3 truths about the role of IC

by Stuart Rhys Thomas

17 June, 2024

Gosh!

Talk about opening a can of worms. A simple LinkedIn post listing seven things internal communications is not responsible for.

Boom!

40,000 impressions and counting!

Why is this such a hot topic for the normally mild-mannered Internal Comms community – aka the Communicatistas!

Employee morale, employee engagement and the annual staff survey. Yup, that’s somebody else’s responsibility. Collecting stuff from the printers? Joan's Leaving Do at the Dog & Trumpet? Ordering corporate cupcakes? These really touched a nerve and the Communicatistas were quick to share other things they’re asked to do – but shouldn’t be.

• “New starter photos!”
• “Booking people's hotel for a company event!”
• “Distribution lists and making sure they’re correct!”
• “Things like ‘Name the conference rooms in the new HQ!’”
• “Ordering photo frames to put certificates in for the local school's award ceremony!”

So, if this is what it doesn’t do, what IS the role of Internal Communications?


3 Truths

Let’s start with the first one.

Leaders will try and give you ANYTHING and EVERYTHING loosely related to comms.

Like collecting flyers. Organising leaving-do’s. Sorting cupcakes. Not because they’re bad people. But because they’re ignorant. They’re ignorant on what a strategic internal comms function can do for them. So they assume it’s flyers, farewell parties and fairy cakes.

Which is our fault.

We’ve failed to explain our role well enough. Or to demonstrate the difference we can make. Harshly (perhaps?) we’ve become top-heavy with fairy cake fixers and rather light on strategic thinkers.

So, what do we do? Truth number two!

We need to agree what WE think our role is. Because at the moment I’m not sure WE do.

Let’s test this!

Write down what YOU think the role of Internal Communication is…



< 5… 4… 3… >



Now, let’s compare answers.

I think the role of Internal Communication is to help make a business more successful. Now you… what did you put down? Something different? Imagine if we asked a hundred Communicatistas to do this! I bet we’d have 70-odd different answers.

Most Communicatistas think our role is to engage staff. To inform staff. To involve staff. Which is true but to what end? To make our business more successful. Engaging, informing and involving isn’t enough. I’m sorry, but it’s true.

Talking of truths, you ready for number three?

Being ‘strategic’ is easier than you think.

‘Strategic’ simply means to think long term. You become a strategic communicator by asking how can comms help my company be more successful, over the long term. Then link ALL of your comms activity to your company’s long term plan or goal.

That’s it!

Combined, the three truths show WE need to be clear on what the role of internal communication is. Then WE need to educate leaders on what it is. Before finally, WE need to demonstrate our value by delivering long term business goals and objectives.

“That sounds great but how do I help my business to grow, for example? Where do I start?”


Strategic Internal Comms in action!

We were asked this question last year. To help a company grow by £4m in sales over two years.

We began with tons of research, which uncovered one amazing piece of insight. We discovered sales would improve by £000s if each pub sold just one extra portion of onion rings a week.

Boom!

Now all WE had to do was to educate a few thousand staff across 100+ pubs to sell more onion rings! So, we came up with “Just One More.” A campaign to sell one more portion of onion rings. One more round of drinks. One more dessert. JOM anything!

Which shaped our comms plan.

• For example, the campaign launch complete with supporting collateral (no cupcakes!)
• Educating RGMs and GMs on the campaign, then all their staff, outlining what JOM was all about
• Continuously finding and sharing stories of people successfully selling just one more, of records being broken, etc.

Plus other activities like rewarding staff, thanking staff, getting the MD and other directors out-and-about offering support and encouragement. Etc. etc.

Did it work?

At the end of year one, Just One More delivered £3m in extra sales. Or 75% of the target in half the time.

Let me say something before you do!

Yes, we had to engage, inform and involve staff BUT with the goal of delivering our objective – to increase sales. See how this works?


Final thought.

Communicatistas responded so passionately to the post because it struck a nerve. Which feels uncomfortable.

So, we have a choice. Continue doing ANYTHING and EVERYTHING or to do things differently, which starts by saying no to flyers, farewell parties and fairy cakes. And proactively communicating what our role REALLY is.

“Hey! Hey, you! Those cupcakes arrived yet…”