Between emails, Slack messages and cubicle chatter, it can be quite challenging for companies to communicate effectively with their employees. A well-crafted employee newsletter can help organizations cut through the clutter and get information to their team when they need it.
Many companies are already using newsletters in their marketing efforts, which isn’t surprising considering that newsletters have one of the highest rates of successful lead nurturing. With the Newsletter Maker from Venngage, you can bring the power of newsletters to your internal communications.
Keep your team updated on the latest news about the company, share successes and challenges, or just bring a bit of levity to a stressful workday with these employee newsletter ideas and templates.
Click to jump ahead:
- What is an employee newsletter?
- What is the purpose of an employee newsletter?
- What should be in an employee newsletter?
- How do you write a good employee newsletter?
- Employee newsletter examples
What is an employee newsletter?
An employee newsletter—also called a company newsletter or an internal newsletter—is pretty much like any other type of newsletter, but the audience is internal rather than external.
So, instead of doing things like sharing coupon codes or welcoming a new customer to your service, an employee newsletter focuses on things like company financials, staffing changes, policy changes, internal job postings, or announcement of company events.
This is an example of an internal employee newsletter sharing the company’s new policy during COVID-19:
They are typically emailed, though in some cases, companies print and distribute their employee newsletters.
Using Venngage to create your company newsletters means you can use either type of distribution methods.
Customize the email newsletter above and you can choose to download it as a PNG or PDF to print, or export it to HTML and import it to your email delivery tool.
What is the purpose of employee newsletters?
Whatever the content of your employee newsletter, its purpose is the same: To ensure every member of your team gets the exact same information at the same time. It’s a good alternative to an all-hands meeting as it’s much easier to create a newsletter than to get your entire team in the same room.
But some employee newsletters go beyond just information distribution if they are written with employee engagement and participation in mind.
Team members who feel well-informed about the company and their co-workers are likely to be more productive and invested in the success of the organization. Using company newsletters can help keep new employees up to date on important company news and help speed up their onboarding process.
Interested in learning how you can increase employee engagement using visuals? Check out: How to Improve Employee Engagement with Visuals
Engaging employee newsletter ideas: What should be in a company newsletter?
The content of an employee newsletter depends entirely on its purpose. Think about all the types of information you might want to share with your team; that’s the number of possible types of employee newsletters that you could produce.
Some of the most popular company newsletter ideas include:
- Job openings
- Upcoming events
- Birthdays
- Milestones
- New hires
- Retirements
- Leadership messages
- Company financials
- Industry news
- Employee profiles
- Event recaps
- Policy changes or updates
Here’s an example of a company newsletter to welcome a new employee:
How do you write a good employee newsletter?
The most important thing when writing a good employee newsletter is to keep the audience in mind at all times. What information do they need? How much time do they need to take in the message? Will it help them do their jobs well or feel more connected to their co-workers or the company?
Here are some important aspects to consider:
Audience
Not all employee newsletters need to be sent to every person in the organization, but some do. Consider creating department-level internal newsletters when appropriate to target a select audience.
Format
We recommend email newsletters, but many companies still prefer hard copies of their employee newsletters. Again, consider the audience; what format or email layout will encourage employees to consume the content? (Learn more about email design best practices.)
Content
Speaking of content, everything in your employee newsletter should be relevant to the team members who receive it. That’s not to say that all the content should be serious or even dire. In fact, playful and entertaining newsletters can also be highly engaging.
Tone
Your internal newsletter is a chance to reinforce your brand identity with your team members, and that includes how you write it. Some companies have identities that are bold and authoritative, while others are friendly and informal.
With Venngage’s Newsletter Design tool, you can also reinforce your brand identity by applying brand colors, fonts and logo to your design using My Brand Kit:
Simplicity
It’s tempting to overload your employee newsletter with tons of information, but it’s generally better to keep it short. Long paragraphs of text will turn people off, and you’ll risk limiting the newsletter’s chances of being read.
