5 Pillars of Internal Comms Strategy for Pharma Teams

Alongside the digital experience work we do at Genuine, we also help clients with content and communications. Clients often tell us they get stuck with aspects internal comms especially, such as overcoming employee skepticism, amplifying voices from the ground up, and measuring effectiveness. So we sat down with our friends at Jack Health, who are experts in creating events, culture, and comms for healthcare companies, to talk about how pharma leaders in particular can achieve better results. 

Q. What’s the biggest challenge you see for internal communications in pharma today?

A: Skepticism in corporate comms is at an all-time high for employees. 

Companies want authenticity in their communications, but that’s impossible if the messaging comes from a corporate entity – in this case, by definition, employees are not interacting with another human. So, the solve for this is to invest in building brands and comms platforms for individual leaders within your organization. This is the first step to better authenticity. Don’t bother worrying about value-based messaging, humor, or anything else until you have established leaders with a comms platform who can deliver messages to employees in a more conversational and human dialogue.  
 

Q. How then should individual pharma leaders, whether corporate or brand marketers, start crafting their comms approach? 

A: Treat it as a marketing campaign! One that shows up across all of your comms, events and meetings (e.g., town halls and national meetings), and in your team/franchise/organization culture.  

Across fiscal quarters, years, leader transitions, etc. – if you have conceptual messaging pillars, as well as concrete taglines and messages that carry through those – campaign-like approaches in the long run help provide a consistent narrative, unpack an interesting story over time, foster a culture, provide an embraceable rallying cry, and get people more emotionally invested by helping them adopt key values for themselves as a group over time.  

The role of comms should not just be to simply convey information, but to also build a culture amongst each team that becomes a lasting foundation for the internal health of the organization.
 

Q. How can internal comms teams amplify voices from the ground up to ensure employees feel they’re part of the bigger story? 

A: A practical place to start is to look at big comms (“tentpole”) moments – monthly roundup emails, quarterly team meetings... and aim for a set amount of content sourced from different voices and levels throughout the organization. For instance, in Pharma sales, make it feel balanced with a certain percentage of content sourced (and/or delivered) from field-based team members, in addition to priority messages from franchise leadership and HQ. Make internal comms not just a one-way – or even a two-way – conversation; allow it to have moments that really create space for the team to come together as one. Comms should create connection and build culture. 
 

Q. How can events and comms come together? 

A: Especially in the pharma world, they are definitely interlinked. 

First, comms (whether it’s emails beforehand to frame and tease the event for people, or the materials that bolster a live presentation) should support every event. That means those taglines, rallying cries, pillars, a consistent visual treatment -- all of it should be infused.   

Second, drip campaigns naturally fall off if they don’t have interesting content to fuel them. Those comms should be a red thread over time. And so a meeting or other event is a critical source of fuel that should be leveraged to juice those comms before, during, and especially after key moments on the calendar. 
 

Q. Effectiveness is something brand leaders are asking about, but measurement can be hard to do in internal comms. What are the KPIs or metrics that can measure impact of internal comms and experiences?  

A: 

1. Engagement Drives Effectiveness: Understanding how employees engage with internal communications—like open rates, participation in events, or activity on collaboration platforms—helps identify what’s resonating and refine the approach. 
   1. Metrics: Open rates, click-through rates, platform usage metrics, event participation rates, content completion rates, etc. 
       
2. Behavior Reflects Impact: The true measure of success lies in the actions employees take after receiving communications. Whether it’s adopting new tools, contributing ideas, or aligning to strategic goals, tracking these behaviors shows how communication drives meaningful change. 
   1. Metrics: Adoption rates, policy/compliance acknowledgement, learning outcomes, employee contributions, behavioral surveys 
       
3. Sentiment Fuels Strategy: It’s not just about delivering information but understanding how employees feel and respond. Pulse surveys and feedback loops help us ensure our communications inspire trust, alignment, and motivation. 
   1. Metrics: Pulse survey results, Net Promoter Score (NPS), feedback sentiment analysis, diversity of engagement, and psychological safety indicators 

Want to hear more about how we partner with Jack Health to level up internal comms for healthcare organizations? Reach out today and get in touch with us!