Why Internal Communications is at the Center of Digital Transformation

When we talk about the digital transformation of the workplace, we often focus on the business or technical aspects: supply chains, artificial intelligence, product services, and a whole host of other ways to gain efficiencies from new technology. Yet, some leaders seem to forget about those most impacted by a digital transformation: their employees. When employee experience is not part of the digital transformation journey, the entire initiative is at risk.

Gartner Presentation, The Strategic Role of Employee Communications in the Digital Workplace, Mike Gotta, Gartner Digital Workplace Summit 2018, 24–25 September 2018 / London, UK

1. With any company initiative, its success depends on whether employees are able — and motivated — to meet business goals and drive success. If a majority of employees feel disconnected from the business and don’t understand why decisions are being made, the organization’s program is likely to fail.

Which is why internal communications and reaching every employee are essential. If employees aren’t getting relevant information, they may not understand or even know about company-wide business goals. Ultimately, good internal communications support employee engagement that drives desired business outcomes.

And a more connected workforce is a catalyst for improved business results.

2. Strong internal communications drive and sustain change. Because communications are the key link that connects employee experience, company-wide business goals, and digital transformation, HR and internal communications must step up to facilitate transformation across the board.

You need to have a communications program that pulls everything together. And it can’t be an afterthought, it has to be a fully integrated campaign. HR and communicators should think like digital marketers, adopting skills like employee journey mapping.

3. HR and communicators need to reach employees on their terms and involve them in the company story.

Mike talked about the mindset of “How do I create proper communications?” and spoke on the importance of a brand story that comes from a company’s own history: the “goodness” of what it has done in the past. If you can put employees in the company story, they become actors in that story, so that you create a groundswell where employees are stakeholders in the success of the digital transformation initiative.

We wanted to gauge our audience’s perspective on the digital workplace with two polls during our webinar. Were any companies actively driving such an initiative? From the first poll question, it was clear that it was definitely top of mind, with over 50% responding they were currently working on digital workplace transformation.

Only one-third of our audience was NOT focused on digital transformation, and half were working on it now.

Of course, with every new initiative, there are challenges. We wanted to know what those were.

According to our audience, HR and communicators are struggling to make digital transformation a reality. It could be that their CEOs do not truly understand the role internal communications plays with employee experience and how it drives change. Or perhaps communicators still don’t have a seat at the table, so they are experience challenges like budget, ROI, and getting executive buy-in.

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