C H A P T E R S E V E N

Internal
Communications
For years, managers have focused on “customer care.” More recently, they have begun to
dedicate the same kind of attention to their own employees, recognizing that employees
have more to do with the success of a business than virtually any other constituency.
According to a 2019 study in which consulting firm Willis Towers Watson analyzed data
from 500 global companies, separating them into high-, average-, and low-employee experi-
ence (EX), companies in the high-performing category outperformed their low-performing
peers across a broad range of metrics, from return on equity to one-year change in gross
profit margin to three-year revenue growth.1 Moreover, evidence exists to suggest that
strong employee engagement is a cause of strong financial performance and not merely
correlated with it (or perhaps even a consequence of it). A longitudinal study from Gallup
and the University of Iowa examined the responses of nearly 150,000 individuals in over
2,000 business units and found evidence supporting the causal relationship between
employee satisfaction and financial performance. While better financial performance did
seem to increase employee satisfaction, employee satisfaction had a considerably stronger
impact on the latter.2 The implications, then, are clear: employee engagement is no longer
something that can be categorized as a “nice-to-have” but rather must be viewed as a
“need-to-have.” Strong financial performance is very much so predicated upon it.
In this chapter, we examine how organizations can strengthen relationships with
employees through internal communications. Internal communications today is more than
memos, e-mails, Slack messages, and Zoom meetings that comprise it; it’s about building
a corporate culture based on values and having the potential to drive organizational
change. We start by looking at how the changing environment for business has created
the need for a stronger internal communications function. Then we explore ways to orga-
nize internal communications through planning and staffing and how to implement a
strong program using various communication channels. Finally, we discuss management’s
role in internal communications.

1
E d Emerman, “Better Employee Experience Proven to Drive Financial Success,” Willis Towers Watson, November 4, 2019,
https://www.willistowerswatson.com/en-US/News/2019/10/better-employee-experience-proven-to-drive-financial-success.
2
James K. Harter, Frank L. Schmidt, James W. Asplund, Emily A. Killham, and Sangeeta Agrawal, “Causal Impact of
Employee Work Perceptions on the Bottom Line of Organizations,” Perspectives on Psychological Science 5, no. 4
(August 2010), https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1745691610374589.
143
144  Chapter Seven

Internal Communications and the Changing Environment

As discussed in Chapter 1, the environment for business has changed dramatically over
the last 50 years. Today’s employee is a different person in terms of values and needs
than his or her counterpart in earlier decades. Most of today’s employees are well-educated
individuals, have higher expectations of what they will get out of their careers than their
parents did, and want to understand more about the companies for which they work.
Millennials and Gen Z-ers, in particular, have the unique expectation of ethical and
socially responsible employers.3
The workplace of today is also different—tighter staffing, longer hours, greater workloads,
and more emphasis on performance are the norm. Over a decade later, scars from the Great
Recession remain. As Wharton management professor Peter Cappelli notes, “One in five
employees lost their jobs at the beginning of the Great Recession. Many of those people
never really recovered; they never got real work again.” For those who did return to normal
work (or who were able to remain employed), prospects were necessarily considerably better.
While unemployment hit a historic low of 3.5 percent in 2019,4 wages, benefits, and job
conditions did not improve at a comparable rate.5 The COVID-19 global pandemic did much
to disrupt once again, with unemployment in the United States reaching a historic high of
14.7 percent in April of 2020.6 While that number dropped to 6.8 percent by year’s end,7
these numbers were still considerably higher for women and people of color, who bore the
brunt of the pandemic.8 All told, these factors are causing employees to look more critically
at how senior management is communicating with them, what is being communicated, and
whether or not they feel engaged in and aligned with the company’s direction.
The increasingly complex and highly competitive nature of today’s business environ-
ment puts greater pressure on employees and also calls for a more concerted effort in the
area of internal communications. “There’s a tremendous anxiety in the workplace,” says
Rick Hodson, a longtime practitioner of employee communications. “When internal com-
munications programs shrink, or disappear, rumor and gossip fill the vacuum. If you keep
information from employees, they’ll keep their ideas and feelings from you, states
Hodson.”9

3
“ Welcome to Generation Z,” Deloitte, https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/us/Documents/consumer-business/
welcome-to-gen-z.pdf.
4
Roxanna Edwards and Sean M. Smith, “Job Market Remains Tight in 2019, as the Unemployment Rate Falls to Its Low-
est Level Since 1969,” BLS, April 2020, https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2020/article/job-market-remains-tight-in-2019-as-
the-unemployment-rate-falls-to-its-lowest-level-since-1969.htm.
5
“How the Great Recession Changed American Workers,” Knowledge at Wharton, September 10, 2018, https://knowl-
edge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/great-recession-american-dream.
6
Rakesh Kochhar, “Unemployment Rose Higher in Three Months of COVID-19 Than It Did in Two Years of the Great
Recession,” Pew Research Center, June 11, 2020, https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/06/11/
unemployment-rose-higher-in-three-months-of-covid-19-than-it-did-in-two-years-of-the-great-recession.
7
Nelson D. Schwartz, “Unemployment Claims Remain High as Millions Still Struggle to Find Work,” The New York Times,
December 31, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/31/business/economy/unemployment-claims.html.
8
Tori Bedford, “Women, People of Color Disproportionately Affected by Economic Impacts of Pandemic,” GBH, Novem-
ber 10, 2020, https://www.wgbh.org/news/national-news/2020/11/10/women-people-of-color-disproportionately-affected-
by-economic-impacts-of-pandemic.
9
John Guiniven, “Inside Job: Internal Communications in Tough Times,” Public Relations Tactics, November 2009, p. 6.
 Internal Communications  145

Microsoft is one such company that understands the importance of maintaining a

two-way dialogue with employees in today’s challenging environment. Recognizing the
link between employee satisfaction, communication, and leadership, Microsoft CEO
Satya Nadella held an intimate discussion with top leadership to discuss how to help
the rest of the organization connect with the company’s mission. Importantly, then, he
opened up the discussion to the rest of the company and leadership, providing the
18,000 managers at Microsoft with tools and resources connected to communicating
mission. Kathleen Hogan, the company’s Chief People Officer, notes,

