What to Include in an Employee Newsletter

Designing Your Business Communication

An employee newsletter is instrumental when it comes to motivating and educating your workforce. Most employees are keen to gain some insight on the inner workings of their company, whether they tell you directly or not. As such, a newsletter is an excellent way to disseminate information on a large scale. Even better, you can spice up your newsletter and use it as a means to help get your employees involved in the company culture.

After you’ve chosen the perfect paper, it’s time to focus on content. Not to worry, though, we’ve got you covered! Here are some helpful things to include in your corporate newsletter to get the most out of this all important means of communication.

A Note From An Executive

It’s a simple concept. Employees want to hear from their bosses. Even if you’re the kind of manager who maintains an open-door policy or regularly visits with your staff, you’ll still need a simple way to pass out information quickly and on a large scale. The internal newsletter is the perfect place to do that. A word to the wise, though, if you go with a note from an executive, make sure the note is filled with information, not just empty platitudes. Employees will catch on to thin content very quickly.

Personal Employee Highlights

Another benefit of the employee newsletter is your ability to help make your employees feel included in the company culture. Your employees want to be treated like individuals, of course, and a good way to let them know you understand is to celebrate the big events in their personal lives. Sure, you can include things like company anniversaries, but birthdays, wedding anniversaries, or birth announcements work even better.

Success Stories

Make sure that your employees know when your company scores a big sale or completes an important project. Your employees want to know that the company they rely on for income is expanding, growing, and thriving. Including regular success stories is the perfect way to let your employees know when something great happens.

An Employee Profile

Give your employees a chance to shine in your employee newsletter. Including a picture and a few short sentences about a random employee will not only help your staff get to know one another, it will make your employees feel valued on an individual level. While you should include stuff like the employee’s position in the company, you should also endeavor to shine a light on their personal interests and life outside of the office, as well.

Employee Editorials

Give employees a chance to relate a funny story or address a potential workplace concern with a few hundred words in your newsletter. Let your employees know that as long as they keep the content of the column respectful, then they have total freedom to speak their mind. Not only will your employees appreciate the opportunity to express themselves, but they’ll respect your ability to take honest criticism.

Something Funny

Take a few inches on the page to make your employees laugh. Maybe it’s an online meme, or an office in-joke. Whatever it is, just take a stab at lightening your employees’ mood. Even if you’re not totally successful, you’ll still earn some brownie points with your employees. Looking for inspiration? You’d be surprised how far you can get with a simple, silly kid’s joke. Why wouldn’t the bike stand up on its own? It was two tired. Hey-o!

Contests or Raffles

Take a little time to get your employees involved by including a simple contest or raffle. Contests don’t need to be anything with huge stakes. You can hold a contest to find a nickname for the copy machine in which the winner gets off an hour early, for example. Raffles can be for small gift certificates to local restaurants, or some other small luxury. You don’t need to break the bank to get your employees engaged and smiling.

Anonymous Company-Wide Polls

Everyone in your company has opinions, and likely on a wide variety of different topics. Why not give your staff the chance to sound off on those opinions while also learning more about the topics and issues that they hold dear. It’s best to keep these mostly work-related, but it might also be fun to ask simple questions, like “What’s the best show on TV?” 

Lots of Photos

Pictures, pictures, and more pictures. It may burn through a bunch of printer ink, but you should still make sure that your employee newsletter is filled with as many pics as possible. Don’t use stock footage, either; include as many employee photos as possible. Your staff will enjoy the small dose of attention, and personal photos will add an extra layer of intimacy to your newsletter.

Mix It Up, But Keep It Short

Whatever you decide to include, use your imagination and mix things up. Try not to include the same feature in two consecutive newsletters unless it’s extremely popular among employees. Including only a handful of articles from a rotating stable of features will lend every word on the page an air of importance. It will also help you reign in your length. As much as your employees love to hear some company news, that attention span will likely only last for about two pages (maybe three).

An employee newsletter can be indispensable when you’re trying to boost employee morale or find new ways to communicate with your staff. If you keep your news pertinent, entertaining, and concise, you should have zero trouble engineering the perfect newsletter.