5 Pillars for employee newsletter content

You've been asked to write the dreaded all staff e-newsletter. How do you balance the content in your newsletter so that it's not just all the fluffy pink stuff or (worse) so boring that it would send even an accountant to sleep?

Setting aside the all-important question of why do we need this newsletter, here are five pillars that can be used to build a core content strategy and provide balance.

1. Culture

A newsletter is the perfect place to express and reinforce organisational culture. Content should be aligned to cultural values of the organisation and demonstrate culture in action through style and tone of voice.

It can also provide an opportunity to bring about subtle change to culture. If the culture has been overly formal and there's a drive towards being more relational, the tone of the newsletter can begin to reflect this.

2. Community

What have the people in your company been doing to support their community? Do you have employee groups for specific interests? Your newsletter can build and showcase community by sharing the activities which are happening across teams and sectors.

It's also a great place to highlight charity support initiatives, company sports teams and community building initiatives within the organisation.

3. Career

Are there opportunities for career progression or training opportunities that colleagues would like to hear about? Sharing opportunities for progression helps to retain knowledge, reduce recruitment cost, and can help to increase employee satisfaction.

4. Compliance

Yes - the big stick.

By communicating clearly, we can highlight the importance of compliance issues, and ensure that colleagues are aware of their responsibilities. After all - who doesn't want to know about a compulsory training or lunch and learn session?

It's important, but shouldn't dominate the whole newsletter - if it's that important, it probably deserves it's own email too.

5. Change

In large scale organisations change is frequent - but often with scale comes slowness. Whilst stand-alone change communications are needed for those who are more directly impacted by change, newsletters can be a helpful place to bring awareness of upcoming or active change programmes. They can also be a great place to celebrate successes and highlight impact.

Considering your newsletter content in the context of these five pillars will help your newsletter to be relevant and engaging, to work for the organisation and the individuals within it.

What would you add?