The ability to connect our own purpose to the mission sustains us. When you can zoom
out and see how we are making a difference, that’s energizing in the face of the day-to-day
challenges. While strategy will evolve, your culture and sense of purpose should be long-
lasting. Culture paired with a purpose-driven mission allows your employees to use your
company platform to realize their own aspirations and passions.10

Today’s employees are increasingly demanding participation in the conversations at

work that drive organizational change. Allowing this participation is vital to keeping
employees at all levels of the organization engaged—regardless of job role or responsibility—
fostering a more genuine sense of community in companies large or small. In light of this
development, communication must be a two-way process. Employees today expect that
when their opinions are solicited and they take the time to share feedback, senior manage-
ment will listen—and act upon it. As the employee experience continues to evolve as an
increasing strategic priority, the nature of how to best produce a positive experience has
considerably changed under COVID-19, with a recent McKinsey survey finding that
employees working remotely seeing positive effects on their work and feeling more
engaged.11 The ramifications for the employee experience in the future are not yet entirely
clear, both in terms of the extent to which remote work will be a continuing norm and
what this will mean for communicating with employees who aren’t gathered in the same
geographic location as frequently as they once were. However, many early insights from
the pandemic are likely beneficial to carry forward into the next phase of work: continue
to prioritize straightforward, honest, and frequent communication with employees, while
remaining attuned to their underlying needs.

Organizing the Internal Communication Effort

The best way to assess the effectiveness of a company’s internal communication efforts
is by determining what employees’ attitudes are about the firm. This assessment can be
done through an internal communication audit. Based on the audit results, communica-
tions professionals can design the right program for the organization.

10 
Ron Carucci, “Balancing the Company’s Needs and Employee Satisfaction,” Harvard Business Review, November 1,
2019, https://hbr.org/2019/11/balancing-the-companys-needs-and-employee-satisfaction.
11 
Jonathan Emmett, Gunnar Schrah, Matt Schrimper, and Alexandra Wood, “Open Interactive Popup COVID-19 and the
Employee Experience: How Leaders Can Seize the Moment,” McKinsey & Company, June 29, 2020, https://www.mckinsey.
com/business-functions/organization/our-insights/covid-19-and-the-employee-experience-how-leaders-can-seize-the-moment.
146  Chapter Seven

For example, Hyundai, winner of PRWeek’s 2020 Employee Engagement Campaign of

the Year, recognized that they had a lot of work to do when it came to the gap between
sales and employee sentiment. Though Hyundai had just been named North American
Car of the Year, employees felt disconnected from the brand and turnover was high. To
combat this, the company’s in-house communications team looked to reignite employee
brand passion to help them better serve as brand ambassadors (and to help make them
just happier on the job). They launched the #HyundaiLife campaign, connecting with
employees through less formal mechanisms like social media and encouraging employees
to share their own experiences with the company. At the end of the day, paying attention
to the results of their internal audit paid off: 76 percent of participants said the program
lifted their engagement levels and 67 percent said it influenced their peers, colleagues,
and teams.12
Once it knows how employees really feel about the internal communications they
receive, management can create a detailed plan to implement or adjust the internal com-
munication infrastructure to meet its needs. Depending on available resources, audit
results, and its goals, management could also consider contracting with a third-party
communications consultancy. Failure to implement visible changes in a timely manner
following a communication audit, or regular employee surveys, can damage employee
morale to a level below where it would be if management had never solicited feedback.

Where Should Internal Communications Report?

In the past, internal communications reported to the human resources area, as tradition-
ally this function dealt with all matters related to employees’ welfare. Increasingly, the
function is falling under the communications umbrella, with a range of surveys finding
that approximately 50 percent of internal communications reporting to the communica-
tions or marketing department, as opposed to its historical position within human
resources.13,14 As Michael Collins, Managing Director and Chief Marketing Officer at the
CFA Institute, notes,
I believe there is a difference in employee communications and internal communications.
I see employee communications as transmitting extremely important information about
benefits, employment policy, hiring, recruiting, career planning, etc. Clearly, those data
points are human resources functions and communicating them should originate in the
human resources (HR) department, with execution by the HR team or supported by inter-
nal communications as part of the marketing and communications team.
In my experience, internal communications serve a broader role that extends external
branding, including the organization’s mission, to an internal audience that encompasses
not only employees but management and board members. In that sense, I’ve grown to see
internal communications as its own discipline. It demands a precise skill-set, ranging

12 
“PRWeek US Awards 2020: The Winners,” PRWeek, July 30, 2020, https://www.prweek.com/article/1686443/
prweek-us-awards-2020-winners.
13
“Employee Engagement Survey 2011,” International Association of Business Communicators Research Foundation and
Buck Consultants, https://www.iabc.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/2011_IABC_Employee_Engagement_Report.pdf.
14 
“Is Internal Communications a Marketing or HR Responsibility?” XCD, https://www.peoplexcd.com/insights/
is-internal-communications-a-marketing-or-hr-responsibility.
 Internal Communications  147

careful and empathetic listening, clear and concise writing, oral and visual communications
expertise, intellectual and emotional agility, and an almost journalistic sense of objectivity
that enables telling a story straightforwardly with none-to-limited personal opinion.15

