7 best internal communication channels for effective messaging

Innovative technologies, including AI-powered chatbots and interactive video conferencing tools, have revolutionized workplace communication, transforming how teams interact.

• Why it matters: Effective internal communication channels are crucial for maintaining a cohesive work environment, especially as more companies adopt hybrid and remote work models. 59% of leaders admit they’re struggling to evolve their communication strategy for these teams.

Seamless communication ensures all your employees are aligned, regardless of their position or location, boosting engagement and productivity. However, organizations must leverage the ideal communication tools in their workplace to achieve this. 

How to choose effective internal communication channels

Five key factors will influence what internal communication channels are right for your organization.

1. Company size

Company size determines the complexity and type of communication channels you should choose.

• Large companies or enterprises have complex structures with multiple departments, teams, and office locations. Such companies require strong and scalable solutions to ensure information flows smoothly across all levels of the organization.
• Small companies have simpler communication needs and can rely on more straightforward, cost-effective tools. The key for small businesses is choosing solutions that are easy to implement and use to avoid overwhelming employees.

Recognizing the specific needs associated with your company's size is key to selecting the most suitable internal communication channels for your team, ultimately enhancing employee satisfaction and retention rates. 

2. Distribution of on-site and remote employees

A Buffer survey revealed a significant increase in remote work, with over 82% of respondents working from home in 2023, up from 59% in 2022. The steady increase in both on-site and remote workers necessitates a careful selection of internal communication channels to ensure effective company-wide coordination.

Select communication channels that effectively connect on-site and remote teams, ensuring all employees are aligned and informed. The truth is you’ll need a combination of different channels for different kinds of communication and to meet your employees' preferences.

3. Organizational needs

Every organization has various communication needs that require different channels, so you must match each communication channel you choose to your ideal needs.

Urgent messages are best communicated through instant messaging or push notifications to ensure immediate attention. At the same time, detailed reports or company policies might be more appropriately shared via internal emails or the company intranet. 

The bottom line is that every communication channel should have a clearly defined purpose or identity to avoid confusion and ensure that all messages are effectively delivered and efficiently received.

4. Employee preferences

67% of employees would go “above and beyond” in their duties if they felt more valued and engaged. One of the best ways to engage your employees and make them feel valued is by listening to their opinions. That should start by identifying their preferred channels of communication through:

• Surveys and polls to get your employees’ insights. Your survey or poll questions can focus on channel usage, preferred features, and any pain points they experience.
• Focus groups provide deeper insights into employee preferences through detailed discussions, helping you better understand your employees' needs and suggestions.
• Regular feedback sessions. Host regular virtual or face-to-face feedback sessions where employees share their preferences and highlight any internal communication issues they might be facing.
• Channel analytics. Numbers don’t lie! This is why you should use them to identify usage patterns and discover the internal communication channels that are most popular among employees.

Implement pilot programs to test new tools with a small group of employees. Gathering feedback and making necessary adjustments before a company-wide rollout can save you time and money by avoiding commitment to tools that may ultimately not be a good fit.

5. Cost

Finding the right balance between channel cost and your organization's needs and preferences is essential. You don’t need costly internal communication channels that add no value to your organization or cheap channels that don’t serve you at all. 

Small businesses, constrained by limited budgets, gravitate towards cost-effective, often free or low-cost tools, while larger organizations leverage their substantial budgets to acquire comprehensive, scalable solutions that support numerous users and integrate seamlessly with other enterprise systems.

While judging channels by their price tags, remember that the cost requirements go beyond the initial expenses—consider the annual or monthly subscription fees, maintenance, and employee training costs.

7 types of internal communication channels in 2024

As organizations continue to evolve, so do their communication needs and preferences. Here are the seven most common workplace communication channels in 2024. Each one caters to different aspects of workplace communication and collaboration.

1. On-site events and town halls

Nearly 40% of employees favor all-hands or department meetings for critical internal communications, according to our 2024 State of Internal Communications report. 

On-site events and town halls are essential internal communication channels that foster face-to-face interactions between the employees and leadership. Some of the on-site events you could host include:

• All-hands or department meetings
• Workshops and seminars
• Training sessions
• Annual General Meeting (AGM)
• Team-building activities

These events facilitate transparent dialogue and allow for real-time feedback. They also provide a great platform for organizations to reiterate their vision and business goals while sharing their achievements, which helps align employees with the organization's direction.

2. Internal emails

Internal emails continue to dominate official communication despite the rise of new tools. Our research indicates that 30% of staff prefer that their leaders share critical internal communications through ad hoc emails, ranking this method second only to all-hands and departmental meetings.

Internal emails are an ideal internal communication strategy for sharing:

• detailed reports
• important announcements
• policy updates
• company alerts

Employees may prefer email communications, but you must leverage the channel correctly for it to be effective. That starts by identifying the best time to send those email communications, which is Sunday, 3 PM to 6 PM EST, according to our research.

How you format your emails also matters, and this is where Axios HQ’s Smart Brevity guidance becomes invaluable. This editing assistant improves text clarity, making your communications more scannable, digestible, and memorable.

3.  Newsletters

Internal newsletters are another popular and effective communication channel among employees with our report showing that it’s the third most preferred channel by employees. 

Recurring newsletters are ideal for sharing company news, highlighting employee achievements, providing project updates, and communicating policy changes.

