25 July 2011
Social media to dominate internal communication in 10 years
Internal communicators predict the profession's future in a recent Melcrum poll.
Just under a quarter (23%) of internal communicators surveyed in a recent poll by Melcrum predicted that social media will dominate the function in 10 years' time, indicating a call for IC practitioners to ensure that social media capabilities and expertise exist within their teams.
More than 150 global internal communication professionals responded to the poll that ran this month and asked: "What will internal communication look like in 10 years' time?".
Lean comms as a standard
The second most popular prediction was around transparency and sustainability, with 19% foreseeing more processes to support these two increasingly important issues for businesses today.
Less surprising was the prediction that lean communication practices will become de rigeur as IC people push on to acheive more with less resources, 18% felt this would be the case.
As the ownership of employee engagement continues to be debated among the IC community, only 12% feel that IC will gain this ownership by the end of the decade. Meanwhile, only 7% felt optimistic that in ten years, companies will realize the true value of the internal communication function and that the need to demonstrate ROI would be less of an issue for IC, as is the case for its fellow business functions such as HR, finance and operations.
The future for internal communicators
Deeper analyisis of these predicted scenarios prompt questions on how the responsibilities and remit of internal communication will change. What does the prominence of social media mean for us? Is it to govern these channels? Is it to train employees to use them? And what benefits will this change brink to organizations? How will a largely remote workforce impact upon the work we do? Commenting in Melcrum's recent research study on The Future for Internal Communication, Rebecca Richmond, director of content and research at Melcrum says:
"If our organizations are indeed going to shift beyond traditional boundaries (i.e. the 24/7 global workplace, changes in the way people work – where, when and how) we as internal communicators are – or should be – perfectly placed to help respond to our employees’ needs and maximize productivity.
"In organizations where productivity boosts are needed among knowledge workers, this will come more from the ability to collaborate across units and regions (enabled by technology), creating more flexible work environments and providing opportunities for employees to innovate and contribute. While technology will be key here, this is unquestionably a realm over which IC can have a direct influence: reviewing channels, working more closely with IT, understanding the potential of new programs and platforms and understanding what drives human behavior around connecting and collaborating."
Find out more
The future for internal communication will be explored this year at the Strategic Communication Management Summit UK, with foresights and reccomendations from Towers Watson, Unilever, Harrods, Yammer and many more.
Have your say
What do you think internal communication will look like in 10 years' time? Which of the above stats do you agree or disagree with? What implications do you think these predictions will have on the role of the internal communicator?
Recommended resources:
Becoming a 21st century organization: Unilever's Agile Working program
How social media fits into BT’s business
ON CAMERA: BT's Richard Dennison on why IC's no longer the innocent bystander
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