Voice

Following decades of internal comms experience working in-house for various telecoms companies, at the end of last year Joe Salmon ventured into new territory as he became associate director of people and purpose at PR agency Hill+Knowlton Strategies.

A merger or acquisition is no cakewalk for internal communicators. It’s a hard slog over many months of uncertainty, stress and mystery – and then you have to support colleagues when the news breaks and bring two workforces together. Collaboration and listening is key to making sure all goes smoothly up to day zero – and beyond.

Having a deeper understanding of employees’ views and lives can help to shape comms for the better, but what are the practicalities of achieving quality audience insight?

Building trust in the workplace is a continuous process. With every interaction and message, you either strengthen trust or chip away at it. Employees become sceptical if they feel leaders and communicators are not giving them the full story or don’t have their interests at heart – and that affects their motivation and can cause reputational damage. How can leaders and internal communicators create an environment where people have faith and confidence in the future?

The use of pronouns will be an increasingly important element of creating inclusive work environments, says Will Fox, internal communications manager at Beamery.

During Pride month in June, corporate workplaces are wallpapered with rainbows to celebrate and commemorate LGBTQ+ history. But what does real support and awareness of LGBTQ+ issues look like? And when June is over, is your organisation doing and communicating enough to let gay, trans and queer employees know you have their backs?

If you want to get your project smoothly over the line, chart your path in detail, says Lydia Edwards-Massie, head of project delivery at scarlettabbott. Equally, time management is about seeing the bigger picture within your organisation.

How many campaigns have you got planned this year? Are you confident that they will actually be effective – you know, truly make an impact? Here, we look at the golden rules of how to make sure your campaign does more than create a few ripples…