The changing role of Internal Communications when moving from Intranet to Digital Workplace

Published May 19, 2023 by Stephan Schillerwein

On 18.05.2023 at the Intranet Italia Day 2023 (#IID2023) Stephan Schillerwein has delievered the opening Key Note of this main Intranet conference of Italy.

The public version of this presentation is now available on Slideshare:

In the run-up to the conference, the following newsletter article appeared on this presentation:

The changing Role of Internal Communications in Digital Work

Despite the concept of Digital Workplace being around for well over 10 years, the challenge it poses is far from solved for most organizations. If anything, companies have even more tools, more information chaos and more unclarity about channels, than they ever used to have before. And, maybe most importantly, employees are still not put at the center, where they belong. Internal Communications are so focused on key messages and channels that they tend to forget who they are actually doing this all for. IT is so busy with infrastructure projects and moving to the cloud that they can’t even be bothered with thinking about creating a Digital Employee Experience.

In this situation many Internal Communications departments are even devolving in their approach to digital instruments, going back to first generation Intranets. Is this really what people need and want in the third decade of the 21st century?

When I’m talking to employees at the companies I work with, a very different picture comes to the fore. While most people have never heard of concepts such as the Digital Workplace, Digital Experience Platforms or Digital Employee Experience, what they describe, when asked for the problems they are dealing with in their daily work, is exactly what these concepts stand for.

Interestingly, the “Top 3” problems and potentials that people have been naming for a very long time have not changed at all. These key problems are still:

• “I can’t find the information I need to do my job!”
• “It’s hard to collaborate and exchange with other people outside my own area!”
• “There are way too many systems I have to use to get my job done!”

In this situation, Internal Communications needs to look at their own role and decide what part they want to play in the future of Digital Work. While there are many aspects to this decision, it basically boils down to this: Do you want to be in the driver’s seat for creating and managing tomorrow’s Digital Employee Experience or are you happy with just providing news to an instrument that will be run by someone else in the organization, who has assumed that role in your stead?