Our annual guide identifies the key trends that are shaping the future of Internal Communications. This years guide focuses on: 1. Employee Feedback 2. Artificial Intelligence 3. Management 4. Internal comms strategy 5. The employee experience 6. Digital culture.

1. 2017
INTERNAL COMMS
TRENDS

2. CONTENTS
1
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
A FOCUS ON MANAGERS
A STRATEGIC FUNCTION
THE EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE
EMPLOYEE FEEDBACK0
20
30
40
50
DIGITAL CULTURE60

3. EMPLOYEE FEEDBACK
01

4. EMPLOYEE FEEDBACK01 4
Only 4% of HR Managers think their system of
accessing employees is effective at measuring
performance - and 83% say their systems need
an overhaul.
(CEB Global, 2015)
HIGHLYENGAGED
ENGAGED
SOMEWHATENGAGED
SOMEWHATDISENGAGED
DISENGAGED
51.5%
56.1%
68.4%
74.1%
77.8%
ANNUAL PERFORMANCE REVIEW
USAGE, BY ENGAGEMENT LEVEL
Source: State of Employee Feedback, 2016

5. EMPLOYEE FEEDBACK01 5
Fortunately we’re in the midst of a pretty significant transformation
in the business landscape around performance management.
With lots of experimentation in:
Continuous
Feedback
Processes
Peer-to-peer
Recognition
Programs
Use of
new
tech

6. EMPLOYEE FEEDBACK01 6
Because the recognition is peer-to-peer,
it feels less like a performance review,
and more like an organic expression of
gratitude. Hugely motivating.
Source: Harvard Business Review, 2016
PEER-TO-PEER
RECOGNITION PROGRAMS

7. EMPLOYEE FEEDBACK01 7
Peer recognition also
leads to a stronger
sense of being part of
a hard-working and
high-achieving team.
Source: Rob Peters, CEO Standard of Trust
Recognition is becoming
more specific and
personal, which is a
strength of peer-to-peer
recognition.

8. EMPLOYEE FEEDBACK01 8
CONTINUOUS FEEDBACK
PROCESSES
During the year, new things will come along. Employees are iterating and experimenting,
and oftentimes that means they’re not necessarily working towards what they originally
listed as an annual objective.
Nevertheless, employees would end up in an irrelevant discussion in December, trying to
assess whether they’d fulfilled the goals they’d drafted 11 months earlier.
Source: Diane Gherson
IBM’s Chief Human Resource Officer

9. EMPLOYEE FEEDBACK01 9
According to PwC, nearly 60% of survey respondents reported that they
would like feedback on a daily or weekly basis – a number that increased
to 72% for employees under the age of 30.
Furthermore, 80% of GEN Y said that they would prefer on the spot
feedback and recognition over more formal reviews.
Source: PwC Millennials at work Reshaping the workplace

10. EMPLOYEE FEEDBACK01 10
CONTINUOUS PEER-TO-PEER
RECOGNITION PROGRAMS
It looks at the process, and not just the end result.
It does not solely involve a 'final grade'. This helps to reduce the fear of
Trying new things is the only way to develop performance.
That's why continuous peer-to-peer feedback could be the answer:
failure that many employees experience when they try new things.

11. EMPLOYEE FEEDBACK01 11
Josh Bersin,
Deloitte (2016)
A new market has emerged:
Employee feedback apps for
the corporate marketplace.
These tools are powerful and
disruptive, and they have the
potential to redefine how we
manage our organisations.
USE
NEW
TECH
OF

12. EMPLOYEE FEEDBACK01 12
USE OF NEW TECH HAS GIVEN
A Pulse Survey is a fast and
frequent survey tool, that
gives a quick insight into the
health of an organisation.
They provide, amongst other
things...
RISE TO PULSE SURVEYS
Source: 6Q, the employee engagement survey system

13. EMPLOYEE FEEDBACK01 13
Encourages open communication
Detailed information on the organisation
Near real-time measurement of employee satisfaction
Frequent reminder that leadership values employee feedback
Helps direct future employee engagement activities
Improves employee health & happiness
HIGHER RESPONSE RATES
THAN ANNUAL SURVEYS

14. 02
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

15. A FOCUS ON MANAGERS03 15ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE02 15
Source: Mckinsey & Company, 2016
Artificial Intelligence looks
set to cause great disruption
in the world of work.
With anything that can be
automated, likely to be.

