Internal communication is one of the most important, yet least focused on, areas of business. Without effective communication departments duplicate efforts and mistakes are made due to lack of information. Thus, employees suffer from not receiving the acknowledgement and recognition they deserve.

While it may take extensive policy changes to overcome the first two challenges, the latter is easily solved. One simple solution is to create an internal company newsletter.

Organizations that have newsletters, which promote their internal activities and accomplishments, are utilizing a powerful Knowledge Management tool. Through informal story telling, employees can be kept up-to-date with corporate policy changes. But most importantly, this medium can be used to give praise to those who have made corporate contributions.

Think of the effect that having your name and the result of your most recent project printed in the company newsletter would have. You would be filled with pride. You would have a sense of recognition. You would, most likely, be energized and ready to tackle the next project with additional spirit. The most basic human need is the need for acceptance and recognition. There is an easy way to fill that need for your employees.

Creating a newsletter need not be time consuming or expensive. Here are a few recommendations that can help:

1. Designate a department to the task of newsletter creation.

It may make sense for the Marketing Team to be responsible for this since they already have the resources necessary to produce such materials. However, don’t overlook other departments who may have an interest in participating. Allow anyone who has an interest to be involved.

2. Define what information can be printed in the newsletter.

You may want to set forth an outline of information to be included in each issue. Perhaps sections entitled “What’s New”, “Team Players”, “Our Recent Successes” and the like could be used. Leave room for additional segments that can provide highlights of other praise-worthy events. Never take for granted that everyone knows about a particular happening.

3. Decide on a time frame for publication (weekly, monthly, and quarterly).

Depending on your resources and the amount of information you’d like to make public, you can choose to publish as often as you see fit.

4. Have the newsletter printed in-house, or publish it on the company’s Web site in order to save on printing costs.

Desktop publishing software is extremely inexpensive these days. You can create a professional-looking newsletter based on a template. This wouldn’t require any special skills so anyone who chose to could participate. Also, the cost of printing the newsletter in-house will save a great deal of money. If you have a Web site, create a specific page (not linked to any other pages) and announce the Web page address to employees. They can then visit the site to read the latest edition whenever time allows

Be sure to allow room for employees to contribute their own stories or information.

By making your newsletter accessible to everyone, you are increasing the quality of this Knowledge Management medium. You are also encouraging corporate-wide communication.

Make a special effort to investigate and include the findings of employee’s successes.

Often times, people feel as though they are “blowing their own horn” when they contribute directly. Designate someone to seek out success stories. They can conduct interviews with team members and then write the article themselves. This would allow more information to be printed without causing anyone to feel uncomfortable.

Widely publicize the fact that your company now has a newsletter.

Also make known where copies can be received. The impact of having a newsletter will be lost altogether if no one is aware that it exists. Perhaps include an announcement in each employee’s paycheck when a new edition is published. This will ensure everyone is able to benefit from the information provided.

By allowing all corporate personnel the privilege of being informed, you will see overall improvements in employee morale, team participation and general attitude. If your firm does not currently publish a newsletter, you may be wise to consider doing so.

Carole is President of Progressive Leadership offering corporate and executive coaching & consulting in Knowledge Management and Leadership & Organizational Development.
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