Internal Pharma Communications
Pharma products require external communications for promotion, but often internal communication to inform employees is forgotten.
When new products and services are launched, the organisation (via the marketing team) will rush to inform the market about the product’s availability, features and associated benefits.
A key process is often missed before (and during this process): Informing employees internally about those features, potential shortcomings and what the product means to the organisation. And internal communications shouldn’t just be about new products, internal pharma communications should be commonplace and happen regularly.
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This is certainly the case in big pharma and drug development, where employees need to be informed about a disease state that a medical product will treat, especially for first-in-class therapies for new or within socially sensitive conditions. Doing this also opens the door to sometimes invaluable internal feedback. Any innovative organisation is missing a trick if it isn’t listening to its employees in what develops into a two-way dialogue.
In the case of big pharma, effective internal disease state communication requires a structured approach, including clear education objectives, processes for message control and prepared responses to product questions that employees may encounter in social situations. In this post, we’ll explore some generic internal communications best practice for B2B pharma organisations and discuss their implications as we along.
INTERNAL COMMUNICATION BEST PRACTICES
Any kind of interaction between people in the same organisation - more so between different hierarchical levels - is best managed to ensure clarity, focus and to develop a unified team. Here are some best practices to ensure your internal communications are aligned and effective.
1. FIRST, FIND OUT HOW YOUR EMPLOYEES FEEL
Before we start any communication activity, we need to understand our audiences - and any implications surrounding their current situation - so that communications are relevant. Internally, this entails painting a picture of how employees and team members feel about the state of specific initiatives related to their roles, including their preferences for communication between departments. Understanding employees is usually a mix of sitting down for a one-to-one discussion, as well as conducting mass feedback campaigns such as surveys.
Employee research into motivations and engagement can also be conducted, which is more timely and costly - but can provide indirect feedback which is often more accurate. But surveys and questionnaires are more common and can offer feedback in a range of areas, which may lead to audits of your internal communication systems. You’re looking to gauge the level of understanding and compliance in the areas that matter to your organisations and internal messages - an important task if you are going through a period of transformation (highly important in pharma) or if external factors are disrupting day-to-day activities. Skilled communicators are always aware of the area of concern for employees so that communications can be tailored accordingly.
2. UNDERSTAND THE TOOLS - DO YOU NEED TO INVEST IN INTERNAL COMMUNICATION TOOLS?
Understanding your internal audience is only part of the initial audit; second is understanding tools and whether they are adequate. The collection of tools you require need to be able to generate and engage employee opinion, as well as foster two-way dialogue with your colleagues. You also need to determine the tools that can help distribute the communications you wish to deliver. From newsletters to feedback apps to video conferencing to shared dashboards to an intranet, you will need to review the tools you have at your disposal to determine if you have the necessary channels open between the directors and employees.
Best Practices state that, in their internal pharma communications benchmarking report, the majority of respondents reported using emails to communicate internally followed by face-to-face discussion and telephone, with emails preferred on mobile devices. They also state that the majority of the study’s recipients were mainly interested in receiving industry information, performance data and success stories. Interestingly, they state that webinars, voicemail, blogs and newsletters are considered ineffective in pharma, but we suspect that employees’ new working from home scenarios due to COVID-19 lockdowns as well as technological developments since the study was conducted have made pharma employees more accepting of new channels and tools.
3. ADDRESS THE BUSINESS PROBLEM AS PART OF THE INTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS PLAN
Interact Software recommend approaching an internal communications plan as though you are making a business case: Identifying opportunity across the different areas of your organisation and the potential return for the different stakeholders. Although such an approach might not sit well with the internal audience - the employees - it’s important to ensure that your internal communication programmes are delivering. Which will require the plan to have a structured approach, similar to a traditional marketing plan.
The objectives of such communications are often to improve productivity and collaboration or even to become more efficient and effective with processes, and work in general. To achieve this, you will have to go directly to the source. To get buy-in to your internal communication strategy you must be able to answer the question everyone asks: What’s in it for me? Doing this in relation to your objectives will often foster a successful programme.
4. IDENTIFY AND ASSEMBLE KEY STAKEHOLDERS
Messages that come from the people in power and authority are more likely to be digested, taken seriously and acted upon because we feel a sense of obligation and duty to people who are seen as being authoritative in their positions. Therefore, the messages from an internal communications plan need backing from the highest levels of the pharma organisation. The internal communications team is required to identify internal stakeholders - potentially senior figures and middle managers that are highly regarded who can effectively communicate - that can help deliver the message to the wider organisation. Assembling stakeholders for the delivery of internal messages gives the message a certain gravitas, where the message appears more credible and trustworthy than if the message was delivered by marketing or HR, for example. Identify your brand champions and influencers and use their passion to deliver the internal communications plan across departments.
