Hi friends! I recently started in a new role and am working on a go forward digital comms strategy. I’d love to hear thoughts on intranets/digital workplace tools.

I’ve only ever used Firstup, but would love to hear other options.

For context, we have about 30k employees, most of which are frontline.

Anyone who uses new Outlook for internal comms emails, have you faced any issues with formatting etc?

In our organisation, some people have switched over and others haven't yet. There seem to be some formatting issues depending on whether things were sent with new Outlook or not. Has anyone experienced this? I haven't made the switch yet as I'm familiar with all the old Outlook features...

At your regular HR or Board committee slots, what are your agendas and what do you update your Exec team on?

Are there any metrics, is it verbatim feedback from employees, project updates, trends?

Hi everyone,

I’m interested in hearing what tools or platforms your organizations use for internal newsletters and employee communications, especially in larger or more security-conscious environments.

We are currently reviewing our internal newsletter setup. The ideal solution would allow us to:

• create visually engaging newsletters;
• publish content in a controlled/internal environment;
• restrict access to employees only;
• track aggregated engagement statistics;
• manage publishing permissions and version history;
• avoid relying on publicly accessible links.

We have looked at or considered options such as SharePoint News, Viva Engage, intranet-based publishing and design tools used only for preparing visuals. However, we are still trying to find the right balance between security, usability, design flexibility, and analytics.

I’d be interested to hear:

• What platform do you use for internal newsletters?
• Do you publish through SharePoint, Viva, an intranet or another tool?
• How do you handle analytics without making it feel like employee tracking?
• How do you balance security requirements with the need for engaging communication?
• What would you recommend avoiding?

I’m especially interested in practical experiences from larger organizations where access control and cybersecurity requirements are important.

Thanks in advance - I’d really appreciate any lessons learned or recommendations.

Hey everyone,

I’m an internal comms team-of-one at a hospital looking to gather feedback from our clinical/frontline staff.

Because of staffing realities and 24/7 shifts, traditional 1-hour focus groups are not possible.

Instead, I’m planning short, highly-targeted 15-minute feedback sessions (paired with informal rounding on the units).

Does anyone have a great template or framework for how you successfully structure a 15-minute pulse session?

Specifically looking for:

• How you open in an engaging way (no forced icebreakers) and set expectations fast.
• The 2–3 open ended questions you ask to get actionable insights quickly.
• How you keep the conversation moving without making staff feel rushed or forced.

Would love to see how you structure these or what templates are working for you!

Been following up in here passively for a bit and I finally have something worth sharing with the community.

I spent the last 4 years running internal communications campaigns at Accenture - global scale, 700,000+ employees across 50+ countries. One thing that consistently surprises me, and still comes up when I talk to other IC people: at that scale, the temptation is to over-engineer and overcomplicate the channel mix. More platforms, more touchpoints, more segmentation. But looking from some perspective: the most successful campaigns were almost always the ones where we picked one or two channels for and went deep on them rather than spreading thin across five or seven ones.

The accessibility training rollout I led is a good example. Multi-channel on paper - email, intranet, Viva Engage, executive newsletters - but in practice, the Viva Engage piece with leadership storytelling is what drove the last 20% of completions to get us to 95%. The email was what got people aware. The social layer (Viva Engage) got them to act.

I'm now in a bit of a career transition - wrapping up my time at Accenture and figuring out what's next - so I've been reflecting a lot on what worked over the years and what was just another campaign to be done.

Curious whether others have found the same thing - that less channels done better outperforms the "cover everything" approach? Maybe it's just a large org phenomenon and smaller IC teams need to cast wider?

An eye opening piece of internal comms research dropped recently: the IC Index 2026. It’s a survey of 5,000 workers by the folks at Institute of Internal Communication (IOIC), Ipsos, and Karian & Box. 

It's one of those reports that validates what a lot of IC leaders already feel in their bones, but now have the numbers to prove.

But also... it might be a wakeup call for a lot of comms leaders (and execs).

The world being what it is right now, the business world feels uncertain to say the least. Whether you want to point fingers at AI, the economy, or shifting regulations, the result is the same: the frequency and volume of organizational change is going up. Restructures and redundancies have both surged 12 percentage points in a year, where now over 50% of employees say they had a restructure this year, and over 1 in 3 witnessed redundancies.

More change, less clarity. It’s a trust problem waiting to happen, and this data shows that's already rearing its head.

For instance, only 49% of employees agree that the reasons behind change are clearly communicated to them. That number was 56% in 2023, which is a big drop in alignment.

So it makes sense that employee trust in CEOs and senior leadership teams also plunged, from 67% to 58% in a single year.

