Internal Blog & Communication – The Art of Sharing and Caring

An internal blog could be as well compared to a room. Shall we quote Hamilton: An American Musical, written by Lin-Manuel Miranda, and one of its songs “The Room Where It Happens” – the organisation is the core of everything that happens; all the internal work, which makes the internal blog the room where it is captured and shared with the employees (where it literally happens). 

No one really knows how the game is played

The art of the trade

How the sausage gets made

We just assume that it happens

But no one else is in the room where it happens

“The Room Where It Happens” from Hamilton: An American Musical

So, what does really happen in the room where it happens? Let’s find out!

What Is an Internal Blog? 

Well… An internal blog can be a lot of things, as there are numerous ways to employ it. It could be a powerful tool for a company because its term meaning is very broad. 

Imagine a platform which serves as an internal communicator within the organisation, including day-to-day communication, project consultation and up-dates, as well as all sorts of knowledge about all sorts of things. 

If you happen to face at least one of these questions: 

• How to share information between co-workers in an easy and efficient way?
• How to make internal communication faster and more encouraging?  
• How to create a safe, fun, yet still professional space for the company members to engage in? 

…you might be thinking about an internal blog! 

Why Is an Internal Blog a Great Solution?

Without regard to how you are going to employ an internal blog, here are three reasons why such a tool could be a benefit: 

• No more emails or newsletters 

Being blunt, emails and newsletters are a slightly old-fashioned way of sharing. They serve their purpose in one-on-one communication, however, when it comes to a bigger group – they become messy and confusing. 

An internal blog is a perfect tool to enhance internal communication in the form of a digital board, which could be easily accessed by everyone in a company. 

• A reliable archive

An internal blog not only is of great assistance in internal communication but also handles archiving better than well. 

It provides an organised space for the entire content, which becomes available to each and every member of the company and is not difficult to find. 

• A sense of community & belonging

In every organisation it is important to feel its spirit and that it is an alive and vibrant community. Especially now, during the global pandemic, this task has become more and more challenging and here is where an internal blog fits right in!

It is a room for important up-dates, various topics, discussions and just a place where people can get to know each other a little better. 

• It is an ad

An internal blog is, in a way, a great ad – it creates an identification with the company through customized graphics that are very particular for the organisation’s brand. 

When you look at it, it is crystal clear it is built by this and this company. 

TISA & HeroDOT’s Internal Blog 

Here, at HeroDOT, we are big fans of the internal blog philosophy. After using a newsletter system for a few years, we have come to a conclusion that we are done getting lost in all the content we were producing and decided to create our own internal blog.

To do so, we started a new initiative, asking Krzysiek (our WordPress developer) for help, who, especially for this task, has learned a new technology. The initiative happened thanks to the collaboration between different departments and is now producing flourishing results in the form of internal communication.

It was created and based on connecting different fields and thus continues to connect people. We have even written a blog post about it – “WordPress Web Development is Easy… If You Know What You’re Doing“! 

After Krzysiek developed our brand new internal blog, it needed to be beautified by the one and only, Paweł, who took care of the design of the platform, making it consistent with our brand identity. 

The Art of Employer Branding 

Nowadays, doing research on a potential employer is as easy as researching top holiday destinations. Adjusting to this new (and slightly harsh) reality employers must top up their game in order to employ the best people on the market. That is when employer branding comes onto the stage. 

The spotlight could highlight two directions:

• Internal employer branding – aimed at the current employees of the company. It focuses on creating a friendly work environment and investing in the human capital.
• External employer branding – aimed at the prospective employers of the company. It focuses on the image of the organisation as an attractive environment to hone one’s skills and career; offers different trainings and workshops, etc. 

There is no one else in HeroDOT who knows more about our employer branding than Amanda, of whom you might have already heard about in one of our previous blog posts – “A People & Culture Manager’s Tale — How Our First General Group Meeting Worked Out“. 

Amanda is our company’s Oprah Winfrey. Her vacancy is People & Culture Manager and, as she says herself, she absolutely loves talking to people. She claims it is her superpower. 

According to Amanda, employer branding touches on an insane number of levels in the company:

• Well-being of its employees (a warm welcome and onboarding) 
• Building a community (our internal blog is a perfect place for that)
• Making an effort to retain and gain valuable people (for instance, networking – it is good to take care of current employees and the internal employer branding, as there are no better job brokers than friends, or the social capital; at HeroDOT a referral bonus program exists)
• Avoiding a big no no, which is feeling stressed before the work day starts

It is a system of connected vessels; we convert what we do inside the company into external promotion materials.

Amanda Łażewska, People & Culture Manager at HeroDOT

Getting to know as much as possible about HeroDOT’s team members helps Amanda to create external company materials, which later build the organisation’s brand and image shown to future co-workers / clients. 

A great example of such a project is our social media campaign Meet Us, or rather Rumour Has IT, where Amanda (preceded by an hour-long interview) creates a post about one of our excellent company members. 

Corporate Culture in HeroDOT 

Corporate culture is, in a way, its own collective being. An internal blog will not replace it, but might as well help you create it and enhance the communication. 

When a company grows, so do the rules for its conduct. HeroDOT began as a 15 people start-up. Looking at it now, collaborating 80 talented individuals and creating a sense of community is not an easy task to do (not to mention, to do so online). 

In order to maintain the corporate culture alive, Amanda gathers fun facts about each and every employee. It is especially useful for creating special events for them (a good example are personalised b-day wishes on Slack). 

Speaking of Slack, which is another inner communication platform we use at HeroDOT, we have initiated a channel called #propsy, where people validate each other’s work. 

It is all about the little things we are willing to do to contribute to the organisation’s day-to-day life. 

When people know each other well and there are just a few of them, the culture builds itself, but in the case of rapid growth, as in our case, it is not easy to extend these foundations and develop them in the new employees as an integral part of the identification in the company.

Amanda Łażewska, People & Culture Manager at HeroDOT

Another one of our internal initiatives is initially the so-called Knowledge Base, where every employee of HeroDOT can see the multidimensionality of what each person does in the company. 

It provides:

• Staff inventory list (who is responsible for what)
• The validation feeling (it is almost always pleasant to read about ourselves)
• Building relationships and commitment
• Operational side of the company (all the days off etc.)
• Storage knowledge about projects / extra materials 

It is built by everyone for everyone.

Conclusion

When people actually care to share certain aspects about their lives on a company’s communication channel, you know the company is doing something right. 

An internal blog is not one thing – it becomes the heart of the company, and when its aortas are well-functioning, it pumps out great content.