Ideally, both the corporate communication and the human resources departments in
large companies have someone in charge of internal communications. In this case, the
human resources professional has responsibility for perfunctory communications such as
those regarding explanation of benefits and the new-hire experience. The corporate com-
munications professional takes the lead for major announcements that affect employees,
such as significant changes to benefits. If the head of the corporate communication
department reports to the vice president in charge of that area and the head of the human
resources department to his or her respective vice president, each should have a dotted-
line relationship with the vice president in the other area. Other companies actually situate
the communicators focused on routine human resources issues in the corporate commu-
nication area to create continuity between both general and HR-related communication
strategy and execution. These approaches also will help ensure that the goals of each
department are fully met and that the lines of communication are kept open between
these two critical functional areas.
Large, multidivisional companies often have internal communications representatives
within each division who report jointly to the chief of staff for divisional management
and to a firmwide corporate communication department. Ideally, each division shares
best practices for delivering high-level messages to the employees in their respective
areas—understanding the particular needs and nuances of their employee base, which,
in turn, affects both the content and tone of communications. However, the channels
may be different across divisions; for instance, some divisions may have a Slack culture,
whereas others may pay more attention to e-mail. In larger corporations, there might
be vast differences in the online connectivity of employees; those working in production
plants or call centers might have no e-mail access whatsoever, whereas other office
employees are wholly reliant on e-mail access—whether in-office or remote—to get the
job done.
In some cases, companies look outside their own organizations for help with internal
communications. For example, in the United Kingdom, Pizza Hut, which operates via a
franchise model and which does not have a broad internal communications group, turned
to communications consultancy Hanover to help them figure out how to best interact with
staff during the COVID-19 pandemic. Hanover helped them launch a campaign to ensure
workers felt safe and important, building trust and engagement not just with employees
but with the broader community. Hanover suggested they use WhatsApp as the go-to
channel for communications, given that it most easily allowed for the creation of both
franchise-oriented groups and new groups needed for discussions during the pandemic.
Pizza Hut UK’s general manager shared posts letting teams know how genuinely valued
they were, and staff and community members alike shared their own thank-you posts.

15 
Michael Collins, “Does Internal Communications Belong to HR or Corporate Communications?” Forbes, March 15, 2019,
https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescommunicationscouncil/2019/03/15/does-internal-communications-belong-to-hr-or-
corporate-communications.
148  Chapter Seven

Individuals also received recognition through “Delivery Heroes” Awards, which they could
be nominated for by colleagues. All told, the campaign reached 7,500 team members, 60
franchisees, and 400 restaurant managers, with employees reporting they felt far more
confident and safe returning to work given how easy and transparent communications had
become, despite the considerable stresses of the pandemic. Ultimately, Pizza Hut and
Hanover won PRWeek UK’s Internal Communications and Employee Engagement Cam-
paign of the Year.16 As the importance of internal communication gains recognition, it is
not surprising that public relations and consulting firms are developing capabilities in the
area of internal communications or that companies are increasingly turning to them for
assistance.
Regardless of where the internal communications is positioned and whether or not an
outside consultant is used, it must work closely in conjunction with external communica-
tors to integrate the messages disseminated to both internal and external audiences. This
approach can help ensure that when significant company news breaks, employees will not
be the last to hear about it.
When news about a company becomes public, whether through a breaking news report
or a Tweet-storm, employees should already be equipped with the company’s own version
of the story so they feel they are being kept in the loop by their own team. This strategy
also enables companies to maintain better control of their messages, without being at the
whim of how the media position them.
In addition to providing employees with timely and strategic updates on company
news to help them feel connected and empowered, companies should understand that
employees are often members of multiple constituency groups. As David Verbraska, Vice
President of Worldwide Policy and Public Affairs at Pfizer, writes, “employees wear
many hats—they’re stockholders, recruiters, customers, and members of the community.
. . . Management must understand that the internal audience could be even more impor-
tant to a company than the external for all the right business reasons, and there are
consequences to not aligning the areas.”17
Some companies view the label “internal communications” as archaic and believe that
the future of the industry is one in which internal and external communications are
housed together. Explains Chris Hannegan, principal in PwC’s Organization and Work-
force Transformation group, “[A]lready today there is no more distinction between inter-
nal and external communications. Companies must assume that all communications going
to employees could find its way to external social media and that all external coverage of
the company is being followed closely by employees.”18 The likelihood of memos or other
communications leaking to the outside world with a click of the mouse means that internal
communicators should always consider the ramifications of their messages being shared
with external audiences, including reporters and investors. This risk can be managed with
positive outcomes. Companies will “increasingly understand how to strategically place
media coverage done solely for the benefit of targeting employees and, conversely, leak

16 
“PRWeek UK Awards Winners 2020: Internal Communications and Employee Engagement,” PRWeek, https://www.
prweek.com/article/1696264/prweek-uk-awards-winners-2020-internal-communications-employee-engagement.
17
Richard Mitchell, “Closing the Gap: From the Inside Out,” PRWeek (U.S.), November 22, 2004, p. 17.
18 
“Chris Hannegan, “What Will the Future of Employee Engagement Look Like?”, Edelman Global Practices Insights,
June 26, 2014, http://www.edelman.com/post/will-future-employee-engagement-look-like/.
 Internal Communications  149

internal stories or information to the media to inject the employee voice into a company’s
external narrative,” writes Hannegan.19 Many companies already enable their employees
to share internal communications content externally via social media, and this trend will
only increase.

Implementing an Effective Internal Communication Program

Once goals for an internal communication program are established and decisions are
made about where the function should report, the program is ready for implementation.
In smaller organizations, internal communications may be a part of everyone’s job,
because the ideal method of communicating with employees is one-on-one or in meetings
with small groups of employees.
Even in larger organizations, however, this intimacy in the internal communication
effort is a good start for building a more formal program. In this section, we explore some
of the key steps in implementing an effective internal communication program, from
personal, one-on-one mechanisms to programs that use technology to distribute messages
broadly and instantaneously.
It is the job of the internal communications professional to determine which combina-
tion of communication channels is the most appropriate for each message, based on
factors such as timing requirements and potential employee reactions. Channel selection
can mean the difference between success and failure for an initiative, and it can have a
significant impact on employee morale.

