From emerging technologies to hybrid working, new trends are transforming the way we work. Jennifer Sproul explains why internal communications is the vital function at the heart of organisational resilience. This article is from Communicate magazine's print issue.

Four years on from the first lockdown, and internal communications has been the glue that’s held distributed and hybrid work-teams together. And yet while coronavirus may no longer be considered a threat to health and life, other game-changing global events have heightened complexity, reinforcing the need for ever-clearer lines of communication between teams, functions, departments and business units.

The results of our inaugural IC Index research, completed in partnership with Ipsos Karian and Box in the summer of 2023, were revealing. A survey of 3,000 UK workers highlighted the extent to which trust is now at a premium in the modern workplace. It illustrated just how many of us look to the leaders of our organisations to provide inclusive, connective communication that unifies us around a shared purpose. This same research revealed just how much work there is to be done to achieve this.

Based on close analysis of the primary trends transforming the future of work, we selected four key areas of focus for internal communicators. These are:

Technology

The scale of global R&D investment into AI, robotics, automation, 3D printing, autonomous vehicles, biotechnology, nanotechnology and other emergent technologies can’t be underestimated. But all these new technologies require equivalent investment in ethical and thoughtful debate for safe adoption that minimises societal harm. With its cross-functional perspective, internal communication is ideally placed to convene, facilitate and lead these discussions.

Sustainability

 The escalating climate crisis and global resource depletion demand an entire rethink of how we generate and deliver value to our respective stakeholders. This goes far deeper than carbon footprint reporting and requires a wholesale change of organisational behaviour. For any organisation to survive over the longer term, a sustainability plan should include personal, team, community, economic and planetary sustainability. Since effective communication underpins any successful business transformation programme, we know internal communication has a pivotal role to play in sustainability communication.

People

COVID triggered a mass re-evaluation of what people want from work and life, and there’s been a huge amount of labour market movement in the past few years. Simply put, its increasingly clear people are unwilling to put up with outdated ways of working that don’t meet their specific circumstance. As organisations move forward, they must acknowledge an increasingly broad spectrum of preferences and embrace career customisation. Internal communication is ideally placed to track the preferences of internal stakeholders and deliver customised content and information that meet the needs of the individual, wherever they are located.

Employment

The nature of employment is changing. Today, there are so many ways for organisations to access talent, which has significant implications for both HR and internal communication. Rather than think about employee engagement and experience, we should think about internal stakeholders. This shift in language immediately removes the risk of excluding anyone who delivers value to the organisation but who sits off payroll. Embracing the full-spectrum talent ecosystem immediately enhances organisational agility – which all businesses will need to successfully navigate the coming years.

If we’ve learned anything from psychology, neuroscience and social science in the past few decades, it’s that the way we communicate with one another underpins trust, relationships, social and societal health. It’s our job – and dare I say our purpose – as internal communicators, to lean in and steward the way we communicate at work through very different work futures.