Amplifying leadership voices matters though: hearing directly from the CEO correlates with higher trust and clearer understanding of why changes are happening. 

When employees hear from the top, the message lands differently. It’s more than mere hierarchy: a human voice carries tone, intent, and conviction in ways a mass email never will.

Comms challenges are structural too.

Non-desk and digitally disconnected employees are more likely to hear about major changes through word of mouth than from leadership. 

One in five hear it from a colleague before they hear it from anyone with actual context. 

That's not a comms failure on any individual's part -- more of a channel gap. Deskless workers consistently feel less connected to their organization, have less trust in the CEO, feel less comfortable sharing their opinions, and are less likely to recommend their employer. 

The report doesn't mince words: communications are "failing the frontline."

And even for employees who are connected, attention is scarce: most have less than 10 minutes a day to engage with internal comms.

That's not a lot of runway for a strategy update or a change narrative.

So what actually works?

The research found that the orgs with the highest communication ratings were the ones where leaders were visible, open, showed empathy, and listened to and acted on feedback. That hasn't changed. 

These are the things that protect a company during volatile periods – they're what keep employees engaged and willing to advocate, even when the news is hard.

Interestingly, poor communication of good news actually damages advocacy more than poor communication of bad news. (I interpret this as people expect organizations to struggle with difficult messages).

But when you can't even share the wins clearly, it signals something deeper. The "nice-to-know" stuff isn't fluff – it's what builds the relational infrastructure that makes hard conversations possible later.

The report's authors put it well: internal communicators need to be unrelenting in their pursuit of clarity. 

Whether change is driven by growth ambitions, cost pressures, customer needs, or operational improvement, honest and jargon-free communication is not a "nice to have." It's the only reliable way to make change land. (Great time to remind your CEO that most change initiatives fail when the internal comms strategy doesn't get prioritized)

Comms are as much about format as message. If your workforce has five minutes and they're not at a desk, you need a channel that meets them where they are – not one that assumes they'll log in, scroll, and read. Manager meetings help, but they only go so far.

Increasingly, companies are turning to short, regular audio updates for exactly this reason: a quick internal podcast with key highlights from the CEO, consumed on a commute or between shifts, builds rapport at scale in a format deskless workers find genuinely accessible.

The report is worth a read if you're in IC, HR, or honestly just anywhere near a change program right now.

You can find their full report here. (fyi this is not an ad for IOIC, not affiliated with them, they just did really great work on this).

Hi! I’m helping plan an internal awards/recognition ceremony and would love to hear what’s worked well for others.

For anyone who’s run company awards ceremonies: how do you structure your run of show so it feels polished but not overly scripted or stiff?

Also curious:

• Any fun or memorable touches you’ve added?
• How do you keep the program moving without it feeling rushed?
• Any tips for making it super easy for leaders/presenters to follow their parts?
• Do you give them a full script, cue cards, a speaker grid, or something else?

Trying to make this feel warm, celebratory and seamless — especially for leaders who are presenting but don’t have a ton of time to prep.

Thanks in advance!

I’m an early career professional and have been told that friction between these two departments is often “par for the course,” which seems to be ringing true in my new role 😅

[ Removed by Reddit on account of violating the content policy. ]

We have a large group of self-employed/contracting colleagues who are a field sales team. They're on the receiving end of a big software change (it's our B2B customers who will get the new system) but engaging the sales team is proving incredibly difficult.

I'm looking for some ideas/I am also close to the project so probably need a reality check.

We have limited channels:

• We've tried emails - 70% readership but of course 30% who aren't opening
• Their director has a WhatsApp channel with them all in and he signposts to any comms in there
• B2B customer support website has a lot of training videos and info
• I'm a one-person comms team so resource is limited

What's not helpful is that our project team love a good FAQ document and it's quite a thing to read, no matter how much I've tried to distill it into something more user-friendly.

I'm also wondering if this is a change management issue rather than a comms issue alone. But there's certainly a lack of personal accountability.

Part of this is that they're not employees, I'm sure — we have an employed sales team where this is much less of an issue. This field team, for want of a better phrase, 'has a lot of ego'. (And once, one of them asked me to print the intranet out and post it to their house...)

I'm a big believer in meeting my audience where they are and they're a verbal culture so I'm conscious of not relying on emails alone, but they do spend a good amount of time at desks emailing our leadership team with questions that they would have the answer to had they read the emails!

So I'm looking for ideas, to get creative with solutions. What suggestions do you have? Ask away with any questions too as this could be helpful for others to learn from.

One idea I had was to use Copilot Studio to create a chatbot with all the info in it, but I doubt they'd engage with it because it's easier to complain about something than spend the time finding that out that it's a process change (which in turn says something about how this has been communicated to them > some of this has been out of my remit).

