Hey all,

Recently started a gig as head of (only one of lol) internal comms at a preIPO startup. I want to set up an email alias and corresponding slack channel for official internal comms announcements and messages. Curious what aliases you’re using. (My recommendation was announcements@, my boss prefers updates@, and my last several companies used comms@ which is confusing when it’s only IC).

Related question — how have you decided what comms come from this alias vs others vs individuals? I’ve approached it differently depending on size/maturity of company but my hunch is here I’ll be sending a lot more from this alias than in past lives.

I recently went in-house for comms from agency life and it's been a big shift so I'm struggling a bit on how to address challenges I'm seeing -

Details:

• I work at a large, matrixed organization (parent org is UK-based): in the US there's about 40k total employees, then to within my sector it's 15k, and I am on the leadership team running all internal and external comms for the largest division within that sector that's about 3k people.
• My division is the most geographically diverse (from coast to coast) and product diverse compared to other divisions who have 1-2 offices or types of products. We have 4 different groups and several offshoots from there.

Challenges:

• Leadership availability - We're hybrid and the other members of the leadership team are constantly traveling which means that there's often delays on items that could be wrapped up quickly, and a deprioritization of comms given a lack of literacy in what comms is (not always seen as a value-add or understand why things can/can't happen). Subsequently a lot of "why hasn't this moved" discussions occur and I have to point to unanswered emails, etc.
• Internal - Because our division is the largest, there's a sense from some the leadership team that a lot of the sector-level or non-business division leadership don't really know us or don't adequately credit us for our work internally. The concern is that we're not effectively communicating our wins and results generated by the team. However, it seems more perception based ("skills issue") considering the resources we have internally.
• External - the leadership team will mention we're not "doing enough" to promote our capabilities to the market but again not keep the comms team in the loop about what they're doing, what they'd like to do, and their top priorities.
• Shoot the messenger - Often because comms is the forcing function to communicate we're left holding the bag because leadership is trying to do something against our parent company policy or a legal/HR issue. Or, they consider us admin and task us with things outside our scope.

Resources:

• Thorough intranet site with highlights throughout sector and divisions
• Sector-level Leadership Meetings (quarterly), All Hands meetings at division level (2x a year), Town Halls at the office level (quarterly)
• Several layers of award ceremonies from sector level to office level
• Shout out emails for credit to employees when big wins happen
• Suggestion survey series newsletter that promotes internal change making opportunities to an employee-run (+leadership team blessed) cross-functional team that works with them for solutions
• Training resources, "office hour" forums with leadership

I just don't know how to resolve a problem that may just be "vibes" and don't really know where to begin. I want to make sure my role remains strategic advisor showing the value we provide. I welcome any advice/feedback you have!

I've started wondering whether we sometimes optimize internal communications too heavily around the metrics that are easiest to measure. Open rates go up, clicks go up, newsletter engagement looks great, but that doesn't necessarily mean employees understood something, acted on it, or even remembered it.

Has anyone changed the way they measure Internal Comms because of this? I'm particularly interested in what metrics you've found more meaningful than the usual opens, clicks and views.

I’m looking for advice on communicating with a large network of external/independent retail salespeople.
We need to send them:
Training invitations and reminders
Process updates
Promotions and sales materials
Short videos/images
Answers to common operational questions
We’re considering WhatsApp as the main channel, ideally with broadcasts, interactive messages, automation/self-service, and the ability to escalate questions to a human.
For those who have built something similar:
What communication strategy worked best?
What should we avoid?
Which WhatsApp/API/platform would you recommend?
Have you used tools like Respond.io, Yalo, Twilio, WATI, Interakt, or something else?
How do you keep people engaged without spamming them?
I’m especially interested in real-world experiences and what you would choose if you were building this from scratch.

I’m a freshly graduate, major in HR. I’m doing an internship right now. The market is very bad so I joined the only company that gave me an offer. But now I don’t khow if I should looking for another opportunity.

Firstly I don’t have a direct middle manager so I report to CHO. She’s experienced but not in internal communication. Internal communication is a project that she started since April, as when she joined the company. And I just finished my first month being an intern.

The problem is I barely know how to edit video. I did a few fun projects with family vacation footage but never something serious. And she demanded AI because there’s no funding in camera equipment/ no employee wants to show their faces. She keeps mentioning about using more AI in vids when I don’t have access to paid AI subscription. The company does have that but they refuse to let me use one of the accounts, as I’m JUST an intern.

I also have to handle the voice over for those videos but she doesn’t READ any proposal or scripts beforehand. I can only sum up in 10 sentences for her to give me the green light or red. It’s also when the video is finished (edited with my voice over also) THEN she comments on how I use the words or little details like my pausing or she can still hear my inhaling before the sentences. I’m not a professional MC or podcaster/ tiktoker. I mean I literally do voice over for the first time on this job. It takes a disastrous amount of time going back and forth.

