The internal communication industry in 2025 is evolving faster than ever. With hybrid work models now the norm and AI-driven tools transforming how organizations communicate, internal comms has become a strategic differentiator. Thanks to changing technology and shifting employee expectations, we’re seeing new challenges—and major opportunities—for communicators. Based on insights from recent internal comms conferences and practitioners across industries, here are the top internal comms best practices for 2025 that can help you strengthen engagement, trust, and alignment.
To set yourself up for success, you have to start with objectives. What does successful internal communication look like? What does it mean to be more effective communicators? The best practices we’ll share are going to help you get there.
Effective internal communication is when you are able to achieve the objective of sending the communication.
But this is often easier said than done. Effective internal comms requires you to set the right objectives for each communication you send, the ability to measure your results, and the right strategy behind your internal communications campaigns.
To really elevate your internal communications, you need to focus on developing best practices for all the types of communication at your company.
The four types of internal communication are:
The characteristics of good internal communication are fairly simple. Great internal communication:
Internal communication has moved beyond just sending messages—it’s now about enabling two-way, data-driven conversations. Current trends shaping the internal comms landscape include:
• Increased use of AI and automation to personalize internal messages at scale.
• Integration of employee listening tools to measure sentiment in real time.
• Greater focus on communicating organizational purpose and transparency.
• A shift from top-down updates to employee-led storytelling and advocacy.
• The rise of mobile-first internal communication platforms for deskless and frontline teams.
These shifts show that effective internal communication in 2025 is not just about clarity—it’s about connection, feedback, and adaptability.
Now that you know the foundations of what internal communication is and what great communication looks like, let’s talk about the specific tactics and strategies that are best practices for 2023.
The way we measure and think about employee engagement is often wrong, inaccurate, or just downright unhelpful.
But we all still agree that an employee’s levels of engagement are still important, especially when considered in a larger context. Rather than thinking of engagement as how involved or committed an employee is to their work and company, it’s best to consider:
Why are these better questions to ask? At PRSA Connect 2022, Chuck Gose said it best:
“People are always engaged. It just might not be what you want them to be engaged with.”
By looking past if someone is engaged with work, you begin to understand their actual motivations and needs. And these questions are action-oriented. Just learning that half your workforce isn’t engaged doesn’t actually help you solve your disengagement problem. But if you learn more about the makeup of your teams, what drives them, and what makes them tick, you begin to understand why your culture might not be working. Or what benefits and flexibilities you need to offer.
And it might go without saying that to measure true engagement annual employee engagement surveys aren’t going to cut it. These surveys are simply too far apart and too stagnant. Engagement can change hourly, so how do you expect to capture employee engagement for your whole company with one annual survey?
Recent data backs this up. A 2025 Gallagher State of the Sector report found that organizations that measure engagement quarterly or continuously are 3.5 times more likely to report higher employee satisfaction and retention. Regular listening, short pulse surveys, and sentiment analytics now define modern engagement practices.
Leveraging your managers is a critical internal comms best practice…but getting manager comms right is also one of our biggest challenges.
But companies with frontline workforces rely heavily on managers as a comms channel. We need to adapt strategies that help them be better communicators.
Joni Kirk of LifeCenter Northwest created her manager communication strategy by understanding that “You can’t expect a _______ to be a communicator.” By this she meant, you can’t expect a manager, a field technician, a doctor, or so on to be a communicator. They have not been trained. It’s up to us to give them the tools and continue to reinforce them.
To do this at her company, Joni:
In 2025, empowering managers as communicators has become even more crucial. Many organizations now provide monthly “Manager Comms Toolkits” that include pre-approved talking points, visuals, and short videos to cascade messages consistently. AI-based coaching tools are also helping managers tailor messages to different team styles and learning preferences.
It’s no surprise that when our messages sound authentic, they’re more trustworthy. More Inspiring. And more Impactful. One of the best ways to make our messages and campaigns authentic—especially if they’re about culture—is to tap into the employee voice. But pulling that off with a dispersed workforce can be challenging.
Susan Poole, APR of The Westervelt Company may have cracked the code though. At their company, they share the employee voice in two ways:
But you must be wondering how the heck they got employees to participate in an ongoing photo submission contest, right? Susan Poole breaks it down succinctly into three parts: establish the rules, implement, and sustain.
The Westervelt Company also regularly collects employee interviews on-site to share as part of their hiring and retention campaigns. Even though some of their employees have been nervous to participate, the team pulls off some incredible 30-second videos. Their advice?
Change management is a huge part of what we do as communicators. David Pitre and Cheryl Ross of Davis & Company shared their internal comms best practices for how to make change communication easy and effective.
They have a fantastic six-step process. We recommend you download their ebook on change comms to get all their tips and tricks.
But the part that really stuck with us was this idea of the Communications Loop. Cheryl Ross said, “With change communication, it’s never just one-and-done.” For complex changes, you might have to repeat steps and continue communicating a few times.
“We really need to think globally but act locally,” according to Sheryl Zapcic of Voith. And we couldn’t agree more. The idea behind glocalization is that we need to think about our global messages for our company and then localize them for our specific audiences. This is especially important for global companies, but can also apply to companies with multiple disparate units where you have distinct micro-cultures.
If we don’t “glocalize,” we risk our messages not feeling targeted and relevant. And as Sheryl puts it, “If our messages don’t resonate with employees, it’s pointless.”
So, how do we make sure our comms resonate? Here are her 8 internal comms best practices:
One of the emerging best practices for 2025 is to use communication analytics to guide improvement. Data can reveal which messages land well, which channels drive the most engagement, and where gaps exist.
Track metrics such as open rates, click-through rates, video views, and message sentiment to fine-tune your internal comms strategy.
Leading organizations now conduct quarterly “communication audits” using dashboards that consolidate channel data and employee feedback. This ensures that internal communication stays relevant, measurable, and aligned with business outcomes.
These internal comms best practices are key to success in 2025 and beyond. As workplace dynamics evolve, so should your communication approach—more personalized, data-driven, and employee-centric. Whether you’re managing a global workforce or a dispersed frontline team, the right internal communication tools can help you deliver consistent, impactful messages that keep everyone informed and inspired. Let’s get in touch to explore how theEMPLOYEEapp can help you elevate your internal comms strategy.
Sydney Lauro is the Demand Generation Manager for theEMPLOYEEapp. Prior to joining the team at theEMPLOYEEapp, Sydney worked in internal communications for Chipotle Mexican Grill. She users her internal comms expertise and passion for improving communication and the employee experience to create content and share best practices to help other communications professionals.
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