The changing face internal communication

The full and original article was published on Influence

Commoditisation means organisations (both commercial and public sector) that have increasingly come to rely on communication contractors, who mostly work on short-term assignments.

The financial case for such practices appears on the face of it to make sense – organisations can simply turn internal communication on and off, thus avoiding long-term outlays in the form of salary and bonuses to permanent staff.

However, there are several downsides too. One is the fact that external professional counsel does not come cheap.

Another is the short-termism inherent to contracted internal communication. Contractors come in, do their job and leave. Organisations that are concerned about their long-term business success should be investing in developing their in-house internal communication capabilities. A case in point is copy-writing. Quite often organisations view it as a relatively low-skill activity and happily outsource it to either internal communication agencies or contractors. External copy-writers, however, work for different clients at the same time and often are not very well versed in the specific terminology used in highly specialised organisations. Sloppily worded copy is the end result.