Here at the Stories Incorporated office, we love hearing about other companies’ internal websites. They can take the form of wikis, or weekly CEO vlogs, or a professional social networking intranet. We’ve talked before how important internal communication is — it sets the tone for employees feeling valued, fulfilled, and open to expressing ideas, just to name a few. We also, of course, love celebrating stories and communicating culture — anyway, put all these together, and it was time for our own internal website. We’re hosting ours on WordPress, with sections for stories from our early days; with blog post categories of Successes, Challenges, Core Values in Action, and Fun; and a few pages of reference materials and how-tos. It’s tentatively named Hearth, for a stories-round-the-fire feel as well as the practicality of some of the reference content.

Having an internal wiki aligns with several of our own core values. One of them is “Take the Long View,” which reminds us that actions we take today have long-term implications for our business down the road. Starting this wiki now lets us look back in ten, fifteen, twenty years to all sorts of great archival material and stories all in one place. It also is a great way to enact “Communicate Openly.” With all team members having administrative editing rights and the encouragement to edit with abandon, we’re really transparent and (literally) all on the same page. Another one of our core values is Care about Stories! And, well, Hearth lets us demonstrate that, if only to ourselves.

What system does your company use? What sections and categories are there in your internal communications? And what’s it called?

Pamela Kaye does PR and Communications for Stories Incorporated. Questions, comments, concerns, poetic insights? Let me know at info@storiesincorporated.com; I’d love to hear from you!