Effective, regular internal communications with employees can have a significant impact on boosting profits and driving your company’s success. And when it comes to the communication tools, nothing beats the employee newsletter. That’s right, the terribly unsexy employee newsletter.
In a rapidly changing world of intranets, Twitter, blogs, wikis, internal social networks, podcasts and online video, is the traditional employee newsletter or magazine still relevant? Absolutely. In fact, while all these tools have their strengths, employee publications offer:
• an incredibly cheap and systematic way to provide appreciation and recognition
• a consistent vehicle for sharing core values and objectives
• the ability to reach every single employee whether they are tethered to a computer or not
• flexible delivery
• a low-cost and easy-to-outsource tool
The ROI on an employee newsletter or magazine can be phenomenal. For example, the annual cost to produce, print and distribute a quarterly internal publication to a company of 1,000? About the same cost as losing one unappreciated employee.
The modern employee newsletter can be printed or read online, on a tablet or on a smartphone; basically, it can be delivered however the employee wishes to receive it. And while a printed employee newsletter still makes the most substantial impact, it is simple and inexpensive to provide a digital version as well.
Just how potent can an internal newsletter be at making employees feel appreciated and motivated? Here’s an example from an “Entrepreneur” magazine article. The article tells the story of how a janitorial worker had the most rewarding experience in his 30-year career when he was featured in the company newsletter. His children were so excited about seeing their father in “the paper” that he might as well have been on the cover of “Time” magazine. The children even took the newsletter to school for show-and-tell. The worker reported that he had never felt so important to the company and more motivated in his work.
The most basic human need is the need for acceptance and recognition. In fact, praise or recognition can be more important to employees than even money. And the newsletter provides the ideal vehicle to deliver it.
The challenge is many employee newsletters are poorly executed with their primary focus to inform rather than inspire and motivate. The trick is to deploy a newsletter that does both – with a heavy emphasis on providing appreciation and recognition.
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