The death of internal communication roles?

As most of you working in Internal Communications (IC) know, the IC movement is gathering momentum and more IC practitioners are sitting at the top table, influencing and shaping organisations. This is great for those practitioners who work in organisations that value IC. But if you work in an organisation that doesn't value IC or has not invested in resource, then the ship has already sailed. And my advice would be not to try and play catch up - look to the future my friend.

With the rise of the millennials in the workplace, employees on average are now job hopping more than ever and most stay with an organisation for 2-5 years before moving on. The main reason in my view?...because they crave 'experiences'. People are no longer just looking for jobs or to build a career with one employer, they are looking for a series of 'experiences'. They want to feel they are constantly adding value, challenged, recognised, and developed. And when these elements fail to materialise, their search for the next experience begins.

To meet these demands my prediction is that IC will evolve into 'employee experience'. It will look more holistically at all the touch points an employee has with the organisation, starting from offer, onboarding, training, right through to offboarding & beyond. Job titles such as Internal Communications Advisor/Manager/Director will be replaced by Head of Employee Experience, Employee Engagement Manager and Employee Experience Executive. And we are seeing this already,  with companies like Sky, Vodafone and Airbnb appointing their very own 'Head of Employee Experience'. 

What does this mean for us IC practitioners? It means we must evolve like Pokemon Go characters. It will require us to have a deeper understanding of employee needs, be subject matter experts on digital/social media channels, challenge the leadership team more and stay current on new ways of working. We will need to move from a channel based approach to an employee experience approach. It's not going to be easy, but then change never is. We'll also need to start working more closely with our HR, L&D and IT colleagues to ensure the first interaction with the company is positive (strong employer brand), that everyone has a positive onboarding experience, that 2-way communication channels are in place from day one and that the employee's voice will always be heard.

Those who embrace this change will be the ones who will drive & shape the next phase of this evolutionary journey of internal communications.

Ready for the challenge?