Why leadership communication needs more courage
By Sally Pritchett
CEO
Why honest, human leadership communication matters most when messages are difficult.
Difficult leadership messages often go through a lot of people before employees ever see them. Facts are checked, risks are considered and language is carefully adjusted. All of that has a purpose. But somewhere in that process, a message can become so safe that it stops sounding true to what people are actually experiencing.
This is where leadership communication can lose trust. Not because leaders are deliberately withholding information, but because difficult messages are often edited until they become broader, less specific and further removed from reality.
During organisational change or uncertainty, that instinct is understandable. It’s also exactly when leaders need more courage.
In leadership communication, courage doesn’t mean saying everything or abandoning care. It means being prepared to acknowledge difficult realities, being clear about uncertainty and giving employees meaningful context rather than communicating around what’s happening.
Courage doesn’t mean saying everything
Being honest with employees doesn’t mean sharing every detail or communicating before decisions are ready. It means resisting the temptation to fill uncertainty with vague reassurance.
A clear “we don’t know yet” can be more credible than language that sounds confident but tells people very little. When leaders cannot provide the full answer, they can still explain what’s known, what’s being worked through and when people can expect to hear more. That context matters. Without it, people are left to fill in the gaps themselves. That becomes particularly difficult when decisions affect jobs, teams, workloads or working conditions.
Strong internal communications therefore depend as much on judgement as information. The question is not simply, “What can we say?” It’s, “What do people reasonably need from us at this point?”. Strategic people and culture communication can help leaders work through that judgement, deciding what employees need to understand now and how to communicate uncertainty honestly.
Sounding professional isn’t the same as sounding credible
Leadership communication can also become less believable when too much effort goes into making it sound like leadership communication.
Employees can tell when language feels written for approval rather than understanding. Phrases that look perfectly acceptable on a slide or in a leadership briefing can feel strangely distant when someone is worried about their role or struggling with change. That doesn’t mean every message needs to be conversational or emotional. It means the language should fit the moment. Sometimes that involves acknowledging that a decision will be difficult for people. Sometimes it means explaining the trade-offs behind it. Sometimes it simply means using words that a leader would actually say out loud.
These are leadership communication skills that cannot be reduced to tone of voice guidelines. They require an understanding of the organisation, the audience and the context in which the message will land. The right communication support can help leaders find language that feels natural and specific to the moment, without losing the consistency the organisation needs.
Give leaders the message, not a script
During organisational change, managers and leaders often need to communicate the same core messages across different teams. Consistency matters, as employees shouldn’t hear completely different explanations depending on who they ask. But consistency can easily turn into scripting.
Give ten leaders the same paragraph and employees will hear the paragraph. Give those leaders a clear explanation of the decision, the essential facts, the questions people are likely to ask and the key messages they should communicate, and they can have a real conversation.
Good manager communication depends on that room for judgement. Managers need enough structure to stay aligned, but enough understanding and confidence to respond to the people in front of them.
Strategic people and culture communication should support that balance. It can create shared messages, talking points and principles without removing the judgement of the people delivering them. Managers need to understand what they are communicating, not simply repeat it.
Difficult communication cannot be templated away
Templates are useful. So are message frameworks, FAQs and talking points. But they cannot decide what needs to be acknowledged, where tone needs care or whether a message about areas such as wellbeing, inclusion or workplace culture acknowledges what employees are actually experiencing.
The same applies to AI communication tools. AI can help organise a first draft, simplify language or generate options. But it doesn’t know the history or consequences behind a sensitive decision. It cannot take responsibility for judging what needs to be acknowledged or how a message is likely to land in a particular organisation. That is where human judgement and courage still matter. Leaders and communicators need to make the call on what should be said plainly and where greater care is needed.
As AI makes it easier to produce polished workplace communication quickly, that human judgement matters even more. A message can be consistent and perfectly structured while still being wrong for the moment.
That is why AI communication should support the people making those judgements, rather than become a substitute for them.
The organisations that communicate well through change won’t necessarily be the ones with the best templates or the smoothest language. They will be the ones whose leaders are prepared to deal with what is actually happening, give people meaningful context and communicate in a way they can believe.
That takes more than good wording. It takes courage.
Need your leaders to communicate with more honesty, confidence and care? Speak to us about our Leadership Communication That Builds Trust workshop, built to help leaders and communicators handle complex workplace messages in a way employees can believe.
Employee Networks Not Working? 4 Ways to Rethink Your ERG Strategy
By Sally Pritchett
CEO
How clear purpose and better support can help employee resource groups work more effectively.
Over time, the same small group may end up organising every event. Meetings become updates rather than decisions. Employees raise issues, but nobody is clear about what happens next. Senior sponsors attend occasionally, yet the issues raised rarely result in action.
When a network reaches this point, it may need a more clearly defined remit, better support and a more honest conversation about what the organisation expects it to achieve.
Here are four ways organisations can give employee networks the structure and support they need to work more effectively.
1. Start by getting clear on purpose
Many employee resource groups are expected to support workplace belonging, educate colleagues, advise the business and influence culture at the same time. Those aims can all be valid, but they require different activities and different routes for getting decisions made.
Without clarity, a network can end up taking on too much. Members may get pulled into issues that sit outside the network’s role, while other concerns go unresolved because it is not clear who should deal with them.
A useful ERG strategy should set out what the network is there to do, what it can influence and where its responsibility ends.
In a recent project, we helped a global organisation create a practical playbook for its employee networks. With input from existing network leads and co-leads, it covered the key stages of starting, running and growing a network, with guidance and templates people could use. This gave employees a clearer structure to work from, while still leaving room for different needs across the organisation.
2. Give volunteers proper support
Employee networks often depend on people fitting the work around already demanding roles. That might mean preparing an event after hours, answering messages between meetings or becoming the unofficial contact for colleagues who need support.
Over time, a handful of committed volunteers can end up carrying the network. Others may step back because they cannot make the same time commitment, while those doing the most can feel their contribution is valued, but not properly supported.
