• Corporate communications is an essential element of organisational culture.

• Organisational culture is increasingly viewed as critical for effective talent development.

• Three important elements of effective corporate communications include what is said, how it is crafted, and who it is distributed to.

Corporate communications is integral to the development of organisational culture. How a company leverages communications matters, in terms of how involved a given employee feels, and the extent to which they feel the company is invested in their future. 

Perhaps nowhere is this more important than in the area of talent development. In Singapore, for example, where competing for talent is a top priority, leaders are looking at corporate culture as the primary driver for both attracting and retaining talent. 

Below are three ways in which internal communications can create the kind of culture conducive to talent development:

Be strategic with what you say

The measure of effective internal communications is the value it adds to a recipient’s workflow and their overall experience as a member of the workforce. Helpful content, for example in the form of productivity or networking tips, may contribute to an employee doing their job better. Similarly, cross-cultural content that may raise awareness about ethnic traditions or cuisine, can go a long way to creating harmony and increasing collegiality between employees from diverse backgrounds. Strategic content, meanwhile, that reflects the trajectory of the company and everyone’s role in it, can give immediate purpose to an employee’s workflow and add direction to their career.

Be deliberate about how you say it

Developing and sharing effective messages is indeed essential. But how they are delivered is equally important. For example, employees often prefer concise and to-the-point messages about an issue; such communications also respect a person’s time. The clarity of communications is also crucial. When engaging internal audiences, it is particularly important to think through a planned message to ensure it presents its ideas clearly and adds its intended value as immediately as possible.  

Be targeted in who you say it to

Not all communications are relevant, or even appropriate, to all employees. Sometimes it is necessary to segment your audiences, to distribute to staff only those messages that are relevant to their workflow or position. Indeed, employees who regularly receive irrelevant content are likely to develop negative impressions of the sender or company, due to the distracting nature of that content. 

Moreover, impersonally targeted content invites less interaction than personally crafted messages. Whatever the size of your firm, doing your best to send out personalised messages (whether to teams or individuals) can go a long way towards encouraging and increasing engagement.

Talent development is about making employees feel like their employers care about their success and advancement. Therefore, internal communications should highlight how time and resources are being invested to establish a corporate culture conducive to employees flourishing. In today’s competitive business landscape the results, in terms of both recruitment and retention, are well worth the effort.