The Good And The Bad Of Modern Internal Communications

Frank Wolf, CSO and Co-founder of Staffbase.

The Covid-19 pandemic has made it obvious that more than ever, companies need to communicate clearly and effectively with their employees. The pandemic forced organizations to react quickly and decisively to the challenge of sharing critical information with employees who, in many cases, became off-site workers overnight. As a result, a workforce that suddenly shifted to remote has come to rely on digital communication tools such as Slack and Microsoft Teams, which saw significant, rapid growth; Teams in particular expanded by more than 100 million daily active users between the start of the pandemic and April 2021.

This shift puts a spotlight on internal communications (IC) professionals. As a result, I believe the IC function has been disrupted for the better. Yes, there have been too many shifts in priority to count, but IC professionals have worked to meet the challenges that came their way. Many leaders and C-suite executives learned how important great communication is. In fact, according to the Gallagher State of the Sector 2021 — which surveyed 800-plus internal communications professionals — 66% of respondents said their level of influence on senior leaders has increased due to the pandemic.

While content creation will always be a responsibility for this job function, it’s clear to me that the role of IC has shifted toward supporting and enabling meaningful communications between business leaders and their employees. In my opinion, organizations should see IC teams as priceless today, yet budget and resources don’t always match the value these professionals are expected to deliver. According to a recent IC Salary Report from Brilliant Ink and Bananatag, there’s about one IC professional per 1,000 employees. This means that for many, they are a team of one.

This got me thinking: How mature is the IC function at this point in time globally? What is the current state of the profession? To find out, our company fielded a survey from April–July 2021 to benchmark the communications maturity of companies worldwide. In the results of the Staffbase Internal Communications Maturity Assessment, what we found among more than 800 IC professionals worldwide that participated were both good and bad statistics when it came to strategizing, communicating, engaging and optimizing. 

The Good

• 71% said senior managers in their organizations take IC recommendations seriously.  

• 72% said their leaders create a climate of open communication — employees are encouraged to make their voices heard and share positive and negative feedback. 

• 80% said the members of the IC team have a very good understanding of their business, including challenges and priorities. 

The Bad

• 51% said their top IC goals are not defined in writing and known to all stakeholders responsible for implementing and approving them. 

• 74% said they spend most of their time reacting to requests to “get stuff out.” 

• 78% said they don’t conduct frequent (at least monthly) reviews of communications output analytics and discuss the learnings with stakeholders.

State Of The IC Industry

While I believe many companies are making clear progress in their communications functions, there’s still a long way to go on the road to truly transformative internal comms.

Now consider this: If new comms initiatives were in fact implemented primarily in response to Covid-19 lockdowns and other immediate social concerns, this could suggest that these efforts are incomplete — reactive versus proactive. Companies that are committed to comms success in the long term but sought solutions under duress will likely need to reevaluate them, particularly when it comes to measuring the impact of communications on their audiences and the company’s business goals. 

Communications At A Crossroads

No matter what the exact circumstances were that led to a company’s current IC maturity status, companies appear to be at a crossroads. They should now be tailoring IC to support corporate goals and reach their stakeholders and doing solid work to develop their communications teams. They should fully focus on optimizing their employee comms efforts for the long term — especially in regard to measuring the audience and business impact of their IC initiatives. 

The time is now for IC professionals to raise the impact of their communications to create powerful messages, connect with their audience, and ensure they eliminate any possible blind spots to prepare for the future of communications.

Paving The Path

What can you as an internal communicator start doing now to launch the full power of your role into the future? You can: 

• Set goals: You can define goals by campaign or by a full year's comms plan. IC pros can support stakeholders in meeting their communication goals. Consider conducting workshops with key stakeholders and subject matter experts to determine what employees should do, know and feel once they receive a message. Build out your strategy from here.

• Measure outcomes: If the goal was to get employees to understand and support an acquisition, add a question to next quarter’s pulse survey to determine their level of support for the change.

• Understand internal audiences: Too much noise and irrelevant information are common barriers to successful employee communication. If you can better understand and segment your audiences, you can target message delivery to reach the right employees at the right time and in the right location with the updates and information that matters to them.  

• Create powerful messages: Write to engage. Embrace authenticity. If you write the right message in a way that shows you care, you can engage your audience and get them to understand and interact with the messaging. 

When we're assessing the state of the internal comms industry, we need to bear in mind that this is a unique moment in time that could pave the way to truly transformative internal communication. As with any path, there will be bumps in the road. IC professionals today should feel empowered to drive transformation that benefits entire organizations by setting strategic goals, being the champions for clear and concise employee communications, and becoming trusted advisors for all things IC. 

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