Case study

The challenges and trends of internal communication

The challenges and trends of internal communication: perspectives from Assaël Adary, co-founder of the Occurrence research firm

Jean-Pierre

May 2, 2024

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min

Arnaud Longueville, co-founder of the agency, recently had the privilege of speaking with Assaël Adary, an internal communication expert and co-founder of the Occurrence Group Ifop research firm, about future developments in the field of internal communication.

During this exchange, we return to the importance of internal communication during the Covid-19 pandemic, then to the disappointment about the sustainability of acquired practices, post-Covid. Assaël Adary then explains to us what are the persistent trends in internal communication, today, within the companies he supports through his research firm. We also talk about employee experience before determining how internal communication has become an essential pillar for maintaining the link between teams in a constantly changing work environment.

Recent trends highlight the growing importance of transparency, authenticity, and inclusiveness in internal communication. Finally, in 2024, what is the future for internal communication at a time of the rise of AI and remote working? A look back at this fascinating exchange.

Impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on internal communication

The COVID-19 pandemic has profoundly changed the way businesses think about internal communication. With the sudden shift to remote working, many organizations have had to rethink their communication practices to maintain the connection between employees. This period highlighted the critical importance of internal communication in ensuring the well-being of employees, maintaining team cohesion and ensuring business continuity in a disrupted environment.

The implementation of virtual communication channels, such as video conferences, instant messaging platforms, and corporate social networks, has allowed employees to stay connected despite physical distance. It has also reinforced the focus on transparency and authenticity, as employees expect candid and honest communication from their leaders during times of uncertainty.

“Businesses realized that they had a social body that needed to be treated well, nourished, fed, even pampered a little bit.”

The pandemic has thus accelerated the digital transformation of internal communication, even becoming the barycenter of executive speaking efforts, forcing them to adopt more flexible and agile approaches to meet the changing needs of their employees. The democratization of video instead of face-to-face meetings, or the emergence of digital coffee, this short window of exchange between colleagues for a coffee, to discuss concrete topics with its teams, are direct consequences of this transformation.

But have business leaders and managers, on the front line with their teams, learned the lessons of this period and have they continued to influence the way businesses approach internal communication? Not really.

Disappointment about the sustainability of post-COVID initiatives

Despite the efforts made during the pandemic, Assaël Adary expresses his disappointment at the drop in investment in internal communication after the crisis.

“The companies gave money back on external communications. Which I completely understand, but I thought that internal communication would maintain its shares and that external communications would return to those of before. And so, that we were going to get out of this crisis with finally a greater volume of investment in internal communication. It's really a bummer.”

At mprez®, we were able to verify this trend through requests from our customers. During Covid-19, the emphasis was placed on maintaining this “social body”, with an increase in the demand for internal presentations, the challenges of which were to offer maximum visibility on internal changes in companies and their resilience capacities. Emerging from the crisis, and by extension, today in 2024: status quo.

The importance of maintaining a balance between internal and external communication for a balanced exit from the crisis was clearly not retained.

Persistent trends in internal communication and employee experience

The internal communication ecosystem quickly put its good resolutions of the Covid era under the carpet and naturalness came back at a gallop. Internal communication has always played a major role in the organizational landscape. Some of its persistent trends offer valuable insight into the challenges and opportunities that businesses face. Since 1995 and the creation of his communication research firm, Occurrence, Assaël has been examining exchanges between professionals on a daily basis. According to him, several trends are emerging.

First, supporting organizational transformations remains at the heart of concerns. Before, during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, the need for effective internal communication to support change and transition management remains. This highlights the continuing importance of internal communication as a strategic lever to encourage employees to adhere to structural and operational changes.

Second, business attractiveness is emerging as a crucial trend, especially in France where the unemployment rate is relatively low. Internal communication is an essential tool for promoting the employer image, encouraging employees to become ambassadors for their company. Thus reflecting the need for companies to position their employer brand in an attractive way to attract and retain the best talent in a competitive market.

Finally, the concept of employee experience is gaining momentum, highlighting the importance of employee well-being, engagement and satisfaction. The concept of employee experience is becoming increasingly important in the current business context. As mentioned in exchanges between professionals, the employee experience is assimilated to that of a customer, thus underlining the importance of symmetric attention. This concept implies an equivalent level of requirement and quality for employees and that reserved for customers.

“There is no better employer brand than an employee who, just with honesty and sincerity, describes and explains his job, both what is going well and what also involves elements of difficulty, etc.”

The employee experience extends from start to finish, encompassing not only the first day of hiring, but also the onboarding process itself. A study conducted by Occurence reveals that 62% of young graduates plan to leave their first job within three years of being hired, underlining the need to re-engage employees on a daily basis and provide them with a rewarding experience throughout their professional career.

To counter this potentially high turnover, it is crucial for employers to invest in long-term engagement and professional development programs. It is proposed to adopt a mentoring approach, offering employees diversified career perspectives and opportunities for growth throughout their career within the company.

These measures aim to strengthen talent retention and promote a culture of engagement within the organization. Internal communication plays a key role in promoting these initiatives, helping to build an attractive employer brand and by promoting the importance given to the professional development and well-being of employees.

The employee experience therefore represents a fundamental pillar of the human resources management strategy, both for HR, but also for communicators. As a result, a significant impact on organizational performance and employee retention.

Augmented communicator and teleworking: understanding new technological and organizational dynamics

The integration of artificial intelligence into internal communication is a crucial subject in the professional world. Agencies are ahead of communication departments, in part due to technical constraints and the slow adoption of technological advances, concedes Assaël. However, at Occurrence, an optimistic view prevails, considering communicators to be “augmented” rather than replaced by AI. This perspective is inspired by advances in the medical field, where AI improves the precision and efficiency of health professionals, while relying on their expertise and human qualities.

“AI and internal communication is a subject on which agencies are moving faster than communication departments in companies. For [...] technical reasons, compliance, IT, a bit of procrastination... However, in integrating into the internal communications workflow, at Occurrence, we are quite optimistic on the subject. We talk more about augmented communicators than about replaced communicators.”

When it comes to working from home and being in the office, finding the right balance is still a challenge. At the moment there is no miracle solution, it is often all one or all the other. For companies that would be less radical, it is still time for experiments, explains Assaël. However, it offers an interesting reflection and indicates that within the structures it accompanies, it observes an arbitration opposing exploration versus exploitation.

Exploration, requiring collective and face-to-face activities, promotes creativity and innovation. The most concrete example would be team brainstorming.

On the other hand, exploitation, understand, execution, which is often more efficient when working from home, allows greater concentration on individual tasks. The difficulty lies in managing these two ways of working to meet the needs of employees while maintaining organizational effectiveness.

Despite the natural challenges that emerge as a result of any organizational innovation, this approach offers a promising perspective for reconciling the benefits of remote work with the collaborative and social aspects of face-to-face work.

To conclude, internal communication remains a field in constant evolution, marked by challenges and opportunities. Looking at the lessons shared by Assaël Adary, it is clear that the future of internal communication will be shaped by a collaborator-centered approach, the integration of new technologies, and the search for a balance between flexibility and organizational effectiveness.

We warmly thank Assaël Adary, co-founder and president of the Occurrence research firm, for sharing his expertise with us.

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