16. A FOCUS ON MANAGERS03 16ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE02 16
Ultimately AI will understand who needs to be connected with what and whom.
Which it will achieve through the creation of a Knowledge Graph.
Save & index every single document, message or file.
Not only that, it will be able to connect eveything of relevance together.
Source: MIT Sloan Management Review, 2016
IN THE WORKPLACE, AI WILL:

17. A FOCUS ON MANAGERS03 17ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE02 17
Reid Hoffman, LinkedIn Cofounder 2016
The knowledge graph will represent the interconnection
of all the data and communications within your company.
Just as a social
graph represents the
interconnection of
relationships in an
online social network.
KNOWLEDGE
GRAPH

18. A FOCUS ON MANAGERS03 18ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE02 18
1. IMPROVED
UNDERSTANDING
AND INTELLIGENCE
A Knowledge Graph will allow Internal
Communications teams to measure, identify
and provide effective solutions for less tangible
workplace factors, such as sentiment; e.g.
sentiment towards certain campaigns, policies or
business decisions.
BENEFITS OF AI
FOR INTERNAL
COMMS:

19. A FOCUS ON MANAGERS03 19ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE02 19
2. FEEDBACK AND
PERFORMANCE REVIEWS
For the majority of jobs, reviews tend to be subjective in nature.
AI can identify every behaviour, idea and action that an employee
makes. Allowing their value to be objectively measured.
Clear strengths, weaknesses and areas for improvement can be
easily and quickly highlighted.
AI will change that.

20. A FOCUS ON MANAGERS03 20ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE02 20
3. EMPLOYEE TRAINING
and ONBOARDING
The Knowledge Graph will be able to answer any question a new recruit may have.
Furthermore:
AI can quickly bring the new recruit up to speed on past and current projects,
as well as the outcome of recent meetings.
AI can serve up things it deems the new employee should learn and understand.

21. A FOCUS ON MANAGERS03 21ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE02 21
4. Redefining Management
54%
30%
10%
7%
Developing people &
engaging with stakeholders
Solving problems &
collaborating
Strategy & Innovation
Administrative
coordination &
control
How managers spend their time.
Source: Accenture survey 2016

22. A FOCUS ON MANAGERS03 22ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE02 22
Bots can do many admin tasks much better and faster than their human counterparts.
This will free managers up to focus on the things they as humans are better at doing.
It’s important to view AI as a colleague.
and not as a competitor or replacement.
Source: Harvard Business Review, 2016

23. 03
A FOCUS ON MANAGERS

24. A FOCUS ON MANAGERS03 24
When it comes to identifying the drivers of employee engagement, numerous
studies, organisations and foremost thinkers all recognise there being one single most
important variable:
Source: CIPD, 2016
THE QUALITY OF THE RELATIONSHIP
BETWEEN EMPLOYEES AND THEIR
DIRECT MANAGERS OR SUPERVISORS.

25. A FOCUS ON MANAGERS03 25
They’ve become reliant on one-way digital channels, e.g:
Manager
toolkits
E-newsletters
Email
announcements
The cascading of information in an
organisation, has led to managers
arguably becoming too focussed on
passing information down.

26. A FOCUS ON MANAGERS03 26
Help is at hand for
managers in creating
better two-way dialogue,
and it comes in the form
of social media channels.
In 2017, leadership and
management must recognise that
the use of social media is not a
nice to have, but a fundamental
skill that they must have as
managers.
Source: Chartered Management Institute, 2016

27. A FOCUS ON MANAGERS03 27
To see why else a focus on management communications is so important, it's worth
looking at the main types of Internal Communications between employees.
Of which there can be said to be four:
1. Management to non-management employees
2. Non-management employees to management
3. Non-management employees to non-management employees
4. Management to management

28. A FOCUS ON MANAGERS03 28
For some reason,
management to
management
communications
seem to have
been neglected.

29. A FOCUS ON MANAGERS03 29
IC pro's need to understand the types of
behaviours that are needed to help improve
the flow of information from manager to
manager, so that the right tools and training
can be made available to them.

