Do you feel disconnected from your colleagues at work? Do you struggle to stay updated on new updates and events in your organisation? Many employees often feel isolated or out of the loop in our fast-paced business landscape. An internal staff newsletter can be an extremely effective way to bridge gaps in communication in your organisation.
We’re going to reveal how you can build a captivating and thought-provoking staff newsletter that will resonate with your employees.
What is a staff newsletter?
A staff newsletter is an internal email aimed keeping employees informed about notable events and updates in the business. It can also be used to recognise employee achievements, share new ideas and promote a sense of belonging in the organisation.
A company newsletter helps build an interactive conversation that fosters a culture of continuous feedback, high engagement, and two-way collaboration. Your company newsletter should be informative and written in a captivating tone that strives to connect with your employees on a more personal level.
Why are employee newsletters important?
1) Keeping employees updated
As businesses become increasingly fast-paced, keeping employees updated about new developments within an organisation is more important than ever. An internal staff newsletter can be an interactive and efficient way to achieve this.
An enhanced level of contact can help employees feel more valued and aligned with your company’s overall mission. Give your employees a sense of direction and reassurance by promoting critical company updates like new policies and upcoming projects. Your business newsletter should be a source of truth that employees can rely on for accurate, real-time company infromation. It can also help employees feel invested and accountable for the company’s overall success.
2) Building a sense of community
A company newsletter can be a powerful tool for building community and inspiring motivation amongst your employees. A well-crafted newsletter can create a sense of camaraderie and shared purpose within your organisation.
Furthermore, it can help significantly boost employee morale and create a more positive work environment, which leads to reduced turnover, increased efficiency, and enhanced overall productivity. According to the Harvard Business Review, when people felt a sense of community at work, they were 58% more likely to thrive at work, 55% more likely to be engaged, and 66% more likely to stay in their current organisations.
3) Consolidating communication
One of the biggest advantages of a company newsletter is establishing condsolidated communication channel.This can significantly reduce the risk of crucial information being misinterpreted by key stakeholders within your company. This process is essential for large organisations facing bottlenecks and siloed communication.
A well-drafted newsletter can also be a highly effective method of promoting transparency, authenticity, and credibility. Sharing updates on company performance, potential changes in critical business processes, and potential challenges the organisation may face can foster a workplace culture of continuous trust and collaboration. This can help empower employees to further contribute to the business’s growth.
Furthermore, your business’s staff newsletter can promote cross-departmental collaboration between employees, breaking down barriers and facilitating the agile development of new ideas.
How do I create an employee newsletter?
While creating an internal staff newsletter and ideating staff newsletter ideas may seem daunting, it can be much easier than you think if you have access to the right tools.
Templates are one of the easiest and most efficient ways to create an interactive employee newsletter. Vision6 provides users with a wide range of fully customisable templates built explicitly for internal communications.
Therefore, your business can leverage one of our tools to create a professional and detailed newsletter in minutes. These templates can be quickly customised with your business’s branding, images, and content so you can create a newsletter that reflects your workplace culture and values without spending hours creating a layout.
In Vision6 you can find close to 50 professionally designed newsletter templates which you customise to your brand. Or you can create your own branded email by uploading HTML code directly into Vision6 or use the easy drag-and-drop editor.
This can give you complete control over your newsletter’s design and layout, enabling you to create a unique customised design that stands out. To further streamline and refine the newsletter design process, you can save your design as a template so it can be reused for future newsletters.
What should be included in a staff newsletter:
1) Captivating subject line
With email spam rates increasing daily, a captivating subject line is crucial to any successful staff newsletter. A simple ‘Monthly Newsletter’ won’t have your employees racing to open it. Try using questions, puns or teasers to help pique interest and inject more fun into your company newsletters.
2) Tone of voice
One of the most crucial components of your staff newsletter is the tone of voice. Your tone and personality should convey your brand values. A friendly, approachable, and conversational tone can help build trust, confidence, and familiarity. However, it is still important to maintain a sense of professionalism in all corporate communication to remain dependable and authentic.
All newsletter content should be cohesive and easy to understand to ensure it resonates appropriately with all employees across the organisation. While it is important to provide organisational updates, try to limit the use of technical jargon and ensure that all messages are simple and concise.
3) Personalisation
According to Forbes, emails with personalised subject lines are 26% more likely to be opened. Personalisation is a crucial aspect of staff newsletters that helps ensure that content resonates with each individual.
You can personalise your newsletter using a customised greeting, targeted content depending on each employee’s role, their interests or preferences. You can achieve this by segmenting employee lists based on specific demographics or job descriptions. This will ensure that each employee only receives content that is relevant to them, which can increase the overall readership of your newsletters.