Communicate Up and Down

Many large companies are perceived as being faceless, unfeeling organizations, an impres-
sion that is only reinforced when no upward communication exists from employees to
management. When high-level managers isolate themselves physically and psychologically
from other employees, effective communication cannot happen. Given the wide availability
of technologies such as Zoom or Microsoft Teams, there is little excuse today to find a
way to at least approximate an in-person or more intimate interaction.
Companies should remember to involve individual supervisors when announcing
important news. A 2020 study from Gallup found that record levels of employee engage-
ment, reaching 35 percent in February (though notably this was before the pandemic),
could be attributed in large part to the inclusion of lower-level managers in key commu-
nications practices.20
It should be the responsibility of the internal communications professionals to provide
supervisors with the information, tools, and ongoing support that they need to present
news to their direct reports. Additionally, management should strive to create an environ-
ment where all employees feel comfortable sharing candid feedback. A recent MIT Sloan
survey found that 17.5 percent of employees feel that they cannot speak up at all in the
work setting, and another 47.1 percent felt comfortable speaking up only on a narrow range

19
Ibid.
20 
Jim Harter, “4 Factors Driving Record-High Employee Engagement in U.S.,” Gallup, February 4, 2020, https://www.gal-
lup.com/workplace/284180/factors-driving-record-high-employee-engagement.aspx.
150  Chapter Seven

of topics.21 Emeritus Professor of Leadership at Harvard Business School and former Vice
Chairman of Goldman Sachs Robert S. Kaplan writes of the importance of an open cul-
ture, now more than ever. In the current business environment, he explains that “external
shifts may be difficult for senior leadership to recognize, and otherwise vocal employees
at the ‘point of attack’ may not feel sufficiently informed or empowered to voice their
views.” It is imperative, writes Kaplan, that CEOs and other executives recognize that they
can take steps to getting valuable input on key strategic questions from their teams.22 Effec-
tive internal communications can generate a dialogue throughout the company, fostering a
sense of participation that can make even the largest companies feel more personal in the
hearts and minds of employees.
The best approach to communicating with employees is through informal discussions
between employees and supervisors. Employees need to feel secure enough in their posi-
tions to ask questions and offer advice without fear of reprisals from top management.
At Accenture, one of the world’s largest consulting firms, senior management involvement
begins pre-hire, with executives taking part in the final rounds of interviews. Once on
board, each new employee is assigned a career counselor, who can mentor employees
throughout their stay at the company. Employees can also join community groups based
on their discipline. Neil Hardiman, who transferred to the Chicago office from Dublin,
said, “As I would walk around the floors of the office, I would knock on the door and
just say hello. . . . That led to some great contacts and connections for me within
Chicago.”23
Emkay, one of the nation’s largest fleet-leasing companies, keeps employees in the know
through quarterly town halls and departmental committees. Employees gain a sense of
ownership through exposure to the company’s most sensitive information, such as poten-
tial acquisitions and earnings projections.24
Conversations with management promote feelings that employees themselves are serv-
ing as catalysts for organizational change. As Peter Senge highlights with a quote from
the ancient Chinese visionary Lao Tsu:
The wicked leader is he who the people despise, the good leader is he who the people
revere, the great leader is he who the people say, “We did it ourselves.”25

Respecting employees as well as listening to and interacting with them form the basis
for an effective internal communications program. Emkay CEO Greg Tepas encourages
feedback from employees and allows information to flow up to the top ranks. According

21 
Ethan Burris, Elizabeth McCune, and Dawn Klinghoffer, “When Employees Speak Up, Companies Win,” MIT Sloan Man-
agement Review, November 17, 2020, https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/when-employees-speak-up-companies-win..
22 
McKinsey Insights, September 2011, www.mckinsey.com/insights/leading_in_the_21st_century/top_executives_need
_feedback_and__heres_how_they_can_get_it.
23 
Robert Channick, “Emphasis on Communication with Employees Brings Good Words about These Companies,” Chicago
Tribune, April 17, 2011, https://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-xpm-2011-04-17-ct-biz-0417-top-workplaces-20110417-
story.html.
24
Ibid.
25 
Peter Senge, “The Leader’s New Work: Building Learning Organizations,” Sloan Management Review 32 (Fall 1990),
pp. 7–23.
 Internal Communications  151

to Tepas, “You can accomplish more together if everyone is driving towards those com-
mon objectives and understands why you’re doing it and how you’re going to do it.”26 In
the current business environment, marked by declining trust in institutions and a focus
on reputation, listening to employees is one of the key steps a company can take toward
maintaining brand credibility and trust. Writes Micho Spring, Global Chair of the Cor-
porate Practice at Weber Shandwick, “[E]ngaging them can provide companies the best
way to humanize and unify their enterprise voice—a strategic imperative in today’s
environment.”27

Make Time for Face-to-Face Meetings (Even If They Are Virtual)

One means of ensuring that employees have access to senior management is to hold regu-
lar, in-person meetings with fairly large groups of employees. Such town hall meetings
should take place frequently (at least quarterly) and should be used as opportunities for
management to share company results and progress on key initiatives and to demonstrate
responsiveness to prior employee feedback. Most important, such meetings should provide
employees with an opportunity to ask questions of management in an open forum. If size
and geography prevent employees from participating in person, video or telephone con-
ferencing should be used to facilitate their inclusion.
Topics for these types of gatherings should be limited; rather than trying to tackle
everything that is going on at the company, managers should survey employees beforehand
to find out what is most important to them. Then a presentation can be built around one
or two critical issues from the employee perspective, plus one or more messages that
management wants to share. Too often, management only sets up such meetings when
the company has an important announcement, reducing the likelihood of relevant
dialogue.
Gatherings can also be creative to mobilize and inspire employees. To encourage its envi-
ronmental sustainability platform, GE hosts treasure hunts where staffers examine ways in
which the company can be more energy efficient.28 And in the COVID-19 world, companies
became even more creative with their end-of-year parties, with companies like Intel hosting a
virtual reality holiday featuring unique avatars designed by every employee.
Certainly, large-scale events are an effective means to reach out to the greatest number
of employees at one time, but managers should not overlook the importance of meeting
with employees in smaller groups. If they are seeking feedback or opinions about key
initiatives, managers may find that employees are more forthcoming when not in a large-
group setting. Increasingly, and particularly as a consequence of the pandemic, companies
are turning to virtual settings to accomplish these smaller settings and to create new
opportunities for more intimate face-time. However, companies ought to be wary of too
easily slipping into over-scheduling of these smaller events, however well-intentioned they
may seem. Researchers at the Harvard Business School and New York University found

26 
Channick, “Emphasis on Communication with Employees Brings Good Words about These Companies.”
27
“Employees Rising: Seizing the Opportunity in Employee Activism,” Weber Shandwick, https://www.webershandwick.
com/uploads/news/files/employees-rising-seizing-the-opportunity-in-employee-activism.pdf.
28
Channick, “Emphasis on Communication with Employees Brings Good Words about These Companies.”
152  Chapter Seven

that the number of meetings employees had to attend actually increased by 12.9 percent
during the pandemic,29 which of course leads to concerns regarding employee fatigue,
burnout, and lost productivity. At the same time, the best organizations found their pro-
ductivity increasing by 5 percent or more during this time period.30 Thus, like so many
other things in business and in life, moderation is key to make the most of meetings, both
small and large, in-person and virtual.

