Our Personnel Department (my manager doesn't like the term Human Resources) have just been given the go ahead to start a monthly newsletter to communicate with our employees on site.
Looking for some ideas on good topics to include and see if anyone has a good template I can look at. The company I work for manufacture brake discs for cars and motorbikes so anything automotive related that is outside the box would be good.
Our sister company in USA has one which includes
- Company news/upcoming events
- Short paragraph or comment from each department
- Perfect attendance recognition
- Birthdays for the month
- Shout-outs (opportunity for thank you's from one employee to another, not necessarily work related)
- Welcome new starters
I think we should include other fun non-work related things like a quote of the month, celebrations like baby & wedding announcements, get to know....(short bio about an employee every month).
Obviously, this will need to be condensed into one or two pages so there's only so much I can included but the more interesting it looks, the more it will engage with employees and improve communication between the company and the workforce
Thanks,
Caroline
Replies
We put out a quarterly newsletter and tend to include the following:
It is quite a long and varied newsletter, but is able to be so as it only comes out four times a year. Employees always love reading them and finding out what is going on around the business.
Jess
Hi Caroline
So we have a have a weekly newsletter and it's one of the only comms I actually read! It includes key updates, reminders, links, internal vacancies, joiners/leavers and also 'picture of the week' where employees can send in an interesting picture. If something special happens for an employee, they tend to get their own section in the newsletter as opposed to just a picture.
We have a monthly Company meeting and weekly department meeting too so our newsletter can be more short and sweet and very effective. Seems like you want to fit a lot in to one comm which may be a little overwhelming but it depends on the dyamic of your employees on how best to structure internal comms. Ours has defintely helped to improve employee engagement so would recommend, but be cautious of birthday announcements and other personal things as not all like these to be broadcasted. You shouldn't really announce that type of information without the individual's consent.
Best
Lizzie
Hi Caroline,
The organisation I work for sends out a weekly email called 'The Week Ahead (TWA)'. All staff are invited to submit information they wish to be put in TWA.
To start the week ahead article there is usually some weird and wonderful fact which right away grabs your attention!
It usually contains information such as what is going on in the organisation, it is a lot about the 20k police uplift recently which I see as a positive thing to be sharing.
Another section in TWA covers managers and how they can support their team. In this section it also covers training managers can do to help they better themselves as well as mandatory training for all employees.
Finally there is the employee comments section. This is usually were people advertise things such as a weekly walking/ running group, mental health awareness week or recently we have had numerous cake sales mentioned to raise money for mcmillan.
It isn't usually a long article however I do look forward to reading it on a Friday afternoon so I know what is coming up the following week.
Cheryl
Thank you Cheryl,
I've now done first two issues of our newsletter and the feedback I've had has been positive overall. I'm having fun being creative and trying to make each one different. More and more people are coming to me with things to include, which aren't always work-related. Monthly is good, think a weekly issue would be a challenge :-D
Might think about including the weird and wonderful fact idea
Caroline
Hi Caroline
All great ideas, how about you establish a focus group and ask employeeswhat they would like to see within this.
A newsletter can be a great form of employee voice and if you get buy-in from some of the employees may serve better as a tool for employee engagement (assuming that is your manager's objective).
Also what is the medium this would be delivered is the workforce predominanly on the tools, how do you envisage they would engage with it and where?
All the best
Sarah