An internal communications plan is a strategic document that defines how your organization shares information, aligns teams, and keeps employees engaged across every location and role. Without one, important messages get lost, teams drift out of alignment, and engagement suffers.
The stakes are high. According to Gallup's State of the Global Workplace 2026 report, low engagement cost the world economy approximately $10 trillion in lost productivity, or 9% of global GDP. That number makes a compelling case for investing in how your organization communicates internally.
Despite all the data showing how impactful it can be, internal communication often takes a backseat when it's time to allocate resources. This lack of prioritization leaves communication as a perennial challenge for employees and employers alike, especially within the modern business landscape.
Today, hybrid and distributed work is the established norm, and the infrastructure to support it has matured significantly. Most organizations have adopted the platforms and practices needed to connect teams across locations and time zones. The question is no longer whether to invest in internal communications, but how to build a plan that truly works.
We're going to explore five key elements that factor into a modern internal communications plan, and how they can help empower your employees to connect more effectively.
1. Access
Ensuring access is the first step toward developing an effective communication strategy. Relying exclusively on desktop apps won't work for teams with numerous workers who spend large amounts of time away from their desks.
For communication to be accessible, it needs to reach far and wide, connecting team members whether or not they're in the office.
Remote workers
Unlike in-office employees, remote workers don't have the benefit of being able to pop into a colleague's office for a quick chat. There have been many attempts at solving this issue over the years, but reliable video meetings were the major paradigm shift that made connecting remote colleagues feasible.
Regular video meetings with remote workers keep them in the loop, allow them to talk to their manager, and help foster a sense of connection by regularly putting faces to the names in messages and emails.
But even though video meetings have been an extraordinary step forward for communication and access, they aren't a perfect solution for remote teams.
A time zone difference of even three hours can be a challenge, and some remote teams have a time zone difference of 10 hours or more. In addition to synchronous communication like video and in-person meetings, effective asynchronous communication is a hallmark of a modern internal communications plan.
The benefits of good asynchronous communication aren't limited to remote or hybrid teams. In-office and deskless employees can also benefit immensely from good asynchronous communication.
Deskless employees
As more and more accommodations are made for remote workers, the needs of deskless workers are often ignored, with major consequences. According to the Axios HQ 2026 State of Internal Communications report, only 1 in 6 employees feels entirely aligned with organizational goals, and misalignment drove nearly twice as many missed deadlines in 2026 as it did the year before.
Lack of workplace flexibility is one of the main reasons deskless employees consider leaving their jobs, while feeling underappreciated is another major factor. Improving frontline worker communication can help address both of these challenges.
For example, repeatedly asking deskless employees to stay late for meetings while remote workers can meet on their schedule can make deskless workers feel underappreciated. Rotating who has to stay late to make meetings or allowing deskless employees to attend those same meetings remotely offers a little more flexibility for these workers.
It's also important to ensure communication channels work just as well on mobile devices as they do on desktops, so deskless employees can check in and communicate from their phones or tablets. A mobile-first approach is essential here. An intranet for remote teams with custom-branded mobile apps can give every employee the same experience, whether they're at a desk, on a factory floor, or in the field.
Because deskless employees may not always be able to receive or respond to messages in the moment, asynchronous communication becomes even more essential.
2. Multichannel delivery
Some employees prefer to communicate via email, while others find it faster and more convenient to send a direct message, and some may only have a mobile device on hand. To complicate matters further, employees in different departments often have their own dedicated communication platforms.
Multichannel delivery allows employees to receive important messages, regardless of the channels they use. This isn't a new concept, but it's essential in a modern communications plan.
If sending messages across multiple platforms sounds like a logistical nightmare, you're right. That's why automation is more important than ever, and it's only half the reason it's helpful for comms.
Automating multichannel delivery instead of sending all these messages manually saves time and effort, but it can also improve messaging consistency. Many (but not all) intranets have automation features geared toward multichannel delivery. A single post to the relevant intranet group can automatically deliver the right message to the right people at the right place at the right time, all in one action.
Choosing the right channel for each message
The key to effective multichannel delivery is matching each message type to the channel where it will land best. Here's a practical framework for your team communication tools:
- Intranet: Company-wide announcements, policies, knowledge base articles, and cultural content that employees can reference over time
- Chat (Slack/Teams): Quick questions, team updates, informal collaboration, and real-time discussions that don't need a permanent record
- Email: Formal announcements, compliance notices, and communications that require a documented trail
- Video: Leadership messages, training sessions, town halls, and any communication where tone and body language matter
- Mobile push notifications: Urgent alerts, time-sensitive updates, and critical information that deskless or frontline employees need immediately
When you signal boost your communications by matching the message to the channel, you reduce noise and increase the likelihood that employees actually see and engage with what you share.
3. Discoverability
Communication drives outcomes, and it's hard to participate in a dialogue you don't know is taking place. In the days when most teams worked together in the same physical space, it was possible to participate, simply by being present.
Participation for remote workers requires both deliberate action and an invitation. Most predominantly remote teams pay special attention to ensuring information and conversations are easily discoverable online, but in hybrid teams that's not always the case.
Consider, for example, if a hybrid team lead provides a live demonstration. Those physically present can participate without any added effort, but that's not true for the team's remote members. That's why it's especially crucial for hybrid orgs to ensure communications are discoverable and accessible.
In the above example, recording the session and posting it somewhere visible and searchable, like the relevant group's space on the company intranet is a great start. Even better, by automating multichannel delivery, that same video can be delivered to remote members across all their preferred channels. Additionally, that information becomes discoverable in search.
And while that's helpful on its own, some intranets have search features that make it easy to find things you're actively looking for. They can also help predict what sort of information might be helpful, and surface it automatically. Modern intranet search goes beyond keyword matching to deliver results that are relevant to each employee's role and context.
