What Are the Most Important Internal Communication Tools?

Internal communication tools are especially important at a time when teleworking and COVID demand new forms of organisation. 

That is why, in this article we are going to review the 4 most important types of internal communication tools and as a bonus, an almost extinct dinosaur.

• Intranets.
• Video call tools.
• Written communication tools.
• Project management tools.
• CRMs.

Intranets as an internal communication tool.

When I did my internship I worked in the management of Iberdrola's intranet. 

I don't think it was used by even 1% of the company's employees and access at that time was not very different from this: 

Even then, 7 years ago, it seemed to me that it was an outdated tool, today, I don't want to tell you about it. 

However, it seemed to me to be a must because it has been the star of internal communication for many years. 

Fortunately, other smaller tools have been taking away their share of business and they are becoming less and less frequent.

Video call tools.

If confinement and teleworking have taught us anything, it is that seeing each other's faces to communicate is very important. 

The interest in Zoom in Spain over the last year reflects this perfectly: 

So, the 2 tools I like the most in this area are:

• Zoom.
• Hangouts.

Both are free for personal use and have a paid version with certain advantages (such as eliminating the damn 40 minutes maximum meeting time in Zoom) for business clients. 

My favourite is undisputedly Zoom. 

Written communication tools.

It's not all about seeing each other's faces. 

Good internal communication requires asynchrony, and here written communication is king. 

Asynchronous communication is communication that happens in a deferred way; you send a message when you want to and the other person sees it and answers it when he/she can. 

The 3 best known tools of written communication are:

• Email.
• Slack.
• Teams.

While the first one is fairly universal and there is not much to add, the next 2 are more involved. 

They are whatsapp-like tools but much more useful, with many more functionalities and designed for the company. 

We have used both, but currently we prefer Teams. 

We use it to talk about specific projects, have departmental chats and even to say good morning to each other. Here's an example to prove it. 

Project management tools.

When many people are involved in a project, you have to organise yourself to get all the work done in order. 

And here, Trello and Monday are the kings. 

They are tools that make it easy, on the one hand, to divide and assign tasks and, on the other, to monitor and manage them. 

The first is free (although it has a premium plan if you have greater needs) and the second is paid with a free trial. 

I like Monday better, but not enough to pay, so I'll stick with the first one. 

CRMs as an internal communication tool.

If there is a key tool for internal and asynchronous company communication, it is a CRM. 

With such a tool you can manage meetings, talk to colleagues, organise projects and many other tasks. 

In addition, all the information is centralised in one place within everyone's reach, and this drastically reduces the time wasted in meetings and emails. 

If I could only choose one internal communication tool from the ones we have seen, it would be email, but the second, without a doubt, would be a CRM. 

And of all the CRMs, efficy's is the best. 

Do you want to try it?
 

Know more about:

• Your Comprehensive Guide to Project Management [2024]