Grayling Insights

Internal Communication? Not the most important issue, we will take care of it later…

Posted by Cristina Espallargas

We probably have heard these comments more than once: “There are other more pressing issues; we cannot take care of internal communication at this point… Each employee ought to know what he has to do by now. We have nothing positive to say: so it is better not to say anything at all. With all that is going on, everybody should work hard, we will talk about lectures later on…”, these are some of the phrases we frequently hear when talking about internal communications, the communication with employees, as if it was simply a fanciful “sophistication”. As if a company was merely a well-oiled machine that starts up automatically when all its members are at their work stations and doing their jobs.

But obviously a company is so much more than a group of people performing more or less designed or preconceived tasks. A company is an ensemble of various realities and wills, whose different contributions should converge in one sole purpose: the company's mission, its objectives and raison d’être.

Winds of instability are blowing. No-one dares to predict or assure when or how we are going to overcome this crisis. No-one takes anything for granted or for certain. Discouragement may arise, the feeling that nothing of what we do matters, it is not in our hands to remotely change the situation. And it is at these times of fear and uncertainty that the need for a good internal communication within the organizations rises with more strength, in order to bring together wills, talents and efforts.

An efficient internal communication must serve to make us all feel part of a common project, and strive to reach a satisfactory conclusion so that each one of us may extract his own profit from his effort: a salary, self-fulfilment, social acknowledgement, personal satisfaction, and all our reasons for working, apart from paying our bills.

This is why business leaders should now take great pains where internal communication is concerned, in taking care of their people and involving them actively in their daily tasks. In transmitting, competently and through the adequate channels, what is expected from each one of us, and how we can contribute to maintain and expand our project.

Internal communication requires an organized study and planning. It is not short-lived, and it cannot appear and disappear at the management's convenience. It does not necessarily require a great exertion, but rather a conscious effort to be open and transparent. And a will to involve all the company's members in achieving a common project, each at his own level and with his capabilities. And to say it and convey it in a way that the message is understood by all.

Today more than ever, companies with a better communication are clearly the most flexible, the ones that profit from their employees' talent, those which adapt better to the market's turbulences and that, even in times of crisis, are capable of prevailing, growing and leading the way.