In August, Richard Bannister, head of internal comms at Zurich UK, officially went live with Viva Engage – the social networking platform that’s part of Microsoft 365. The roll-out means everything now uploaded to the existing staff intranet will automatically synchronise with Engage too. The insurer’s hope is that this latest addition to its communications channel mix will ensure as many eyes as possible see its messages. “We already send out email bulletins – where we do announcements, updates, people news etc,” Bannister says. “But while these get 75 per cent open rates, that still means one in four do not see them; and so we need to find other ways to boost engagement.”
Bannister’s challenge – deciding which communication channels to use, seeing whether they chime with how employees want to be communicated to and detecting which channels are the most effective – is a predicament many communication professionals will relate to. With the number of options expanding all the time (WhatsApp, Yammer, Slack, Workplace and TikTok can all now be added to the mix), the dilemma isn’t getting any easier.
Most people are getting it right
Research just published by the Institute of Internal Communications suggests the majority of employees still prefer receiving written comms (with an encouraging 74 per cent of staff polled saying they get the right amount of communication), but other research suggests as much as 14 per cent of knowledge workers prefer being communicated to by text. And yet, while some say email has had its day others are still big advocates.
So what are communicators really to think? Lee Cullen, co-founder of media agency No Brainer, argues that getting the right mix is key. “Channel strategy isn’t just about which one to choose now,” he says, “but how to avoid them all competing with each other.”
His agency has leaned heavily into WhatsApp, which it uses for its popular ‘Friday Weekly Update’. This communicates staff news, but also lets employees vote for colleague shout-outs and other worthy mentions (in line with one of its values ‘we, not I’). Something was needed that could cut through, he explains: “We do also use Teams, but at the moment there’s so much noise out there. What we were finding was that our channels were actually competing with each other for people’s attention. We’ve found emails just got lost. WhatsApp is what gets noticed by our people.”
Curating relevant content
Bannister largely agrees with this, saying that Zurich’s corporate messages need to find a way of sitting alongside staff-generated ones, such as participation in fundraising events – which he doesn’t want to discourage. But he believes the solution is to try to engineer a way of making each channel most relevant to the type of messaging needed.
“We see our Intranet as something we’ll curate more – almost like an online magazine,” he says. “We’ll take an almost journalistic approach to headline writing, picture selection and story types [stories with a people angle tend to work best, he says], to see which generates more clicks. Meanwhile we’ll let our social channels become more a constant stream of consciousness.”
And this approach seems to get them good results. “The fact we got 170k page views last month shows this is a channel that still works for us,” he says. “Some Zurich countries have disbanded it, but in the UK we still see a value in it.”
Looking for ways to increase engagement can make a big difference, he believes: “Having our intranet homepage as the default browser employees open up guarantees a certain level of eyeballs, and we’ll get an average of two to three minutes’ worth of engagement per day. But we’re always looking to improve. We’ve made it easier, for example by better signposting – highlighting that a story is a 30-second or a one-minute read.”
Email is still the most popular channel
Data from the just published ‘HR Unhooked’ report (2025-26) reveals that 20 per cent of employees still prefer to be communicated to by email – which is the number one channel. Next comes WhatsApp (14 per cent), while one in 10 prefer the staff intranet. Interestingly though, preference for tools like Slack and Microsoft Teams have actually fallen slightly, from 7 per cent from the 2023-24 report to 6 per cent today. That’s the same percentage as those preferring an in-house staff magazine. A greater proportion (11 per cent) prefer virtual meetings to an intranet. And interestingly, demand for closed LinkedIn groups has risen this year, from 4 to 7 per cent.
Report author Claire Gamble says the results prove that “the number of comms channels is almost overwhelming”, and that “because trying to please everyone is so hard, professionals simply have to decide what they think works best.”
However it’s impossible to please everyone, says Bannister: “We often survey people asking what channels people want, but because we have such a broad age range, the answers will also be just as broad. At the end of the day, you’re trying to find a way to please the most people, while needing to accept you can’t be all things to all people.”
So how can people get past that hurdle? “We’ve recently started asking less about the channel they want and more the type of communication they want,” Bannister explains, “whether it’s more careers comms, or company strategy information.”
Gamble concurs: “The issue is as much determining what type of information they want access to, and then how best to achieve it.”
Taking a blended approach
The good news however, is that the death of email is much exaggerated, according to some. Lauren Greenway, client & operations director at Leeds-based ilk Agency, says: “We’ve found that while traditional channels like email and chat still play a key role, a blended approach to communication is what really works still – especially given the much more hybrid working environment.”
Greenway says they noticed that simply using a chat function was not meeting their needs: “For day-to-day communications, we use Google Chat, but in our annual internal agency survey, one of the main requests was for more regular updates about what different teams are working on. So we responded by launching a weekly internal email, featuring client highlights, team news and business updates.”
“The feedback has been really positive so far,” she reveals, “showing that even a straightforward format like email can be hugely effective – especially when the content is relevant and consistent.”
A second chance to engage
For those who fear email simply getting lost in the mix, Bannister says he has specifically targeted this – particularly when it comes to the bi-weekly comms emails sent to its management population. It is sent out every other Friday, but if their system shows an important update has not been opened by the middle of the following week, it gets sent out again under its ‘2CM’ or ‘Second Chance Mail’ system. “While we were initially worried it might be considered negatively,” he concedes, “the majority of those giving feedback to it have been positive about getting another opportunity to read the communication that they had missed.”
These need to be used sparingly though, he cautions: “We only send 2CM emails for things that we really feel need a push and this works well, because what we’ve also tended to find – which applies across all comms generally – is that people who don’t open an email are not the same hardcore people each time. They change: it’s a moveable feast, and so we just need to have a way to acknowledge this.”
Looking to the long term
As for the long-term stability of certain channels, and whether it’s appropriate to use them, Erris de Stacpoole, comms lead at Accenture Song (UNLIMITED Group, Singapore), says the only option is to test different ones. “Different channels have their strengths, so there should always be room to experiment,” she says. “Short, visual, mobile-first messages typically drive higher open rates than text-heavy emails. Video updates from leaders – with follow-ups – build trust and engagement. Meanwhile peer-to-peer communication, such as through managers or employee champions, often outperforms traditional corporate broadcasts.”
Meanwhile there are also more adventurous options that can be considered, she says: “Really creative companies might choose testing mystery drops: random desk surprises like fortune cookies or stickers with QR codes linking to news – or emoji announcements, where leaders summarise updates in three emojis or a GIF.”
But in trying to get your mix right you also need to consider that the audience for all of this is broader than ever, she advises: “What we really have to remember is that today’s workforce is the most multi-generational in history, and each group engages with internal comms differently.”
There’s no silver bullet to comms
What de Stacpoole is pointing to is that there really is no silver comms bullet. Bannister agrees: “We’ve made changes over time – that’s just how you have to evolve. But we must also remember that many organisations don’t always have a choice about channels – they just inherit what’s already there.”
So what does he believe is the most important approach as we steer, sometimes, into the unknown? “My advice is just being vigilant. In the past we’ve found that a random software update from Microsoft can literally send all our comms into people’s ‘other’ email box rather than their ‘focused’ one. It can catch you unawares. Would we try TikTok? We do it externally for external recruitment, where staff do videos about their new roles; but while it’s fun, it’s content-hungry and a 30-second clip takes a lot of effort. Sometimes you just have to recognise it’s faster – and will reach more people – just writing a 400-word story for the intranet.”