How Comms Can Collaborate Across Business Functions in 2023

Jan 23

In the absence of a crystal ball or tarot deck, here’s where we see internal comms skills fitting in across business functions in 2023.

How Comms Can Collaborate Across Business Functions in 2023

During last month’s Ragan Communications Leadership Council member retreat at The Ritz Carlton in Laguna Niguel, California, attendees broke into groups to discuss the pros and cons of various operating structures within their organizations. As members shared how their orgs were structured, it became clear that everyone was focused on embedding comms across business functions.

Since the world changed in 2020, internal communicators began to experience some long overdue time in the spotlight as “mixternal” comms became a thing. In 2021, United Airlines realized that, in the midst of an unprecedented crisis like flight attendant furloughs, it made more sense to tell employees and the general public of the latest developments simultaneously. At the rate things were changing, employees who weren’t informed of the imminent change by their managers or leadership would find out through external channels first.

In 2022, the breadth of issues that internal communicators suddenly had to navigate expanded even more through an increased focus on employee value propositions (EVP), employer branding, employee privacy and more. As we kick off a new year, the importance of employee communications will only become more crucial to the stability and growth of your business. In the absence of a crystal ball or tarot deck, here’s where we see internal comms skills fitting in across business functions in 2023.