Internal Comms at a Crossroads - Career Truths from Those Who Know IC Best
Upcoming Webinar
The internal comms profession is having a quiet reckoning with itself. Senior communicators describe their teams as strategically ambitious but operationally stretched, creatively capable but struggling to prove business value. Many of them are carrying those questions largely alone. This is not a crisis. But it is a crossroads. AI has moved from conversation topic to daily operational reality. Employee experience is beginning to shift from an HR-only remit to an organization-wide question—where IC is increasingly part of that conversation, but without a clear mandate to lead it. And the pressure to demonstrate business value has moved from background noise to a live performance review. The communicators who will thrive in this era - and help define it - will be distinguished by how clearly they can articulate what the business needs, and how directly they can connect their work to it. Not by the tools they use or the channels they run. In this live session - IC at a Crossroads: Career Truths from Those Who Know IC Best - Andrew Harvey, CEO of the VMA Group and Jennifer Sproul, CEO of the IOIC, join Poppulo’s Andrew Hubbard to dissect what they are seeing across the profession, and what it means for the people who have built careers in IC. Andrew Harvey has extensive Internal Comms recruitment expertise; Jennifer Sproul is at the centre of conversations about the profession in the UK and internationally; and Andrew Hubbard is a highly experienced comms executive with a unique perspective as Director of Communications for the world's leading employee experience platform. What we’ll cover: The Career Picture. An informed exploration of how the IC talent market is shifting—which roles are growing in influence, which are under pressure, and how the skills employers value most have changed in the last two years. The AI Reality. Beyond the rhetoric: where AI is genuinely changing the day-to-day work of communicators, where it is creating new leverage, and what it means for the skills that will define IC careers going forward. The Business Acumen Question. Why business acumen has become the dividing line between IC teams that are seen as strategic partners and those that are seen as a delivery function—and what closing that gap looks like in practice. The EX-Boundary. How the shift toward employee experience is reshaping IC's mandate, its relationships with HR and leadership, and the identity of the function itself. The Value Conversation. How the most credible IC leaders are framing and proving their impact in terms that resonate with the C-suite, not just communications metrics.
Upcoming Webinars
Internal Comms at a Crossroads - Career Truths from Those Who Know IC Best
The internal comms profession is having a quiet reckoning with itself. Senior communicators describe their teams as strategically ambitious but operationally stretched, creatively capable but struggling to prove business value. Many of them are carrying those questions largely alone. This is not a crisis. But it is a crossroads. AI has moved from conversation topic to daily operational reality. Employee experience is beginning to shift from an HR-only remit to an organization-wide question—where IC is increasingly part of that conversation, but without a clear mandate to lead it. And the pressure to demonstrate business value has moved from background noise to a live performance review. The communicators who will thrive in this era - and help define it - will be distinguished by how clearly they can articulate what the business needs, and how directly they can connect their work to it. Not by the tools they use or the channels they run. In this live session - IC at a Crossroads: Career Truths from Those Who Know IC Best - Andrew Harvey, CEO of the VMA Group and Jennifer Sproul, CEO of the IOIC, join Poppulo’s Andrew Hubbard to dissect what they are seeing across the profession, and what it means for the people who have built careers in IC. Andrew Harvey has extensive Internal Comms recruitment expertise; Jennifer Sproul is at the centre of conversations about the profession in the UK and internationally; and Andrew Hubbard is a highly experienced comms executive with a unique perspective as Director of Communications for the world's leading employee experience platform. What we’ll cover: The Career Picture. An informed exploration of how the IC talent market is shifting—which roles are growing in influence, which are under pressure, and how the skills employers value most have changed in the last two years. The AI Reality. Beyond the rhetoric: where AI is genuinely changing the day-to-day work of communicators, where it is creating new leverage, and what it means for the skills that will define IC careers going forward. The Business Acumen Question. Why business acumen has become the dividing line between IC teams that are seen as strategic partners and those that are seen as a delivery function—and what closing that gap looks like in practice. The EX-Boundary. How the shift toward employee experience is reshaping IC's mandate, its relationships with HR and leadership, and the identity of the function itself. The Value Conversation. How the most credible IC leaders are framing and proving their impact in terms that resonate with the C-suite, not just communications metrics.
Poppulo + Sociabble: Delivering the Ultimate Employee Experience Platform for the Agentic Era
The acquisition of Sociabble significantly expands what Poppulo makes possible for employee engagement and experience, and what you can achieve as a result. This session is about making that concrete for you. We’ll discuss how Sociabble expands Poppulo’s capabilities with AI-powered intranet and digital hub experiences, employee advocacy, stronger mobile and frontline communication, and rewards and recognition. We’ll also share: What this means for customers today How these capabilities support better employee communication and engagement How organizations can take advantage of these capabilities now, and What customers can expect next from Poppulo’s roadmap and innovation strategy Join us on June 16 - we're looking forward to showing you what’s possible today.
