In an ironic twist, public sector organizations have dwindling budgets for internal communication. According to a survey conducted by UK consultancy Gatehouse and the Institute of Internal Communication (IoIC), one third of respondents have no dedicated internal communication budget and 27% have less than £10,000. At the same time, respondents identified several priorities for communicating with employees:

• Reengaging employees (40%)
• Communicating strategy and direction (30%)
• Communicating cost cutting (20%)

Tough times are ahead, so companies clearly need to focus on communicating with employees. On the upside, organizations surveyed do have dedicated internal staff: only 6% have no one, half have between one and five communicators, and 21% have more than 20 people dedicated to internal communication.

Image source.

Discussion Starters:

• Other than a lack of commitment to employee communication, what could the slim budgets mean for these UK public companies?
• How was internal communication handled at the last company where you worked? What examples of employee communication do you remember, and were they successful?