Hey there, I'm Devin!
Most of the time you can catch me deep in the world of internal comms at Workshop (yes, the Happy Mondays folks!), and while I love AI, there are just some comms questions that need a human who really gets it… that’s me!
Hey again!
Our employees tell us they want more “relevant” content, but relevance means something different to every team. How do you personalize internal comms without burning out the team?
First of all, you’re so not alone. I hear this concern all the time, and it’s a totally fair one. Everyone wants relevance, but no one wants a comms team running themselves into the ground trying to deliver it. I mean I certainly don’t!
My honest answer is: start by asking, then test your way forward.
A really easy first step is running a quick pulse survey. This doesn’t need to be complicated — think 2-5 questions. Where you ask things like what types of updates employees find most useful, what they tend to skim or skip, and where they prefer to receive different kinds of information. If you want more depth, pair that with some lightweight listening, like a short listening tour where you talk to a handful of people across teams and levels. You’ll start to see patterns emerge pretty quickly.
From there, personalization doesn’t mean rewriting the same message a dozen times. It usually just means being more thoughtful about distribution. I’ll go ahead and call it now: one of the biggest internal comms trends you’re going to see over the next year or two is moving away from big, generic blasts and leaning more intentionally into segmentation. That could be as simple as sending certain updates by role, department, or location — so employees receive what’s relevant to them instead of everything, all the time.
Another really effective approach is leaning on employee influencers or comms champions. These are people who already have a strong pulse on what feels relevant for their teams and can help translate or share information in a way that feels natural. This doesn’t mean handing everything off and hoping for the best — it means empowering them.
Practically, that might look like giving them simple toolkits, templates, or best practices so sharing updates is easy and consistent. When you do that, you’re not creating more work for yourself — you’re distributing it in a smart way that still keeps quality and alignment intact.
The big mindset shift here is realizing that personalization isn’t about doing more. It’s about doing less, but doing it better. When you focus on relevance through smarter distribution, empowered partners, and a bit of testing, you can meet employees where they are without burning out your team.
Work smarter, not harder friends!
