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Bridging internal and external communications to build trust from the inside out
22nd May 2025
It’s time for the next issue of our Transformation & Change newsletter!
We are focusing this month’s newsletter on the topic of:
🤝 Bridging internal and external communications to build trust from the inside out 🤝
What we cover: Trends in culture, reputation and employee influence; Using social listening to bridge internal and external communications: a Q&A with Anna Fishlock, Partner and Head of Digital at H/Advisors Maitland; It starts from within: Insights from our panel event; Dates to put in your diary; And an approach to transforming employee communications by listening inside and out.
Did you know?
Employees are more influential than ever when it comes to shaping company reputation. According to Gallup, organisations with high employee engagement report a 10% increase in customer loyalty and a 23% rise in profitability.
Moreover, a poor workplace culture can significantly deter potential stakeholders. Research shows that two thirds of UK employees would decline a job offer from a company known for a toxic workplace culture. Additionally, 71% of investors stated they would not invest in a company with a problematic workplace culture.
The bottom line
Employee engagement is crucial for enhancing reputation, driving business success, and maximising ROI. Engaged employees not only contribute to higher productivity and profitability but also serve as brand ambassadors, positively influencing public perception and organisational culture.
Q&A
We interviewed Anna Fishlock, Head of Digital at H/Advisors Maitland, on using social listening to bridge internal and external communications.
Social listening is often seen as a brand or customer insight tool. What’s the case for applying it to internal communications?
Although traditionally used to monitor external sentiment, social listening is becoming increasingly valuable for understanding employee sentiment, engagement and culture. It enables internal communications teams to track informal reactions to strategic initiatives, such as restructuring or leadership changes, and to identify emerging concerns or morale issues before they escalate.
Social listening also helps gauge the reception of internal campaigns or policies and can sometimes surface internal opinion leaders who can shape narratives from within. It allows leadership to stay attuned to the organisation’s “unspoken mood” and tailor messaging in a more responsive and authentic way.
What platforms should internal comms teams be listening to – and how do you decide what’s relevant?
The right platforms will vary depending on a business’s digital infrastructure and employee culture.
We focus on identifying where employees naturally gather and communicate – the “digital water coolers.” A desk-based workforce, for example, will need a different social listening approach than a team predominately working in warehouses or across multiple sites. We tailor our methods accordingly and ideally combine data from several sources. These include internal pulse surveys, usage data from systems like email, intranets, Teams or Slack, internal social feeds, employee review sites such as Glassdoor or Reddit, and social media posts from platforms like X, Instagram and Facebook.
What advice would you give to internal comms professionals who want to start using social listening to inform their work, but aren’t sure where to begin?
Start small, strategic, and focused:
- Pick a few platforms and one clear question, such as “How are employees responding to the new policy on Reddit?”
- Ensure ethical oversight and transparency – either inform employees you’re listening and why, or monitor in a way that respects their privacy
- Tag and theme insights – even using a spreadsheet, begin categorising feedback (e.g., “equipment frustrations,” “positive response to remote work”)
- Translate insights into action – share findings with HR or leadership to show how social listening can provide real-time feedback from large and diverse audiences
Trending
It starts from within: How corporate culture drives reputation and results
Insights from our panel event
Last week, we hosted a panel discussion exploring how effective internal communications can build reputation from within and drive business success. With insights from business leaders and communications experts, the conversation delved into the importance of leadership behaviour in building trust, navigating transparency in times of uncertainty, and the role of purpose in driving culture. Special thanks to our panellists Rupert Soames OBE, Stephen Welton CBE, Jo Osborn and Martin Deboo for contributing to such a rich and thought-provoking conversation.
Key takeaways from the session
Start with the truth: In times of uncertainty, communicating openly with employees isn’t just important – it’s an opportunity to build trust through authentic dialogue. Leaders should “start with the truth and work backwards” – rather than lead with the message they hope will land.
