A new report reveals that the Covid-19 pandemic has emphasised the need for a boost in internal communications, digital communications and overall strategic capability.

The report, carried out by integrated communications firm Newgate Research and marketing recruitment agency VMAGroup amongst in-house communications professionals, shows that despite a high level of confidence  in their departments to deal with Covid-19 related challenges, the crisis has highlighted the need to upskill certain areas.

One respondent said the pandemic had “given a lot of the internal comms team more exposure to crisis comms - before it was mainly the external comms team.”

22% of respondents said their recent experience revealed the need to increase internal communications capability of their team, followed by the digital communications (20%), strategic capability (19%) and crisis and issues management (16%). Internal communications was also the second most cited challenge, following overall communications strategies. Communications professionals’ attention was diverted more heavily into IC at the outset of the crisis as businesses dealt with the challenges of employee sickness and concerns over safety, job security and new ways of working.

“It has been a challenging time balancing the communications needs of various audiences, but the particular challenge is communicating to furloughed staff. The significant challenge from this is managing the various reactions to being furloughed once staff are back in role,” explains one respondent.

The study also points out that Covid-19 has forced communicators (79%) to learn a range of innovative skills to adapt to challenges, like staff shortage due to furlough, redundancy or illness. Half of the respondents believe business will respond to the end of the crisis by embracing a more ‘conscious capitalism,’ as they faced heightened expectations of corporate behaviour from the public and will therefore aim at having higher ethical at standards.

“From the outset of the crisis it was clear that communications would be vital in how we dealt with it, and communications teams have found themselves at the epicentre of their organisations’ battle to navigate it. Most have learned a great deal from it, adapted and will consequently exit the pandemic stronger for the experience,” says Emma Kane, CEO of Newgate Communications.

“In our recent experience, some of the most sought-after skills that employers are focusing on include the ability to show empathy; plan for and advise on crisis communications at Board level; and make effective use of digital tools within their communications,” adds principal consultant at VMAGROUP Julie Mazzei.