Reputation Matters: Why Internal Communications is Critical to External Perceptions

New research confirms what we’ve been thinking for a long time – employee perceptions increasingly shape an organisation’s external reputation.

Edelman’s latest Trust Barometer highlights a significant shift away from confidence in CEOs and Government officials in favour of regular employees and ‘people like me’.

While this may reflect a knee-jerk reaction to our ongoing economic and political difficulties, it is also evidence of wider social and technological changes that are here to stay – namely a breakdown in deference to traditional authority figures and the democratisation of the media with the rise of Twitter, Facebook and other social media platforms.

When 30,000 people across the world were asked about the credibility of company information received from different groups, CEOs suffered a sharp drop from 50% in 2011 to 38% in 2012. On the flipside, regular employees enjoyed a jump from 34% to 50%.

Perhaps most interestingly, the credibility of ‘people like me’ soared from 43% to 65%. This is a trend much beloved by behavioural economists who believe that people are more likely to be influenced by people similar to themselves.

But what does this all mean for communications professionals?

Firstly, communications campaigns must include internal audiences. At a minimum, the team needs to be informed about what’s happening. But, ideally, employees will be part of the dialogue shaping the business strategy and its related communications campaigns.

Secondly, communications must reflect reality. There’s no point spending thousands on external advertising, PR and associated marketing spend if a handful of disaffected or ill-informed team members can undermine the message with a few key strokes pointing out issues and inconsistencies.

Thirdly, new developments can be turned to an organisations’ advantage. Employee engagement programmes can turn team members into company or brand advocates. Likewise, if you really want to influence how different groups think and act, you need to consider carefully who is best placed to deliver the message and how they do so.

What’s clear is that PR and related communications programmes must include employees as a target audience. Done well, it can have a major positive impact on reputation. Done badly or not at all and lots of hard work can be undone in minutes.

Simon Maule,
Director
simon@linstockcommunications.com