Unlocking the strategic potential of internal communications
As organisations manage a complex business landscape, the internal communications function can demonstrate its value as a strategic management function.
This a keynote that I gave to the CIPR Inside Conference this morning.
My focus as a public relations practitioner and management researcher is on elevating the internal communications function's role in management.
The headlines are challenging.
The function temporarily achieved this status during the COVID-19 pandemic but is now reverting. Four out of five internal communications functions are not operating at their optimal potential.
I want to explore this and what we can do about it in the next ten minutes.
In a management context, internal communications is the function that deals with an organisation's most important intangible asset - its relationships with employees.
We support productivity, recruitment, retention and safety.
Business value of international communications
The Gallagher State of the Sector 2023/24 report sets out the business case for internal communications based on its contribution to culture, strategic alignment and value creation. It’s measured by means of employee engagement. I’d go further and add productivity and profitability.
It supports an organisation in dealing with a range of operational issues depending on its geographic location, market sector, operating context, as well as societal and political issues.
Internal communications can operate in two distinct roles:
a management function that provides insight into planning and decision-making, and
a tactical role as an operational function that executes decisions on behalf of management
The management role is strategic and valuable to the organisation. The tactical role is also important, but it doesn’t unlock the full potential that internal communications can deliver to an organisation.
The contribution of internal communications to management
Notably, today’s agenda highlights many opportunities and means by which practitioners can engage with management and elevate their practice.
Dr Kevin Ruck, Mike Pounsford and Howard Kraise will share outcomes from their project on employee listening. Their book Leading the Listening Organisation advocates for organisations to adopt a culture of active, empathetic listening to employees to drive better business outcomes.
Dr Jackie Le Fèvre will join us to discuss the relationship between organisational values and decision-making. This issue is at the forefront of internal communications and management because of current societal discourse and upcoming elections.
At Wadds Inc. we recently published a report and a decision-making framework addressing this area as part of a research project funded by NewsWhip based on interviews with senior corporate communications practitioners.
Influence through Insight explores the range of responses to operational, societal and political issues, from speaking out to staying silent.
Jo Rozsich will review the OASIS planning model, which has its roots in communications management theory developed in the 1950s by Scott Cutlip. It is the basis of planning and decision-making in management and execution at an operational level.
Exploring the management gap
My contribution to this discussion started during the pandemic when I worked as part of the Government Communication Service COVID-19 Communications Advisory Panel of industry leaders, including senior CIPR, IoIC, and PRCA representatives. It sought to highlight the role of management communication to the government during this time.
Like many practitioners, I spotted the moment in March 2020 when internal communications practice was elevated into management.
Senior practitioners joined emergency response, resilience and management teams to help manage the public health emergency, changes to supply chains, stakeholder relationships and changing working patterns.
I pitched a research proposal that has become the basis of a PhD study to my co-editor of Exploring Public Relations and Management Communication, Prof Dr Ralph Tench, at Leeds Business School.
Over the past three years, I have been investigating the relationship between internal communications, as a broader set of public relations activities, and management. My research has followed the rise and fall of the function that trade media and professional associations such as the CIPR and IoIC have all noted.
An early insight from my PhD research is our discipline's limited relationship between theory and practice. Prof Dr Betteke ven Rule nailed it in an essay in 2005 ‘PRofessionals are from Venus, scholars are from Mars’. We seemingly don’t learn from the longstanding body of knowledge that exists in our discipline.
Almost 15 years ago, a study described the conditions under which public relations is elevated in management.
The function almost always reverts once the situation has passed.
Thanks to the European Communication Monitor study we know what good looks like. We also know that four in five functions are suboptimal. The ECM has been conducted annually since 2007 and is the largest of its kind worldwide. It sets out the optimal operating environment for the corporate communications function at an organisational, functional and practitioner levels.
We use this framework at Wadds Inc., as a management tool to help benchmark and develop communications teams.
How we can close the management gap
My own research has identified two fundamental areas that need to be addressed if internal commmunications is to achieve its optimal value and recognition as a management function.
I hope that you recognise a truth in the simplicity of my argument.
First, we need to align our work with the organisation's objectives in ways that management understands. This is an area where we’re making good progress. I’ve already shared examples from today’s conference.
Listening, planning and measurement have expanded in scope and usage. Data and insights are increasingly used to plan, design and measure our work.
Second, and this is a related but more challenging task, we need to improve our own domain and management expertise through learning, development and qualifications.
The low barrier to entry to a role in internal communications is both a blessing and a curse. It means that the function has the potential to attract practitioners from a diverse range of backgrounds, but it also means that to progress, practitioners need to do the work and establish the credentials expected by management.
The communications function is never part of an in-house learning and development rotation. Training and alignment with a capability framework are the exception rather than the rule.
This builds in structural inequality for practitioners from under-represented and under-served groups whose organisations won’t fund training or can’t afford it themselves.
The PR Population Report published by the CIPR highlighted this issue. two-thirds of practitioners below director are female and a third are male. The situation is almost completely reversed in senior roles.
Sarah Waddington CBE and I have sought to address this through our Socially Mobile Community Interest Company. It’s an executive education programme that provides training in areas including planning and measurement, financial management, managing people and building a high-performance team.
I’m grateful to CIPR Inside for supporting us through a donation and providing Sarah Birkett-Wendes with a platform to tell her story as a graduate this afternoon.
So where does this leave us?
The role of internal communications within organisations has never been more important.
As organisations and management navigate an increasingly complex business landscape, effectively managing and nurturing the relationship between employees and management has become a critical factor in driving organisational success.
By aligning our efforts with the organisation's objectives and metrics, we can unlock the full potential of internal communications as a strategic management function. However, to achieve this, we as practitioners must take responsibility for our growth and development.
We must invest in building our knowledge, expertise and credentials, ensuring we have the skills and credibility to influence management decisions and drive meaningful change.
Thank you very much for listening.
