Internal Communicators’ Biggest Pain Points: Key Changes Needed in 2025

Trying to narrow down IC professionals’ biggest pain points is no easy task. Between perennial problems such as lack of resources to newer issues like change fatigue, there’s a lot going on for IC pros. 

So, while this article could have been a book, I’ve decided to focus on the seven leading causes of angst in the profession right now. These are based on a combination of my own experience, speaking to and surveying peers, and market research.

For each pain point I’m going to highlight the impact it’s having on IC teams and their organizations, what needs to change in 2025, and our role in helping that.  

1. Lack of people

While this falls into the bucket of forever problems, it is particularly acute right now. IC teams seemingly everywhere are being cut, both for full-time and contract resources. Leavers are not being replaced, yet the workload increases. The situation is so bad that we may be witnessing an Internal Communications Winter, with no end in sight. 

With fewer resources, IC teams are simply unable to fully support the delivery of the business strategy with effective communications. Programs and projects that desperately need IC resources end up having to do communications themselves, and we know how that ends. 

What needs to change

Organizations need to look at flexible resourcing models for IC. For example, hiring interims can enable programs and projects to get the short-term support they need to deliver, while helping to relieve pressure on IC teams already at breaking point. As professionals, we need to be insisting that as a minimum, vacancies are filled as quickly as possible, and that work be prioritized and rightsized to fit team numbers. 

2. Lack of budget

I’m coming in strong again with a constant bugbear, but I had to address these two biggest-of-the-biggest pain points upfront. As with the lack of people challenge, the budget issue is worsening, with pots either being frozen or reduced from an already low base. IC teams can still have a big impact on a small budget, but there is inevitably going to be some fallout. That can show up in many ways, from a lack of investment in new channels to an over-reliance on in-house teams as spend on agencies is curtailed, piling on even more pressure. 

What needs to change

IC teams need to be bolder and braver in explaining to senior leaders what budget they are looking for, why it’s important, and how they intend to spend it. They must have the difficult conversations about the trade-offs that will need to take place if budgets are hit, in the same way other departments do. 

3. Lack of capability

Okay, so this is an emerging one, but I’ve been hearing it with increased frequency over the past year. Many IC professionals, especially senior ones, are concerned about whether they have the capabilities in their teams to deliver what their organizations need. 

Over the past decade, the move has been away from IC specialists, who traditionally had backgrounds in communication disciplines such as journalism and PR, towards generalists from areas like marketing and project management. While this has improved the overall offering of IC teams, there is a worry that essential skills such as corporate messaging and writing are being lost. 

Coupled with the onslaught of whole new fields to get to grips with such as AI, and it’s easy to see why a lack of capability is keeping IC leaders up at night. If they can’t demonstrate they have the capabilities to deliver, they won’t get the people and budget they need, and the vicious cycle will continue.  

What needs to change

Ideally, IC teams would be given more budget for training and development, but as you see from Point 2, that’s unlikely to happen anytime soon. So, focus on upskilling your team on their individual, and your collective, gaps in a low or no-cost way – through free online resources, coaching/mentoring, and asking stakeholders for feedback.  

4. Lack of alignment on strategy 

I wrote here about the strategy conundrum. Given that the world is in constant flux, the maximum timespan any business can realistically plan for today is one to two years. Many have contracted this horizon down to simply looking little further than the next quarter. 

The absence, or short-termism of strategy, is one thing. But this is being compounded by a lack of executive team alignment on strategy. For various reasons – reward systems, ambition, egos – senior leaders are finding it harder than ever to agree on strategy, work collaboratively to execute it, and communicate it consistently with their teams. All of which creates chaos for IC teams, as there is no clarity on the business strategy they should be supporting. 

What needs to change

Senior leaders must reflect on the wide-ranging impacts that a lack of clear direction can have on their organizations. As internal communicators, we must be more proactive and bullish in educating and coaching senior leaders on the importance of strategic alignment for everyone, including IC teams who need to know what to focus their limited resources on. 

5. Analysis paralysis 

First, organizations cited COVID and the ensuing global lockdowns. Then it was the Russia-Ukraine war, global inflation, and hybrid working. After that, it was the UK election, subsequent new government budget, and, most recently, the US election. The point is, organizations have used all these macro-events to delay or avoid making decisions – on strategy, growth, hiring – you name it, and it’s been impacted by a global corporate analysis paralysis.  

This makes it very difficult for IC teams to plan, or to move forward with conviction. Internal communications has become hamstrung, forced to become less strategic and more tactical, keeping the lights on rather than driving organizations forward. 

What needs to change

Put simply, corporations have to get unstuck. Decisions must be made. Continuing in a holding pattern is not serving anyone, and for IC teams it causes challenges with formulating their own strategy and explaining the company’s one to employees. IC professionals need to take data to their senior leaders showing the crippling effects of analysis paralysis – on engagement, productivity, and performance. 

6. Leadership buy-in 

Returning to a golden oldie, IC teams have been dogged by organizations failing to see the value of, and buy into, internal communications. The obvious problem with this is that leaders are the biggest role models in any organization, so IC teams need them to be effective communicators to enable delivery of the strategy (see this great blog from Workvivo Content Editor Lisa Ardill for more on the impact of bad leadership). 

If leaders don’t grasp the importance of internal communications, then it can have disastrous effects on employee engagement, attraction and retention, and the achievement of business goals. It’s impossible for IC teams to function, let alone thrive, in an environment where senior leaders don’t understand, support, and actively engage in communicating with employees.  

What needs to change

Measurement. For various reasons, as a profession we’ve historically been poor at using data to demonstrate our business value. That’s not an acceptable excuse anymore. To win over senior leaders, we must be clearer about the outcomes we’re aiming for. We need to measure and communicate the results in a compelling way. Modern organizations are awash with data – so this is one of the easier pain points to address in 2025. 

7. Change fatigue

When I polled my network a couple of months ago on the biggest challenge facing IC teams right now, change fatigue was the most common answer. All organizations are constantly changing, that’s a fact of life. The real issue is that employees are tired of change done badly. And a big part of the reason for this is that overstretched IC teams (see Point 1) are usually facing one of the following scenarios: 

• Excluded from the list of key stakeholders for change projects
• Brought in too late to add real value and ensure the change is communicated correctly
• Unable to support change communications due to a lack of capacity  

What needs to change

IC teams should spend more time coaching leaders on the importance of leading their organizations through change effectively, so employees are more resilient, ready, and responsive to change. That way, change will feel less scary, consume fewer resources, and has a greater chance of sustainable success. 

To do that, IC teams first need to upskill themselves on their role in communicating change, and, where resources allow, proactively push to be involved from the start in any change projects. My fellow Workvivo blogger Caitlin Kirwan shares excellent advice on this here.

I’m not naïve enough to think these pain points will disappear anytime soon. But I do believe in focusing on what you can control, and the good news for IC teams is that there’s plenty within your gift to change. I encourage you to make 2025 the year of progress – despite the pain.