30. A FOCUS ON MANAGERS03 30
Source: The 2016 Deloitte Millennial Survey - Winning over the next generation of leaders
In fact, understanding of
the workforce has revealed
that the next generation of
managers – millennials – feel
woefully under prepared for
management.

31. A FOCUS ON MANAGERS03 31
And what with it being widely cited
that employees rate their manager’s
communication skills as poor...
...Manager communications is an area that
must be prioritised by organisations in 2017.
Source: Gallup, 2015

32. 04
A STRATEGIC FUNCTION

33. A STRATEGIC FUNCTION04 33
It has become clear that there
are a number of changes in the
workplace that are driving
the need for far more strategic
internal communications.

34. A STRATEGIC FUNCTION04 34
1. Millennials. They demand to have a clear purpose and want to
work for organisations with distinct values that they themselves share.
2. The rise of internal social media. Organisations must understand
how the use of social media can support business objectives.

35. A STRATEGIC FUNCTION04 35
3. The demand for more internal communications, often with
less resource. A need to prioritise comms, ensuring all comms are
linked to business strategy.
4. The development of metrics to determine employee engagement
and outcomes of internal comms. IC being held far more accountable
for their actions.

36. A STRATEGIC FUNCTION04 36
And more specifically on
the outcomes of engagement:
EMPLOYEE
PERFORMANCE
INCREASES IN
Engagement for
Engagement Sake
Internal communications need
to focus less on simply
Source: CIO, 2016

37. A STRATEGIC FUNCTION04 37
Most initiatives do not fail because of missing ideas
or concepts. They fail because the intentions, goals
and hard information do not properly reach their
often company-wide audience.
Good ideas need good strategy to
realise their potential
Frank Wolf, Staffbase
Reid Hoffman, Founder, LinkedIn

38. A STRATEGIC FUNCTION04 38
Some of the ways by which Internal Communications can get more strategic:
Internal Communications must
continually reinforce the core
values of the organisation.
Ultimately, these values should be
reflected in employee behaviour
and output.
1. ALIGNED
WITH VALUES

39. A STRATEGIC FUNCTION04 39
2. FORMING
STRATEGIC
PARTNERSHIPS
WITH OTHER
DEPARTMENTS
The Internal Communications function simply cannot be strategic by itself.
It has to form partnerships with all other areas of the business if its strategy is to
be effective.

40. A STRATEGIC FUNCTION04 40
What should be obvious is how any internal
communications strategy must be tied
to a business goal. This helps leadership
to recognise the importance of internal
communications.
3. LEADERSHIP BEING REALLY
CLEAR ON THE LINK BETWEEN
INTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS
ACTIVITY AND THE OVERALL
BUSINESS STRATEGY

41. A STRATEGIC FUNCTION04 41
Savers do what they are told to do and what
is expected of them.
Investors are different.
They continually invest in themselves, looking
for new opportunities to develop themselves
at work.
4. HELP CREATE INVESTORS,
INSTEAD OF SAVERS
Source: Jane sparrow, 2016

42. A STRATEGIC FUNCTION04 42
This is to ensure everyone is
clear on - and driven by - theirs,
and the common purpose.
Internal Communications
NEEDS TO have A seat at
the strategic table.

43. THE EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE
05

44. THE EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE05 44
MANY Organisations ARE
IMPROVING THEIR CUSTOMER
experience, BY USING AN
employee-centric APPROACH.
Tempkin group, 2015

45. THE EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE05 45
1. The ongoing war for talent
2. Millennial mind-set
3. Employees want a ‘consumer-like’ experience at work.
4. Relationship between customer experience and employee experience.
5. Employee Engagement linked to productivity
A requirement, largely being driven by five key trends:
Source: IBM Institute for Business Value.

