Free templates and resources

Here at Elm, we are firm believers that we can all be better communications professionals by sharing our knowledge and resources. Here are some free templates we have created and some resources we use on a regular basis.

Templates

Employee engagement plan. We are in a challenging time in internal communications where we need to support our organisation to communicate to the workforce that is all (or mostly) working from home. Here is a short template to get your engagement plan started.

Need help getting started on a communications strategy here is a template so you don’t miss any of the basics

One of the hardest things to do is to keep on top of your website or intranet content. Here is a templates that will help you record, analyse and assess your pages.

One of the most overlooked elements of strategic communications is environmental scanning. We love the PESTLE framework as it’s easy but comprehensive so we’ve created a template with some questions to help get to your answers.

Many of us still struggle with how to manage social media. Elm believes part of the answer is in using communication strategy fundamentals so here is a plan to help get you back on track.

A great way to get started on strategic engagement is to understand your audience. This is a simple tool, but it will require some time to complete it. You will need to do some desktop research and probably talk to some other people in your organisation about each group. We know, we know, you don’t have time but trust us it’s worth the effort!

Creating a team leader toolkit can help you to efficiently and effectively engage with managers to ensure they are able to cascade corporate messages to their staff. It needs to be simple and easy to follow to ensure the best results.

Part of managing your organisation’s reputation is ensuring that you can effectively handle an issue or a crisis that comes your way. Having a clear issue and crisis communications protocol in place helps to ensure you will be ready. Here is a template to get you started.

Facilitation

Resources

Love them or hate them team building activities do work! They help to increase communication and connection in a team. We have put together a team build activities guide with some of the favourites that Melanie used regularly in her team planning days.

In today’s world when most of us are working in a hybrid environment, you can’t do all of your team building face to face. Here are some ideas for team building activities online.

Whether you are a seasoned pro or a novice it’s always good to remember the basics of great facilitation. We put together a quick cheat sheet of the traits you need to be a great facilitator.

Writing

Whether you hate it or love it, writing is part of most peoples jobs. To help ensure you’re on the right track, download Elm’s writing checklist.

Grammarly – great to check your work for all things spelling and grammar.

Evaluation

If you are looking to evaluate your communication activities you can’t go past the International Association for Measurement and Evaluation of Communications (AEMC) interactive framework.

Graphic design

If you haven’t used Canva before you are missing out! Use the free version to create your own social media posts, posters, brochures. It is a simple and easy way to make your content look great.

Principles of Behaviour Change

Five principles of behaviour change to keep in mind when you are developing your communication strategies.