Sequel's Internal Communications Trends Report 2021
A: Well, we started out last autumn thinking that it was going to be a big, big challenge. Making predictions is a tricky thing at the best of times, but in the middle of a global pandemic? No chance. Things were changing so quickly that we had to take a different approach this time around. But surprisingly I think that actually made things much easier.
A: We had to accept early on that we couldn’t predict what was going to happen in a few weeks’ time, never mind in the whole of 2021. So instead we decided to look back at the lessons we’d learned since the pandemic had started. Which topics had risen to the surface – things that had probably already been there, but had become even more important? And which of those did we think might continue to be important the following year? Essentially, how had the dials changed?
A: It opened the floodgates, really. Suddenly from worrying about whether we’d have anything new to say – because, let’s face it, we’d all been talking about homeworking and similar subjects for months by then – we found that we had to whittle down about 15 proposed topics into a more manageable 10.
And then when it came to writing, again we had to edit down our drafts because we found there was so much to say. Sometimes you don’t realise until you start writing just how much you’ve picked up from client conversations, webinars, Sequel research and day-to-day client projects. There’s a lot to filter, but that’s part of the fun.
A: It felt like a natural fit, as it blended a few ideas that we’d been talking about. And Becky, our Insight & Content Manager, had mentioned a phrase she’d seen of ‘being physically distant, but socially close’.
In some ways we’ve never been closer to friends, family and colleagues because we can pick up our phones and Zoom / Skype / Facetime / Teams / whatever to our heart’s content.
But it’s so easy to just launch some digital tools within your business and think that’s it, job done. You have to support the right kind of collaborative, social and authentic culture to really make them work – and that’s where the human element comes in. Digital is a great enabler, but we think it’s crucial that organisations keep a close eye on strengthening that human connection.
A: Definitely the first chapter about hybrid working. We realised early on in the process that everything flows from this conversation about what the future of ‘the office’ looks like. So many of our clients are talking about setting up a hybrid approach, where people have the option to split their week across different locations (indeed some of them have been working this way for a while already).
Of course this is about finding the best of both worlds – so during the week you can get the benefits of being in a social and collaborative space; as well as the benefits of homeworking.
A: Absolutely… but look at how quickly they were able to move last spring. Organisations that had been thinking about launching collaborative tools like Teams were able to make decisions really fast!
There will have to be cultural changes from leaders, managers and employees to make the most of this new way of working though. For instance, it won’t work if ‘presenteeism’ is a factor, so managers need guidance on what’s expected.
It’s also going to be really important that employees have choice because, as we’ve found in the last year, homeworking is not for everyone.
A: I’m sure there will be some things that are surprising and that IC teams need to react to in real time, but for the most part I think we’ll see similar challenges to the last 12 months. How do you reach people who are spread across multiple locations? How do you maintain your corporate culture? And what does this mean for learning and development? Which, handily, are some of the topics in our 2021 Trends Report!