Volunteers need clear roles and practical help. That could mean agreed time for network activity, simple planning tools or access to communication support when a campaign needs specialist input.
3. Make leadership support practical
A named executive sponsor can give an ERG visibility, but visibility alone does not move anything forward. Sponsors need to understand what members need from them, whether that means listening to difficult feedback, removing a barrier or helping an issue reach the right decision-maker.
Clear, practical sponsor guidance can help leaders understand that role. There also needs to be a reliable communication route between sponsors and network leaders so that important issues do not have to wait for the next scheduled meeting.
If network leaders only speak to sponsors once a quarter, concerns can stall. Over time, members may see little connection between speaking up and what happens next.
4. Don’t put too much responsibility on the network
Employee resource groups can surface issues that senior teams might otherwise miss. They can bring employee voice into decisions, test ideas and help organisations understand how communication or workplace experiences are landing with different groups.
But there are limits to what an ERG can address on its own, particularly when wider organisational issues also need attention. If underrepresented employees are expected to identify problems and then help fix them, too much of the responsibility can end up falling on the people most affected.
Responsibility for addressing those issues needs to sit with the organisation. Inclusion communication can support that work by helping people understand how inclusion shows up in day-to-day behaviour, why it matters and what that means for how people work together. Wider culture and communication work can support that responsibility by helping employees understand expected behaviours, giving leaders a consistent way to talk about sensitive issues and turning concerns raised through networks into action across the organisation.
If your employee networks are losing momentum or relying too heavily on volunteers, speak to us about creating the structure, communication and leadership support they need to help them work more effectively. Read more
Reimagining flexibility means changing the conversation
By Sally Pritchett
CEO
Conversation #8 - Reimagining flexibility
Part of our 10 BIG workplace conversations series. Here, we explore how communication can help organisations find an approach that works for both people and performance.
Flexible working has become one of the most sensitive workplace conversations of recent years.
For leaders, the focus is often on performance, collaboration, culture and making better use of office space. For employees, it’s about autonomy, trust, balance and being able to do good work in a way that fits their personal lives.
When those views are not brought together through careful, considered communication, flexibility can quickly become a source of tension. The return-to-office debate has shown how easily this happens.
Flexibility is not just a policy issue
A flexible working policy might set out the rules, but communication helps determine whether people understand, trust and accept them. Flexibility is not only about where people work. It also includes fairness, belonging, performance, wellbeing, trust in leadership and the everyday relationship between managers and their teams.
Handled well, communication helps people understand why decisions have been made and what they mean in practice. Handled badly, it can create confusion, resentment and a sense that the business says one thing but does another.
That means people need more than the detail of the policy. They need the story behind the decision:
- Why are we taking this approach?
- What are we trying to protect or improve?
- How will this help the business perform?
- How will it support people to do their best work?
- What will stay flexible, and where do we need more consistency?
A clear narrative creates a more balanced conversation about how flexibility can support performance, connection and inclusion in a way that works for the organisation and its people.
Getting the conversation wrong carries real business risk
When communication around flexibility is vague or inconsistent, organisations risk more than a few difficult questions. They risk losing talent, weakening employee engagement, damaging their employer brand and even creating a culture gap.
This is where well-designed communications help people feel listened to and cared for. Difficult decisions do not have to be damaging. As strategic people and culture communicators, we help frame the conversation in the right way so people understand the steps taken to reach a challenging decision – and respond positively.
If they can see how their views have been considered and feel the organisation has been honest about any trade-offs, employees are more likely to accept the decision.
Language choice is crucial. Because in sensitive workplace conversations, words carry weight. A message designed around “getting people back to the office” is likely to land very differently to one designed around connection, performance and the moments where being together really matter.
Flexibility will not mean the same thing for everyone
One of the biggest communication mistakes organisations make is talking about flexibility as if everyone experiences it in the same way. For an office-based employee, flexibility might mean hybrid working. For a frontline colleague, it might mean more control over shifts, better notice of working patterns or a manager who understands personal commitments. For a leader, it could mean knowing when teams need to come together and when they can work independently, and for managers, it often means making fair decisions in real-life situations.
Good communication makes these differences visible. That might involve showing real examples of flexibility across different roles, creating manager guides that help leaders explain decisions or launching an internal communications campaign that reinforces flexibility is about trust, fairness and performance, not just working from home.
Where strategic communication makes the difference
We help communications teams define the conversation about working flexibly from the start. We identify what people need to hear, where the sensitive points are and how to turn policy detail into honest, practical messages people understand and trust.
That can mean:
- Developing a core narrative for a new flexible working approach
- Creating leader and manager messaging guides for difficult conversations
- Explaining the “why” to employees, not just the policy
- Creating role-specific communication so flexibility feels relevant across the workforce
- Shaping employee voice activity so people feel listened to before decisions are made
- Turning complex HR language into clear, practical messages that people recognise
The opportunity for organisations right now isn’t to keep debating whether flexibility should exist, but to have a better conversation about how it works.
Need help communicating flexible working?
If you are reviewing flexible working or struggling to build trust around your approach, we can help turn policy into a conversation people understand.
As strategic people and culture communications experts, we work with organisations to develop the narrative, manager communication and employee campaigns that explain why decisions are being made, what they mean in practice and how flexibility can work across different roles.
Get in touch to discuss how we could support your approach to flexible working.
5 ways to build trust during organisational change
By Sally Pritchett
CEO
How clear, honest and consistent communication can protect employee trust throughout organisational change.
Organisational change can put trust under pressure at any point. Employees may struggle to understand what is changing, question whether leaders are being honest or feel that decisions are made without listening to them. Managers may find themselves fielding questions they cannot answer. Even when a change programme starts well, trust can weaken as plans develop and the impact becomes clearer.
Strategic people and culture communication can help organisations spot where trust is beginning to fray and respond before uncertainty turns into disengagement. That might mean making the change easier to understand, helping leaders communicate more credibly or creating better ways for employees to ask questions and be heard.
Here are five practical ways communication can support organisational change and protect employee trust.
