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CEOs and business leaders today want their internal communication professionals to be business people first, communicators second.
This is backed up by surveys that show business acumen is in the top 10 skills and competencies that internal communicators need. Yet a VMA Group survey in 2018 highlighted business acumen as the skill and competency they lacked most.
Of course, this is not a new problem. As Amit Bajaj, CEO of Tata Consultancy Services Europe told IC Kollectif: “Business acumen, co-existing with communications expertise, is the foundation of good internal communication. IC pros should know how the business works, its strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities. They should have an overall sense of everything that happens inside and envisage the future.”
In a recent Poppulo white paper, Going beyond engagement: The business value of internal communications for the C-Suite, the CEO of Artis Advisory, Zora Artis, explored what communication professionals need to do to be strategic advisors in an environment of constant challenge and change.
In this guide, Zora focuses on the key competencies and characteristics that communication professionals need if they want to become more rounded and strategic. At the center of these is the foundational one of business acumen.
Zora Artis GAICD SCMP
CEO
In recent years, employee communicators have taken center stage, navigating through periods of uncertainty and redefining the employee experience in an era where the traditional “workplace” is evolving rapidly.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is inescapable these days. You’ve no doubt heard a ton of noise around what AI—specifically generative AI—means for the future of work. Tools like ChatGPT for text generation and Midjourney for image generation are changing the way that people do their jobs.
Employee communications teams face several barriers that hold them back from making decisions on how to effectively reach their employees. Many of these barriers can be tied back to human behavior, the expectations of employees today, uncertainty in business, limited resources, and the fear of messing up. And often, these barriers prevent communicators from making the right decisions about communications strategy—or even making any decision at all.