Communicate and Monitor Online

Beyond use for meetings such as Zoom, companies must carefully consider the plethora
of other digital options available to communicate internally with their teams. One classic,
and still broadly adopted approach, is the company intranet. Introduced in the late 1990s,
intranets provided a new channel through which companies could reach their employees
quickly and broadly with important news on events and key management initiatives. While
nearly 85 percent of organizations still maintain such platforms,31 the utility of the com-
pany intranet has been increasingly called into question, in part because of the trend
toward becoming the company “junk drawer,”32 with poorly organized information and
minimal search functionality. Employees seem to share the perspective that intranets pos-
sess limited utility, with a recent study from digital change consultancy Perficient finding
that only 13 percent of employees use the intranet daily and 31 percent have never used
it at all.33 What, then, to do with the company intranet? Is it now a relic of the past, or
does it still hold value for the future?
For some companies, maintaining some iteration of their current intranet may be the
best decision, a consequence of the wealth of knowledge still held on these platforms and
the extent to which they can be interwoven into employees’ day-to-day operations. In these
scenarios, a company intranet should be dynamic and engaging, with the home page regu-
larly refreshed, so it becomes an employee’s go-to resource for the latest company informa-
tion. Ideally, it should be integrated into an employee’s everyday workflow, serving as a
resource employees can turn to in order to answer key questions on company
operations.
Another key function of intranets, however, extends beyond knowledge management as
discussed above, to providing space for easy collaboration. It is in this particular area that
many companies have elected to turn to other, more modern communication tools. Two
tools that have come to dominate the space are Slack and Microsoft Teams, which as of

29
Richard Holden, “Vital Signs: Shorter Meetings but Longer Days—How COVID-19 Has Changed the Way We Work,”
The Conversation, August 6, 2020, https://theconversation.com/vital-signs-shorter-meetings-but-longer-days-how-
covid-19-has-changed-the-way-we-work-143894.
30
Eric Garton and Michael Mankins, “The Pandemic Is Widening a Corporate Productivity Gap,” Harvard Business Review,
December 1, 2020, https://hbr.org/2020/12/the-pandemic-is-widening-a-corporate-productivity-gap.
31
“State of the Intranet 2020,” Simpplr Research, https://www.simpplr.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/State-of-the-
Intranet-2020-eBook-Simpplr-Research.pdf.
32
Dhiraj Sharma, “Don’t Let Your Company’s Intranet Become a Junk Drawer,” Harvard Business Review, May 8, 2020,
https://hbr.org/2020/05/dont-let-your-companys-intranet-become-a-junk-drawer.
33
Mark Polly, “Increasing Employee Engagement—Salesforce Community Cloud #DF16,” Perficient, October 6, 2016,
https://blogs.perficient.com/2016/10/06/increasing-employee-engagement-salesforce-community-cloud-df16.
 Internal Communications  153

the end of 2020 have combined daily active users of over 125 million.34,35 Forces that
have led to the widespread adoption of these tools include not only the need for easier
collaboration, but also as a means for better managing company knowledge, a function
historically within the domain of the intranet. Companies ought to be careful, then, not
to duplicate currently offered functionalities in a way that leads to confusion or ineffi-
ciency. Notably, a recent survey of 200 IT decision-makers found that 91 percent of
organizations had at least two messaging apps,36 betraying that many companies already
find themselves in this exact position.
Finally, social media is a key area for companies to consider within the context of
internal communications. In many ways, social media represents a more external com-
munication tool—one that is utilized as an extension of the marketing function through
paid posts on Instagram and Facebook or in brand building through a company’s Twitter
presence. However, employees, driven in large part by Millennials and Gen Z-ers joining
the workforce, also voice their own perspectives and interact with fellow employees on
these externally facing tools, leading to the strange position where internal communica-
tions have suddenly become externally facing. Moreover, employees also interact with
companies’ more official social media posts, in ways that, when carefully managed, can
actually amplify what initially was meant to be just an external communication. For exam-
ple, LinkedIn content shared by employees sees an increased reach of 30 percent beyond
content shared by the company alone.37
Given this intersection of the internal and external, companies need to introduce their
own social media policies. IBM was one of the first organizations to introduce guidelines
for employee blogging in 2005. Today, IBM’s guidelines are not just limited to blogging;
they have been revised and renamed “IBM Social Computing Guidelines” to accommodate
new forms of social media.38 Despite the near ubiquity of online presences for employees,
today only 51 percent of companies have a social media policy.39 The consequences of
the absence of such a policy, or a less-than-transparent one, can be considerable. In highly
regulated industries such as finance, social media can be a legal minefield and a danger
to corporate reputation. Every tweet, post, and poke made by employees must be recorded
and archived, or firms can be held liable. Ex-CFO of clothing retailer Francesca’s Gene
Morphis learned just how real these risks are. In 2012, after a positive board meeting,

