Internal Communications Conference is an annual event held in London. The main goal is to “bring together the insights of applied behavioral science to the world of internal communication” to help internal communication specialists push their company’s communication to the next level. We collected the key highlights here in case you missed the conference.
1. Insights are the New Frontier of Internal Communications
Laura Temple Brunt (Head of Leadership Engagement, Group Communications & Reputation, SABMiller), hosted a session on influential communication. She introduced the meaningful jobs framework. According to Laura, the top 3 game changers in internal communications in modern business reality are insights, conversations and stories.
2. Engagement vs. Culture
David Littlechild (Head of Culture & Engagement, Lloyds Banking Group) talked about behavioral transformation and engagement. He focused on the difference between emotional and rational engagements, and discussed how engagement is the most immediate relationship with the line manager and team, and culture is the connection within the wider organization. So companies should create a narrative to make a more powerful message in the business instead of only focusing in the numbers, in order to drive the emotional component. Research should be connected to values.
3. Seek to Understand and Then to be Understood
Gillian McGill (Global Head of Internal Communications, Aviva Plc) spoke about communicating to a truly global audience. They implemented the email reporting system Newsweaver which led to IC getting a seat at the table by using the insights and metrics provided. When you can measure your internal communications, you can understand your people. And when you understand your people, you can plan the right internal communications strategy for different levels (eg. global, local) so people can understand you.
4. See your Internal Communications Through the Eyes of a Non-office Employee
Mark Davies (Business Development Europe, Beekeeper) describe an average day in the life of Lisa, a food packaging operative, to remind how important the job of the people out in the field is. Lisa is lucky because her company is using a tool like Beekeeper – a real-time mobile communication tool with messaging and content-sharing features. She immediately knows about the new product launch, latest KPIs, and company achievements. She also shares her success stories with the wider team, and her work is greatly appreciated by other departments. If she has urgent questions, she can simply message her boss and set up a time to discuss them.
But what if she didn’t have Beekeeper? What if her company just communicated with her via notes on a pinboard? Lisa would probably be a lot less engaged. Workers in the field should also be connected to the rest of the organization and get they deserve.
