20 Best Employee Newsletter Ideas, Tips & Examples

04.04.2022
Read time: 13 min
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20 Best Employee Newsletter Ideas, Tips & Examples
Try Publicate For Free Today
02.03.2022
Read time: 13 min

Your employees are at the heart of your business. So, it makes sense as to why you’d care about how successful your communications are with them. An employee newsletter can provide many benefits to everyone within your organization, including increased engagement, boosted productivity, and a more connected workforce.

For these reasons and more, we’re here to share how to create a newsletter that packs a punch by sharing some of the best employee newsletter examples. Plus, we’re going to share some of the tools you need to make your visions a reality! 

Ready to get going?

Light bulb as a symbol for ideas

What is an Employee Newsletter?

Employee newsletters are a form of digital communication that are usually sent as an email. However, unlike a plain text email like you use on a daily basis in business, an employee newsletter is designed. Additionally, with a tool like Publicate, you can share email newsletters via any communications platform, including your intranet, Slack, or Teams, to name a few. They are used to inform employees about company updates, events, new hires, industry news, to name a few.

With the help of an email builder like Publicate, there is no need for a graphic designer (or even a coder to make sure the email renders properly across devices). With Publicate, anyone can design employee newsletters with an employee newsletter template.

Why Have an Employee Newsletter?

If you have yet to send out your own employee newsletters, you may be considering whether or not it is worthwhile.

Chances are you have information that you need your employees to know for smooth operations. This could be a policy update or news about employee wellness programs, for example.

Employee newsletters are a great way to ensure that your team members are up-to-date with the latest and greatest news. Along with being in the know, employee newsletters have the power to boost employee engagement.

Think about it – when your team members are showing up and putting forth effort, they want to be considered part of the team and looped in on information about the company. If you create valuable employee newsletters, you’ll keep them engaged with what’s happening in the business overall and make them feel part of it.

What Should Be In An Employee Newsletter?

Since we’re on the same page about the importance of employee newsletters, it helps to know what they should include.

Here are just a few examples of fun employee newsletter ideas:

1. Job Openings

Have a new job opening? Even though your employees already work for the business, sharing the job posting with them can widen your talent pool as they can recommend someone for the job. Or, if it’s a promotion, they can apply themself.

2. Employee-Submitted Content

Get your team involved in the creation of employee newsletter content. Allow them to contribute their own content. Some examples of this could be inspiring quotes, a photo of the week, a funny meme, an article they enjoyed reading, etc.

3. Industry News

Keep your team informed about what’s happening in your industry by highlighting important industry news inside employee newsletters. With a tool like Publicate, it’s as simple as clicking the link icon and inputting a URL to another source to drive traffic to the article(s).

4. Departmental Updates

As mentioned, employee newsletters can help to increase engagement. To promote collaboration across teams, you can share departmental updates with employees so everyone is aware of what each department is aiming to accomplish.

5. Top 10 Lists

A fun newsletter idea is to share top 10 lists (or listicles). These could be about anything, from the top 10 lunch spots in the office area to the top 10 workout moves you can do on a 10-minute break.

6. Success Spotlights

Did your sales team surpass their sales goals? Did the company acquire another business? From big accomplishments to small feats, share the good news with your entire organization to keep company morale going strong.

7. Birthday Messages

Keep the fun alive year-round by including a birthday section in your newsletter, by the week or by month. This way, everyone can congratulate those within your organization who are celebrating another year around the sun.

8. Events

If you’re looking to promote a company or industry event, you can utilize an employee newsletter template dedicated to events, like this one.

9. Message from Leadership

Your leadership team has a lot to manage, so when it comes to talking to employees on a regular basis, the chances are high that they don’t. But that doesn’t mean that employees should go without hearing from those at the top of the company.

The C-Suite and management can contribute messages in employee newsletters to share their sentiments, be it gratitude, inspiration, ideas, or the like.

10. Surveys

The great thing about employee newsletters is that they work both ways, top-down and bottom-up. So, if you’re looking to hear how your team is feeling, you can include surveys within a newsletter to obtain feedback from your employees.