1. Explain clearly what is changing and why
Broad language about growth, efficiency or transformation rarely gives employees enough information to understand what’s happening. When a message leaves obvious gaps, people often fill them with rumours, assumptions or worst-case scenarios.
A clear change story should explain the context in straightforward language. What is changing? Why is it happening now? What has already been decided? What is still being worked through? What could it mean for different employees? It should reflect the realities of different roles and locations rather than relying on one message for everyone.
Even if not every detail is decided straight away, saying that clearly is more useful than hiding uncertainty behind vague language.
2. Help leaders communicate with honesty and credibility
Leadership communication loses credibility when it feels overly polished or avoids the difficult parts of the change.
Even a carefully written message can fail to land if it does not sound like the person delivering it or acknowledge what employees are likely to be thinking. AI tools can make that problem worse when leaders use them to produce generic messages without adding their own judgement, context or voice.
Strategic communicators can help leaders speak about uncertainty in a way that feels credible and authentic. This might involve creating a clear narrative, preparing leaders for difficult questions and making sure their words match the decisions and behaviours employees can see.
3. Give managers the support to handle team conversations
Employees often turn to their line manager before they contact HR or revisit an organisation-wide announcement.
When managers do not know what they can say, they may avoid the conversation or interpret the message differently from one another. This can leave employees with an uneven experience of the same change.
Managers need practical support throughout the process, not just around the initial announcement. Useful tools might include talking points, FAQs and guidance for sensitive conversations. Managers also need somewhere to raise questions they cannot answer and share what they are hearing from their teams.
Not every conversation between a manager and their team will be identical, but change communication toolkits help keep the facts consistent while giving managers the freedom to talk naturally.
4. Keep communicating as the change develops
A launch can create a burst of attention, but lasting change needs more than fireworks. It needs a bonfire that people can keep gathering around.
Change takes time to process. One announcement rarely gives people enough time to understand what it means for them. New questions often emerge when decisions begin to affect day-to-day work or when plans change along the way.
A clear communication rhythm helps people know when they can expect updates and where to go for reliable information. It also gives leaders a chance to address new concerns, explain decisions and show what progress is being made.
Regular communication matters most when it adds something useful. Repeating the same message without answering the questions employees are actually asking can damage trust rather than strengthen it.
Read our practical guide for tips on creating longer-term change communications.
5. Create meaningful ways for employees to be heard
Trust drops when communication feels like something being done to employees rather than with them. Employees need opportunities to raise concerns, ask questions and offer suggestions. Those opportunities should come in more than one form, so people can take part in a way that feels comfortable and accessible to them.
Surveys, listening sessions and manager feedback can all help organisations understand how the change is landing. But asking for views is only the first step.
Employees also need to hear what the organisation has learned, what it will do differently and what cannot change. Not every suggestion will lead to action, but silence after asking for feedback can do more harm than not asking at all.
See how well you’re tuning into your workforce with our THRIVE diagnostic tool.
Protect trust throughout the change process
Employee trust does not depend on one announcement. It is built when what people hear matches what they experience as change unfolds.
Clear explanations, credible leadership communication and honest team conversations can all help protect trust when uncertainty rises.
If organisational change is creating uncertainty, speak to us about the messages, leader guidance, manager tools and listening approach needed to help employees feel informed and confident about what comes next.
7 reasons employee engagement is low
By Sally Pritchett
CEO
Weak engagement affects more than morale. It holds back productivity, performance and business progress.
Employee engagement doesn’t drop overnight. It weakens when people start to feel disconnected from the organisation’s direction, unsure what change means for them or unconvinced that what they hear from leaders matches what they experience day to day.
When that connection weakens, the impact reaches beyond employee sentiment and feedback scores. It slows change, reduces productivity, increases pressure on managers, affects retention and makes it harder for teams to deliver against business priorities.
Improving engagement starts with understanding where the connection is breaking down. Here are seven common reasons employee engagement stays low, and how stronger people and culture communication can help rebuild trust, relevance and action.
1. People do not understand the strategy
When people can’t explain where the organisation is heading, they’re unlikely to feel connected to it.
Strategy communication often stays too high-level; something talked about in leadership presentations or annual updates but not translated into what it means for different teams. Employees may know the ambition, but not how their work contributes to it. Strategic communication has to do more than repeat the business priorities. It needs to turn strategy into something people can understand, relate to and act on across teams and different roles. See how we helped DHL Group make a five-year strategy land across a global workforce.
2. Constant change is wearing people down
Change fatigue can quickly weaken engagement, especially when employees are dealing with several shifts at once. Even when each change makes sense on its own, people can feel overwhelmed if they don’t understand what is changing or why it matters. The result is often confusion, scepticism or a sense that people are being asked to absorb more without enough support.
A clear change story can help reduce that pressure. Alongside what’s changing, people need to hear what’s staying the same, what it means for them and where they can go with questions. Leaders and managers also need practical support, such as conversation guides and space to respond to questions. Without that, change can arrive as a series of disconnected announcements. Read our practical guide to discover techniques that will help you lead change with confidence.
3. Leadership feels too distant or inconsistent
Employees look to leaders for clarity, so if leadership communication feels overly polished or inconsistent, trust can start to weaken. Even when leaders communicate often, sometimes the message doesn’t always land because it feels too corporate, too far removed from the employee experience or different depending on who’s saying it.
Leadership communication is likely to land better when it’s clear and aligned. That means helping leaders explain direction clearly, while giving managers what they need to bring those messages into team conversations in a way that feels relevant and credible.
Our Leadership communication that builds trust workshop can help leaders communicate with more confidence, consistency and care, especially when trust is fragile or expectations are rising.
4. Purpose feels disconnected from everyday work
Purpose only supports employee engagement when people can see how it links to what they do.
If purpose only sits in brand language, campaign lines or values statements, it can feel abstract. Employees may understand what the organisation says it stands for, but not how that connects to their role, their team or the decisions being made around them.
People and culture communication can make purpose feel more practical by showing where it already exists in the organisation. Real stories, team examples and everyday behaviours can help people see how their work contributes to something bigger, rather than leaving purpose as a statement on a page.
