Repositioning Internal Communications

Recently, I’ve been considering the position of Internal Communications within our organisation and trying to figure out where it really should be.

Since the function began back in 2005, it has reported into HR as it was put in place by the HR Director soon after he joined.

In most companies, the function reports to an overall Communications Director along with corporate communications and public relations. In a few others, it sits in Marketing and in about 5% – I remember reading – it resides within HR.

In our company, there’s a distinct advantage to its home in the HR department; it avoids getting into sticky problems during difficult messages as the HR Director is all over it from a legal point of view. Internal Communications must be tailored carefully to make sure they’re not open to misinterpretation or conjecture.

I have a close working relationship with corporate communications to make sure what we’re saying internally won’t cause us issues if/when they leak externally (I have to assume that EVERY communication will go outside the company, as they invariably will.)

If we had an overall Communications function, I would sit within it gladly, but I would always need to have some sort of dotted reporting line into HR for the legislative reasons.

And this is where I believe Internal Comms needs to be at any company – and it should report to the executive committee and/or directly to the CEO. Of course I HAVE to say that Internal Communications should have a seat at the top table because it’s one of the most important functions within a business, but we’re seeing increasingly more evidence that ‘engaged’ employees contribute better to the overall success of a company and are more willing to go the extra mile to get the job done. People also appreciate being keep up to date with what’s happening around them, whether it is good or bad news; conversely, keeping people in the dark promotes cynicism and distrust.

I hope that one day our company will see the value in IC and put the right level of support behind it to make it a success across the entire business.

That’s my challenge and my goal.