Visuals
Use photos, illustrations, icons, charts and graphs to enhance the visual look of your employee newsletter. Combined with short, punchy text, this can be an excellent way to ensure team members actually retain the information.
If you’re editing a Venngage email newsletter template and want to replace an existing icon or image, simply double click the icon/image and choose the alternative:
Input / Employee feedback
Solicit feedback from your team members on your employee newsletter. Are they reading it? What would make them read it if they’re not? What information do they find valuable, and does it help them feel connected to the organization and their teammates?
Employee newsletter examples
Now that we’ve explored some details about what an employee newsletter is and what it should contain, let’s take a look at some employee newsletter examples in action.
Staffing announcement newsletter ideas
An employee newsletter is an ideal way to announce staffing changes, such as new hires and both voluntary and involuntary separations. Depending on the circumstances of the staffing change, the newsletter could include details about the person’s next career move or announce a farewell event.
Announce a sudden employee departure with this involuntary separation email newsletter. Sharing this news in email newsletter form is a good way to keep the rumor mill from spreading gossip about the departure, though it’s best not to share details of unpleasant events.
Email newsletters aren’t just for internal purposes; check out these newsletter examples you can use for a variety of needs.
When a valued team member leaves your organization, it’s understandable to be disappointed, but your employee newsletter announcing their resignation should be positive. Focus on their contributions and wish them well while letting their teammates know who will cover their responsibilities in the interim.
This staffing announcement employee newsletter provides a slightly different take on the previous example, using the company’s established brand identity as the main imagery, which can help reinforce the idea that the organization will keep going even after this important member of the team leaves.
Share details of a going-away party to a select number of team members, particularly those in the department of the departing employee if the circumstances surrounding their departure warrant it.
Employee retirement newsletter ideas
The best-case scenario for an employee departure is retirement. Send your cherished team member off to their golden years with an employee retirement newsletter that sincerely thanks them for their service to the organization.
Use an employee newsletter to announce a team member’s retirement and share details about their retirement party with this retirement email newsletter template. Looking for a different type of email template? Check out these examples.
Or focus entirely on the most celebratory aspect of their retirement — the party. Share important details about the event, including when and where it is and how party-goers can get more information.
Employee health and wellness newsletter ideas
Use the space in your employee newsletter to share health and wellness tips with team members. These tips could focus on physical and emotional health and well-being. Remember to be sensitive to chronic health conditions your team members may have and be as inclusive as possible in your tips.
Maintaining physical and mental health is a challenge regardless of whether you work in the office or outside of it, so work with your HR and insurance team to create useful tips for team members to improve their overall well-being.
Use your employee newsletter to let your team members know that their health is central to the function and success of the organization and that they have people they can turn to if they need help.
Remote working newsletter ideas
Few companies were prepared for the shift to remote work in the early days of the pandemic, and sharing tips and guidance with your team about how they’ll need to adjust to do their jobs is an ideal topic for an employee newsletter.
Keep your remote work tips short and to the point, and if they come from lived experience, all the better. Employee newsletters focused on tips for getting the job done are always better if the tips are truly insightful and go beyond what you might get from googling.
Use this email newsletter template to share do’s and don’ts surrounding an aspect of remote work. In this case, the focus is video conferencing, but it could easily apply to just about any other aspect of having a workforce that’s not in the same building.
Related: 10 Tips for Effective Communication With a Remote Team [Templates]
Internal announcement employee newsletter ideas
Announcing internal news is an ideal topic for an employee newsletter sent to everyone in the organization.
Use your internal announcement employee newsletter to share advice for team members related to the announcement. This example is about returning to the office during the pandemic, but it’s easy to envision how it could apply to announcing a new office has opened or that there will be construction nearby and which roads to avoid.
All-hand announcements should be sent to everyone in the organization, so it’s a good idea to make sure your tone applies to everyone in the company and not just members of a certain team.
Internal newsletters are also a great way to get your team members comfortable with a new procedure or process. In the example above, it’s social distancing in the wake of the pandemic, but use this template for major policy changes you’re considering instituting.
