An internal communications framework has never been more crucial

During uncertain and turbulent times, we often see a sharp increase in the demand for candidates experienced within employee engagement and internal communications. 

Currently, as businesses navigate how to best manage the coronavirus situation and minimise the negative impacts to their business and employees it has never been more important for organisations to get it right when it comes to employee engagement and internal communications. It is during these times of political and social uncertainty that businesses without a rigorous employee communication strategy will be uncovered, and those with a fool proof approach will come out trumps. The damages caused by a poor, or even worse, non-existent employee communications strategy can continue to have effects long after the external crisis has resolved. Staff will remember if their employer did not appear to be there for them during times of upset and stress, and if motivation is not maintained during a ‘work from home’ period, the business implications caused by a slowdown in work can be huge.

So, how can businesses ensure they are equipped to get it right when the need for a sturdy employee communications framework arises?

The answer is simple: have the best employee communications talent in place to not just respond to times of crisis but to be pro-active in setting a pre-emptive strategy, ready to go when uncontrollable external issues do occur.

This can be easier said than done though, as it is only in recent years that businesses in Asia have placed an importance on internal communications where efforts historically were spent ensuring effective external communications. As a result, talent within internal and employee communications is slim and businesses are in competition to ensure they have the best equipped professionals to help them motive, support and engage their staff.

How to hire the best employee communications talent?

Firstly, do not worry to much about what industry sector a potential new hire has experience in. While it can be important for those communicating externally to have the relevant sector knowledge the same is not needed for effective internal communications. People are people regardless of their profession, whether they buy into messages from their employers will depend on the tone of empathy and direction in top down communication. Depending on their size, businesses should look for professionals who are experienced in deploying effective employee engagement strategies within a size and scale similar to their own. Communicating to an audience of twenty in one geographical market is a very different kettle of fish to communicating a united message to an audience of thousands across multiple markets, and both will pose their own challenges. Truly credible employee communications professionals will not be put off by a challenge and will be driven by the opportunity to improve (or fix), so do not shy away from sharing the inefficiencies and downfalls of your current internal communications processes. You are hiring them to resolve this and being open on this will help identify the cream of the crop candidates within the employee communications field.

Hopefully all in Asia will be well and good very soon, and the need for crisis internal communications will lessen. However, we never know when another unforeseen external challenge will rear its head and it will be the organisations who have ensured they have the right talent in place to help them effectively manage through such situations who will smoothly come out the other side with their work force intact and ready to face the next.