34
Jared Spataro, “Microsoft Teams Reaches 115 Million DAU—Plus, a New Daily Collaboration Minutes Metric for
Microsoft 365,” Microsoft, October 28, 2020, https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/blog/2020/10/28/
microsoft-teams-reaches-115-million-dau-plus-a-new-daily-collaboration-minutes-metric-for-microsoft-365.
35
David Curry, “Slack Revenue and Usage Statistics (2021),” Business of Apps, March 22, 2021, https://www.
businessofapps.com/data/slack-statistics.
36
Matthew Finnegan, “Slack or Teams? Many Businesses Opt for Both,” Computerworld, June 20, 2019, https://www.
computerworld.com/article/3403675/slack-or-teams-many-businesses-opt-for-both.html.
37
Jason Miller, “The Amazing Multiple Benefits When an Employee Shares Content,” LinkedIn, January 31, 2017,
https://business.linkedin.com/en-uk/marketing-solutions/blog/posts/content-marketing/2017/
The-amazing-multiple-benefits-when-an-employee-shares-content.
38
www.ibm.com/blogs/zz/en/guidelines.html.
39
Meghan M. Biro, “Why Annual Social Media Policy Reviews Are Necessary,” The Entrepreneur, March 27, 2017,
https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/285920.
154  Chapter Seven

Morphis tweeted: “Board meeting. Good numbers=Happy Board.” Unfortunately for Mor-
phis, official earnings had not yet been released to all investors, and his Twitter followers
were, therefore, privy to insider information, an SEC violation. He was fired shortly
thereafter.40 Hallowed investment bank Goldman Sachs was also thrown for a loop when
a disgruntled employee of 11 years resigned in an open letter published online by The
New York Times, which labeled the firm “as toxic and destructive as I have ever seen it.”
The letter quickly went viral, leaving Goldman Sachs with a PR disaster on its hands and
an immediate stock price drop of 3.4 percent, a loss of $2.15 billion.41
Online communication channels are often expedient and engaging, but they must also
be monitored to safeguard any potential leak of information or otherwise damaging infor-
mation. They should also not be used as a substitute for personal, face-to-face communica-
tion between all levels of management and employees, as we will see later in the
chapter.

Communicate Visually
We know that people are increasingly turning to online video, social media, and websites,
in addition to television and traditional news outlets, to get their news. Similarly, employ-
ees are becoming more visually oriented in their consumption of information, particularly
given increased use of company intranets. As a result, many companies have developed
ways to communicate with employees through this powerful medium, now including every-
thing from basic webcasts to multi-media presentations allowing for employee
interaction.
Many large corporations have elaborate video production studios that create seam-
less mechanisms for communicating with employees through visual channels. Even if
your company does not have its own studio, outside vendors can provide these services
as needed.
These studios are often used to create “video shorts” that can be made available to
employees in outlying areas, helping them feel like part of the core organization no
matter where they are situated—a function that is increasing in importance as a conse-
quence of the movement toward increasing remote work.
Johnson & Johnson offers an excellent example of a company that recognizes the
importance of visuals for internal communications. The company launched their “J&J
News Center” in September 2013, originally as a home for press releases. However, it
quickly came to realize the value of increasing visuals not only to offer greater insight
into the company’s mission and operations to outsiders, but perhaps more importantly,
to its day-to-day employees. Susan Rucci, manager of J&J’s Social Media Content,
noted, “As the digital landscape is changing, J&J is adapting and evolving as well, so
we have redesigned the center to visually showcase our stories. We noticed a really
strong visual—whether it is a photo, graphic, or quote—can be really impactful imme-
diately.” Ernie Knewitz, VP of Media Relations, echoed her sentiment when he noted,

40
Ryan Holmes, “Social Media Compliance Isn’t Fun, But It’s Necessary,” HBR Blogs Network, August 23, 2012, http://
blogs.hbr.org/2012/08/social-media-compliance-isnt.
41
Christine Harper, “Goldman Roiled by Op-Ed Loses $2.2 Billion,” Bloomberg, March 15, 2012, https://www.bloomberg.
com/news/2012-03-15/goldman-stunned-by-op-ed-loses-2-2-billion-for-shareholders.html?mrefid=twitter.
 Internal Communications  155

“The news center is a tool for engagement to drive trust and stimulate conversations
about the company and what we are doing around the world.” Visual communication,
then, provides unique opportunity for engagement both with internal and external
constituencies, making it a particularly powerful tool in the communications arsenal.
Moreover, managers should not see expenditures on such communication as frivolous
or wasteful but rather as an investment in the firm, a way to make each employee feel
more connected, while also “humanizing” senior management. In contrast to the some-
times impersonal nature of e-mail communication, these communications can offer
employees a personal touch—literally bringing a company’s leaders and vision to life with-
out the time and expense of traveling. If such a production is well done, it can be a tre-
mendous morale booster as well as a visual history of the company that can be used for
years to come.
And visual communication does not always have to be high-tech. At Colgate-Palmolive’s
Mennen plant, for example, ubiquitous white boards revealed details about breakdowns,
production goals, sick leaves, birthdays, vacation schedules, and numbers of units coming
off each line. A special racecar billboard depicted the productivity of each line relative to
the others—a visual measure of success and a source of motivation and pride. Verizon
added a high-tech twist to the low-tech bulletin board. The company provides electronic
downloads for supervisors to insert in the board. Each month the content is updated to
ensure employees receive up-to-date messages.42

Focus on Internal Branding

In this chapter, we have discussed the importance of clear, two-way communication about
strategy and direction. Internal branding is also important to building morale and creating
a workplace where employees are “engaged” with their jobs. Although communicators do
inform employees about new advertising campaigns, they seldom recognize the need to
“sell” employees on the same ideas they are trying to sell to the public.
Internal branding is especially critical when an organization is undergoing changes
such as a merger or a change in leadership. Over the course of two years, Citrix employ-
ees witnessed a restructuring of the workforce, executive turnover, product line adjust-
ments, changes to the composition of the board, a new strategy, and a layoff. Despite
efforts to maintain stability and help employees navigate all this change, the 2017 Global
Employee Survey confirmed that trust in leadership had declined and employees lacked
confidence in the company’s new direction, as well as their own ability to contribute
to it. Engagement overall had fallen significantly as well. All this led the communica-
tions team to select one overarching goal for 2018: Engage employees around the Citrix
story. Two approaches drove the department’s activities: a focus on strategy, storytelling,
and enterprise engagement; and providing communications and messaging consulting
support. These activities centered around “The 2020 Goals”—broad, unifying objectives
the company also embedded in its performance, development, and rewards programs,
ensuring alignment with business priorities.