The most effective modern internal communication strategies couple smart search with thoughtful planning and execution. When sharing information or starting a dialogue, it's critical to consider which audience it's for, anticipate where they might access it, and share it in a way that makes it natural to discover.
These steps can be exceptionally helpful for remote, deskless, and hybrid employees, but discoverability is equally essential for people who work in an office.
4. Equity
A modern communication plan ensures all team members have an equitable experience, and that's only possible when everyone can participate on equal footing.
Flattening the hierarchy
Just because someone is new to the team, or working in a hands-on role doesn't mean they don't have potentially transformational ideas and insights. Organizations that tuck those voices away lose the opportunity to learn from them.
Some communications benefit from being kept in a tighter loop, but when it's possible, a respectful consideration of ideas across different departments and seniority levels can be a powerful advantage.
Participation options
Meetings can be made more equitable by ensuring everyone can have their voices heard, whether they're in-person or remote. Soliciting questions asynchronously before and after a meeting allows presenters to respond to questions from employees who can't make the meeting in person, ensuring their voice is still heard.
Translating jargon
While it can be helpful shorthand in some cases, jargon can also alienate interns, new hires, or freelancers there to do a slightly different job on a team. Although new hires often struggle with jargon, studies have paradoxically shown entry-level employees sometimes use jargon to bolster their perceived status on the team.
Despite many people struggling with or bristling against industry jargon, it's still thriving across countless workplaces. So, instead of trying to eliminate it, an effective modern communication plan can embrace it by providing everyone with a simple way to decode jargon.
An easily accessible and up-to-date business glossary can help give everyone equal footing and a shared understanding.
5. Richness
Body language, tone of voice, and facial expressions carry a large share of meaning in face-to-face conversation. Remote, hybrid, and deskless teams rarely have access to these nonverbal cues, which makes written messages easier to misread. As Nick Morgan explores in his book Can You Hear Me? How to Connect with People in a Virtual World, people consistently overestimate how well their intent comes across in digital messages, and email in particular is frequently misunderstood.
Rich communications combine different mediums to tell a story that everyone on the team can follow and engage with. From vibrant images to video, embedded content, and even GIFs, modern platforms provide an entirely new canvas for communication and understanding.
Even something seemingly small, like emoji, can help bolster communication among remote employees and their colleagues by communicating tone in interoffice chats. A 2026 study in Collabra: Psychology found that emoji use in professional messaging can affect perceptions of competence and appropriateness, highlighting how quickly emoji have moved from casual shorthand to a meaningful communication signal in the workplace.
Research published in Frontiers in Psychology (2021) found that emoji can elicit emotional responses similar to those triggered by real facial expressions, which may help remote workers feel more connected to their colleagues despite the physical distance.
Instead of expecting employees to read long chunks of information, a modern communication strategy strives to engage. Breaking information up with graphics, charts, images, videos, and subheadings can provide easier access to the information and help team members understand it regardless of their preferred learning style.
Leaders can also encourage team members to provide more rich communication. For example, businesses might offer templates that employees can use when sharing information. By placing space in these templates for graphics, videos, or subheadings, leaders encourage teams to consider more rich presentation styles.
How to build your internal communications plan
Now that you understand the five key elements, here's how to put them into action. Follow these five steps to build an internal communications plan that connects your entire organization.
- Set clear goals. Define what you want your internal communications to achieve. Tie communication objectives to business outcomes like employee engagement, retention, or productivity so you can measure what matters.
- Segment your audience. Group employees by role, location, or department. Different teams need different information at different times, and a one-size-fits-all approach leaves too many people behind.
- Choose your channels. Match each message type to the channel where it will land best. Use the channel framework above to ensure urgent alerts, company-wide news, and team updates each reach employees through the right medium.
- Create a content calendar. Map out your communications in advance to maintain a consistent cadence. A calendar keeps your team organized and prevents important messages from slipping through the cracks.
- Measure and refine. Track open rates, engagement metrics, and employee feedback. Use the data to align your communications metrics with organizational goals and adjust your approach over time.
Frequently asked questions
What is an internal communications plan?
An internal communications plan is a strategic document that outlines how your organization shares information, engages employees, and aligns teams. It defines the channels, cadence, and content types you'll use to keep everyone informed and connected.
What are the key elements of an internal communications plan?
The five key elements are access, multichannel delivery, discoverability, equity, and richness. Together, they ensure that every employee can receive, find, understand, and engage with the information they need to do their best work.
How often should you update your internal communications plan?
Review your internal communications plan at least once a quarter, and update it whenever your organization goes through significant changes like restructuring, rapid growth, or a shift in work model. Regular reviews help you stay responsive to employee needs and evolving business priorities.
How do you measure internal communications success?
Track metrics like message open rates, intranet engagement, employee survey scores, and content reach across channels. Pair quantitative data with qualitative feedback from employees to understand what's working and where your plan needs adjustment.
Build a stronger connection with your team
A modern internal communications plan brings together five essential elements: access that reaches every employee regardless of location, multichannel delivery that meets people where they work, discoverability that makes information easy to find, equity that gives everyone a voice, and richness that makes messages resonate. Combined with a clear, step-by-step process for building and refining your plan, these elements create the foundation for a truly connected organization.
Everbridge, a critical event management company that protects over 2 billion people globally, centralized their internal communications with Haystack as the foundation. They built a unified hub where employees across the organization could find news, resources, and updates in one place.
Read how Everbridge built their internal communications hub
Haystack brings all of these elements together in one employee experience platform. Give every employee access through custom-branded mobile apps and desktop, deliver messages across multiple channels from a single hub, make content discoverable with smart search, ensure equity through company-wide access and a shared knowledge base, and publish rich, engaging content without writing a line of code.
