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What does the future hold for internal comms?

The latest research for Melcrum’s Strategic Communication Research Forum focuses on the future of global business, the implications for internal communicators and recommendations on the next steps. Rebecca Richmond, research director for the Forum, provides an insight into the report and an overview of the key trends highlighted by our research.

by Rebecca Richmond, research and content director, Melcrum Publishing

Key Points:

• Trying to predict the entire future for IC is a daunting task, but if we can begin to understand the broader business and social landscape appearing before us across the next 3–5 years, we can anticipate the likely implications for internal comms.
• The research led us to identify four key trends that will shape the global business landscape: the Post-Recessionary Environment, Drive for Productivity, the Diversifying Workforce, and Corporate Structure, Management and Sustainability.
• This Melcrum study is structured around these four ‘drivers’, with each section containing an overview and validation. The study then discusses the implications for IC along with our recommendations.
  

As I write, we are drawing to a close our latest research project for Melcrum’s Strategic Communication Research Forum (our membership of senior internal communicators, for whom – amongst other services – we deliver 3–4 strategic research projects per year). As always, this study represents a research project conducted entirely at the direction of our members – but not without some trepidation on the part of our research team! The notion of trying to predict the entire future for internal comms is a slightly daunting one – and possibly an impossible one!

As the authors of a recent report by UK think-tank The Work Foundation state upfront in their study: “Trying to predict the future is an unenviable task. The mysterious unknown becomes the blindingly obvious through the course of time, yet it is usually hindsight not foresight that provides us with that clarity of vision… Even if predictions do not come to pass, anticipating the future helps us to plan for the changing expectations of employers and employees and the implications of change on the working world and wider society.”¹

Anticipating the implications for internal communication
As we began to consider this Forum project in more detail, it became apparent that there was a way forward here with the latter part of that quote in mind. If we could begin to understand the broader business and social landscape appearing before us across the next 3–5 years, we would be able to use that perspective to anticipate the likely implications for internal comms. That would then enable us to propose solutions to the surfaced issues, and general guidance for the function across the next 3–5 years.

We have studied reports from diverse business research and consulting companies and spoken to their representatives and leaders. We’ve spent time interviewing behavioral psychologists, sociologists, futurologists, business analysts, senior business leaders and communications experts – both practitioners and consultants.

We’ve also been able to tap into Melcrum’s own recent content archives and identify pertinent case studies, articles, and interviews that help paint a picture of what is coming down the pipe towards businesses across the globe, and therefore what will have an impact on the internal comms function in terms of demands from the rest of the business, our own proactive support to our companies, our structure and strategy, our competency profiles and hiring practices, and so on. Of course, we’ve also been able to leverage that archive to source solutions – toolkits, guidelines and strategy outlines to name just a few resources members will find in this report.

It’s important to stress our belief that our conclusions about the major trends that will impact business and internal comms will not necessarily surprise the membership. But what is new is the validation of those trends (along with the identification of other themes/implications that may not have been apparent to internal communicators beforehand) through triaging resources that members likely don’t have access to, or don’t have the time to access. We also consider one of the key value-adds of this study to be its role as a “one stop shop” of guidance for how to push internal comms forward in this new business landscape. Not all that guidance will be advanced or innovative – some of the steps we need to take as internal communicators benefit from a “back to basics” approach; getting the simple elements running as smoothly and effectively as possible to ensure that everyone within our organization is moving into the future – towards our corporate goals – in lock step.

In the most recent Communication ROI Study from Towers Watson² a piece of advice is offered: To best position themselves to succeed in an uncertain future, employers need internal communication programs that are courageous, innovative and disciplined. That is where we hope this report can add value to every single member that we support:

• As guidance for innovative internal comms strategy.

  "People-related" implications can’t always be smoothed out easily as we shift out of a recession

• As a tool that will enable internal communicators to ‘speak’ the language of the business in a broader context beyond comms with courage in the validity of what we’re sharing.
• As a means of taking on a more proactive and advisory stance to the organization – showing our stakeholders the path in front of them and illustrating how a disciplined approach to internal comms can support them and their goals in that changing business environment.

So, what will the content of the study focus on? Our extensive research has led us to identify four key trends, listed below, that will shape the global business landscape (and society, to some extent) for the next 3–5 years.

1. The Post-Recessional Environment
In considering the notion of Post-Recessional Recovery, companies often put laser-like focus on the financial implications of the recession for the business and their recovery plans can centre very much in that area. It is, of course, extremely important. But there are also long-term implications for the work environment that are not always highlighted with this same intensity. These "people-related" implications can’t always be smoothed out easily as we shift out of a recession and will likely re-chart the landscape of relationships between corporations, leaders/managers, and employees, and other key stakeholders. Within this notion of the Post-Recessional Environment, then, we’re talking about two key themes – rebuilding trust in the organization, and the Employee Value Proposition (EVP).

2. The Drive for Productivity
Productivity has always been a key watchword for companies across geography and industry. But it seems that – for the foreseeable future (and likely beyond) – it will matter even more. Doing more with less, it seems, will continue to fortify its position as the mantra of the corporation. That drive for productivity will be the defining factor for differentiation and growth – particularly within the developed world as the markets for people and innovation slow down.