42
K elly Kass, “Verizon Equips Employees with All the Right Tools,” Simply Communicate, http://www.simply-communicate.
com/case-studies/company-profile/verizon-equips-employees-all-right-tools.
156  Chapter Seven

Most significantly, the team created a Center of Excellence to ensure consistent

messaging across the organization’s various communication functions. Messages were
cascaded through multiple channels, including employee meetings (which were increased
to a bimonthly schedule), the intranet, a Five-Minute Manager Update (designed to
provide managers with weekly action items) and other internal programs. As a result,
Citrix saw an 80 percent improvement in its Net Promoter Score, along with significant
other improvements in employee perceptions. Ultimately, Citrix won PR Daily’s 2018
Employee Engagement Campaign of the year for their efforts.43
Internal branding campaigns can also be launched when results of internal audits
reveal that employees are not connecting with a company’s vision or when morale
is low. When internal and external marketing messages are misaligned, the customer
experience will suffer, with adverse effects on the company. For example, one health
care company marketed itself as putting the welfare of its customers as its number-
one priority, while telling employees that the number-one priority was cutting costs.
Internal branding campaigns are not just for times of leadership change, mergers,
crisis, or low employee morale. For example, when the Alzheimer’s Society sought
to launch a rebranding effort in 2018, it started first with the internal communica-
tions, turning to employees and current ambassadors. The charity introduced its new
brand and five-year strategy through the use of its internal TV channel, which it
used to premier a film explaining the upcoming changes and the thoughts behind
them. The company also included in-person activities centered around Forget Me
Not Day, with leadership traveling to centers across the country and the use of the
hashtag #unitedagainstdementia to streamline everyone’s social media presence. The
end result of the campaign was highly successful, with 91 percent of employees and
volunteers now viewing themselves as charity ambassadors, both during the normal
course of their work and in their day-to-day lives.44
Even when employees understand the company’s brand promise or key customer
deliverable, it is not until they believe it that they can really help the company carry
it out. Just as external branding campaigns aim to create emotional ties among
­c onsumers to your company, internal branding’s goal is to do the same with
­employees. Focusing attention on this important area will generate improved ­employee
morale and, ultimately, better results for the company.

Management’s Role in Internal Communications

A common thread in the company examples discussed in this chapter is the involvement
in internal communications of CEOs and other senior leaders within organizations. This
involvement is critical because these individuals are the “culture carriers” and visionaries
within a company, and all communications relating to organizational strategy start with
them. Increasingly, CEOs and senior managers—in the tradition of John Pierpont

43
“Citrix Communicators Focus on a Single Goal when Engagement Flags after Momentous Changes,” PR Daily, https://
www.prdaily.com/awards/employee-communications-awards/2018/winners/employee-engagement.
44
“The 10 Best Internal Communications Case Studies of 2018,” McCann Synergy, February 13, 2019, https://www.
mccannsynergy.com/the-10-best-internal-communications-case-studies-of-2018.
 Internal Communications  157

Morgan’s desk on the trading floor—are even positioning themselves in the midst of their
employees physically, working at standard desks or giving up their larger, more formal
offices to demonstrate a flatter hierarchy. Senior leadership is also being more thoughtful
about where they sit in meetings, too, electing to choose a spot on the side of conferences
tables as opposed sitting at the imposing head.45 The visibility of senior management helps
create a culture of transparency, a critical issue in the current business environment. In
Slack’s most recent State of Work publication, they found that 80 percent of employees
want their work environments to be even more transparent, a wake-up call for
executives.46
Robert Dilenschneider, founder of corporate strategic counseling and public relations
firm The Dilenschneider Group, describes the type of leader the twenty-first-century cor-
porate landscape demands:

What’s needed now is a different kind of CEO: men and women who shed the trappings
of imperial power, work with their boards of directors in new, dynamic relationships and
find fresh ways to unleash the creative potential of their people, from middle managers to
front-line workers. This will require a big shift in attitude from change-averse managers.
They’ll need to get off their private jets and fly with everyone else, shed the large personal
staffs that coddle and isolate them and spend real time with the workers who are on the
factory floors, behind the sales counters or in the office cubicles.47

Physical presence and interaction are an important start. Senior managers, how-
ever, also need to work closely with internal communications professionals to ensure
their messages are received and, most important, understood by all employees. The
“understanding” component is crucial but sometimes overlooked. Donald Sheppard,
former CEO of Sheppard Associates, an independent consulting agency specializing
in internal communication strategy, says, “You can have a vision of ‘we want to be
this’—that’s nice, but the person out there in the plant in Michigan or in India needs
to understand how that applies to him or her and what he or she needs to do differ-
ently. That can’t be done at any macro level.”48

Conclusion
Over the last several years, “management by walking around” and other management
philosophies basically have come to the same conclusion: managers need to get out from
behind their desks, put down their smartphones, and go out and get to know the people
who are working for them. No other method works as well, and no “quick fix” will satisfy
the basic need for interaction with other employees.

