Dear Executives,
We need to have a conversation about a strategic asset you're likely underutilizing: your internal communications function.
I know what you're thinking. Internal comms handles employee newsletters and town hall logistics. It's operational, not strategic. INTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS CAN WAIT.
Here is what is important to understand: your organization's external reputation, market performance, and competitive advantage are all directly tied to how well you communicate internally. And right now, you're leaving significant value on the table.
Before any customer sees your brand, before any journalist writes about your company, before any investor evaluates your performance, your employees experience your organization from the inside. They know whether your values are real or just poster fodder. They see whether leadership walks the talk. They understand the gap between what you say publicly and what actually happens internally.
These employees are on LinkedIn. They're on Glassdoor. They're at dinner parties and school pickups. They're your most powerful brand ambassadors or your most damaging critics. The choice of which they become largely depends on one thing: how well you communicate with them.
When your internal communications strategy is strong, employees become advocates who amplify your message, defend your reputation, and attract top talent. The reverse is also true. It is up to you to decide which scenario describes your organization.
Your internal communications team sits on a goldmine of organizational intelligence that your external PR and communications teams desperately need. They understand employee sentiment, know what concerns are bubbling up from the front lines, and can identify potential issues before they become public crises.
Your external communications efforts might be severely handicapped if they're not coordinated with internal communications. Consider these scenarios that happen daily in organizations that silo these functions:
Your PR team announces a major initiative to the media. Your employees read about it in the news and feel blindsided. Their confusion and frustration leak into their customer interactions and social media presence. What could have been a positive story becomes a narrative about poor internal culture.
Your marketing team launches a customer-focused campaign emphasizing values that employees know aren't practiced internally. The disconnect creates cynicism and disengagement. Employees can't authentically represent a brand they don't believe in.
Your CEO gives a media interview outlining strategic priorities that frontline employees have never heard about. They're unprepared to execute on the strategy and unable to answer customer questions about the direction of the company.
These disconnects don't just create inefficiency. They actively damage your reputation and undermine your business objectives. Integrated communications where internal and external efforts are aligned and coordinated delivers exponentially better results.
Organizations with highly engaged employees outperform their competitors in profitability, productivity, and growth. Employee engagement isn't created by ping pong tables and free snacks. It's created by helping people understand how their work matters, connecting them to organizational purpose, and ensuring they have the information they need to succeed. That's internal communications.
When employees understand your strategy, they make better decisions aligned with organizational goals. When they feel informed and valued, they stay with your company, reducing the massive costs of turnover. When they're engaged, they deliver better customer experiences, driving satisfaction and loyalty. When they trust leadership, they're more willing to embrace change and innovation. Every one of these outcomes has direct impact on your financial performance.
By treating internal communications as an afterthought or relegating it to junior staff and minimal budgets, you're missing opportunities to leverage it strategically in your overall communications and PR approach.
You're missing the chance to turn every employee into a brand ambassador who extends your reach further than any paid campaign. You're missing the intelligence that could help you prevent crises and capitalize on opportunities. You're missing the alignment that would make your external messages more credible and effective.
You're also creating unnecessary risk. In a world where employee reviews are public, workplace culture makes headlines, and internal messages regularly leak, poor internal communications is a liability waiting to materialize. The reputational damage from a disengaged or angry workforce can take years and millions to repair.
Your internal communications team isn't just managing logistics and pushing out messages. They're sitting on strategic capability that could transform your organization's performance and reputation. The question is “Are you ready to tap into it?”
Dear Executive Leadership,
We need to have a conversation about a strategic asset you're likely underutilizing: your internal communications function.
I know what you're thinking. Internal comms handles employee newsletters and town hall logistics. It's operational, not strategic. INTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS CAN WAIT.
Here is what is important to understand: your organization's external reputation, market performance, and competitive advantage are all directly tied to how well you communicate internally. And right now, you're leaving significant value on the table.
Before any customer sees your brand, before any journalist writes about your company, before any investor evaluates your performance, your employees experience your organization from the inside. They know whether your values are real or just poster fodder. They see whether leadership walks the talk. They understand the gap between what you say publicly and what actually happens internally.
These employees are on LinkedIn. They're on Glassdoor. They're at dinner parties and school pickups. They're your most powerful brand ambassadors or your most damaging critics. The choice of which they become largely depends on one thing: how well you communicate with them.
When your internal communications strategy is strong, employees become advocates who amplify your message, defend your reputation, and attract top talent. The reverse is also true. It is up to you to decide which scenario describes your organization.
Your internal communications team sits on a goldmine of organizational intelligence that your external PR and communications teams desperately need. They understand employee sentiment, know what concerns are bubbling up from the front lines, and can identify potential issues before they become public crises.
Your external communications efforts might be severely handicapped if they're not coordinated with internal communications. Consider these scenarios that happen daily in organizations that silo these functions:
Your PR team announces a major initiative to the media. Your employees read about it in the news and feel blindsided. Their confusion and frustration leak into their customer interactions and social media presence. What could have been a positive story becomes a narrative about poor internal culture.
Your marketing team launches a customer-focused campaign emphasizing values that employees know aren't practiced internally. The disconnect creates cynicism and disengagement. Employees can't authentically represent a brand they don't believe in.
Your CEO gives a media interview outlining strategic priorities that frontline employees have never heard about. They're unprepared to execute on the strategy and unable to answer customer questions about the direction of the company.
These disconnects don't just create inefficiency. They actively damage your reputation and undermine your business objectives. Integrated communications where internal and external efforts are aligned and coordinated delivers exponentially better results.
Organizations with highly engaged employees outperform their competitors in profitability, productivity, and growth. Employee engagement isn't created by ping pong tables and free snacks. It's created by helping people understand how their work matters, connecting them to organizational purpose, and ensuring they have the information they need to succeed. That's internal communications.
When employees understand your strategy, they make better decisions aligned with organizational goals. When they feel informed and valued, they stay with your company, reducing the massive costs of turnover. When they're engaged, they deliver better customer experiences, driving satisfaction and loyalty. When they trust leadership, they're more willing to embrace change and innovation. Every one of these outcomes has direct impact on your financial performance.
By treating internal communications as an afterthought or relegating it to junior staff and minimal budgets, you're missing opportunities to leverage it strategically in your overall communications and PR approach.
You're missing the chance to turn every employee into a brand ambassador who extends your reach further than any paid campaign. You're missing the intelligence that could help you prevent crises and capitalize on opportunities. You're missing the alignment that would make your external messages more credible and effective.
You're also creating unnecessary risk. In a world where employee reviews are public, workplace culture makes headlines, and internal messages regularly leak, poor internal communications is a liability waiting to materialize. The reputational damage from a disengaged or angry workforce can take years and millions to repair.
Your internal communications team isn't just managing logistics and pushing out messages. They're sitting on strategic capability that could transform your organization's performance and reputation. The question is “Are you ready to tap into it?”