Internal Communications: More Than Cake Delivery

We're communicating through an unprecedented crisis.

Internal communicators are the employees in an organization who deliver the cake to the office party.

That was the message I heard once during a networking presentation. The implication was that cake is nice - people appreciate it, and it may even motivate them - but it’s not necessary for operational success.

That comment obviously stayed with me a while. It (almost) turned me against a career in internal communications. After all, I’ve worked hard to hone my writing and design skills to create visually appealing content, and I want to use that skillset to catalyze real organizational change.

My mind has gone back to that presentation a lot these days. These past few weeks have proven that internal communication is anything but cake delivery. Effective internal communication is, in fact, necessary for operational success.

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A Mindset Shift

Admittedly, I have been on PTO the past two weeks – arguably during the most turbulent weeks in recent history. The time away has given me a rare opportunity to be the audience instead of the writer. It has shown me how impactful internal communications professionals are.

I spent the past two weeks like many other employees in my company – glued to my phone and laptop, checking for company updates regarding the ongoing Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. How long will we be working from home? What do we do if a colleague becomes ill? What if I become ill and don’t have enough sick time?

I’ve appreciated every update, assurance and workaround that our company has provided.

For those who don’t know, internal and corporate communications professionals are responsible for the tactics and channels that a company leverages to communicate with its employees (e.g. intranet content, newsletters, emails from leadership, etc.) Additionally, these professionals are often tasked with implementing employee engagement and recognition initiatives (hence, the cake).

Right now, internal communicators are tasked with assuaging fear and establishing a sense of normalcy during a time that is anything but normal.

Last month, I was putting together slides for my regional town halls and designing certificates for employees’ years of service. Now, my colleagues and I are communicating work-from-home expectations, keeping track of the never-ending string of cancellations and tracking each state’s quarantine status.

We aren’t just communicating with our employees. We are collaborating with clients, vendors and other stakeholders to ensure they’re aware of the measures being taken to protect employees and customers. While I’ve been slightly annoyed by the plethora of communications being sent from every company enumerating the measures they’re taking to contain the Coronavirus, I’ve also found myself wondering about the companies that aren’t bothering to send anything.

Behind each of those emails you’ve received from companies or your own organization is a team of communications professionals who are balancing the importance of expedient messaging with accurate and informative content. We try to convey stability while also being transparent about the inherent uncertainty of current circumstances.

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Building and Maintaining the Bridge

Internal communicators are the essential bridge between members of senior leadership, decision-makers, executives and the front-line employees.

This bridge is particularly important in the healthcare industry – my industry. The industry where our front-line employees are fighting on the front line of a global pandemic. They are greeting and treating patients, and are also responsible for assuaging patients’ fear. How can they do this effectively if they have unanswered questions about their own health and safety lingering in the back of their minds?

Like so many of the incredibly brave healthcare professionals across the country, internal communicators like my colleagues have also been working crazy hours. They are staying up late to participate in meetings and fielding questions from employees and leadership to prevent extra confusion that none of us can afford right now.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve found myself thinking back to the summer internship I spent on an inpatient floor providing technical electronic medical record support to nurses in the pulmonary unit. It’s been a while since I’ve talked about droplet precautions or the differences between an N95, N99 and N100 respirator. These topics might not be in the vocabulary of most communications professionals, but, for those of us in the healthcare industry, this knowledge has been invaluable to understand the unique challenges our employees face. I’m inspired by my non-clinical colleagues who have jumped in to learn more to better support our colleagues who work in the clinical space.

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The Messages We Create

As I sifted through my emails ahead of my return to work, the subject line of a recent company-wide email caught my eye: “COVID-19: Together We'll Get Through This!”

It immediately made me think of the iconic red “Keep Calm and Carry On” posters from Britain during World War 2 and Rosie the Riveter proudly exclaiming “We can do it!”. These were messages that unified and mobilized citizens during another uncertain time.

Coincidentally, after writing this, I was checking in with a patient registration manager and asked how her team was coping. Her response was, “We’re okay. Just keeping calm and carrying on.”

The same type of messaging is needed now and is being created and disseminated by internal communicators in every industry across the country. In our makeshift home offices, we are helping employees keep calm by providing timely updates and accurate answers to questions because business must go on.

Internal communications professionals don’t placate people’s fears with the promise of cake. We leverage our internal platforms to catalyze real organizational change that provide solutions, alleviate fear, and maintain the relationships with our most important resource: our people.