45
Jeanne Sahadi, “Where the CEO Sits Matters,” CNN Business, May 21, 2019, https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/20/success/
ceos-office/index.html.
46
“Trust, Tools and Teamwork: What Workers Want,” Slack, October 3, 2018, https://slack.com/blog/transformation/
trust-tools-and-teamwork-what-workers-want.
47
Robert L. Dilenschneider, “When CEOs Roamed the Earth,” The Wall Street Journal, March 15, 2005, p. B2.
48
Lin Grensing Pophal, “Follow Me”, HR Magazine, Vol. 45, Number 2, February 2000.
158  Chapter Seven

With all the sophisticated technology available to communicate with employees today,
such as Slack, Teams, e-mail, social media, and Zoom meetings, the most important factor
in internal communications begins with the manager who has a basic responsibility to his
or her employees. That responsibility is to listen to what they have to say and to get to
know who they really are as individuals. We have come a long way from Upton Sinclair’s
The Jungle to the modern American corporation. Today’s employees do want high-tech
and sophisticated communications, but they also want personal contact with their manag-
ers. Understanding this fact is the cornerstone of an effective internal ­communication
program.
 Internal Communications  159

Case 7-1

Go Travel
Dan Cassidy, a 2017 graduate of the Tuck School of status, valued at well over a billion dollars with mil-
Business at Dartmouth College, was sitting in his lions of venture-capital dollars funneled in over its
apartment, having spent a long day on Zoom meet- short lifetime.
ings. He had just signed out of a meeting with his As the business grew, Bosworth gradually turned
boss, Catherine Callahan, the Vice President of the day-to-day operation of Westwood over to pro-
Human Resources at Go Travel. “Dan, I know we’ve fessional managers, including MBAs from top busi-
all been stressed about much of what is going on ness schools. But the bulk of employees were young
with COVID, but unfortunately we are going to have college graduates, eager to work at a high-flying
to let a decent amount of our team go,” she said. startup but also significantly burdened by student
“I’m hoping that the CEO will buy my plan for vol- debt.
untary severance and expedited vesting schedules Even though at the start of the COVID-19 pan-
for those who had taken a chance on working at a demic, many CEOs anticipated needing to make dif-
startup like ours.” ficult decisions regarding their workforce, Bosworth
Go Travel had never laid off anyone in the nearly was originally optimistic that no one would have to
10 years of its existence. In fact, it had been consid- face being furloughed or fired: “You, the employees
ered a high-flying darling of Silicon Valley that had of Go Travel, are the most important assets that we
nowhere to go but up. The global pandemic, how- have. Despite the difficult times this company now
ever, had changed that, and as the Director of faces, you have my assurance that I will never ask any
Employee Relations, Dan would be responsible for of you to leave for economic reasons.”
telling employees about the new policy within the
next couple of days. CORPORATE COMMUNICATION AT
As he stared out his apartment window to the
beautiful southern California hills, many thoughts GO TRAVEL
were going through his head. How should he identify The company relied on a small staff of communication
the issues involved for all employees? Should he get professionals to handle its communication efforts. All
the people in corporate communication involved? of the various activities that could be decentralized
Who would be the best person to release the informa- (e.g., internal communications, investor relations)
tion? What about communication with other Go were housed in the appropriate functional areas. This
Travel constituencies? And what would be the long- organization developed naturally as the company grew
term effects of what would be reported in the media to become one of the most popular luggage brands in
as a “major downsizing”? the United States.
The main outreaches to employees were annual
meetings, where slide-heavy presentations from Bos-
GO TRAVEL BACKGROUND worth and other top company executives would draw
Go Travel was started by Linda Bosworth, a brilliant upwards of the entire employee workforce. Bosworth,
UCLA graduate, following her graduation in 2010. as a young owner and CEO, enjoyed much attention
With a vision for changing the travel experience in from the press as a result of her meteoric rise in the
her head, Bosworth had built the firm up to unicorn business world. She relied on an outside consultant,
160  Chapter Seven

Craig Stevens, to handle her own public relations. COMMUNICATING ABOUT THE PLANS
Stevens also had a tremendous amount of influence
over the communications department at the com- As Cassidy signed into work the following day, he
pany itself. saw that a meeting had been added to his calendar
The VP of Corporate Communication, Eric with his supervisor, Catherine Callahan, as well as
Ridgeway, was actually one of the several employees Bosworth and Craig Stevens. “Well Dan, how are
who would be affected by the current plan to trim you going to pull this one off?” joked Bosworth. Cas-
the workforce. He had been hired early on as a favor sidy responded, “Quite honestly, Linda, given your
to Bosworth’s father. Ridgeway had spent 25 years at position on this issue, my feeling is that you need to
a large rival to Go Travel before signing on at the get involved with the announcement tomorrow.”
company, and although he had a media background, As the discussion progressed, however, it was
he was still newer to selling to the primarily millen- obvious to Dan that he was the one that his boss and
nial consumer that Go Travel targeted. The prob- the head of the company wanted to take the heat.
lems associated with Ridgway made the After two hours, Bosworth looked Dan squarely in
communications effort more difficult for both Dan the eye and said: “This was not my idea in the first
Cassidy and the outside counsel advising him place, but I know we have no choice but to adopt the
through the process. voluntary severance packages for Go Travel. Unfor-
tunately, I have conference calls with our investors
all day tomorrow, so you and Catherine are going to
THE VOLUNTARY SEVERANCE AND have to take responsibility this time.”
EXPEDITED VESTING PROGRAM Before Dan could fully digest what Bosworth had
The Although the CEO was very much against the told him, he was distracted by a Wall Street Journal
programs that were about to be implemented, she notification about another tech company that had
had been convinced by both Callahan, the Head of botched their COVID-19 workforce plan. He could
Human Resources, and her Board of Directors that not help but wonder if he, too, would become the
something had to be done immediately, or the com- focus of such an article if he mismanaged the diffi-
pany itself would be at risk. cult conversations ahead.
The way the programs would work, about half
the employees were going to furloughed for an as- © 2021 Trustees of Dartmouth College. All rights
yet decided period of time, and another 25 percent reserved. For permission to reprint, contact the Tuck
of employees would be let go. The intention was to School of Business at 603-646-3176.
only let the lowest-performing employees go, and
thus, a product manager who had received less CASE QUESTIONS
than excellent performance appraisals for two con-
secutive years would be a prime candidate for vol- 1. Create a strategy for communicating change at Go
untary severance with limited benefits, whereas a Travel that you could give to Bosworth.
manager approaching four years with the company 2. How do changes in the workforce affect how Cas-
would be offered severance with full vesting. sidy ought to think about communicating the
Although both of these programs were “voluntary,” new policy?
the supervisors responsible for identifying candi- 3. What advice would you give Cassidy about how
dates were urged to get the weaker people to agree communications to employees are structured at
as soon as possible. Go Travel?