How often do you talk to your staff?

Marketing is job for everyone in your business, so why do so many businesses fail to nurture, care for and communicate with their employees?

When all is said and done your employees are your business. You employed them so it follows that their values are your values.

Internal marketing communications can deliver one of the fastest and most cost-effective improvements in customer satisfaction and profitability for many businesses. For a start it is largely neglected and most businesses don’t even have a budget for it.

I have blogged on numerous occasions that proper strategic marketing sits at the heart of any business and touches every department, including HR. Yes that's right, even HR!

Often the only time HR & Marketing speak is when designing and booking a recruitment advert. At this stage they get together and construct an advert in the house style, telling prospective employees, plus others, how great they are and why they should work for them (and so they should but that's a different blog topic all together).

Yet if you ask anyone in HR to name their biggest headaches, high up in the list will be staff retention. Although it will never go away, it is a problem that can easily be alleviated through the more effective use of internal marketing communications. In the early days of a business' life internal communications are easier as there are less employees and everyone regularly speaks with each other to ensure that the job gets done and the business achieves its targets and goals. But as a business grows and levels of supervision and management are introduced, it becomes less effective.

As your business grows, and remember that it's growing because of you and your people, don't forget to continue to communicate with them along the way. Internal communications don't have to be difficult or complicated. Yes, you can hold away-days, Christmas parties, summer barbecues and the like, but you can do just as good a job by  simple things, such as stopping to say hello as you walk past someones desk or by making sure that you include your staff on the distribution list of all external marketing communications.

There are lots of other ways to improve your internal marketing communications and transform your business. Call me if you'd like to know how.