CEO message newsletter ideas
It’s easy for CEOs and other executive leadership to seem withdrawn and unapproachable, but that doesn’t have to be the case. Use a message from your CEO as the primary content for your employee newsletter to create connections between management and rank-and-file employees.
This email newsletter template is perfect for any message from your CEO, president or other C-suite executives. Remember to keep the message brief, impactful, heartfelt and sincere.
CEO messages can also serve an important utilitarian function. This template shows one way of using a letter from the CEO to detail a major change, but it would also work for any other quick-hit leadership message.
Monthly employee newsletter ideas
Establishing a publication schedule for your monthly employee newsletters can be a great way to train employees on what to expect and where to turn for certain types of information. Plus, it can help you keep newsletters brief and engaging.
This monthly employee newsletter template uses a simple grid layout that helps keep content brief and engaging. Topped with a message from the CEO, this newsletter is a quick but effective read for team members.
Use your monthly newsletter to share financials or other internal data, like in the example above with additional content on other topics to provide updates about major initiatives.
A monthly newsletter is an ideal format for a template like this one, which allows for many types of content to come together. Keeping the format consistent lets employees know what to expect each month.
Let multiple departments get in on the action with your monthly company newsletter, like this one does by reserving a section for HR. Either stick with that or choose a new department every month and put the spotlight on them.
Take a modern, minimalist approach to your monthly employee newsletter by customizing this template with your company’s information. Have expanded information you need to share? Create an email infographic for your newsletter.
Weekly employee newsletter ideas
A weekly internal newsletter should be short, punchy and entertaining, but frequent newsletters are an excellent way to build bridges with your team members.
Using a weekly release schedule for employee newsletters means you have more chances to expand the types of content you include. Perhaps one week, you use a template like this that’s lengthy and lets you use big, bold graphics, while another week, you keep it more brief, like the example below.
Learn more about how you can use email marketing tools in your internal and external communications.
Fun employee newsletter ideas
Some employee newsletters can be just for fun and entertainment. Provided you don’t do them often, fun employee newsletters allow for levity during the workday.
This isn’t an employee newsletter, but it would be easy to customize to announce a fun raffle or contest for your team members. Just customize it with your content and brand colors and you’re ready to roll.
Fun company newsletters can also take a serious topic and present information in a friendly and engaging way, like this template that shares some ideas for keeping your mind occupied on something other than the pandemic.
Related: How to Create a Newsletter From Scratch [Templates Included]
Employee spotlight newsletter
Create an employee spotlight newsletter when you want to single out a team member for accolades. Or consider working an employee spotlight into an existing newsletter design.
Share accolades and praise team members for going above and beyond with an employee spotlight newsletter like this one. Share some details about why this person qualifies and what they did to set themselves apart.
An employee spotlight is also a great addition to an otherwise general newsletter. Modify this template to include your regular newsletter content and provide a link to a full profile of your spotlight employee.
Related: 40+ Business Newsletter Templates to Captivate Your Audience [100% Customizable]
Employee newsletter FAQs
Are newsletters the best way to communicate with employees?
If you don’t use any other methods to communicate with your employees, a newsletter is probably not the right move. In the absence of regular, informal internal communication, an employee newsletter will feel impersonal and detached.
But an employee newsletter is an ideal option for companies that use a wide range of methods to communicate with their team.
Related: 17 Essential Internal Communication Tools to Boost Employee Engagement & Productivity
How long should an employee newsletter be?
While the ideal length of an employee newsletter depends mostly on the topic and the content, try to ensure it takes the average employee no more than 5-10 minutes to consume the newsletter’s content.
You want your employee newsletter to be engaging and a pleasure for your team members to read rather than being something that interrupts the flow of their work in a negative way. Timing is also important, so learn more about the best time to send an email.
In summary: Encourage communication and engagement by creating a professional employee newsletter for your team
Sharing important company information, inspiring team members to do their best and bringing your organization closer through a common message is easy with Venngage’s Newsletter Maker. It’s free to get started.