5. Culture does not match what employees see and feel
Engagement drops when there is a gap between the culture an organisation talks about and the one employees experience.
For example, a business may talk about wellbeing or inclusion, while employees experience silence, pressure or uneven opportunity. When that happens, culture communication can start to feel performative, even if the intent behind it is genuine.
Clear communication can help organisations reinforce the culture they want to create through decisions, behaviours and manager conversations, while being clear about where things still need to improve. See how we helped DHL Express create a more consistent global approach to parental leave communications.
6. Employees do not feel properly heard
Asking for feedback isn’t the same as listening. Employees can become disengaged when surveys, listening sessions or employee networks don’t seem to lead anywhere. Over time, people may stop believing their voice matters, especially if they’re asked the same questions but see little response.
Good employee voice communication closes the loop. It shows what’s been heard, what’s changing as a result and what can’t change yet. People don’t need every piece of feedback to become action, but they do need to feel their input has been taken seriously. Explore how well you’re tuning into your workforce with this quick diagnostic.
7. Flexibility and fairness feel inconsistent
In large organisations, flexibility may not look the same for every role, team or location. That can create frustration if employees feel decisions depend on who their manager is, rather than clear principles.
Clear communication helps create shared understanding around policies, expectations and decision-making. It also gives managers the confidence to explain flexibility consistently, especially when different roles have different options.
Fairness doesn’t always mean everyone gets the same arrangement. But people do need to understand the reason behind the difference.
Improving employee engagement starts with knowing where it is breaking down
Low employee engagement is not solved by more communication alone. It improves when organisations understand where the connection is breaking down between strategy, leaders, culture and everyday employee experience.
Without that understanding, engagement activity can become disconnected from the business issues it needs to support. Messages may be shared, campaigns may run and feedback may be gathered, but the same barriers continue to slow progress. Strategic people and culture communication helps identify those weak points, then gives leaders, managers and teams the messages, tools and confidence to build trust, strengthen engagement and support the priorities the organisation needs to deliver.
Speak to us about reviewing where engagement is breaking down in your organisation, and how stronger communication can help support business progress.
People and culture partners to know in 2026
By Sally Pritchett
CEO
A practical guide for HR, internal communication and culture teams looking for the right support to strengthen their people and culture work.
People and culture work is rarely contained within one project or one simple problem. A change programme can raise questions about trust and leadership behaviour. A values refresh can test whether leaders, managers and employees understand what the organisation is really asking of them. A wellbeing priority can point to wider issues around workload, culture and employee experience.
For large and complex organisations, this can make it difficult to know what kind of support is needed and where to start. Sometimes the priority is insight and benchmarking. Sometimes it is professional standards, research, peer learning or communication expertise that turns people and culture priorities into something employees can understand and experience in their everyday work.
This guide brings together five people and culture partners to know in 2026, and where each one can support you.
When you need to understand where your culture stands: Great Place to Work
Great Place to Work gives organisations a clear way to benchmark employee experience and workplace culture. Its Trust Index employee survey and certification process can help people and culture leaders understand how employees are experiencing trust, leadership, fairness, pride and belonging.
This kind of data is valuable when teams want to move from assumptions to evidence. It can help HR and leadership see where culture is working well, where employees may be having a different experience and where focused action may be needed.
Turn to them when you are asking: where are we now, what are employees really experiencing and where should our culture work focus next?
When you want to strengthen internal communication as a professional discipline: Institute of Internal Communication
The Institute of Internal Communication supports internal communicators through professional standards, membership, learning, qualifications, events, awards and insight. For organisations looking to build stronger communication capability, IoIC can provide useful structure, evidence and shared language.
Its annual IC Index is particularly helpful for teams making the case for better communication with leaders and stakeholders. The research explores how employees experience communication at work, including trust, leadership communication, change, attention and confidence in the future.
Turn to them when you are asking: how do we strengthen internal communication as a strategic function, what skills do our communicators need and what evidence can help us show the value of communication beyond sending updates?
When you need evidence and inspiration around employee engagement: Engage for Success
Engage for Success brings together research, case studies, events, ideas and practitioner insight around what helps people feel more engaged at work. As a voluntary movement based in the UK, it helps organisations and practitioners share learning, evidence and practical thinking around employee engagement.
For HR, culture and communication teams, this can be helpful when you need to explain why engagement matters and what it can influence across performance, wellbeing and organisational health. It can also support broader conversations about leadership, employee voice, meaningful work and how people connect to the organisation they are part of.
Turn to them when you are asking: how do we build the case for employee engagement, what does good engagement look like in practice and how can we help leaders understand why this matters?
When you want to learn with others facing similar challenges: Work Wonders
The Work Wonders community offers practical insight, peer connection and space to explore people and culture challenges with others doing similar work.
We created Work Wonders to be a free peer community for people working to create fairer, healthier and happier workplaces. Members join from internal communication, HR, DEI, wellbeing, employee experience and other roles focused on workplace culture.
Through monthly calls, regular webinars and practical resources, Work Wonders gives members fresh thinking and space to sense-check ideas. It is especially helpful when a topic is emerging, sensitive or complex, and you want to hear how others are approaching it.
Turn to them when you are asking: how are other organisations approaching this challenge, what can we learn from people working through similar issues and where can we sense-check our thinking before moving forward?
When you need strategic people and culture communication support: Something Big
This is our area of expertise. At Something Big, we partner with large and complex organisations, often with global, distributed or frontline workforces, to turn people and culture priorities into communication that employees can understand and trust.
That might mean helping a global workforce connect with a new strategy, supporting leaders and managers through change, building a campaign to support belonging, wellbeing or safety, or making a complex people priority feel more relevant to everyday working life.
Our role is to bring together strategic thinking, creative craft and human judgement, so communication feels relevant to employees and supports what the organisation needs to achieve. This is especially valuable when the topic is complex, sensitive or stuck, and when communication needs to do more than just share information.
