Internal Communications – Signposting you to success

Posted on: 6 July 2023

Have you identified any gaps in your internal communications knowledge and do you know where to go to plug these? What do you need to know to make your next career move? Do you have a sticky communications question and are keen to hear how others are solving those?

This guide includes pointers to a range of resources to help you develop skills to tackle some of the big issues you will face during your internal communications career. As well as resources from our own Government Communication Service, we’ve included examples from a community of experts out there: from sectors including business, charity and public sector, all tackling similar challenges in different ways.

From our own government-wide network of internal communicators, to professional membership bodies such as the Chartered Institute of PR, the International Association of Business Communicators and the Institute of Internal Communication* and individual specialist bloggers, we encourage you to explore and learn from others how they approach engaging and motivating colleagues.

This isn’t an exhaustive list, just a starting point for you to begin your own journey of self-directed learning. It considers a range of learning styles including articles, webinars and podcasts so, however you learn best, there should be something for you.

When you do some learning, why not tell others how you got on by sharing your experiences. Or, if you have a favourite resource not mentioned here, email GCS@cabinetoffice.gov.uk so we can keep building this list.  

Note: All content listed here was free to access at the time of publication. External content signposted in this guide is not managed by GCS. Interacting with the content may require or result in personal data transfer to this external website; we advise you to check their privacy policy before use.

* Membership of CIPR, IABC and IoIC is by paid-for subscriptions. You may join them as an individual, or your organisation may support corporate membership or reimburse membership fees. Check your organisation’s policy for details.

Getting started

Internal communications planning and strategy

What are you aiming to achieve by communicating? Who are you communicating with? And how will you know you have succeeded? These are all important questions every strategic communicator asks themselves and their stakeholders.

The following resources will help you to decide what questions to ask when planning your communications, to understand your audience and to set clear, measurable objectives.

GCS guides to internal communications strategy

Interesting strategy guides

Helpful strategic planning tools

Change communications and dealing with uncertainty

Communicating change is a skill every internal communicator should have. No two change programmes are the same and you will come across a range of approaches to change in your career. No matter which change model you are using, there are some fundamental principles that every internal communicator should bear in mind – this list gives you a flavour:

GCS guides to change

Helpful change communication guides

Change communication models and tools

Sometimes, you’ll find yourself having to make sense of and communicate complicated messages during fast-moving and turbulent times. This GCS webinar could help you navigate: Resilience: How to keep yourself going in challenging times (GCS Connect – member access) 2 CDP points.

Leading and influencing

No matter where you are in your internal communication career, you will need to draw on your leadership and influencing skills to build trusting relationships and bring your stakeholders with you. Firstly, who are your stakeholders? This free download will help you identify and prioritise your stakeholders and plan your engagement: Guide: Stakeholder identification and mapping (PR Academy)

Amongst your stakeholders, there are likely to be some senior leaders. Here are some resources that may help you work with senior leaders and provide advice that they can trust.

Working with stakeholders can sometimes mean managing some tricky situations and difficult relationships. You’re not alone in this and these guides could help you find a way through:

Personal impact

To be seen as a trusted adviser, you need to have credibility. Being able to present yourself professionally and with confidence is an essential skill as an internal communicator, as is the ability to make sense of the world around you and understand why other people feel the way they do.

Listening to colleagues – best practice

Effective communication flows in two directions and listening is an important skill for internal communicators. By listening, we can understand what our audiences are thinking and feeling. Listening gives us that all-important insight we need to plan our communications and feedback to help us learn what’s working and what’s not. Leaders who listen are seen as empathic and caring.

Guides to listening and gathering insight

Changing behaviour

A significant proportion of your work as an internal communicator will be about changing the behaviour of your audience – whether that’s encouraging colleagues to start doing something new, to stop doing something or to maintain an established behaviour. Communication is just one of many factors governing behaviour change and it’s important to understand where it can make an impact and where other things come into play.

The COM-B model is a very useful tool that will help you think through whether people have the capability to make the required change, whether they have the opportunity – be that time, the right equipment and so on – and the motivation. Understanding the barriers to change will help you identify how communication can help to overcome them.

Helpful guides to behaviour change

Evaluation

How do you understand the impact of your work? How do you know what works and what doesn’t? Evaluation is an essential part of strategic internal communication and will help you show how your work has contributed to your organisation’s overall strategic aims.

Internal communication evaluation guides

Influential people and organisations to follow

Related content

Related topics