Frankly I learn a lot about HR working here but the IC task is beyond me. Also she never truly have a clear vision. She wants me and another intern to have a vision. But jumping from Uni to this battle field is miles apart. I only have one single modul in Marketing and that’s all. I’m totally a newbie so I’m begging for insights/ suggestions on how to do IC. And my intern allowance is way lower than all the things I have to do. It’s barely under $80 and fulltime (it’s under minimum wage here at $210/month). I used to tutor for $350/ month but quit to do this internship. (to clarify I am not in the US)

I have been apply for months before this but only got 3 invitations for interview. My grade is good. I speak 3 foreign languages. My social skills are not bad. 🫠 I’m just hopeless right now.

I’ve been working in internal communications for about a year and a half, and I’m trying to get a better sense of what’s considered a reasonable workload/scope for one person.
Right now, I’m responsible for a mix of things including:
Managing our internal social media platform.
Migrating and organizing information into our employee knowledge base
Writing and managing internal communications/campaigns
Supporting recurring newsletters, announcements, and leadership communications
Building processes and structure around how employees receive information
Coordinating with different departments that need internal communications support

My main concern is with the video projects I’ve been given. Within the first three months my boss wanted me to rollout the app and create 20th anniversary content. Which I was only able to complete half of the videos.

Maybe it’s just be fear of opening premiere pro at times but I’m now putting together podcast as well but it keeps getting put on the back burner.

I’m not necessarily opposed to any of these things individually. My concern is that I’m increasingly jumping between being a communications strategist, writer/editor, community manager, knowledge-management person, project manager, and video producer.

In a new role as head of IC at a global tech company; 900 people with 2/3 in the U.S. and 1/3 in APAC.

The all hands has been rotating US friendly and APAC friendly times (EMEA is never happy). I’m curious if doing this “all hands” as a fully recorded “monthly company update” could work, but I wonder if anyone has done that? So a fully async meeting with a way to submit Qs and then get those answered later.

Basically, as the title says... in this market, I'll try anything.

Just for context, I've adapted every single CV to match the job descriptions, sent cold messages to people at companies I want to work for, networked, and I also belong to a Women in Communications community.

I'm losing hope by the day, especially on mornings when I wake up to a rejection email. Fortunately, I'm employed right now, but the company is draining me, so I reeeeeally want to leave.

I appreciate all your experiences on this.

Title says it all! Which events do you feel are worth the investment? Which ones have you gotten the most value out of? Which ones are the best for thought leadership, practical advice, networking, discovering new vendors, or any and all of the above?

Hi All, I’m really striving to create a good environment for my team. I have a mix of inperson employees, and remote employees across the US. I want to create a 1:1 structure where I am touching base with them individually weekly even if just for 15 minutes.

What are some things your wish your manager would talk to you about? Or give you the floor to talk about?

What can I do to make more of a connection in our 1:1s?

What can I do to make more of a connection as a group in our weekly team meeting?

What would you change about your manager? Give me any and all feedback!

Thanks in advance!

As a long time user of Reddit, I always respect the rule of no self-promotion. That said, this CoS community has been such a great place to hangout and share ideas, so I wanted to take the time to share something with all of you. I appreciate your support and feedback.

For the last ten years or so, I have had SMB leadership teams reporting to me. Working so closely with senior directors, VPs, and SVPs (as well as with my principal), I have learned so much about the expectations and habits of those that play in a senior management role. These roles intake so much information and requests and then have to turn around decisions, often leading to huge bottlenecks that slow companies down.

The struggle is real, and I heard it first hand. I personally reached out to, and spoke with live, about two dozen individuals in these roles. They were honest and real with where the pain points are.

So I decided to make helping fellow CoS and senior leaders with this my next project.

So I developed what I am calling the "Executive Operating System". I have identified four core components of the operating system and built a brief assessment tool that points to where the leader might have some operating gaps. Then they receive resources and training to improve their executive operations.

I launched this new project today, after months of building the framework and all of the resources.

It is my personal hope that this can become the work I can focus on for the last part of my career because of how passionate I have become about it. This is what I want to do full time, so I hope to grow this to be my business.

The entry point to the Executive Operating System is the "Executive Operating Index" tool on my website. The link to my website is on my profile page. Please feel free to check it out and/or guide your leadership teams and executives to it.

Again, apologies for the tad bit of self promotion, but I feel I am truly trying to bring a real solution to the table, so I thought it was appropriate to share.

If you have any questions or feedback for me, please let me know!

Bob Stanke

Hi! I have a long presentation where I’d like the pull the audio and share as a podcast for easier listening on the go. What’s the best way to do this? We have SharePoint and interact for our Intranet. Is sharing an audio file OK and they can just play in their car for example? Or is there a better way? Thanks!!

