Businesses now work in a world that is getting more complicated. The corporate world is more unpredictable than ever and is rapidly evolving. This situation presents problems and possibilities for firms’ communication processes. Building an engaged, dedicated, and happy staff and keeping talent is crucial for firms to keep up with the market’s accelerating pace of change, maintain a competitive edge, and achieve commercial success. The distinction between internal and exterior is also becoming hazier in this digitally linked, globally integrated, and transparent era. The voice of internal stakeholders is amplified and has real-time international reach. Employees’ responsibilities as brand ambassadors and corporate ambassadors are more important than ever. And more frequently than ever, a motivated workforce provides numerous benefits to employers.
Several trends have been affecting the way internal communication is developed. Those trends have shaped the future of internal communication. They include the digitalization of the workplace, generational differences, diversity and inclusion, globalized and multicultural workforces, social conscience and impact, and work-life balance (Men & Bowen, 2017). All of those processes improve the working conditions of the employees and provide new opportunities for employees. Although there are challenges associated with implementation and adherence to the trend, it is evident that in the future, all companies will profit from these changes.
Besides general trends changing workplace ethics and relations, the future of internal communications will be affected by trends in communication practices. For instance, processes such as the broad utilization of multimedia, digitalization, and mobilization imposed by technological advancement have become a norm for most companies. The use of special software and devices to ensure more efficient and simple communications within and between the departments. Hence, the requirements for the employees change as they should be familiar with the means of digital communication and be willing to undergo the training.
Other internal communication trends involve changes in attitudes towards work and changes in employer-employee relations. For example, as companies that embraced more personalized, humanized, and employee-centric communication have exhibited higher rates of employer loyalty, motivation and productivity, more companies began implementing such trends. Besides, more organizations began to focus on the transparency and authenticity of communication as it increases communication efficiency. Moreover, hindering such qualities results in diminished effectiveness of the workforce and higher rates of mistakes related to the human factor.
Finally, employee engagement, empowerment, and autonomy are the trends that positively impact job satisfaction and performance. This implies that workers have to be encouraged to open dialogues with management and offer their decisions and solutions, while managers must be willing to listen. As a result, the future of internal communication practices pays more attention to people and their satisfaction as it has improved the organization’s performance.
Internal communication is among the communication strategies that are growing the fastest. Because of how swiftly the business environment, workplace, and labor force are changing, internal communication specialists today have both opportunities and challenges to deal with. This chapter summarizes macro-trends and issues, including digitization, globalization, diversity, and inclusion. These issues aim to change internal communication practices, work-life balance, and growing corporate social conscience concerns. It states that internal communication will eventually take place online. In the future, internal and exterior divisions between nano, AI, or neurotech-based multimedia, mobile, and with will be blurred and behaviorally and emotionally driven. Hence, the mundane tasks will be simplified, while the decision-making that involves employee participation will play a bigger role.
Reference
Men, R. L. & Bowen, S. A. (2017) The future of internal communication. In Men, R. L. & Bowen Excellence in internal communication management (165-182 pp.). Business Expert Press.