Turn to us when you are asking: how do we make this meaningful for employees, how do we support leaders and managers and how do we turn a people and culture priority into communication that supports trust, behaviour change and business performance?
Choosing the right support at the right stage
People and culture work can need different kinds of support depending on the challenge, the organisation and where the work has already got to.
You might need data to understand the current employee experience, professional standards and research to strengthen your internal communication approach or peer learning to sense-check your thinking and understand how others are approaching similar issues.
Sometimes you need support to define the challenge and shape the approach. Other times, the direction is already set and the priority is creating the communication approach, tools or campaign that will help it land well with employees.
As a strategic communication partner, we can support both. We help organisations turn people and culture priorities into communications that employees can understand, use and experience.
If you are working through change, culture, inclusion, wellbeing, engagement, safety or another people-focused challenge, we would be happy to explore where communication could help you move forward.
Frequently asked questions about people and culture partners
A strategic people and culture communication partner helps organisations connect business priorities with the employee experience. This means looking at what the organisation needs to achieve, what employees need to understand or do differently and how communication can build trust, support behaviour change and make the work feel relevant in practice. This can include communication around culture, change, inclusion, wellbeing, safety, leadership, engagement or employee experience.
Different partners support different stages of the work. Some help you measure culture through employee insight and benchmarks. Some provide professional standards, training or research. Others offer peer learning, engagement evidence or strategic communication support to help people and culture priorities make sense to employees.
A specialist partner can be helpful when a challenge is complex, sensitive, cross-functional or difficult to move forward internally. This might include culture change, business transformation, inclusion, wellbeing, engagement, safety, values, leadership communication or moments where employees need more than another update.
Communication helps people understand what is changing, why it matters and what it means for them. Done well, it can build trust, support behaviour change, equip leaders and managers and make people and culture priorities feel relevant to everyday working life.
Look for a partner who understands both the employee experience and the business context. They should be able to simplify complex topics, handle sensitive issues thoughtfully, create communication that feels human and connect the work to practical outcomes for employees and the organisation.
Why change fails when communication is an afterthought
By Sally Pritchett
CEO
Why change programmes need to consider internal communication long before launch
Too many organisational change programmes only think about internal communication after the big decisions have already been made.
The strategy is signed off. The change plan is set. The launch date is in the diary. Only then does communication become part of the process, often as little more than launch support.
But change communication should be seen as more than just the final layer before launch. It’s a strategic tool for reducing the risk that change is misunderstood, mistrusted or even simply ignored.
The change strategy has to work beyond the slide deck
When communication is treated as a late-stage deliverable, the organisation loses the chance to test whether the change will make sense to the people expected to adopt it. The initiative sounds convincing on paper but may fail to connect with the reality of people’s working lives.
That’s where the credibility of transformation projects starts to weaken. When the change feels disconnected from people’s day-to-day roles, it becomes harder for them to understand why it’s necessary and what it actually means in practice.
And there is a clear connection between communication and strategic belief. The IC Index 2024 found a 74-point difference in trust in senior leaders between employees who rate communication as ‘excellent’ and those who rate it as ‘poor’. It also found a 35-point jump in belief in the organisational strategy when employees know how they can contribute to it.
In other words, communication is not just how people hear about change. It’s one of the ways they judge whether organisational change is justified, purposeful and something that they can get behind. When change communication is clear and consistent, it strengthens confidence in the direction of the business.
The hidden risks that can derail change programmes
When change communication isn’t considered early enough, several risks can follow:
Business-speak can make the change feel vague
Top-level, dense or overly technical messages aren’t going to help employees understand what is changing. And they can make the transformation programme feel like a distant corporate initiative rather than something they need to act on. See how we helped DHL Group make Strategy 2030 clear and practical for a global workforce.
Leaders can weaken the message without meaning to
If each leader explains the change differently, mixed messages can make even a strong strategy feel confusing. Employees may start to doubt whether the organisation is aligned behind the change and lose confidence in those leading it.
Managers can be left exposed
They are often the people employees turn to first, but without practical communication tools and prompts, team leaders may avoid difficult conversations or give incorrect information. The risk of failure grows quickly when employees have questions that managers cannot confidently answer.
Rumours can fill the space left by unclear communication.
When people do not have enough clarity, they will often piece together their own version of what is happening through word of mouth. If informal conversations start to carry more weight than the official transformation story, it can spread confusion and make the change feel more worrying than it needs to.
The change messaging can arrive in the wrong order
Without careful sequencing, communication can overwhelm people instead of helping them grow their understanding over time. Employees may hear too much detail before they understand the basics or receive important context after changes have already been rolled out.
The launch can end up becoming the main event
A big announcement may create attention for a short time, but without a clear strategic communication rhythm afterwards, the change behaviours risk being easily forgotten. For more practical advice, see our guide to communicating change here.
None of these issues are just communication problems. They are adoption risks. They influence whether employees understand the change and whether leaders and managers can support it credibly.
Make communication a key part of the transformation process
Treat communication as the final step in your change plan, and you may still get a polished launch. But you also increase the risk of misalignment, resistance and weak adoption.
Consider people communication during the development stage, and you give the change strategy a solid foundation for lasting impact.
Planning for change or struggling to get employees on board with transformation? Speak to us about shaping the change narrative, manager tools and communication rhythm needed to help people adopt the change.
7 ways to make communication count for frontline workforces
By Sally Pritchett
CEO
Poor frontline communication costs businesses $80.6 billion every year. Explore how to create communication that reaches frontline teams in the reality of their working day.
Frontline workforces keep organisations running. They make products, move goods, care for customers, keep sites safe, maintain services and solve operational problems every day. Yet they are often the people who feel furthest away from corporate communication.
The issue is not that frontline teams are difficult to engage. It is that many workplace communication systems are designed around desk-based access: email access, intranet updates, office hours, regular screen time and scheduled meetings. For employees working shifts, driving vehicles, operating machinery, serving customers or moving through busy sites, that model often does not fit the reality of the working day.