Alternatively, you can create a digital “suggestion box,” which would include a link that sends an email to a dedicated inbox for suggestions or thoughts. Keep in mind that if you include feedback mechanisms in your employee newsletters that you actually follow up to review them and address suggestions.

What Should Be In A Company Newsletter?

Employee newsletters can have a broader focus on the company as a whole. The great thing about employee newsletters is their immense flexibility.

With a tool like Publicate, you can choose from a ton of different email newsletter templates that suit whatever message you wish to convey and then customize them easily without any designers or coders.

Here are some ideas for company-focused newsletter content:

1. Press and Media

When company news gets published, your employees should know about it. You can share this coverage in email newsletters. If you have a section on your company website for “Press,” then you can use company newsletters to push traffic towards it by sending the articles out as links in a newsletter.

2. Business Updates

When you’re making updates to the business, be it new goals or benchmarking standards, you can ensure that everyone gets the memo by sending it via email.

While it’s also possible to share updates through internal messaging systems like Slack, there’s no way to monitor who has or has not yet read the message. With email newsletters, you can monitor metrics to see who has opened the email.

3. FAQs

If your employees are constantly asking the same questions, it makes sense to dedicate a section to the newsletter for frequently asked questions (FAQs). It’s an efficient way to keep everyone on the same page.

4. Professional Development Opportunities

Most people love to learn, and when it comes to a work environment, one that fosters and supports learning activities reaps the benefits of productive, engaged, and satisfied employees.

Use your newsletter real estate to share professional development opportunities. Take a look at this template for example.

5. Resources

You likely have resources ready to go for your team’s benefit. This could be how-to guides or even video tutorials. With email newsletters, you can incorporate different types of media to provide resources to your team members.

6. Calendar

Adding a company calendar of events, holiday closures, staff meetings, etc. is an easy way to make sure that everyone is aware of upcoming events.

7. Company History

It’s safe to say that not every employee within your organization knows the business’ history. But, sharing it could make all the difference in having employees who are invested and aligned with the company’s vision.

8. Statistics

Company newsletters are a great place to highlight quick updates and figures on how the company is faring. Rather than employees sifting through lengthy reports, you can use high-level overviews to share the company’s standing.

9. Guest Content

It’s always fun to have a new voice involved. Consider asking industry experts or people outside the organization to contribute content to an employee newsletter.

10. Customer Stories

Your employees are working towards achieving business goals, and that comes along with providing great customer care.

When you share customer stories, your employees can get a sense of how their work impacts the people for who they do it for. This can help to further promote employee engagement and satisfaction for a job well done.

Woman in front of a computer planning email newsletter

How to Create an Engaging Employee Newsletter?

You have endless options as to what type of content you want to include in your employee newsletters. Regardless of what you choose to incorporate, keep in mind these best practices to create engaging employee newsletters:

  • Create a catchy subject line
  • Keep the newsletter short and to-the-point
  • Balance the copy with a design that doesn’t overwhelm (use of white space, content breaks, images, etc.)
  • Provide content that is timely and relevant to the audience
  • Segment your audience so that you deliver messages to only those who need them

Why Use Internal Comms Software for Employee Newsletters?

There’s no doubt that you want to develop employee newsletters that are read and enjoyed by those who receive them. Instead of spending hours designing and testing out emails, you can use an internal communications software like Publicate that will manage the heavy lifting for you.

A newsletter builder like Publicate provides you with an easy-to-use email builder that is built around drag-and-drop functionality. This way, you can start with one of many pre-built templates and adjust the content based on need.

All the newsletter best practices already exist in these templates, and you don’t have to worry about involving a graphic designer and going through multiple rounds of edits.

With internal communications software, you can also monitor the success of your email newsletter by reviewing email analytics once you push send.

Send One, Send All

You’re equipped with email newsletter ideas and a savvy tool to help you bring them to fruition. Now, it’s up to you to decide the content of your email newsletter. Consider your goals, and then take it from there, one step at a time.

Try out a tool like Publicate now for free to design beautiful emails efficiently and send them using your existing email provider.