4) Grab attention through interactive content
To capture your employee’s attention effectively, it is important to make your newsletter stand out from the other emails they receive daily. One of the most effective ways to do this is by including interactive content. Examples include quizzes, surveys, and polls which are an easy way to collect valuable employee feedback.
Another way to make your staff newsletter more interactive is by including images, animations, videos, or infographics that can help visually represent your message. Since most users are used to reading text-heavy emails, these elements can be a welcomed surprise and help interpret complex information in a digestible manner.
5) Value-add content
Another valuable addition to your newsletter can be resources like industry trends, upcoming training, upskilling opportunities, networking events as well as health and well-being resources.
A genuinely effective staff newsletter should provide valuable content that is accurate, relevant, and useful to your employees. This can include company strategies and policy updates, upcoming training and upskilling opportunities, health, and well-being resources, or upcoming events.
It is important to ensure that newsletter content is informative and actionable. For example, an ideal newsletter should provide tips for employees to improve their performance, achieve their individual goals and consider their personal and professional long-term development. This can help employees view your organisation as a trusted ally for valuable guidance and support.
Staff newsletter ideas:
1) Birthday or work anniversaries
Celebrating birthdays and work anniversaries through internal staff newsletters can be an excellent opportunity to showcase to employees that you truly care about them as individuals outside of their professional responsibilities. Celebrating their personal milestones can make employees feel extremely valued and appreciated.
2) New hires
Utilise your internal newsletter to welcome new employees to your organisation and introduce them to their fellow employees and your company culture. Sharing details about their professional experience, backgrounds, and skills can encourage other employees to reach out to them and make them feel at home. This is a crucial step in establishing a progressive and welcoming workplace culture.
3) Internal job postings
Advertising internal job postings through your staff newsletter can help keep employees informed about potential positions within your organisation and encourage them to apply. This can also make your employees feel supported through various phases of their career development while also ensuring that open positions are broadcasted to the largest pool of talent possible.
4) Shoutouts or special thanks
Your business can leverage its staff newsletter to acknowledge employees who have exceeded the responsibilities outlined in their job descriptions. Giving your employees the recognition and respect they deserve can boost morale and create a culture where employees feel recognised for outstanding performance. This not only helps create a positive workplace culture but also helps motivate employees to do better.
5) Run fun competitions
Organising fun competitions and challenges for employees can create a fun environment, inspire healthy competition and encourage increased engagement. This can foster a sense of teamwork, companionship, and shared purpose amongst your workforce while promoting innovation and continued creativity.
6) Staff recommendations
Sharing staff recommendations such as their favourite books, movies, podcasts, and more can create a sense of community by promoting shared interests. This can help spark conversations between employees and help build social connections and friendships amongst employees across the organisation.
7) Jokes or problem-solving riddles
Adding a touch of humour to your internal newsletter through jokes or problem-solving riddles can encourage a fun and positive workplace culture. This can help boost morale while giving employees a break from technical work-related content. This can also help employees bond over a shared sense of humour. Ensure that humour incorporated into the staff newsletter is appropriate and does not contain any content that could be considered offensive.
8) Employee surveys or polls
Employee surveys and polls can help your business efficiently collect employee feedback, opinions, and insights about various aspects of your organisation and its strategies. Seeking views on workplace culture, employee development initiatives, and overall organisational strategy can help drive practical, data-driven decision-making processes. This can help indicate that you value employee input, transparency, and shared goals.
9) Important upcoming dates or events
An important aspect of internal corporate communication is sharing important dates or events with employees. This could include project deadlines, meetings, and company-wide events. This helps minimise the risk of misunderstandings and missed development opportunities.
10) Health and well-being resources
Promoting health and well-being is essential to any positive and productive workplace. Include articles, videos, and infographics about mental health, employee assistance, and burnout to encourage employees to prioritise their well-being and show them that your business can support them.
11) Press coverage or positive customer feedback
Sharing positive publicity, awards, and accolades through your staff newsletter can inspire a sense of pride and personal achievement. This showcases your company’s accomplishments and helps showcase the importance of each employee’s role in the overall organisation’s development.
12) Team pictures or behind the scenes footage
Providing employees with a glimpse of the company; ’s culture and values through photos and videos can help employees feel more connected to the organisation while fostering a sense of community. Your internal staff newsletter can be a platform to highlight team-building activities, candid moments of employee camaraderie, and much more.
13) Helpful upskilling or training resources
Employees are always looking for opportunities to grow both personally and professionally. Your staff newsletter can help foster growth amongst employees by offering resources and training opportunities such as online courses, webinars, and other learning channels. This can stimulate employee satisfaction and support organisational objectives per industry trends.
Key Takeaway:
Now that you’ve learned everything there is to know about how to build an informative and engaging internal staff newsletter, it’s time to take action. Book a free demo today and discover how Australia’s most reliable newsletter tools can take your internal staff newsletter to the next level.