IC Index 2026: The reality check paints a difficult picture. One in five frontline workers hear about major changes through the grapevine rather than from leaders. Frontline workers are over twice as likely to say they spend no time reading communication updates. And trust in executive leadership among frontline workers sits at 35%, compared with 54% among desk-based colleagues.
These are not small channel issues. They are trust, access and relevance issues.
In a recent Work Wonders conversation, our CEO Sally was be joined by Keren McCarron to explore how organisations can make communication count for frontline workforces, without adding more noise. Keren has 15+ years’ experience leading communications in FMCG and manufacturing environments, while Sally brought a strategic people and culture communication lens, shaped by her work with global businesses with large, complex frontline workforces.
During the conversation, seven themes stood out:
1. Start with the reality of the working day
Frontline communication needs to begin with how people actually work.
For many frontline employees, there is no quiet moment in the day to read an email update. Teams may be working different shifts, moving between locations or operating in noisy environments. Some may not even have a work email address. Some may have access to an app, but only through a personal device which they may be restricted from using during their working time. Others may technically have access to an intranet, but very little time or reason to log in.
That means communication cannot rely on the same assumptions used for desk-based teams. Sending an email at 9am does not mean the message has landed. Posting on an intranet does not mean people have seen it. Uploading content to an app does not mean it has become part of the working day.
The strongest frontline communication meets people where they are. That might mean digital screens in the places teams naturally pass through, printed one-page updates in break areas, short visual messages near handwashing stations, team huddles, shift handovers or manager briefings built into existing routines.
The key is to take communication into the working environment, rather than expecting people to go and find it elsewhere.
2. Use existing rhythms, not extra noise
Frontline teams are often already dealing with communication overload. Global updates, local updates, HR messages, safety notices, change announcements, operational briefs, learning reminders and wellbeing campaigns can all compete for attention.
When everything is pushed out with equal weight, people have to work out what really matters to them in their role. That is a difficult task for anyone, and it’s even harder when time is tight and shifts are busy.
Making communication count does not mean doing more. Often, it means being more disciplined about what is shared, when it is shared and how it connects to the work people are doing.
Existing rhythms are a useful place to start. Shift handovers, safety huddles, toolbox talks, pre-shift briefings and regular team check-ins already have a purpose in the working day. When communication is built into those moments, it is more likely to feel relevant and less likely to become another task people have to fit around everything else.
This also forces a useful question for communicators and stakeholders: does this message genuinely need attention from frontline teams right now? If the answer is yes, it needs to be made simple, specific and easy to pass on. If the answer is no, it may need to wait, be combined with something else or be targeted differently.
3. Support middle managers as trusted communicators
For many frontline teams, the line manager is the most trusted and immediate source of information. They are the person employees go to with questions, concerns and practical realities. They are also often the person expected to explain decisions made elsewhere in the organisation. That makes middle managers essential to frontline communication, but it also places a lot of pressure on them.
Managers are often stretched, dealing with operational demands, people issues, performance pressures and constant change. If they are given a long briefing pack, unclear messages or information at the same time as everyone else, they are not being set up to communicate well.
Supporting managers as communicators means making their role easier and more realistic. They need clear messages, simple talking points, a route for questions they cannot answer and enough context to explain why something matters. They also need permission to be honest when they do not have all the answers yet.
This is especially important during change. A manager who understands the message, has had time to prepare and knows where to send feedback is far more likely to create confidence than one who has been handed a script and asked to cascade it quickly.
Middle managers should not be treated as a channel. They are people translating organisational decisions into real conversations. They need support to do that well.
4. Stop treating tech as the silver bullet
Employee apps and digital platforms can be valuable, especially for dispersed or deskless workforces. They can make communication easier to access, help reach people quickly and create a more consistent route for updates. But technology is not the same as communication.
A new platform cannot fix a relevance problem. It cannot rebuild trust on its own. It cannot make leaders more visible, managers more confident or employees more listened to. If the content is not useful, the tone feels distant or people do not see why the channel matters, it can quickly become another place they do not go.
This is where many organisations can get stuck. A platform is introduced as the answer, but the communication behind it still follows the same habits: too much information, too little targeting, not enough local relevance and limited feedback.
The better question is not “What channel should we use?” It is “What do our frontline teams need to understand, feel or do, and what is the most practical way to support that?”
Sometimes the answer will be digital. Sometimes it will be a manager conversation, a screen, a printed prompt, a simple visual or a regular face-to-face moment. Often, it will be a mix.
5. Make listening simple, visible and regular
Frontline communication cannot only be about pushing messages out. If people do not have easy ways to feed back, raise concerns or share what is really happening, communication becomes one-way very quickly.
Listening does not always need to mean a long survey. In operational environments, simple can be more effective. Keren shared examples such as quick sentiment checks at the end of a shift, where employees can press a button or use a simple visual system to show whether the day felt positive, neutral or difficult. In the session chat, someone shared another practical idea: tennis balls and two buckets, giving employees a quick way to signal how a shift had gone as they left.
Small listening mechanisms like this do two things. They give organisations a more immediate sense of what people are experiencing, and they show employees that their experience matters.
The important part is what happens next. If people give feedback and nothing visibly changes, trust can fall further. A simple “you said, we did” cycle helps close the loop. That could be a monthly update showing what has been heard, what is being explored and what action has been taken. It does not need to solve every issue immediately, but it does need to show that listening is active, not performative.
How well are you tuning in to your workforce?
See if a human approach to communication could make a difference with our Human Diagnostic.
6. Respect frontline expertise in the way you communicate
One of the biggest risks in frontline communication is underestimating the audience. Frontline roles are often highly skilled, physically demanding, socially demanding and increasingly supported by technology. Employees may be managing customer expectations, safety risks, complex systems, tight deadlines or even emotionally challenging situations. Communication needs to respect that expertise.
Simple language matters, but simple should never mean patronising. Visual communication can be useful, particularly in multilingual environments, but it should not feel childish. Campaigns can be engaging, but they should not reduce serious work to gimmicks.
