The Art of Networking Within Your Organization

Internal networking is as important as external networking. It’s a way to push your career forward, break down departmental silos, and foster collaboration in your company. But, most importantly, it’s a way to enhance creativity and learn from your colleagues. In this article, we will touch on this in more detail, providing you with practical tips on internal networking. We invite you to read on.

The Role of Internal Networking

Internal networking is the practice of building and maintaining professional relations with colleagues from your organization. What’s important is that it does not refer purely to those with whom you work as a part of a team or department but rather across your whole company. As such, it comes with the following benefits:

• building links between different departments,
• encouraging knowledge sharing,
• learning about promotion opportunities.

Starting Your Internal Networking Journey

How do you begin internal networking? We’ve got some tips on this topic for you! The start of your journey should be marked by completing the following steps:

Identifying the Key Stakeholders within Your Organization

This will enable you to know who to approach to learn the most from your relationship. At the same time, it’s quite risky—you need to know the networking etiquette inside out to avoid making a faux pas.

Utilizing Company Events

There are few opportunities to mingle with colleagues from other departments, so you should use those you have. This mainly means attending all the company-wide events and actively networking at them.

Reaching out Using Digital Tools

You should also make use of the tools you have. For instance, create a fun, themed channel on Slack that all like-minded colleagues from your company can join, no matter the department they are in. It’ll improve the atmosphere and let you build professional relations—you can kill two birds with one stone!

Effective Strategies for Internal Networking: Our 5 Tips

With the initial steps behind you, it’s time to accelerate your internal networking. How do you do that? We have some tips that will surely help you!

Host Your Own Events

First, start with your own company-wide events. It can be anything, from an evening integration with board games to a mountain hike trip. Simple as it may seem, this will let you get to know your colleagues better and maintain your relationships.

Start Regular Catch-Ups

One of the best internal networking ideas is to set up a regular coffee meet-up at the office. This can take anywhere from 5 to 15 minutes. It might seem like insufficient time, but it’s the perfect way to catch up with your colleagues and maintain your relationships even if you don’t have enough time for something much bigger.

Volunteer for New, Cross-Department Projects

If an opportunity arises, don’t hesitate to join projects that are carried out with the help of multiple departments. It’s a great way to get to know your colleagues better and strengthen your network.

Maintain Your Network

If you cannot catch up with somebody, write to them; if you can, do it. Internal networking (and networking in general) is not just about meeting people and exchanging knowledge—you need to maintain your network, stay connected, and proactively reach out to your colleagues.

Don’t Be Afraid to Start Conversations

As mentioned above, you have to be proactive. This means that sometimes, you’ll need to start a conversation or engage somebody in small talk. Don’t be afraid to do it, but also beware of being pushy.

Here are some job-related conversation starters that can help you with this:

• What are you working on?
• What are the challenges in your project?
• How did you get started in your current role? What drew you to this field?
• Are there any industry trends or skills you’re focusing on this year?
• What do you think about the company’s new [policy, initiative, event]?

The Takeaway

We hope we have answered all your internal networking questions. If you have any more, be sure to contact us. Maria would love to arrange a consultation and give you more professional tips on effective networking, both inside and outside of your organization.

You might also read: The Importance of Alumni Networks in Professional Development.