46. THE EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE05 46
Key components of the Employee
Experience:
Physical
Environment
Tools &
Technologies
Connections &
relationships
Source: Jeanne Meister, Forbes 2017

47. THE EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE05 47
A good way of approaching the three key
components of the employee experience, is
to map the employee journey:
to ongoing
engagement and
communication
to retirement,
resignation or
termination
Organisations should understand
all the steps an employee goes
through on their journey.
From recruitment
and onboarding

48. THE EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE05 48
1. The areas that need to be addressed to
improve the Employee Experience.
2. The touch-points through which
organisations should ensure the
companies brand values and attributes
are being experienced and brought
to life.
Mapping the employee journey
will identify:

49. THE EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE05 49
Ultimately the design of the
employee experience must
result in a personalised
experience for each and
every employee.
Source: IBM Institute for Business Value.

50. DIGITAL CULTURE
06

51. DIGITAL CULTURE06 51
SIMPLY JUST
SWITCHING ON
NEW TECHNOLOGY
DOESN T CUT IT.'
' '
The right culture and employee behaviour must be
in place beforehand to support new digital tools.
Therefore change management programs and
a focus on digital literacy are key for successful
adoption of new digital tools.
Source: Paul Miller - Digital Workplace Group

52. DIGITAL CULTURE06 52
LEADERSHIP BECOMING
FAR MORE DIGITAL
Leaders will not only use digital channels
more heavily as a way to help lead. But
their use of digital – leading by example
– will be a way of increasing adoption of
digital tools throughout an organisation.
Source: Deloitte - Building your digital DNA.

53. DIGITAL CULTURE06 53
Long, lengthy emails that sit within long, messy
email chains are not how employees want to
communicate with one another.
Employees want to communicate in the same
way as they do in the consumer world.
Instant messaging is also better suited to the
mobile way in which employees are working.
INSTANT MESSAGING
Source: Business 2 Community, 2016

54. DIGITAL CULTURE06 54
INTELLIGENT
INSTANT MESSAGING
‘Intelligent Bots’ are what will eventually do a lot of the
instant messaging on behalf of employees. Bots will
be equipped with Artificial Intelligence to know what
information employees are after and where to get it from.
They will become your intelligent digital colleague, and
your link to the entire digital workplace.

55. DIGITAL CULTURE06 55
INTRANETS HAVE BECOME
THE FRONT DOOR TO
THE WIDER DIGITAL
WORKPLACE.
No longer are Intranets merely a dumping ground for latest company news and links.
Intranets will continue to be important and will further evolve to the needs of a mobile, remote
workforce.
Source: James Robertson, 2017

56. DIGITAL CULTURE06 56
AUGMENTED REALITY
The obvious success of Pokemon Go in the
consumer world, highlights the huge potential
Augmented Reality technology – when gamified –
has when incorporated within the workplace.
The integration of the real world with a virtual
one provides opportunities for how employees
not only perform their role, but how they learn
and develop, and work with others.

57. DIGITAL CULTURE06 57
VIRTUAL REALITY
Facebook’s purchase of Oculus Rift, shows that
Zuckerberg is betting big on VR being a dominant
communications channel.
You’ll see this technology being used more and more
in the workplace. Learning, team based working
scenarios and team communications are all things
that can be done in a completely immersive and truly
engaging way.

58. CONCLUSION
We hope you found our internal communication trends helpful.
You can keep up to date with all of our internal communications
thinking at our blog (rimadesign.com/blog).
To make sure you never miss a thing you can follow us on
Twitter @rima_design And linkedIn
It would be great to know what you thought about the trends
we’ve covered. And of course, if you’d like any further info or
help on any of the topics covered then please don’t hesitate to get
in touch.
We’re a 30 year old
independent design
agency who specialise in
internal communications.
We work with a number
of large corporate clients
and for a couple of them
we are also responsible
for their in-house design
function.
To find out a bit more
about us then simply take
a look at our website or
get in touch.
About us…
info@rimadesign.com | Tel: +44 (0) 207 902 1310
THANKS!

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