Regardless of the job description, internal communicators are tasked with inspiring employees and fostering a culture of feedback and engagement—and it’s time for leadership to recognize and elevate these efforts.
IC teams’ pivotal role often goes unnoticed in organizations despite consistently demonstrating strategic value. We speak to this challenge and ways to overcome it in our latest ebook, Reclaiming influence: Proving internal comm’s value to leadership
Struggle quantifying impact
Internal communications teams excel in innovative problem-solving, proactive decision-making, collaborative partnerships, and seamless execution, yet they often struggle to quantify their impact using conventional metrics. This leaves their seat at the table in flux.
Despite having established systems in place, internal communication is incredibly complicated at many companies. This is because they wear many hats and work behind the scenes to facilitate seamless processes and interactions. Beyond sharing company-related information, IC plays a pivotal role in keeping individuals informed and safe during times of crisis.
IC takes the lead in a crisis
As hindsight has taught us, society often finds itself ill-prepared for the inevitable, and crises often strike without warning. And their scope and timing remain unpredictable. This emphasizes the importance of establishing a robust internal communications system in advance. Getting the correct information to everyone quickly impacts how your company ultimately weathers the storm. Swiftly disseminating accurate information to everyone is a must, and a modern intranet can act as a communication hub when integrated with a well-designed internal communication strategy.
This communication hub assumes a crucial role in aligning a distributed workforce during difficult times. This is particularly for geographically dispersed teams. Receiving information promptly is unlikely without effective communication channels.
These are the folks at the center of it all, the IC crisis response team that acts as a go-between with leadership, marketing, PR, and internal employees—and if they’re not, they should be. They’re best equipped to navigate challenging circumstances successfully as they understand the company’s internal workings best. And they certainly understand the employees.
This is most obvious when it’s ‘business as usual,’ and an exceptional IC staff has practices in place that put employees at the center. And these efforts ultimately make or break a company’s employee experience, which impacts retaining and attracting top talent.
Internal comms teams are crucial for retaining top talent
IC teams are crucial when it comes to retaining top talent. They ensure important changes are communicated internally before they’re disseminated to the public and that the message answers key questions about outcomes. These efforts to keep employees informed demonstrate that their contributions and existence in the organization are meaningful and appreciated—and that goes a long way toward retaining people through challenging times.
This feeling of belonging translates to dollars as top talent doesn’t stick around when companies are constantly in the midst of confusing and poorly communicated changes.
IC teams contribute to cultivating a positive work environment, leading to heightened employee morale, increased talent retention, and amplified productivity. They serve as ambassadors, speaking up for employees and amplifying their voices, and this is incredibly valuable in any company.
Engaged employees become invested in the company’s culture, resulting in a committed and motivated workforce. As we share in the ebook, recent research conducted by Gallup has revealed a concerning decline in employee engagement over the past decade. Companies making an effort to enhance their employee experience are pulling out ahead of competitors.
But to be successful, leadership must be onboard, and IC experts need to have a seat at the table where these decisions are happening. It’s dangerous, in fact, for a company to charge forward blindly on any endeavor without considering internal comms input and tactical guidance.
Leading without internal comms input is dangerous
Leadership communication typically happens irregularly and from a distance at most organizations. How often are your leaders communicating the organization’s mission, values, ethics, and goals to employees in a way that inspires a sense of ownership? And how do you know? Inclusion is powerful. It fosters increased engagement and unleashes creativity and innovation—all from empowering employees to simply flourishTM.
So, how do you prove any of this? How do you know how employees feel? Employee listening that goes beyond regular employee engagement and annual surveys will capture what they want to tell you and what their actions tell you too, assuming you’re combining prompted and passive listening capabilities. Are you?
In the ebook, we speak to the importance of continuously capturing millions of data points across your employee experience platform to detect and analyze emotions, sentiments, and language patterns to reveal how employees truly feel. And why guessing at any of this insight is pure folly.
But if your company’s internal communications efforts are not recognized, your company is at risk. And that’s a dangerous place to be as we head into the Talent Wars.
Download the ebook, Reclaiming influence: Proving internal comm’s value to leadership to learn more. If your company doesn’t already recognize the need to bolster its communications capabilities based on the fall-out from our collectively experienced pandemic or current geopolitical flux, we have three tips to drive the point home and prove your value once and for all.
And then connect with us for a demo to see next-level AI-driven internal communications capabilities in action!
