as advocates)
- Easy for employees to identify a “new” edition
Paper-based: Cons
- Can seem expensive to produce regularly
- May be produced too far in advance to cover “news” – and be out of date by the time it reaches the readers!
- Can look “homespun” if design values are not high
- Needs excellent distribution to help readership
Web-based: Pros
- Should be easy to update, as well as cost-effective
- Can incorporate moving images
- Easy to “layer” information so those more interested can read/see more
- Readers feedback can be submitted by links/email
- Readership tracking can be set up
Web-based: Cons
- Expensive to set up
- Need to set up cubicles/spare PCs if access is not universal
- In depth features not practicable on line – text needs to be short
- Out of date information will deter readers
- May be seen by some managers as encouraging employees to waste time – so ensure they understand the business critical nature of the information
- Make it visual
People without a lot of time are put off newsletters which are just dense text and look like a long read. Ensure you have plenty of visual information – photos, inforgraphs, charts to help you tell your story.
- Make it interactive
Communication is not a one-way process. Encourage people to have their say through submitting their own ideas for news stories, letters and comment. Reward this if possible with vouchers for the star letter, etc. Asking for ideas on articles helps ensure the content is reader-focused.
- Liven it up
People often buy newspapers for the cartoons, the crossword and the horoscopes. Such elements help newspapers entertain as well as inform, and editors know a judicial mix of humour and news can be an addictive combination. So try to include lighthearted content where it is appropriate.
A word of caution for international companies – what passes for humour in one country can be offensive in another, so for cartoons, seek professional (local) advice.
- Watch your language
Most global organisations have English as the business language, but not all readers will have the same level of skills. With the significant role played by migrant workers, even in UK-based organisations large sections of the workforce may have English as a second, rather than a first language.
If you do have to write for an international audience, a helpful rule of thumb is to cut down on the “isations”, the “isms” and the jargon and tell your stories with simple, commonly used words.
- Court controversy
A major criticism of employee newsletters is that they are a mouthpiece for management, and tend to be bland. This tendency to blandness is exacerbated because the internet blurs the boundaries of internal and external communication and companies are naturally cautious about the information they release.
But your newspaper still needs to address the questions closest to employees’ hearts and quite often, the things they most want to hear about are “difficult” subjects – redundancies, site closures, management changes.
While face to face is always the best method to handle these issues locally, acknowledging them and reporting them (rather than burying them under a selection of “good” news of minimal importance), will make your newsletter highly readable and highly credible.
- Don’t be afraid to borrow!
As you read newspapers and magazines, log on to favourite sites, watch television and listen to the radio, notice what captures your interest, and how. Consider if this is possible with your own internal communication channels and borrow all you can to keep delivery and content lively and interesting.
After all, your employees expect high production values when they read other publications, log on to other sites, and if they don’t feel they have benefited, they probably won’t buy the publication or log on again. Why should it be any different for the in-house newsletter?
- Not the final word…
While an internal newsletter can be a great tool, producing one does not mean you have communicated. Communication is two way and this requires interaction. This requires managers to talk AND to listen. A newsletter can report what was said, but it cannot replace the conversation.
Back
