Gallagher’s State of the Sector 2023 report – A CIPR Inside(r) Perspective

The 2022/23 State of the Sector report is now available. This year’s results bring together views from over 2,000 organisations representing 53 countries, with 62% of responses coming from North America alone.

Over the past 15 years, the Gallagher report has been studying the sector, capturing insights of how far we’ve evolved in our journey as IC [internal communications] professionals and as a practice, and what lies ahead for the future of the profession. 

This year’s report extends and builds on those very insights, leaning heavily on the need to restructure the approach into all areas of organisational wellbeing, culture and employee experience, and to find new ways of communicating and effectively engaging with people in an increasingly uncertain climate.

And despite what has been yet another challenging year, the study overall highlights a wealth of opportunity for practitioners to shape and positively influence the purpose and role of internal communication within an ever-changing employee landscape.

Here’s a quick snapshot of the top highlights under each theme: 

Culture and belonging

• 74% say the purpose of internal communication is to support culture and belonging
• 34% still view their people managers as a cascade channel
• 26% say their organisation is open to using creativity and humour in communication

Employee experience 

• 56% have started to revisit their EVP
• 72% believe that employee experience is on their leadership team’s radar, but that it is yet to be formalised as an approach.

Navigating uncertainty

• 58% fail to articulate a clear change narrative or design a consistent calendar of activities, and only 47% felt that employees understand their contribution to the strategic narrative.
• 36% don’t do any form of ESG communication

Channels

• ‘Adapting the channel mix to hybrid working’ has dropped to 19% as a priority.
• 46% believe their organisation does not invest enough in communication technology

Benchmarking internal communication

• Demonstrating return on investment was the number one reason for measuring communication
• Around 25% indicated a lack of dedicated budget for internal communication, while only 30% intend to use communication data to build business cases for more investment.
• Only 29% cited developing an internal communication strategy as one of their top priorities for 2023.

Time to recalibrate and become the change we want to see

Based on these findings, there is obviously a gaping disconnect between the perceived importance of internal communication within the wider communications network itself, and how much it’s prioritised and understood in organisations as a strategic function. 

If the pandemic and its aftermath has been any indication, then there is an urgent need to collectively re-invent and redefine the value we can bring as practitioners. We need to recalibrate and re-present the robust capabilities that internal communication can bring, especially at a time with the current perception that our roles could easily get replaced by newer and cleverer innovations.

As Gallagher says, we need to quickly pivot to becoming the experts and trusted advisors that people will instinctively reach out to help drive new behaviours, to influence change and transformation, and to keep things people focused. That’s where we can bring our best value and enhance people and workplace experiences.  

And there is no better time than now to build on our competencies, evolve and grow. As practitioners, we need to raise the bar to reinforce the framework and the standards required to stay relevant and lead the way for those aspiring for a career in internal communication with a clear view of the career and developmental pathways to achieve them. This will also help organisations have a greater appreciation of what internal communication is really for.

A good place to start is by becoming a member of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) and by working on your skills and competencies via continuing professional development (CPD). This is what good internal communication should look like, and your best bet to staying relevant in a very competitive new world of work.

Download a copy of the report.

Binu Jacob Chart.PR, MCIPR is a CIPR 2023-2024 council member and CIPR Inside committee member.