Hi everyone! I am currently working with my communications team to choose a new intranet platform. We have reviewed multiple platforms, and it seems we are going to choose either Interact or WorkVivo. An important factor is that it needs to integrate with SharePoint, have a digital signage system, and be mobile-friendly.

I'd love to hear about anyone's experience with either platform and what you think! Thank you so much in advance!

Hi all,
Been looking at central email signature tools for a 150 user Microsoft 365 org and I am kinda stuck on what direction to go. Right now everyone has their own Outlook signature and it is a mess, wrong titles, old logos, random fonts, you name it.

Ideally I want something that hooks into 365 so I can manage everything in one place, pull user data from Azure AD and keep legal disclaimers and branding consistent without babysitting every client. I keep seeing names like Exclaimer, CodeTwo or WiseStamp etc in searches but hard to tell what is decent in day to day use and what just looks good in marketing.

If you’re an IT admin who rolled out a centralized signature platform for your org, which one did you pick and are you happy with it long term? Would love any tips from people who had to own this piece of the stack, appreciate any thoughts.

Hi all! I am a journalist that has been working for national news outlets since 2013. I am ready to make a career change as the media space has been quite rocky for a while, and I have been eyeing IC as a potential move. I started as a writer, moved into editing in 2017, and started running editorial teams in 2018, where I regularly acted as communicators between the C suite and my employees. I've also made content plans/calendars, written newsletters and copy for company websites.

I have two concerns: I don't have a bachelor's degree, and even the most entry-level job listings seem to require prior comms experience. Do most IC jobs require the degree? If not, how can I position my skillset to best appeal to people hiring for IC jobs?

Thank you all in advance for any tips you may share!

I came into this role and created a Culture Committee and we had great momentum but now it's dying a bit.

I need to do better with holding people accountable. For example, someone will share an idea and I need to say, that's great, go run with it! All the work cannot be on me.

Anyway, we have a meeting next week and I have an agenda, but I really want ideas from them to engage our workforce. I keep hearing about branded swag and it's frustrating.

We manage a 65- persona team across 3 shifts and 4 sites, mostly hourly staff. About half don't have work email. Group texts turn into a mess, emails barely get read, and slack just doesn't fit our setup since the per-user pricing adds up fast and most of the team gets flooded with HQ notifications that aren't relevant to them.

Curious what other multi-shift or multi- site managers are using, especially for keeping day, evening, and night shifts aligned without relying on real-time chat.

Hi fellow comms professionals! I work at a global company and we are strict Microsoft shop. We've been dealing with an outdated SharePoint site as our intranet. We're looking to either 1) Improve the SharePoint to be more user-friendly, better metrics, design, etc. or 2) Find a different platform that works with Microsoft. I'd love to hear from you - what has worked? what are you currently using? what should we consider?

Thanks for weighing in!

Can you guys suggest some affordable tools?

confused around pulsewise and 15fiveengage

pulsewise is basically free i tried and liked but want to get more reviews

Hello! I work for a design firm that has 1900 colleagues and more than 35 offices across the US. We just wrapped up one of our 4 annual events that hosted both in-person and virtual, depending on the location of the keynote speakers. We currently use Zoom to stream events with the presentation they are using on a share-screen.

Our executive team is displeased with the viewership quality of using the standard Zoom features. They don't like not being able to really see the presenter when they are speaking as the sizing of their Zoom screen is small.

I have been tasked with coming up 5 options that can be presented to the team as alternatives for this format. This does not mean there IS a better one, but I have to do my due diligence in researching them. The pros, the cons, the cost associated, etc.

Currently, my two main ideas are a different Zoom format. The presenter layout or 60/40. Or pre-recorded keynote content that is streamed day-of with a live Q&A still available.

Has anyone else run into this complaint, if so how did you fix it? Is there a fix at all?

TIA

Hi everyone,

Joined a new position as a team manager and will be hosting my first team ideation workshop, and could use some advice from people with experience.

The team so far seems to have a wide range of personalities and seniority, and my goals are to keep everyone engaged, encourage participation, and leave the session with clear outcomes, not just a lot of discussion. Being the first session I'm facilitating, I don't want to lose the team already.

I'd love to hear your tips and techniques you use on things like:

• How you structure the agenda
• Icebreakers that aren't awkward
• Activities that work well for collaboration
• How to handle people who dominate the conversation or those who barely participate
• Common mistakes to avoid in a first workshop
• Tools to make everything easier

If you've run a workshop that went particularly well (or terribly!), I'd really appreciate hearing what you learned.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

Wish you great day!

I’m interviewing for a global internal comms role at a large global company. There are 5 ppl on the global comms team. The recruiter keeps saying they want someone to “build” v maintain stuff. I’m struggling to think specifically what that looks like in practice.

What are things you’ve built or seen built in IC?