I was at a HarknessKennett breakfast briefing the other week, they’re always brilliant opportunities to network, hear from peers and industry experts and ask questions. The topic this time was ‘Being your best in 2025‘, and if I know anything about us internal comms folks, it’s that continuous improvement is our shared mantra.
The speakers each came with their personal perspectives on our industry, against the backdrop of their own experiences, much of which resonated, some gave pause for thought and all culminated in a lively Q&A.
One of the questions I remember well. We were talking about how tough the IC jobs market is right now, and what a minefield of undecipherable jargon role profiles can be. A woman raised her hand and said that as a dedicated internal communications specialist, she felt she wouldn’t have the skills needed when a role asked for experience in external comms as well as internal. So she didn’t apply.
At that moment three things hit home to me.
- Strong, transferrable skills and talent are being lost because the benefits of a symbiotic relationship between external and internal communication are neither well understood nor communicated.
- The lines between external and internal communications continue to blur. They may be distinct disciplines, but in today’s omnichannel world, they both share messages, audiences and platforms.
- Organisations must tell their stories well to cut through the noise, flexing their approach to fit objectives and audiences.
How a business presents itself to the outside world is a carefully curated and strategic undertaking. This is equally true of its internal persona. Understanding the sentiment of our target audiences is fundamental to any approach and while there will be nuances, the overarching messages must align. This is why a close partnership between PR and IC is critical. For both disciplines, decisions around what, how and where we share significantly influences the impact of our engagement.
For an internal audience I try to make everything I create as simple and conversational as possible. I want people to feel that they belong, and that what they read, hear or see connects with them. I try to create a balance between original content designed to live internally, and external stories I can shape into a style and tone appropriate to an internal audience, always making sure the balance between the two maps to my internal strategy and messaging hierarchy.
In an ideal world, when it comes to the ‘owned/earned/paid’ triumvirate I’d like to see ‘internal’ included more often as a fourth pillar. The blurred lines between our external and internal worlds make the symbiosis of PR and IC even more critical for effective communication.
To anyone looking for a role in comms right now, feeling daunted by reams of unintelligible jargon in the jungle of job descriptions, I say don’t lose confidence – you’d be amazed how many of the skills they’re looking for, you already have.
Not from Newbury 