The end of the year is often thought of as a time for reflection — and getting things done.

As you close out the year and get revved up for 2012, check out some of our top tools and templates. In the last year, your CEC internal communications peers have been using these guides to do their jobs faster and more effectively.

You can also check out our top external tools.

CEC’s Top Four Internal Communications Tools

1. How to Conduct Focus Groups

• What it is: This three step process will show you how to effectively run focus groups to test planned campaigns and gauge audience perceptions on communication strategies.
• Why it’s cool: Focus groups can be a highly effective listening tool to understand audiences, but are usually the domain of market researchers or vendors who charge a lot for something you can do yourself.

2. Help Managers Communicate Uncertainty

• What it is: Use these guidelines to help you or managers communicate with employees during times of uncertainty — such as mergers and acquisitions, changes in regulatory environments, or poor financial performance.
• Why it’s cool: Uncertainty in the business world isn’t going anywhere fast. Empowering managers to help employees function in this environment will prevent the many pitfalls of disengaged employees.

3. How to Communicate with Non-Wired Employees

• What it is: Use this channel selection guide to filter communication options for hard-to-reach employees by audience type (e.g., mobile maintenance employees, shop floor employees) and degree of interactivity of the message (one-way or two-way).
• Why it’s cool: This tool maps out the pros and cons of traditional and virtual channel options to help you customize your approach to reaching non-wired or remote employees.

4. Benchmark Your Team’s Budget Allocation

• What it is: This online benchmarking analysis tool will help you in the budget planning process by providing benchmarks for key budget areas, including employee communications and your intranet.
• Why it’s cool: Using data we’ve collected from more than 70 member organizations on 2011 communications resource levels, you can view the benchmark data set through lenses such as industry, business model, organization size, function structure, and geography.

CEC Related Blogs

• 4 Must-Have Managerial Skills
• Communicating with Hard-to-Reach Employees
• Follow the Monday to See the Future of Communications

CEC Related Resources

• How to Conduct Focus Groups
• Manage Uncertainty: Guidelines for Communications
• Non-Wired Communications Channel Selection Guide