To ensure your newsletters continuously engage your employees:

• Create engaging content: Include a mix of content types–news updates, employee spotlights, project highlights, and educational pieces–to keep the newsletter interesting and relevant.
• Use visually appealing designs: Attractive designs with images, graphics, and a clear layout will make the newsletter visually appealing and easy to read, boosting engagement rates.
• Customize your segments: Use your employee data to create distribution lists, which could be based on departments, employee locations, project teams, and seniority level. Use these lists to curate and distribute relevant content across your organization.
• Follow a consistent schedule: Sending newsletters on a regular schedule, such as bi-weekly or monthly, establishes a routine that keeps your communications top-of-mind among employees, fostering a sense of reliability as they know when to expect your emails. 

With the Axios HQ platform, you don’t have to start from scratch each time you need to design your employee newsletters.  We offer great customizable templates, custom guides, and a community library (with real-life examples from various companies) that make creating great newsletters easy. 

Our collaborative editing feature enables team members to work on a newsletter simultaneously. And the platform supports role-based access control, ensuring safe and reliable collaboration.

Zoom out: 66% of large and 48% of small companies admit that their biggest challenge is getting their teams engaged. With our platform’s analytics, you can identify the specific disengaged individuals and teams whose feedback you can use to improve your internal communication strategy.

4. Instant messaging

Instant messaging platforms, like Slack and Microsoft Teams, offer quick and efficient communication to support real-time messaging and file sharing. They also integrate with other workplace communication tools, making them ideal for both day-to-day interactions and urgent communications.

Instant messages are a great way to share short, quick messages or queries that require fast responses. They are also a great channel for facilitating conversational communication between employees thanks to various interactive features such as:

• Emojis, GIFs, and stickers
• Threaded conversations
• Presence indicators
• Polls

The key: You need to define and share expectations for how your organization uses messengers like Slack and Teams. Left unguided, they can become a fast-moving river of overwhelming — and more and more often overlooked — information.

5. Intranet

An intranet serves as a centralized hub exclusively for employees, functioning like a company website to provide access to documents, company news, and important updates for collaboration and information sharing.

An intranet also helps foster a sense of community by promoting peer interactions between employees.

Consider the following features when choosing an intranet platform:

• News feed: Great platform for sharing company updates and important announcements.
• Document management: A content management system with tools for uploading, storing, organizing, and managing documents and files.
• Calendar integration: Seamless integration with existing systems to streamline scheduling.
• Supportive search: Advanced search capabilities with filters and tags for more refined results
• Mobile accessibility: A responsive design that ensures the intranet function well on mobile.
• Employee directory: A comprehensive database with employee contact details and org structure.
• Access control: Strong encryption and authentication protocols, ensuring only authorized users can access certain information.

Popular intranet platforms such as Microsoft SharePoint and Workvivo offer ready-to-use solutions, or you can build a custom intranet from scratch using platforms like WordPress. Just make sure it meets the unique needs of your organization and employees.

6. Virtual meetings

Virtual meetings are key for organizations striving for seamless communication across in-person, hybrid, and fully remote teams. But even with the best conferencing tools, you still need to run effective virtual meetings for the most impact. You can achieve that by ensuring:

• Meeting etiquette: Inefficient meetings are one of the key productivity barriers in the workplace. To avoid running inefficient meetings, always have a clear agenda and share it before the meeting to promote active engagement and participation from all attendees.
• Time management: Respect attendants’ time by starting and ending meetings as scheduled. Also, be mindful of different time zones when scheduling meetings to accommodate all participants.
• Interactivity: Use tools like the chat feature, polls, and breakout rooms to keep participants engaged and active during meetings.

Recording meetings for later review is essential to provide a crucial resource for future reference and to those who couldn't attend, ensuring no one misses out on important information.

7. Project management and collaboration tools

Nearly 50% of workers who feel unaligned with the rest of the organization plan to leave their jobs in the next two years. Project management and collaboration tools ensure all team members are informed and aligned by providing a centralized platform where they can plan, track, and execute projects.  

• Popular project management tools such as Trello, Asana, and Jira enhance employee productivity through features like Kanban boards, calendars, and integrations with various platforms.

While these project management tools are great, they should never replace your other internal communication tools or be used as the primary communication channel. They are simply structured to keep employees informed on project status — not any other organizational details.

Internal vs external communication channels

Internal communication channels are designed to streamline the flow of information within an organization, aiming to boost collaboration, engagement, and productivity among employees.

External communication channels, on the other hand, are used to interact with clients, partners, and the general public, like:

• Social media
• Public emails
• Press releases
• The company website

But, while each has its role, you will find that some of the clear lines that existed before are now slightly blurry.

Social media was previously only used to engage existing customers and potential clients. However, most companies today share employees’ content on social media. They do this to appreciate their employees and keep them informed, all while strengthening their employer brand to attract top talent.

The cardinal rules to effectively execute the two communication types stand: be consistent, be transparent, actively engage your target audience, and remain professional. Also, always tailor your key messages to specific audience segments to increase their relevance and impact.

The bottom line

Effective internal communication channels are the basis for fostering collaboration, engagement, and overall productivity in an organization. But to achieve this, you must have the perfect mix of tools that ensures all your employees—despite their job level or roles—remain aligned with your organizational goals.

Go deeper: Learn how you can improve your internal communications

Internal communication channels FAQs

1. What is an internal communication channel?

An internal communication channel is a medium used by an organization to share information, collaborate, and engage with employees. Examples of internal channels include internal emails, intranets, and virtual meetings.

2. What are internal and external communication channels?

Internal communication channels are tools used for communication within the organization, while external communication channels are tools an organization uses to communicate with external stakeholders like customers or investors.