Internal Communicators: The Super Agents of Change

Okay, we know change is difficult and that many organizational change programs fail, but let’s be straight here: leaders who don’t prioritize and properly value employee communication deserve to fail.

That might sound harsh, but if you as a leader ignore or downplay inarguable realities, then how can you possibly expect to succeed? Because it is inarguable that you cannot achieve any significant change in your organization if you don’t prioritize and meticulously map out its communication–and that includes listening– to the people you need to make it happen, your employees. 

You’re not going to achieve it without that focus on communication, even if you have all the other critical building blocks in place:

1. Realistic awareness and understanding from leadership of the complexity of change
2. A systematic approach and methodology for the proposed change
3. Dedicated change managers and change resourcing
4. The appropriate investment for change.

Managing Employee Resistance to Change

And you’re certainly not going to get the make-or-break buy-in of the people who can make it happen without top-notch, open, and transparent communication when they’re already so burned out from the incessant change in recent years, especially since the pandemic, that Gartner reported a collapse in support for organizational change.

That said, burn-out or not, change is not only going to continue being a necessary imperative for every organization but the rate and pace of change coming down the track is going to make what we’ve gone through like a stroll in the park. 

Who are the lynchpins that can ensure change plans and programs are clearly communicated and understood and can take the pulse of how people on the ground are feeling about it all? Yes, the super agents of change, the internal comms teams.

And yet, and yet... the data makes you wonder if many business leaders either know, care about, or fully understand the critical importance of communication for themselves and their people in every aspect of their business.

For sure, employee comms took center stage for every organization on the planet during the height of COVID-19, but that spotlight has dimmed since then.

Let’s look at Gallagher’s latest State of the Sector survey of 2,300 internal communicators in 56 countries. Referring to the findings, Gallagher’s Global Client Director, Jon Hale, said: “Respondents told us organizations didn’t value communications as much as they’d hoped. This was supported by data suggesting a lack of business investment in the function, with two-thirds expecting real-terms reduction in budget in 2024.”

Effective Change Communication Strategies

Not only that, but for communicators to be effective–or, to put it another way, for communicators to be successful change agents for their organizations–they need to be embedded in the decision-making process at the outset, as change communication expert Helen Cunningham, Head of Global Change & Internal Communication at Amadeus, stressed in Getting Change Communications Right During Constant Transformation.

But this isn’t happening, or at least not enough. Again, let’s look at what Gallagher’s research found this year. Nine out of 10 communicators were expecting change in 2024, but only a quarter were involved with leadership in a planning capacity, according to Gallagher’s Director of Change Communication, Gemma O’Hara. “How can communicators plan for success if they can’t see what’s coming?” she asked.

“With decreasing budgets and shrinking teams maybe internal comms professionals are spread too thin to get ahead of change. As the comms function is ultimately responsible for engaging employees with transformation, perhaps it’s time that senior leaders recognize the importance of engaging communicators in change early in the process–particularly when it could make or break the business’s transformation strategy,” she said.

The irony of leaders expecting ever-increasing change from their people while either not valuing or fully appreciating the critical role of communication and communicators to actually make it happen is even more frustrating when there is so much evidence–the hard data that leaders are supposed to love–to show how wrong-headed this approach is.

There’s been tons of research over the years emphasizing the crucial value of excellent workplace communication and the converse negative impacts on an organization when comms are not up to par. (For example, check out this The Multi-Million Dollar Impact of Communication on Employee & Customer Experience).

For any leader still with his or her head in the sand, what about this from the UK’s highly respected Institute of Internal Communications? Its’ IC 2024 Index, in partnership with the research company Ipsos Karian and Box, surveyed 4,000 internal communication practitioners and employees, and the results are compelling.

– Change Management: Excellent communication results in 93% employee positivity for the change

– Trust in Leadership: A massive 74-point trust gap exists between employees who rate communication as excellent compared to those who rate it as poor

– Employee Retention: People who rate their company’s internal comms as excellent intend to stay with their employer for longer

– Strategic Alignment: There’s a 35-point increase in belief in the organization’s strategy when employees know they can contribute to it

– Employee Engagement: The higher an employee rates Internal Communication, the higher their engagement score.

The significant impact of internal communication in these five critically important aspects of an organization is quite something, but it doesn’t end there.

The world’s largest study of employee wellbeing and experience, published this year, showed the enormous business impact of wellbeing–and that the single biggest driver of employee wellbeing (as stated by employees) is having a sense of belonging in their workplace.

And, of course, communication is the lifeblood of belonging, so it’s not surprising that many organizations are now focusing on ways to increase that sense of belonging among their people.

It could be seen as the workplace equivalent of Maslov’s hierarchy of needs, the foundation stone for employees on which everything else depends, because if an employee doesn’t feel they belong, they’re not going to stay around for long, are they?

What CEO or leader in their right mind would want that? Maybe one who still doesn't properly value and prioritize and plug into the enormous power of internal communication in their organization.