Future of internal communications 2021+: 6 key takeaways

"Last year provided a whole new context for how we operate and communicate, but the principles and skills we’ve evolutionized over the years still exist – it’s the context that’s been thrown into a new light. We should be embracing the new opportunities and show the value of what we do."

"Leadership hasn’t been able to connect into IC before, and can now see the impact. Now is the time to seize the opportunity that is there for us. The influence has never been greater. Internal communicators’ impact over the past year wasn’t just about getting messages out – we kept businesses open, collaborative, kept furloughed workers connected, helped remote workers. The opportunity that stands is to think about the true impact IC can have on organizational performance."

"Digital tools are the glue keeping us together at the moment. Technology has enabled us to come together in new ways, and I’m hopeful this will continue to be a change. Through our own technology platform at Cardinal Health, we’ve continued to have really good dialogue and conversations. On a monthly basis we do ‘Let’s Chat’ sessions with leaders, where employees submit questions and the highest voted are answered. Technology is changing the game for all of us – you’ve got to stay ahead of it and stay creative with how you use it."

"The biggest change over the past year has been the change in tone. Digital is a fantastic enabler, but as with any system, it’s only as good as the fabric and culture that you breathe within it. Behavior and tone of voice change takes time, effort, and persistence. Learn the importance of how you say something, rather than what you’re saying. You need to be aware. You need to think about channel overload. What do people want? Where do people go? Listen to where your people are at. Coach leaders to speak with authenticity and tonality. Hear every voice."

"According to our 2021 State of the Sector Report, only one-third of respondents had an idea of what their digital strategy would be. I’d advise them to identify their employee demographic, think about what it will look like, and look at how you can use your digital channels to make sure you are hitting the right messaging and formats at the right time. The pandemic has only accelerated what was going to inevitably happen, we need to embrace it and move forwards with it, and our job is to maximize it."

"Understanding the business and the challenges leadership face is critical to the work we do. Partner with the leaders and be a part of their team. Sit in on their meetings and listen. Understand the context. Our job is to take the complicated things in the business and help employees understand them in a simple way. Show you can get results through the work you do. Earn the trust of the leaders and show them what is possible."

"Internal communications isn’t all one-way, a lot of it is two-way. If you can bring employee voice into leadership before we go out with comms, it will be more relevant, authentic and will show elements of empathy. It’s about trying to be the ear of leadership and to let them know everything that’s going on – it may not always be what they want to say at the time, but we need to use the influence we’ve gained in 2020."

"Talking about culture can be dangerous if it’s not backed up by behaviors. Our job is to make sure this happens and call it out when it doesn’t. A culture change requires behavioral change, it’s not something we can just talk our way out of."

"Culture is complex: there’s culture and there’s cultures. There’s organizational culture and then there’s team culture. Listening is important. Our job is to understand the culture that those at the top want to create, and then encourage the people to emulate the behavior and the culture, making sure we embed that within our communication, the way we speak, and the language we use. Alongside that, we need to collaborate more as doing things in siloed teams is never going to achieve these things. We need to give support for training, infrastructure, conferencing, and tools. Culture is behavioral and IC can do a lot to support it, but we can’t create it."