Employees are organisations' strongest brand ambassadors

There is a timeless adage that charity begins at home. Its ideology doesn’t sit far from the biblical question of how one can claim to love God yet they don’t love their fellow humans. These two examples deliver a lesson that care or love must first start internally before its extended externally. For organisations, this is paramount.

In many instances, businesses tend to focus heavily on their external stakeholders such as customers and the general public. They even invest heavily in activation and media campaigns striving to win brand love and trust. Yet as they do this, they keep on overlooking their most important reputation ambassadors – their internal stakeholders.

Steve Jobs, the co-founder of Apple once said, “It’s not the tools you have faith in. Tools are just tools — they work, or they don’t work. It’s the people you have faith in or not."

Now, let us take a pause and consider this scenario. Your close sister or friend working at bank Y tells you about the negative attitude of the company towards staff. Yet from its adverts whether in mainstream or social media, bank Y prides in valuing their customers. Who would you believe? Unfortunately, many people will go with the insider information, and this highlights the influence of internal communication and the risks of neglecting it.

According to the Institute for Internal Communication established in 2010 in the United Kingdom, internal communication refers to the exchange of information between the organisation and her internal publics. They could be staff, board members, or persons within the inner circle of the company. This type of communication helps the internal publics to understand the objectives of the organisation, providing feedback on operations, building morale, improving productivity among other critical organisation’s roles. And, it is not just a matter of passing information top-down. It is about ensuring that there is an engagement between the stakeholders.

The Global State of Internal Communications 2024 Report reveals that a clear, consistent exchange of information enhances employees understanding of goals, promotes collaboration, and strengthens trust in leadership.

Further, a 2023 Survey by the Institute of Internal Communications in the United Kingdom highlighted that only 45 per cent of the employees are ambassadors of their employer’s strategy and one in four neither gets it nor believes it. Now, imagine how hard it will be for a business to convince external stakeholders how good it is if internally, it doesn’t have strong ambassadors. This is where building stronger internal communication comes in.

So how do we strengthen our organisations’ internal communication so that they may prosper? Well, while there are many ways of doing it, here are some few highlights.

First, it all starts with the policy intervention. Many organisations might have internal communication policies which outline channels, and ways of exchanging information. In most cases, implementation of these policies is an uphill task.

Secondly, there must be a deliberate initiative to drive positive culture in exchanging information in a transparent, merit-based, and timely manner. A positive attitude driven by the leadership of an organisation will definitely trickle down from seniors to juniors. This type of effective communication culture paves way for a higher employee morale while at the same time promoting trust and confidence.

Thirdly, organisations have to practice the art of listening and feedback sharing as a crucial component of strengthening their internal communication. Whenever employees raise concerns on specific issues and feel that the leaders are not responding, that is when some of them start reaching out to bloggers for help. In fact, this is becoming a key trend where employees think that by exposing their employers to the external stakeholders, probably they will act.

According to the Employee Retention Strategies for 2022 Whitepaper by ZenHR, a HR software firm, listening and seeking feedback from employees through proper approaches can help you to gauge their feedback on how the work environment can be improved. It’s a vital component which should never be neglected.

At the same time, organisations could try multichannel ways of sharing information. Whether traditional such as a Baraza or digital such as WhatsApp, different channels can offer a good avenue for sharing feedback or information. The aspect of relying only on email may discourage some people from airing their views. This should be a continuous engagement and not an ad-hoc event.

That said, organisations need to prioritise their internal stakeholders as the first persons in everything they do. The internal stakeholders are the first brand ambassadors and most powerful stakeholders. If they don’t understand something, it is very hard for external people to understand it.

By ensuring that internal communication is working well, organisations will be able to nurture motivated employees, a factor that will also impact their external reputation and, in many cases, their productivity. After all, as the Biblical says, prosperity begins from within. There is no way an organisation can claim that it loves its external stakeholders if it doesn’t love its internal stakeholders.