There's still room for improvement: Four facts about internal communication

When asked about the quality of internal communications in their own company, 25 percent of the survey participants rated this discipline as rather good and 23 percent as very good. In contrast, 21 percent of respondents rated the quality of their own internal communications as rather poor, and 13 percent as very poor. Women tend to be more critical in their assessment: 17 percent give a very poor grade, compared with 10 percent of men.

Most common channels: Intranet behind e-mails and staff meetings

E-mail or e-mail newsletters are currently the most frequently used channel for internal communication: 69 percent of respondents use this classic instrument to reach employees. The employee meeting is in second place: for more than half of the survey participants, the company informs its workforce about what is happening via personal or virtual meetings (52 percent). Only in third place is the intranet or social intranet (47 percent). In contrast, new digital channels such as mobile employee apps (15 percent) or internal podcasts (6 percent) are rarely used.

Most common formats: Management updates and spontaneous virtual exchanges

The most frequently used format of internal communication in the past twelve months was the management update: In 42 percent of the companies, the management regularly informed their employees about new developments. One in three companies has relied on informal exchanges: 35 percent of the survey participants said that internal communications had initiated informal virtual meetings such as coffee or lunch breaks.

Virtual entertainment formats were offered almost as frequently in the past twelve months: 31 percent of companies held online meetings on topics such as nutrition, fitness, book or movie recommendations. Regular internal surveys, on the other hand, were used less frequently (14 percent). 30 percent of respondents stated that none of the above measures had been implemented in their company.

Lack of strategy as the biggest challenge

A lack of strategy is currently the biggest challenge in internal communications. 28 percent of respondents believe that communicating haphazardly without setting goals and evaluating success is one of the biggest hurdles to communicating with employees. Almost as challenging is a lack of resources. 27 percent blame too little time, budget or personnel for the failure of internal communication.

One in four respondents also sees a danger in one-sided communication (25 percent), and one in five believes that the wrong tone in communication is problematic (20 percent). Technical hurdles are cited by 17 percent, and a lack of support from managers by 14 percent. In contrast, 31 percent of respondents have no challenges or challenges other than those mentioned.

At the Online survey the dpa subsidiary News Current and the Berlin-based opinion research startup Civey 500 professionals from communications, marketing and media took part. The survey took place from March 25 to April 8, 2021. Multiple answers were possible for the questions "Which of these channels are used for internal communication in your company?", "Which of these internal communication measures has your company implemented in the past 12 months?" and "What are currently the biggest challenges in internal communication in your company?"