5. BE SPECIFIC, BUT AVOID COMMUNICATION OVERLOAD
Internal company updates and communications are often generic, promotional and meaningless - this is sometimes the case with internal newsletters which are scheduled to go out at regular monthly intervals because the organisation feels obliged to send something on a certain date. Whilst the company newsletter can serve a purpose, it pays to be detailed with specific, relevant and meticulous messages. This is true more so in pharma than any other sector - news needs to be newsworthy.
If you’re going to communicate the launch of a new drug or a new process or a new remote working initiative, you need to be specific. Similarly, avoid over-communication. If you have to email your employees with an update, update them on a small number of topics but do so in detail. It’s more effective to update employees on a small number of specific news pieces rather than a large number of indistinct news pieces. Less is more; your colleagues will thank you for simplifying things and getting to the point (whilst providing the detail needed to fully explain the circumstances around the update/news).
6. USE VISUALS
But whilst we are focussing on a sole message, and avoiding unnecessary communication, we still need to treat our colleagues as we would with the recipients of marketing messages: We do not want to bore the recipients of any communications. Visual aids, videos and other graphical representations are still worthy of using because they not only support the core communication, but they convey information in an easy-to-digest manner and have a more lasting impression than text. Forbes quote a Social Science Research Network study and state that 65% of us are visual learners. So it would make perfect sense to include visual elements within the communications we send internally. Storytelling is also a tactic which is commonly considered within internal communications, but we’d treat with caution in pharma. Supporting your updates with imagery/videos may be enough to effectively communicate your message to this audience.
7. INFORM WITH THE VIEW OF INSPIRING ACTION
Communications that inspire action are the most effective communications. Successful organisations involve, motivate and inspire their employees by engaging with them on all internal announcements and then inspire those employees to take action thereafter. Ensure that each of your major announcements is followed by action from the perspective of the employee.
This action could constitute the employee providing feedback, conducting activities related to the update or even sharing an update within his or her network and on social media. Rewards and incentives can be provided to further encourage action on the part of the employees following the internal communication. Open the line of communication for full transparency, and encourage employees to feedback on company announcements. Organisations which encourage two-way communications are always the most innovative.
8. CONSIDER BUILDING AN INTERNAL SUB-BRAND
Branding is predominantly about trust. For employees to trust internal communications, the message must be consistent… which leads to internal branding. By creating a sub-brand for your employees and internal communications, you are establishing a common identity that can help integrate all internal communications. Internal branding brings your brand alive for teams; strengthens their resolve and emotional connection to the work and organisation. Creating a sub-brand, with its own identity, look and feel and tone may be the breath of fresh air you need internally. Whilst this may not always be necessary, or even possible, it is worthy of consideration as they have been successful throughout many other sectors.
9. PROVIDE INTERNAL COMMUNICATION TRAINING AND SKILLS WORKSHOPS FOR MANAGERS
The executives and managers tasked with internal communication, as well as the delivery of the communication within the organisation, will be required to conduct some training; communicating internally is very different to communicating externally. Opportunities always exist for improving the sharing of information between departments - pharma organisations might employ highly scientific minds at the tops of the hierarchy who are perhaps not so effective at communication. Likely is some form of objection by some employees and colleagues - especially if most of the issues in this post isn’t considered - which means your communication leads need to be trained in dealing with objections and other instances related to HR. Ensure that those responsive by internal pharma communications have the necessary tools, as well as the knowledge and skills.
10. MEASURE INTERNAL COMMUNICATION EFFECTIVENESS
Just like most other facets of your business, especially marketing, your internal communication strategy can and should be analysed for success. To do this, as Sprout Social would suggest, you need to gather the core metrics that will show you if your internal plan is working. Statistics on your internal communications show you if employees actually use your intranet, for example. It also shows how they use your tools and if you’re able to reach others in the process. This means you can dissect your strategy and learn about what areas need more attention. Measuring effectiveness might mean engagement metrics, social shares, attendance record, referrals or even the number of issues, and will be different based on your organisation as well as tools. Always look to track performance, like you would any marketing campaign as it will indicate is your plan is working or not.
GETTING THE BEST OUT OF THE TEAM IN PHARMA
Within pharma organisations, a link exists between internal communication and innovation. Therefore, the organisation that can get the best out of the employees - extract the true abilities of its employees - will always be as successful as it can. Internal communications keep colleagues informed and engaged with a more holistic view of the organisation. They also keep people calm during a time of crisis and change and can help foster a culture where innovation is born. And whilst 60% of companies don't have a long-term strategy for their internal communications, adopting one may give you a competitive edge.
For more on strategic marketing approaches in the pharmaceutical sectors, and how we can help you, visit our section on strategy.
