Covid placed internal comms teams in the spotlight like never before.
As the working world changed dramatically almost overnight, internal comms professionals had an integral role in communicating new ways of working and ensuring employees felt safe and supported.
And, as the situation continually changed, that communication had to be carried out in real-time.
To find out more about, it and what this rise to prominence has meant for internal comms, I spoke to Neil Jenkins.
Neil has worked in internal comms for some of the world’s biggest brands, including Coca-Cola, BT and Vodafone.
He is now the director of communications business partnerships at Iron Mountain and leads an international team responsible for ensuring the firm’s 24,000 employees are informed, engaged and feel they have a voice.
Iron Mountain is an information management company. And what makes it a fascinating case study is that many of its employees were deemed critical workers at the height of the pandemic.
The company’s customers could not function without access to their records – things like HR documents and commercial contracts. This meant drivers and people working in storage facilities and depots kept working when most of us stayed at home.
Greater expectations
Neil believes the way his team communicated during the crisis has led the organisation to view internal comms differently.
“I think people now appreciate that you can’t communicate enough to your people, particularly in times of crisis,” he said.
“In those first few weeks and months, where things were changing quickly, we had to get messages agreed, sent out and understood quickly.
“We had to help people to understand how and where to work and how we were keeping them safe.
“A lot of our customers said that they could not operate without the service we provide for them, so we had to source PPE and tell people how to work and what to focus on.
“But the other side of this was people wanting to know the impact the pandemic would have on the business. Would it struggle? Was their job safe?
“So, we had to reassure people that while we were seeing a dip and did have to furlough some people, we had solutions in the pipeline that would be able to compensate for that pretty quickly.
“A lot of what we did was about telling our people how much our customers rely on us and that we had a stable financial footing.”
And that performance has led to greater expectations of the comms team now things are calmer – something Neil refers to as a ‘nice pressure’.
He said: “I think what we achieved during the height of the crisis opened people’s eyes to what was possible and increased people’s expectations.
“People trust us now, and I think we have that inherent understanding from the business that what we do does make a difference.
“So, I think now we have a sort of nice pressure where we are thinking about what more we can do.
“And it has enabled us to ask for budget, and unlock things we have been trying to do for months before and it is an easier conversation because people trust what we are doing.”
New platforms
That trust has seen the business invest in a new platform that will help the internal comms team reach frontline workers, many of whom don’t have consistent access to a computer, through an app.
Neil said: “Having something in their hand will definitely help us to reach them and ensure they feel more connected to the business.
“They will still get a lot from their manager but will also have a more direct way of hearing what is going on.
“It will mean we don’t have to rely on them hearing something from their manager or having to go to a computer kiosk in the middle of their facility.”
More communication
Communication professionals know leaders must communicate more during times of crisis. And, many of us will have experienced a reluctance to do this.
Interestingly, the leaders at Iron Mountain not only dramatically increased their communication at the height of the crisis, but they want to maintain those levels.
Neil said: “Before the pandemic, our CEO typically did four set-piece communications a year as well as talking to employees when he visited our offices and facilities. These would be two live events and two pre-recorded videos around the time we released our quarterly results.
“He went from doing that to communicating every week during the pandemic. And it was probably only towards the end of last year that he began to tail that off slightly.
“But he said he still wanted to do lots, and now he does it every two weeks.
“So, he now does a video blog every two weeks, and he does online events where employees around the world can ask him anything.
“His communication has greatly increased, and the other members of his leadership team have followed his example. And people can see the benefits of that and the value regularly hearing from your leaders can bring.
“I think the fact that level of communication has been sustained is a good indication of its value.”
Wellbeing
The mental health of employees has been propelled up the priority list of many organisations in recent years.
And it became even more crucial during the pandemic.
Uncertainty about the future, furlough and the challenges some faced with home working all had the potential to increase anxiety.
And it was something Neil was keen to focus on.
“The whole mental health aspect of the pandemic has been a big focus for us, making sure people know where to go to get help, whether it is emotional or financial,” he said.
“We have a big focus on safety, and I think it is clear to our employees that the company will do its best to look after people, whether that is keeping them safe physically or mentally.”
Additionally, many of the company’s offices are open while a formal return to the office policy is being developed, to give people the option of somewhere else to work if they need a change of scene from the spare bedroom or want to escape a noisy housemate or family member.
And an internal social network has been used to help people keep in touch and have the everyday types of questions they would have had in the office.
But another crucial part of increasing awareness has been finding people willing to tell their mental health stories.
Neil said: “Our job has been to make sure people are aware of the support and resources that are available and to find people to talk about the difference it has made to them.
“And we have found people who have been happy to talk about their experience. In the UK, we have a typical tabloid-style newspaper that goes to all the frontline people.
“And we did a double-page spread with one guy who became a mental health first aider after some of the things he had experienced.
“He was happy to talk about his story, how he overcame those challenges and the role he now plays in supporting others. And that is incredibly powerful.
“One of our drivers noticed a woman on a bridge who looked like she was about to jump. He managed to slow the traffic down and then talk to the woman until specialist help arrived.
“And we are going to do a video with him, as part of a series about what it means to work for us and the values we cherish, where he tells that story. I know already how well that will be received.”
The internal and external comms relationship
Let’s be honest, internal and external comms have not always gone hand-in-hand.
I’ve worked in organisations where it has sometimes felt these functions were working in silos, particularly during crisis communication situations.
Internal audiences can be overlooked in favour of communicating externally.
Neil hopes that the pandemic, and the crucial role played by internal comms, will ensure close relationships between external and internal comms teams in future.
He said: “Whatever you are saying internally, you should always assume will go external. And people should never find out what is going on in their company by reading or hearing about it externally.
“The overall goal of internal comms should be to support and enhance a company’s reputation from the inside out.
“If your employees trust you, appreciate the company they work for and are proud to work for them and say good things, that message probably goes further than anything else externally.
“So, you have to make sure you are saying the same thing externally and internally. If your CEO is being interviewed, the employees will read what they say, and they need to see the same things they are being told internally.
“The messages and narrative should be the same.”
My chat with Neil covered a lot of ground, so we have split it into two blogs. Keep reading next week to hear why he thinks internal comms has never been more important, how organisations can capture employee voice, communicate purpose and much more.
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