In September, Ingrid Brown ran a workshop at the PM Forum conference on internal communications’ role in driving engagement. Read on for her insights and learnings from the delegates.
Driving engagement at work comes down to the basics of good communications; making meaningful connections with your people.
When internal communications works well, it works really well. It builds trust through transparency and aligns your workforce with your company’s purpose, vision and values.
Poorly managed however and it breeds ambivalence.
We know from our experience at Bright Space that law and accountancy firms have an especially hard time clearly articulating purpose and differentiating it from their competitors. So, it becomes an echo chamber of insincere rhetoric that employees can't get behind.
Clear communication is just one of the sticking points Ingrid worked through with the professional services marketers who attended her workshops.
Not every professional services firm has an internal communications function, leaving already stretched marketing departments to manage this all-important work stream.
That's not a groundbreaking revelation, but it's an important reminder that it's often a juggling act. For these small businesses, help often comes in the shape of fee-billing team members or contractors.
A pain point we heard was these people are not always available when needed.
The broad view of the room was that internal communications isn’t seen as a strategic function or recognised in its role to drive engagement and advocacy.
Creating vision and articulating value isn’t a one-off activity, neither is communicating the brand narrative. Maintaining messaging momentum is paramount to engaging your people.
Communicating strategy often feels reactive, poorly timed and in most instances lacks context, leaving employees not clearly understanding the “why” behind business decisions and change.
The irony is never lost when communicating strategy lacks...well...strategy. It creates an information overload and does the opposite of engaging employees.
The elephant in the room for many was that their company values hadn't been reviewed in a long time, therefore in some cases may no longer be fit for purpose.
In professional services especially, there is often a one-size-fits-all approach to values. A copy and paste job that feels insincere and generic.
A way to relook at this for professional services could be to think of values as akin to a code of conduct. Look towards redefining the company vision every three to five years, then align values to rest along side it.
Internal communication channels are critical in ensuring messaging lands. A valuable suggestion was shared with the group by an attendee who said they utilise SharePoint for business related comms, and a separate channel on Teams to share titbits, social news, and day-to-day comms.
They said separating the content worked well for their firm and helped employees opt in or out for the amount of information they received and where.
It was agreed that context is king when it comes to communicating to your people. Always remember to explain the whole journey.
Want to understand more about Bright Space's guide to purpose for professional services? Then letstalk@brightspacecomms.co.uk.
This article originally appeared in the 'Five at Five' newsletter. Subscribe to our fortnightly newsletter here.