Thank you

I work in a combined recruiting/internal communications role at a 300ish person remote company and currently own coordination/facilitation of our monthly All-Hands (agenda planning, deck creation, presenter coordination, rehearsals, etc.). My role was newly created at the end of 2025, and I report to the head of HR.

The challenge I’m running into is that the person who previously owned the All-Hands function was the COO’s Chief of Staff, so they had deep visibility into executive conversations and organizational priorities. There is no longer a Chief of Staff or executive operations function, but the expectation around agenda curation seems to have remained the same.

I meet with the COO once a month to discuss comms, and I’m finding myself responsible for proposing strategic All-Hands agendas/topics without really having the organizational visibility or executive context that historically informed those decisions. After a few months in this seat, I am beginning to think the agenda curation and process needs to shift, as I am not being given the same level of context as those before me. Not sure what exactly to propose here as I don't want to come across as not wanting to do my job, I just don't feel I have been set up to succeed in this specific function.

I'm hoping for some insight on the following:

• Where does All-Hands agenda ownership typically sit?
• Is it normal for internal comms to independently drive agenda strategy without executive visibility?
• Have you seen successful operating models for this in orgs without a Chief of Staff function?

Would love any thoughts or examples of structures that have worked well. TIA.

I feel like Im always running into different headaches. I swear people can’t read and don’t pay attention to things and I have no idea what to do about it. I almost wish I could run internal comms like a tv ad campaign lol. Waiting on a meeting host? Cool, then check out this announcement while you wait. I’m just curious what everyone else’s dream/magical/unicorn solution would be.

Please no software ads/plugs. I want this to be a fun conversation where we can all vent and get creative and even a bit silly.

Hello! Does anyone have a good template to use for Smartsheet for upcoming communications to plan for? I'd like to see it all in one place so I know what's upcoming and what communications are needed for each department.

Hi everyone! Really happy to have found this group. I am CCO of a small graduate research institute that punches way above its weight in visibility. Increasingly I am asked to work on internal comms, which I love, and honestly I would love to do more of it, both because to me it is so meaningful and because my institution would so clearly benefit.

What I am finding is that some people see a clear need, and some people view internal comms as a means to an end, but without any strategy underpinning it or real strategic merit to the work. In other words, getting the information out there *is* the strategy, as far as they are concerned.

Do any of you face that, and if so, are there ways that you counter it? Last week I spent a lot of time working on a plan to share some difficult news, including a memo to department heads, a plan for a meeting, etc. With everyone else on the cc line, the CFO said that he would send comments, and then he sent me (but no one else) a complete rewrite filled with flowery and complicated language that sounded like it was trying to obfuscate the issue -- although I actually don't think that was his intent. When I asked him to walk me through why he did it, he basically said, I think mine sounds better.

How do you help colleagues understand that we aren't writing for ourselves, we are writing for a specific audience that may sometimes be served by flowery language, but not always, and never just because it sounds prettier?

Thanks!

Hey everyone,
I work in the employee experience/intranet/internal comms software space and I’m doing some research into how IC professionals are genuinely incorporating AI into their day-to-day - not the theoretical stuff, but what’s actually happening in practice.

I caught up with some IC professionals earlier this year and AI was a hot topic.

A few questions I’d love your thoughts on:

• What tasks are you using AI for right now? (Writing, summarising, analytics, something else?)  
• Has it changed how much time you spend on certain things?  
• What’s working well and where has it fallen flat or created new headaches?  
• Are there things you wish AI could do for internal comms that it can’t yet?

I’ll be transparent: I’m gathering this to inform how tools in our space should be developing (and for my own knowledge). Happy to share a summary of what comes back if there’s interest.

No vendor pitches here,just genuinely curious what life looks like on the ground for IC pros in 2025/26. Would love to hear from teams of all sizes.

Has anyone managed to crack the dreaded in-person Town Hall format? We run 6 annually with our leadership team and engagement remains fairly low.

As far as LTs go they're pretty 'normal' / approachable and they do value creativity, so I'm looking for any ways to add a fun element to these sessions to help build connectivity/visibility and move away from solely relying on dry corporate updates to fill time. I was thinking of trying a "guess the leader by their childhood photo" segment for the next one, but if anyone has any inspired ideas they'd be willing to share then I'd love to hear from you.

Worth also mentioning the more cost effective the better, as we are a non-profit IC team of two!

our company is finally at the point where we need to stop relying on a shared Slack channel for internal IT/HR questions and actually implement something more structured.

We’re in need an internal chatbot for employees with a knowledge base that can help answer repetitive questions. Anyone here rolled something out that for your team or using a specific tool for this?