Respect also shows up in word choice. Office-based assumptions can make frontline employees feel forgotten, even when that is not the intention. Saying “lunch break” when people work nights, or “business hours” when teams work across shifts, can accidentally signal that the message was not really written with them in mind. Small details like “rest break” or “working hours” can make communication feel more inclusive and more accurate.
Representation matters too. The IC Index 2026 found that only 42% of employees see stories about people like them in internal communication, yet when people do see themselves represented, advocacy for the company and brand nearly doubles.
That is a clear reminder that frontline employees need to see real people, real stories and real working environments reflected back to them. Not as an afterthought, but as a visible part of the organisation’s story.
7. Lead change with what it means for people
Frontline teams are often at the sharp end of organisational change. They may be asked to use new systems, follow new safety processes, adapt to automation, change ways of working or support new operational priorities. Yet the reasons behind change do not always reach them clearly.
The IC Index 2026 found that just 49% of employees feel that the reasons behind change programmes are clearly communicated. That matters because people are far more likely to resist change when they do not understand why it is happening, what it means for them or how they will be supported.
In many organisations, change communication starts with the business case. It explains the global context, the market pressure, the strategic aim or the organisational benefit. Those things matter, but they are not always the best place to start for frontline teams.
A more useful approach is to begin with the person. What is changing for me? What will be different on my shift, in my role or for my team? What do I need to do differently? What support will I get? What is still uncertain? Once people understand that, they are better placed to connect their own experience to the wider business reason.
This does not mean sugarcoating difficult messages. In fact, the opposite is true. Frontline teams need honest communication about impact. If a change will be hard for a few months, say so. If there are things the organisation does not know yet, be clear about when people can expect more information. If there will be extra work, disruption or a learning curve, acknowledge it.
Clear, human change communication helps people make sense of what is happening. It also gives managers and leaders a better foundation for the conversations that follow.
Making complex change clearer
Explore how to make complex change clearer through storytelling, practical language and relatable examples with our guide, How to successfully communicate change.
Making communication work for frontline teams
Communicating with and engaging frontline teams means considering the workforce you actually have, not the channels that are easiest to use.
For frontline teams, that means communication that is practical, visible, respectful and rooted in the realities of their working day. It means supporting managers, listening properly, simplifying without patronising and helping people understand change in a way that feels relevant to them.
If you are trying to reach, engage or support frontline teams through change, safety, culture or development, we can help you build communication that works for the people keeping your organisation moving.
Get in touch to talk about how we could support your organisation.
For more insight-led sessions like this, join Work Wonders.
From feedback to dialogue: why listening only works when employees feel part of the conversation
By Sally Pritchett
CEO
Conversation #7 – From feedback to dialogue
Part of our 10 BIG workplace conversations series. Here, we explore why employee voice needs more than surveys, and how communication can turn feedback into meaningful dialogue.
Organisations are listening to their employees more than ever. Surveys are sent out. Feedback is collected. Employee voice is measured. But many employees still feel like they’re not part of the conversation.
They hear what’s been decided and they see the actions that follow. But they rarely feel involved in the thinking behind them. And when that happens, communication starts to feel like a broadcast – something done to them, not with them.
Too often, feedback is gathered and turned into a corporate update. Results are analysed, themes are summarised and actions are shared before leaders move on. By then, employees have already decided whether speaking up was worth it, and whether it actually made a difference.
The problem is the gap between listening and response
For years, employee voice was treated as a scheduled activity. Annual engagement surveys, pulse checks and suggestion schemes gave people a way to speak up, but usually on the organisation’s terms.
That model feels increasingly out of step with what people now expect from work. Employees want to understand where the business is heading, what change means for them and how decisions connect to the values their organisation claims to stand for. They want leaders to talk about wellbeing, inclusion, sustainability, flexibility and performance in a way that feels honest and relevant to real working lives.
A one-way update does not meet that need. In fact, it can do the opposite. Corporate broadcasts can make people feel like decisions have already been made and their role is simply to accept them. Even well-intentioned messages can land badly if they feel disconnected from what employees are actually thinking.
Real dialogue does not happen just because a leader says, “We want to hear from you.”
It needs careful communication thinking behind it. Who needs to hear what? What are they likely to feel? What will they question, challenge or worry about? Where will the conversation happen? What role should managers play?
This is where many organisations fall down as they treat communication as the final step. Strategic communication needs to be involved much earlier. It helps create employee-centred narratives and practical tools that turn corporate announcements into something people can understand, question and engage with.
The difference can be small, but it changes how the message feels.
A standard message might say: “We’re making this change to improve efficiency and support future growth. Further details will follow.”
Or it could open the door to a more human conversation: “We know this change will raise questions. Some of you will welcome it, others may feel concerned about what it means for you and your team. We have answered the first questions here, but we know there will be more. Your manager will be talking this through with your team over the next two weeks and we’ll keep updating the FAQs as we hear what matters most to you.”
Dialogue builds trust because it gives employees a role
The biggest mistake organisations make is assuming employees resist change because they do not understand the message. Often, they understand it perfectly. They just do not feel involved in it.
That is why communication needs to invite, equip and respond. Good people and culture communication helps employees see themselves in the story. It makes the business direction feel relevant to their role, their team and their day-to-day experience. It gives managers the confidence to keep the conversation going. And it helps leaders respond in ways that feel credible, not performative.
Managers are often the missing link
Organisations cannot create better dialogue if they assume managers can do it without support. Managers are usually the people employees turn to first. They are expected to explain decisions, answer questions, handle emotion, spot concerns and keep teams focused. But they are often given little more than a slide deck and a few key messages.
That is not enough. A manager cannot lead a good conversation if they do not understand the intent behind the message, the likely employee response or what they are empowered to say. They also need practical guidance on what to do when the conversation becomes difficult.
This is where communication needs to be designed for use, not just delivery. Not just “please cascade this message”, but conversation guides, team discussion prompts, leader talking points, audience-specific FAQs, listening toolkits and follow-up content that helps managers respond with confidence.
