Identity Crisis: Who Do Internal Communicators Really Work For?
Simon Rutter
External Contributor - Award-winning Sr Communications Strategist
1 Jul 2024
There is much debate by stakeholders, and wrangling from internal communicators, about who we really work for. Do we primarily support the organizations who employ us, the leaders who often use our services the most, or all employees that make up our various audiences?
There can often be an imbalance between these competing groups and their diverse demands, fueling what I call an ‘identity crisis’ in the profession.
I’m going to look at each of these stakeholders in turn – organizations, leaders, and employees – consider what they mean for the role we play as internal communicators, and how we might think about all of them differently.
I’ll also add in a fourth one – just for good measure.
1. The organizations who employ us
Ultimately, we are employed by, and contracted to, companies. They pay our salaries or fees, in exchange for our services. As internal communicators, this can put us in a challenging position, as we can be labelled corporate mouthpieces, marketers, and propagandists. Colleagues may perceive us as postmen or women, simply delivering good news messages and covering up the rest.
And it’s true that it can sometimes be harder to challenge decisions and speak truth to power when you’re being paid to communicate on the why, what, and how of your employer’s operations. Indeed, according to the Institute of Internal Communications (IOIC) IC Index 2024, only 43% of employees believe their organization acts in their best interest, with larger organizations facing more skepticism.
What we need to remember is that at the end of the day, work is a power dynamic, and for internal communicators, we are a support function that is there to enable business outcomes.
How can we think about it differently?
- Consider our role as more akin to external strategic advisers, who are there to consult, advise, and guide our businesses on how internal communications can help them achieve commercial results.
- Position ourselves as strategic coordinators, who have a unique view across our organizations and can connect the dots for our employers and employees.
- See constructive challenges as part of our role, and critical to delivering the service we are being paid for. If we don’t do it, we are letting our employers down.
2. Leaders who see us as their private resource
I’ve written previously about the persistent prevalence of what I term ‘concierge communications’, or ‘business partnering’ as it is properly known. That is, where internal communicators spend all or most of our time communicating what individual leaders of a single part of the business want to say, often to their regional, divisional, or functional audience only.
While this is sometimes an acknowledgment of our strategic importance as we may be given a ‘seat at the leadership team table’, it can just as easily mean we are doing SOS activities (Sending Out Stuff) that are not helping employees understand, engage with, or contribute to the business strategy.
More newsletters simply equal more noise, which is counterproductive.
Indeed, Unily’s latest Digital Noise Impact Report highlights that the average worker is experiencing more than 160 distractions from their workplace digital tools every week, with email (39%) being the second-biggest contributor.
Another unintended but frequent outcome of business partnering is the creation of a master-servant relationship, which can also lead to developing a myopic view of the organization, in which we are sacrificing one of our unique qualities (breadth of knowledge) for depth.
In doing so, we can limit our own development and not contribute as fully as we might to our IC teams and broader organizations.
How can we think about it differently?
- Use our trusted adviser position to influence more broadly, both by bringing the outside-in thinking to the leader(s) we sit with, and sharing our deep regional, divisional, or functional knowledge with those outside.
- See ourselves as business leaders first, with an internal communications specialism. Shifting our perspective places more weight on what we know about the business, which will increase our influence and impact.
- Help our fellow internal communicators by sharing what works well, and the challenges we have, with our regions, divisions, or functions to facilitate knowledge sharing and skills transfer.
3. All employees – the audience(s) we are communicating with
There’s a reason for the order I’ve put these in. Our main audience(s) – comprised of our fellow colleagues – are often behind our organizational machines and individual leaders when it comes to who we work for. When we ask our companies and their leaders who the audience is for their communications, we are often told, ‘The audience is everyone’ – betraying the fact that employees are regularly considered a homogenous group, with little or no thought given to tailoring of messages.
This places us internal communicators in a difficult position. On one hand, we need to ensure communications are strategic, aligned, and consistent. However, we also know that employees want to have more of a voice, are demanding organizations speak out on a range of political, social, and economic events, and want communications that are personalized and authentic.
The IC Index 2024 reveals that half of employees think their employer takes a stand on societal issues, but 61% expect their employer to take a stance.
As colleagues ourselves, we can see both sides, which puts us in a real bind when it comes to balancing what the business needs to say versus what employees want to talk about.
How can we think about it differently?
- Learn to love the middle. Sitting between leaders and employees, we get a privileged 360-degree view, which enables us to bring the strategy to life for our people and facilitate employee feedback to influence business decisions.
- We are the conscience of our organizations. In one way or another, we do work for all employees, because we should be constantly picking up sentiment from the ground, checking for say-do gaps, and calling out leadership behaviors that are not aligned to the stated and desired culture, values, and behaviors.
- Use employees as a testing ground for our communications. Ask them questions such as, ‘Does this message make sense to you?’. Thinking of employees as a collection of various audiences is a fantastic way to help you generate new ideas, validate or challenge your internal communications strategy, and prevent any potential PR disasters.
4. The internal communications profession
Still a relative youngster in industry terms compared to other related disciplines (such as public relations), internal communications is nevertheless rapidly professionalizing, thanks to membership bodies such as the IoIC and CIPR, and the increase in qualifications in the field.
Yet our role, purpose, and value to organizations is still widely misunderstood, and isn’t helped by our own inability to, at times, connect our work to business outcomes.
If we think of ourselves as working on behalf of our peers in this industry, then our day-to-day activities take on more meaning. Every time we coach a team member to clarify business objectives with a stakeholder, or educate a senior leader on how to engage with us to get the best value, we are moving the profession forward. By contrast, when we rush to tactics first or don’t measure the impact of what we do, we are reinforcing stereotypes and hampering the development of our industry.
How can we think about it differently?
- It can be easy to go native as an internal communicator. But we’re part of a network and a broader ecosystem. Stay connected with fellow communicators, and always be looking to build your network to source new ideas, receive support, and provide value.
- Think of yourself as an industry advocate. While many of us ‘fell’ into internal communications, it’s increasingly becoming a destination career. Our job is to promote that career and develop those who choose to come into it.
- Use your internal platform to promote our industry. Actively look for opportunities to speak to colleagues about the function and value of internal communications. You never know, your next hire could be in the audience!
The IC cocktail
So, to answer the question ‘Who do internal communicators really work for?’, I would say – a mix of all of the above.
That balance isn’t always equal, whether by design or default, but we should look to have all elements present in everything we do.
If we think of internal communications as a cocktail, you need all the ingredients to make it work.