How can impactful internal comms promote good corporate governance?

While transparency, accountability, and workforce engagement may be integral to your business’ corporate governance policies, it’s also vital to embed these concepts into your employee communications strategy so every team member has the opportunity to deliver on governance commitments as a part of their day-to-day. By raising employee awareness of your corporate governance strategies with clear, consistent communication, you can influence a culture of achieving in line with business vision, purpose, strategy, brand, values and behaviours across your organisation.

Being informed about corporate governance efforts by a robust communication strategy will help employees feel connected to their organisation and heard at board level. An effective comms campaign can also give leaders the tools they need to build positive leadership behaviours – a skill businesses need to ‘be successful and create long-term value’ according to the Financial Reporting Council’s recent report. Visibility of transparency-boosting programs, including initiatives which encourage the inclusion of the employee voice, are key to helping employees feel valued.

There are a range of ways to use comms to strengthen organisation-wide awareness and understanding of corporate governance frameworks and functions. Here are just a few ideas that could resonate with your employees:

• Raising the visibility and profile of governance teams. With a distinct and consistent narrative which resonates with your employees, you can raise awareness of the purpose and value of your corporate governance function, drive engagement with communication and make your employees feel more connected.

• Explaining complex policies and processes. When you break down difficult procedural information into easily understandable materials like interactive e-brochures, e-learns, training materials, animated videos and online hubs, you can link employees with the ‘bigger picture’, driving the right everyday actions and behaviours.
• Unpacking how governance processes work and how decisions are made. By bringing complex topics to life with short, animated videos, and covering governance issues or decisions with videos or blogs delivered by senior leaders, you can keep the whole business feel engaged and informed, promoting accountability.

As Deloitte’s award-winning employee communications specialists, we can work with you to weave stories which engage employees, instil a sense of belonging, and unpick tricky topics. If this sounds like something you’d like to chat over, send us an email at stitch@deloitte.co.uk – we’d love to hear from you.