So – big question. Are you an internal communications specialist (with an ‘s’)? Or internal communication specialist (minus the ‘s’)?

Who gives an ‘f’, you might reasonably be saying to yourself.

But if you’re on board with the team at Russell+Olivia Brooklands (ROB), you’ll believe adopting that stray ‘s’ is a disaster, and will mean you’re not taken seriously.

It may sound like a bunch of linguistic geekery, ROB admits, but also insists it’s hugely important.

Find out why in Drop the frickin’ ‘s’​ – Chapter 12 in the team’s series The Management Whisperers. And, of course, if you’re impressed enough, you’ll want to binge-read Chapters 1 to 11 too.

Marketers hit out at ‘poor internal communication’

According to another hard-hitting blog, poor internal communication is a key issue for the UK data and marketing industry.

Research says 33 per cent of marketers are being impacted by the issue, citing 300 senior marketing professionals across the UK who were asked for their views on industry trends.

“Poor internal communication continues to become of increasing concern to our industry since the pandemic began,” said Ian Gibbs, director of insight at the DMA, the Data and Marketing Association.

“Perhaps this is partly driven by remote working, with less face-to-face meetings and fewer opportunities to ask colleagues questions directly. Senior management teams must review this if we are to make a continued success of our new hybrid working models.”

Time to take IC to the next level

Meanwhile, serial columnist Frank Wolf, who’s co-founder of Staffbase, says the post-pandemic world needs internal communications (with an ‘s’) that goes to the next level.

The current instability across the world, and the resulting stress on the workforce, means ‘communicating effectively with all employees is vital not only for keeping people informed, but for ensuring they feel heard and understood’.

And he says what’s going on across the globe means the role of internal communicators has grown in significance, while also becoming much more complex.

“The way I see it,” says Wolf, “organisations that successfully cultivate trust with employees by utilising the function of internal communications will minimise business risk for the future, attract and retain talent, and be able to get through the tough times more successfully.”

How digital has transformed our industry

And finally, there’s a fascinating look back at 15 years of recruiting internal comms professionals from Virginia Hicks, managing director at Comma Partners.

She reflects on how things have changed since she started her company in 2007, and says the growth of digital communications has transformed the world… while admitting she does miss face-to-face interactions!

We’ll be back with more IC news next month – and if you have any thoughts on what you’ve read, drop us a line, or comment below.