What dialogue looks like in practice
This is where strategic people and culture communications can make the biggest difference. A strong communication approach can help organisations:
- Turn leadership messages into employee-centred narratives
- Anticipate the questions people will actually ask
- Create manager tools that support real conversations
- Build feedback loops into campaigns from the start
- Show employees what has been heard and what is changing
- Make complex or sensitive topics feel more human
- Move from one-off announcements to ongoing engagement
Because dialogue is not just a channel choice. It’s a communication approach that helps employees feel heard, respected and part of what happens next.
We help organisations move from broadcast to dialogue, designing communication approaches that bring employees closer to the conversation – especially during moments of change, uncertainty or cultural shift.
That can include:
- Employee-centred narratives
- Manager conversation guides
- Leadership talking points
- Listening campaign concepts
- Feedback loops and “you said, we did” content
- Toolkits for sensitive or complex conversations
If your organisation is collecting feedback but struggling to turn it into trust, action or engagement, we can help you design a communication approach that makes employees feel heard, involved and clear on what happens next.
From employee-centred narratives and manager conversation guides to listening campaigns, feedback loops and “you said, we did” content, we create the tools that help leaders and managers keep the conversation going.
Get in touch to explore how we could support your employee listening and dialogue strategy.
Guiding the conversations that shape inclusion at work
By Sally Pritchett
CEO
Conversation #3 - The commercial imperative of DEI
Part of our 10 BIG workplace conversations series. Here, we explore why inclusion is not a conversation businesses can afford to step back from.
The debate around DEI has become noisy, emotional and, at times, deeply polarising. Some organisations have stepped back altogether, leaving employees unsure what they are allowed to say. Meanwhile, leaders have been left trying to work out how to keep making progress without getting pulled into performative messaging or political noise.
But beneath the acronyms, the commercial issue remains the same.
When people do not feel included, businesses lose out. They lose ideas that never get voiced, talent that quietly leaves, decisions that are never properly challenged and customer insight that never makes it into the room. That is why the inclusion conversation matters to businesses.
By “conversation”, we mean much more than formal communications. We mean the everyday exchanges that shape how people experience work: who speaks in meetings, whose perspective is trusted, how disagreements are handled, how decisions are explained and whether people feel safe enough to say, “I see this differently.”
Communication cannot solve inclusion on its own, but it can make those moments visible, give people the language to handle them and help organisations move from intent to action.
How communication can move inclusion from statement to action
Inclusion is often communicated too narrowly, sitting in leadership statements, strategy documents or awareness posters rather than in day-to-day communication.
That leaves a gap. If people only hear about inclusion in formal messaging, it stays separate from how they actually work. It becomes something the organisation talks about, rather than something they recognise in their own decisions and interactions.
Communication can close that gap by bringing inclusion into the places people already pay attention to – not as a one-off message, but as part of how the organisation talks, listens and behaves.
In practice, there are a few different ways that communications can support colleagues to have better conversations about inclusion:
Set a clear, consistent narrative
People need to hear the same story about inclusion wherever they encounter it. That comes from setting an intentional narrative and being deliberate about what the business is saying on the topic. Leadership updates, campaigns and everyday content should reinforce the same message, so it doesn’t feel like a series of disconnected activities.
When that story is consistent, people start to recognise it. They understand what the business is asking of them, not as a separate initiative, but as part of how they’re expected to work.
Translate inclusion into everyday language
Terms like inclusion, equity or belonging can feel abstract or carry baggage in the current debate around DEI. But as communications professionals, it’s about translating those ideas into everyday language. Instead of just defining DEI phrasing, show what they look like in practice and use words people already recognise and relate to.
That might mean replacing formal terms with plain phrasing – or explaining them through simple workplace examples rather than dictionary definitions. This matters because people are far more likely to talk about something when they understand it and feel comfortable using the same language themselves.
In Brambles’ Friends Of campaign, we translated allyship into the everyday language of friendship, making it easier for people to understand and use.
Equip managers to lead the conversation
Managers can guide what gets talked about in their teams, so they need practical support when it comes to sensitive topics.
A short guide or toolkit can help them bring inclusion into regular conversations without overthinking it. By including a few useful prompts and examples, they have something to lead discussions with or refer to when a difficult situation comes up.
That support is important because managers are key in helping the topic show up in regular team discussions, not just in formal communications.
Make it usable in real moments
Most people don’t need another explanation of why inclusion matters. They need to know what to say when someone is talked over, when credit isn’t shared properly or when people are excluded from a discussion.
Communication helps by putting those situations in front of people in a clear way. A short line, a memorable phrase, a video or simple example of how someone handled it gives people something to draw on in the moment.
Give people a way to contribute
People are more likely to speak up when they see others doing the same. When people talk about themselves – how they think, how they work, what matters to them – it gives others something to relate to.
Invite people to share something of their own, whether that’s a short story, a perspective or a way of working. Give them a chance to become part of the conversation in their own words. That might be through simple prompts, shared hashtags or formats employees can pick up and use to create their own content.
This approach brings inclusion closer to people and encourages curiosity towards each other. It also adds a sense of humanity and warmth that you don’t get from polished corporate messaging.
You can see this in our work with DHL on their I Belong campaign, which put employees at the centre of the story, using their own words and images to show what belonging feels like.
Making inclusion part of everyday conversation
Inclusion is already part of how people work together. The question is whether people recognise it in their own day-to-day interactions and feel able to act in the moment.
That’s where communication has a vital role. It gives people the language, stories and practical tools to notice what is happening and understand the part they can play in creating a more inclusive culture.
Because inclusion isn’t achieved through policies alone. It grows day by day, through the words people choose, the decisions they make and the moments where they feel seen and valued.
How inclusive are your communications?
Take our quick Inclusion diagnostic to reflect on how inclusive your internal communications really are – and whether your people feel seen, heard and connected. Take the diagnostic.
If inclusion is a conversation your organisation is trying to navigate, we can help. We partner with organisations to create strategic people and culture communications that connect business priorities with the everyday employee experience. We help shape the messages, moments and tools that make inclusion easier to understand, talk about and act on.
If you’d like to explore how communication could support your inclusion goals, we’d love to talk.