The ultimate guide to managing change through internal comms

Vivian Zhou

12 mins read

What is change management?

Change management describes the techniques, processes, and tools organizations use to implement changes to their structures, systems, and ways of operating. That’s a lot of words, so let’s put it more simply: change management is everything you do that enables your employees to understand, embrace and make change happen at your company.

Change management and internal communications

Four out of five Americans have felt frustrated by poor workplace communication. And a recent Gallup poll found that only 13% of respondents strongly agreed that their company’s leadership team communicated effectively with the rest of the organization.

The fact is, most organizations are not very good at communicating with their employees. And that could be one of the biggest reasons why 70% of organizational change initiatives fail to meet their objectives.

When it comes to communicating with your employees, there’s always room for improvement. And effective communication is especially important when it’s tied to key changes in the workplace.

So what’s the solution? How do you effectively implement change in your organization? Well, there’s no one answer — and there’s no magic button you can press to automatically get your employees on board with change.

What you can do is work to incorporate internal communications principles into your change management process. After all, you need your employees to embody the changes you’re trying to implement — and that starts with making sure they understand them.

A step-by-step guide to communicating around change

To get us started, here’s our basic, step-by-step guide to communicating effectively around change in your organization:

Set objectives and develop key messages: First things first: determine what exactly you want to achieve, and how you’ll communicate that to your employees. This shouldn’t be done in a vacuum: make sure your goals align with the overall objectives of your organization, and consider different perspectives to make it easier to get buy-in from your key stakeholders.
Get leader buy-in: One of the most important steps in the early stages of a change process is to get your organization’s leaders on board. They understand their audience better than you do, and will be able to help you communicate change more effectively.
Deliver your message: Next, deliver your message to your employees. This process should be led by your organization’s leaders so they can deliver the message in the way that makes the most sense for their teams.
Build in opportunities for feedback: Make sure you incorporate tools for gathering feedback from your employees so that you can make sure they understand what’s happening and gauge their engagement with the project.
Communicate consistently and often: As the process moves along, be sure to continue communicating with your employees. This both keeps them informed about progress and keeps the project top of mind.
Evaluate results and adjust: At the beginning of the project, it’s important to establish how you’ll evaluate whether it’s been successful.

How to use internal comms to smooth the change process

There’s no one correct way to communicate about organizational change. You need to account for your organization’s particular industry, size, challenges, culture, and quirks, and develop a communication plan that makes sense in that context.

Think about communications early in the process

Too often, internal comms aren't considered until way too late in the change management process. This is because many organizations think of internal comms’ role as tactical and implementation-focused. However, considering communication from the start can improve employee buy-in and excitement for the changes.

Build a plan to communicate about change (and get employees excited)

Working with your leadership team, build a plan for communicating your planned changes to your team. Having a concrete plan from the start helps to ensure everyone is aligned on the key messages and how they should be delivered.

Tell a compelling story

If you want to achieve meaningful change in your organization, you need to craft a narrative to go with it. A compelling narrative explains that reason behind changes to your employees and helps them understand the importance of it.

Think like marketing to engage employees

When communicating organizational change, think about the way a marketing campaign is created. Understand the audience's needs and deliver messages that resonate with them.

Explain the “why” behind any change

To properly get employees on board, you need to present a viable, positive vision of the future. Providing context and storytelling helps employees to connect the dots between the current situation and the ideal future.

Tell your employees what’s in it for them

Define what changes for each employee, tailoring messages to specific groups and reinforcing relevance.

Incorporate feedback opportunities wherever you can

Organizational change projects should include regular opportunities for feedback to get insights from all levels of the organization.

Communicate continuously…not just at the start

Establish a communication process that keeps change top of mind throughout the project to ensure ongoing engagement from employees.

Using your intranet to manage change

Utilize your intranet as the primary platform for communication around change, creating dedicated pages for documentation and updates. Enabling continuous feedback through the intranet can significantly enhance the communication process during change.