August can feel like a quiet month, but there are plenty of topics you can cover in your employee newsletter that will keep your team feeling engaged and motivated - even in the sizzling summer heat! 

This email includes:

Here is just a snapshot of what's happening in August

Key dates

One of the most popular forms of content in employee emails is celebrating the month’s holidays and/or honoring specific observances. We’ve done all the research for you and whittled down the list of daily, weekly, and monthly holidays and observances to find the ones that are either 1.) relevant for work or 2.) just light-hearted, silly, engaging ways to spruce up your newsletter. 

 

A few highlights include:

• August 4: Assistance Dog Day
• August 9: International Coworking Day
• August 17: National Nonprofit Day
• Back to School Month
• Black Business Month
• National Eye Exam Month

Bonus: Download this internal comms editorial calendar to help you organize your content and messaging so you can communicate with your employees and drive engagement.

Sizzling summertime inspiration!

Seasonal topics + themes

With the new school year starting soon and holidays like National Simplify Your Life Week, August has an abundance of seasonal themes and topics that can help you engage your internal readers. Here are a few ideas of things we like to add to our August newsletters:

• Back-to-school reminders: With the new school year starting soon, August is a great time to send out a few back-to-school reminders to your employees! The CDC has a ton of great information, resources, and toolkits available. Additionally, you could host a company-wide back-to-school drive and gather essential school supplies like backpacks, notebooks, pencils, and pens for local school districts. 🎒
• Summer reading list: Send out a company-wide survey asking employees what books are on their summer reading radar, then include the curated list of staff picks in your August employee newsletter! You could even turn it into a summer book club.
• Time management + productivity tips: National Simplify Your Life Week takes place on August 7 through 13 and encourages people to focus on the physical and psychological areas of their life that could use a little simplification. Share productivity or time-saving tips with your team. (We particularly like these 8 time management tips for productivity from Slack.) You could also challenge your employees to reduce the number of meetings they have this week by encouraging them to swap one or two out for a walking meeting or email!

Summer is the perfect time to enjoy the sunshine with your team

Host a summer shindig for the team!

Whether it’s a company-wide picnic, a team-building workshop, a lunch and learn, a company volunteer day, or a team hackathon, August is the perfect time to gather the team for an end-of-summer shindig! (And if you need help segmenting your employee newsletters by specific locations, we can help with that!)

• Add moments of delight: Hide something fun within the email itself. It’s a clever way to ‘gamify’ your newsletter and reward those who regularly read it! Try including a hidden Easter egg, a trivia or quiz, or a miscellaneous section for fun memes, GIFs, tweets, quotes, and more! 
  
  
• Encourage replies: Looking for feedback? No need to overcomplicate things; simply ask for it. 🙂 Encouraging replies to an email is a great way to get thoughtful ideas and in-depth responses from all over the organization.
  
  

• Track results of your emails: When it comes to improving your internal communications strategy, knowing the effectiveness of your internal emails is key! Measure your clicks, open rates, and which employees have (and haven't read your email) to adjust your strategy and increase engagement. (You can do all this and more with a tool like Workshop.)
  
  

• Use internal newsletter software to help create engaging emails: A platform like Workshop allows you to create beautifully-designed emails, personalize your content (and audiences!), and measure the effectiveness of your campaigns through various analytics.