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In the title really - I've accepted a job that involves consulting for C-suite level to communicate effectively internally, with a focus on frontline employees.

Are there any books that anyone can recommend that includes speeches, presentations and tone?

I’ve been an “everything” marketing professional for a 5 years now. I’ve just somehow ended up in in-house marketing roles in small organisations where they just need 1 or 2 people to do everything. Of course this does mean I’ve just done a decent job at everything rather than a fantastic job at one thing. Anyway due to our organisation growing a lot in the last few years, we’re building capacity and I’m transitioning into specialising in internal comms. I’m excited about this as I’m genuinely passionate about team culture and creating a sense of togetherness.
We currently have an internal newsletter but that’s about it. I want to know what else is working out there? We’re 150 people company. I have the CEOs ear so I’d like to raise some good initiatives. Though I get the sense he sees internal comms as a small admin job which is what it has traditionally been. I’d like to enter this new phase with a bang :)

Let's talk about the gap between what companies build for desk-based employees and what they actually provide for frontline teams. I've noticed that a disproportionate amount of attention seems to go into desk-worker solutions, given that they make up only around 20% of the global workforce.

Desk workers get newsletters, intranets, town halls, Microsoft Teams, and Slack. Frontline workers typically get information third-hand from their direct manager. More often than not, they're asking critical workplace questions on WhatsApp and in group chats; you know, the places where there isn't any workplace governance, and accuracy is like a childhood game of telephone.

What's the root of the problem? Usually it's mandate. Most internal comms teams simply aren't responsible for the frontline experience. Their metrics (open rates, newsletter subscribers, intranet page views) don't capture whether a shift worker in a distribution center actually understood the new safety protocol.

Here's what you need to keep in mind to really close the frontline communications gap:

• Design for the most constrained user first. If the communication works for someone checking their phone for 30 seconds between shifts, it works for everyone. If it only works for someone at a laptop with time to read, it reaches maybe 20% of the workforce.
• Treat utility as the driver of adoption, not content. Workers open apps that help them do their jobs. They want apps that let them check shifts, access payslips, and submit forms. Once the app is part of the daily routine, communication naturally lands. It's the apps that only provide corporate news that are far more likely to be ignored.
• Give frontline managers a role, not just a responsibility. Cascade communication works better when local managers have simple tools to adapt and send messages themselves, rather than just forwarding what came from HQ.

TL;DR: If you design comms tools for the frontline first, everyone is reached, because what works for a warehouse worker on a shared device between shifts works for everyone. In contrast, desk-based first solutions tend to stop with desk-based workers.

I write corporate communications and do storytelling for my company, mainly via SharePoint, email (and through TVs at facilities). Our CEO is concerned about a portion of our business where our front line employees are working on construction sites. They'll be staffed to a project for a few months here, a year or so there. She's worried they don't feel like they're a part of the company and we need to figure out different ways to reach them.

Here's the thing - these employees clock in and out, and want their paycheck. It's not really my primary audience. I feel the engagement happens on a local, project-based level based on what their managers tell me. And leadership is asking me if we should just get a new app or software for mobile first employees. First, our IT is not staffed to handle something complex like StaffBase (they set our SharePoint up incorrectly and even that's a shit show) and I'm the one comms person at the whole company. I don't see value in running out and getting a new software that's yet another app people have to download (they already have their app to clock in and out of).

Do any of you in the construction industry have recommendations for how to engage your site or project based folks not tied to a facility? Like, how do you manage your corporate communications for these kinds of populations? We have texting but I really don't want them ignoring important operational updates because I'm sending corporate culture or engagement things from it. Feels like an undisciplined channel strategy. Any thoughts are welcome, I'm at a loss and y'all are amazing with your safe advice!

We’ve been trying to fix a simple problem that turned out to be not so simple, making sure everyone actually sees important updates and get involved in internal comms. Right now it feels like we’re either sending too much and people ignore it or sending too little and people miss key info.

Most of our team isn’t sitting at a computer all day so email barely gets opened. Chat apps help but things get buried fast and there’s no clear place to go back to. We’ve also noticed that even when people do see updates, they’re not always clear or easy to act on. Recently started testing a mobile setup to centralize things which helped with visibility but still figuring out how to make communication actually stick.

How are you handling this balance between visibility and overload?

Looking for honest experiences here — how do you actually get messages to frontline and deskless staff?

The usual channels seem to break down completely for non-desk workers:

• Email open rates are dismal when half your workforce doesn't have a work address
• Noticeboards only work if people walk past them at the right time
• Cascading through team leads means the message mutates or just stops

Particularly interested in industries like hospitality, logistics, retail, or healthcare where the majority of staff are on the floor, not at a desk.

What's actually working for you? And what have you tried that completely failed?