Align words with actions: Culture is shaped – and reinforced – by the everyday actions employees observe in their leaders. When there is consistency in what leaders say and what they do, trust grows. Organisational structures, incentive systems and processes reinforce corporate culture.
Put your audience first: To communicate in a way that resonates, organisations must first listen: understand what motivates employees, challenge assumptions, and bust myths around what people really think and feel. Don’t use jargon – use language that connects at a human level.
Culture and business are intertwined: Culture is no longer a ‘soft’ topic: it’s a strategic asset and a potential risk. Yet many business leaders still struggle to make the connection between culture and results. Analysts are now looking at incentive frameworks, anecdotal data and even Glassdoor to build a picture of company culture and its likely impact on performance. And when the pressure’s on, culture becomes even more visible.
Read more here.
Key dates for the diary 📅
CIPD Festival of Work 2025
11-12 June 2025, London, United Kingdom
Hosted by the CIPD, this event brings together leaders in people, workplace culture, and technology to explore how organisations can build better working lives. The programme covers themes including employee engagement, employee experience, and leadership and management. Our team will be attending – we‘d love to see you there! Link to website
IoIC Festival 2025
18-19 June 2025, Tewinbury, United Kingdom
Hosted by the Institute of Internal Communications, this conference brings together internal comms professionals to connect, inspire and learn. Our Transformation & Change team will be attending as speakers. We’d love to see you there! Link to website
Real Impact, Real Results
26 June 2025, London, United Kingdom
Now in its 12th year, this one-day event explores future-ready internal comms strategies with a focus on delivering real, measurable impact in a fast-changing landscape. The event covers topics such as maximising the power of AI in comms, leadership visibility and navigating change. Link to website
How listening inside and out can transform employee communications
If businesses want their employees’ attention, they must first earn their trust. Today’s workforce expects more than just messages; employees require real dialogue on the topics that matter most to them.
To meet this end, internal communication strategies are increasingly grounded in the analysis of internal data – such as survey responses, clicks, or open rates – to understand how communications perform on internal channels and gain valuable insights into employee habits and preferences. But focusing exclusively on internal communications data can leave blind spots, missing the concerns and conversations emerging beyond company-controlled channels.
To truly connect, companies need an expanded, holistic view of employee sentiment, which can be created by collecting, analysing, and synthesising insights from multiple sources, both inside and outside the organisation.
Our approach
- Understanding the internal landscape: Begin by assessing the internal engagement data. Look at quantitative metrics, then layer in the qualitative insights from surveys, focus groups, and other feedback forums. Together, these insights assess both reach and resonance, showing how internal messages are truly landing.
- Understanding the external landscape: Track and analyse conversations from anonymised employees on public platforms like Reddit, Facebook, X, Instagram, and industry forums to uncover recurring themes, pain points, and emerging interests beyond what’s captured in internal channels.
- Aligning internal engagement with external Insights: Examine how well internal messaging reflects external conversations. By analysing the tone and content of online conversations alongside internal engagement patterns, teams can spot disconnects and discover actionable solutions for making messaging more relevant, resonant, and employee-driven.
The benefits of this integrated approach
- Fostering two-way dialogue: Listening to employee conversations externally and responding through internal channels helps create genuine dialogue, fostering a culture of openness and building trust.
- Creating a clearer picture of employee sentiment: Internal metrics show engagement levels but are less equipped to capture sentiment. Combined, they provides a deeper and more accurate view of employee sentiment, enabling more targeted follow-up communications.
- Enhancing transparency and strengthening advocacy: Social listening highlights communication blind spots, prompting organisations to address key issues transparently. This helps employees feel heard and aligned with company messaging, making them more likely to become brand advocates and strengthening the company’s reputation from the inside-out.
By bridging the internal and external worlds, companies can create a more dynamic and responsive communication strategy – one that is data-driven, employee-informed, and results-oriented.
Read more here.
Please contact Adaora Geiger, Head of Transformation & Change, for more information on our services:
+44 7833 200401 | adaora.geiger@h-advisors.global