Unquestionably the (often dreaded) concepts of Lean and Six-Sigma cast their shadow here. Though they have long been present in corporate thinking (and have often delivered significant value and ROI), the concept of streamlining process will come to the fore once again in the next 3–5 years. However, who manages the process and how (as you’ll see in the report) will potentially be very different. That’s what is new in this push to streamline – to create an agile organization that can strive for productivity. In the event of continued streamlining, it’s likely that many companies will have less resource and therefore our people themselves – their ability to do more with less, innovate, question to find new ways of working – will become ever more crucial no matter what industry. We will need to identify ways of tapping into our collective intelligence across the organization.

So what does this actually mean for businesses – how can we take these steps? Based on our exploration into this productivity theme, we would suggest there are two platforms from which to drive that productivity – the two themes of our chapter on this topic: (collaborative) technology – think intranet, social media, etc, and increased employee commitment.

3. The Diversifying Workforce
I’ve already mentioned the relatively low "surprise factor" of the key drivers of change for business across the next 3–5 years. Of all of the issues explored in this research, perhaps this is the one that communicators are already all too aware of – both in terms of opportunities and challenges. And yet, according to every study that we reviewed and virtually every conversation or interview that we conducted, those opportunities and challenges will develop with great speed over the next few years – hence it features here as one of our key drivers for business (and for internal comms) as our organizations strive for growth.

In terms of challenges, the main issue here is perhaps one of availability. If we are to focus in on productivity (as outlined in the previous section) – we need our workforce to be attuned to that, and capable of delivering. This is an issue highlighted in a paper in the McKinsey Quarterly a few months ago: “The Western economies have built a workforce optimized for mid 20th century national industries, yet the jobs now being created are for 21st century global ones – we need knowledge workers, not factory workers. And there just aren’t enough of the former. Anywhere. Companies across the globe consistently cite talent as their top constraint to growth.”³

From a more positive perspective, globalization, technology, and an increasingly migratory workforce offer opportunities for companies to tap into diverse talent pools that were unreachable before. In addition, we’re seeing an ageing workforce – older people are staying at work for longer – allowing organizations to leverage experienced workers for longer, perhaps. At the same time, of course (and as will become particularly apparent when we turn, in this report, to look at the implications for internal comms), these opportunities bring challenges of their own.

Within this chapter, then, the two biggest issues for business that we’ll highlight in relation to the diversifying workforce are global/local balance, and the cross-generational workforce. As we explore these, the need for a segmented approach to the diversifying workforce becomes ever clearer (though more or less important depending on the size of your organization).

4. Corporate Structure, Management and Sustainability
In some regards, the overall impact of the issues highlighted in the three previous sections (the Post-Recessionary Environment, the Drive for Productivity, and the Diversifying Workforce) has a ‘knock-on’ effect for the overall corporate architecture and management of any business. So readers of this chapter will see some overlap with points made previously.

Nonetheless, given the changes underway for business, this notion of what the business will (and should) look like and how it should be managed is a key driver that deserves attention in its own right. As Lowell Bryan observes in his McKinsey Quarterly paper of Dec 2009: “Companies can’t control the weather, but they can design and build a ship, and equip it with a leadership team, that can navigate the ocean under all weather conditions. Organizations that become more flexible and skillful at making critical decisions when the timing is right have enormous opportunities to capture markets and profits from companies that persist in managing as if the future business environment is reasonably predictable.”⁴

So what are the key “weather conditions” that the corporate “ship” needs to consider when it comes to structure and management?

• The way we do business.
• How we convey those business strategies and processes in an open way.
• The way our people work (and need to work, based on the previous chapter).
• Expectations from employees, stakeholders, customers, markets, governments, governance and regulatory groups.

In summary, this is about transparency and sustainability, and about leadership and management. These two elements are the key drivers we’ll focus on in this chapter from the perspective of the implications for overall business, before turning to the implications for communicators.

Our study, then, is structured around these four “drivers”, with each section containing an overview of the trends, the driving factors behind them and validation from a broad array of resources. After that broader perspective will come the implications for internal comms along with our recommendations and advice for how we as internal communicators should respond to those implications – case studies, toolkits, guidelines, and so on. If you’d like to learn more about our research in this area, don’t hesitate to contact me. We’d welcome your input, perspectives and feedback.

<sup>1. Wilson Wong, Jane Sullivan, with Laura Blazey, Alexandra Albert, Penny Tamkin, Gemma Pearson. The Deal in 2020: A Delphi study of the future of the employment relationship. The Work Foundation: London, 2010.
2. Capitalizing on effective communication: How courage, innovation and discipline drive business results in challenging times. Towers Watson: New York, 2010.
3. Peter Bisson, Elizabeth Stephenson, S. Patrick Viguerie. The Productivity Imperative. McKinsey Quarterly June 2010.
4. Lowell Bryan. Dynamic management: Better decisions in uncertain times). McKinsey Quarterly Dec 2010.</sup>

This article was first published in Strategic Communication Management, 15.2, January 2011

Have your say
What are your views on the four key trends? What do you predict for the future of internal communication? What do you see the likely implications as being? Share your thoughts with us.

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The future's bright: PwC predicts three business worlds by 2020

Your comms role in a decade's time

The six phases of major change

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