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Poppulo Experience Platform - April '26 Release Highlights
Our most recent product release webinar is now available on demand, giving you a guided walkthrough of the latest enhancements in the Poppulo Employee Experience platform. In this session, we highlight key updates from the April '26 release designed to help you move faster, gain deeper insights, and maintain stronger control over your communications. You’ll see what’s new, why it matters, and how you can take advantage of these new features.
The Misalignment Tax: Closing the Strategy–Performance Gap with Comms + HR
Employee use of the word “misalignment” to describe leadership increased 143% last year. Nine in 10 leaders say strategic alignment matters, but less than one in 10 employees feel it. That gap has held for seven years and it’s becoming a bigger, more urgent problem. In a time of constant change, eroding trust, and AI-accelerated everything, misalignment spreads faster, slowing decisions, duplicating effort, distorting priorities, and eroding the bottom line. This is the Misalignment Tax—a silent, compounding drain on productivity, performance, and ultimately profitability. Every organization pays it, unseen and unquantified. In this live webinar, Zora Artis and Wayne Aspland of Clear Leaders share what their latest global research reveals about why alignment fails, what it truly costs organizations, and what it takes to turn around. It is a strategic opening for Communication and HR to lead the fix—together. These functions are uniquely positioned to make it happen, but most aren’t doing so yet. This session is about changing that. What You’ll Gain: A Clear Understanding : Why the gap persists, and the two paradoxes that sustain it. The AI Multiplier : How AI amplifies clarity in aligned organizations—and chaos in misaligned ones. A Practical Framework : The leadership conversations required to close the gap, and how Comms + HR can shape them. Tangible Actions : Specific moves Communication and HR leaders can initiate immediately. The Research Behind the Session: Zora and Wayne’s research - their third global study - draws on interviews with more than 50 CEOs, Chiefs of Staff, and senior leaders across communication, HR, strategy, and operations - and points to three conversations that determine whether strategy actually moves, or simply sits on a shelf. It also explores the cross-functional enabling work that must happen before any of them can.
The Misalignment Tax: Closing the Strategy–Performance Gap with Comms + HR
Employee use of the word “misalignment” to describe leadership increased 143% last year. Nine in 10 leaders say strategic alignment matters, but less than one in 10 employees feel it. That gap has held for seven years and it’s becoming a bigger, more urgent problem. In a time of constant change, eroding trust, and AI-accelerated everything, misalignment spreads faster, slowing decisions, duplicating effort, distorting priorities, and eroding the bottom line. This is the Misalignment Tax—a silent, compounding drain on productivity, performance, and ultimately profitability. Every organization pays it, unseen and unquantified. In this live webinar, Zora Artis and Wayne Aspland of Clear Leaders share what their latest global research reveals about why alignment fails, what it truly costs organizations, and what it takes to turn around. It is a strategic opening for Communication and HR to lead the fix—together. These functions are uniquely positioned to make it happen, but most aren’t doing so yet. This session is about changing that. What You’ll Gain: A Clear Understanding : Why the gap persists, and the two paradoxes that sustain it. The AI Multiplier : How AI amplifies clarity in aligned organizations—and chaos in misaligned ones. A Practical Framework : The leadership conversations required to close the gap, and how Comms + HR can shape them. Tangible Actions : Specific moves Communication and HR leaders can initiate immediately. The Research Behind the Session: Zora and Wayne’s research - their third global study - draws on interviews with more than 50 CEOs, Chiefs of Staff, and senior leaders across communication, HR, strategy, and operations - and points to three conversations that determine whether strategy actually moves, or simply sits on a shelf. It also explores the cross-functional enabling work that must happen before any of them can.
Top Employee Communication Trends & Strategies for 2026
Internal comms is heading into 2026 with more uncertainty about its role than at any point in recent memory. AI is changing the work at speed. Trust is slipping. Managers are stretched thin. Employees are tuning out. And the expectations placed on IC keep widening into work that falls well beyond its traditional scope—often without the structure or support to match. The familiar models aren’t holding, and the function is being pulled into a new order that still isn’t fully defined. 2026 will ask big questions of IC: what it stands for, where it fits, and how it leads through a year marked by uncertainty and shifting expectations. To understand what this means in practice, we’re bringing together four leaders who are working at the sharp end of these changes: Stephanie Cornell, Head of People Communications & Marketing, WPP Annabelle Gordon, Director of Employee Communications, Super Regine Nelson, Director of Internal Communications, Couchbase Stacie Barrett, Former Director of Internal Communications, Domino’s Moderated by Joss Mathieson of Change Oasis, this 60-minute session, including time for your questions, will get into the real pressures facing IC in 2026 and how teams can work through them. Expect to Explore: The shifting identity of internal comms and what it means to play a deeper role in shaping the employee experience Where AI is genuinely changing the work of internal comms, and the risks that emerge when speed increases but understanding doesn’t How IC can work alongside leaders and other functions when old command-and-control habits no longer hold up How IC can rebuild trust and strengthen resilience by creating communication that feels human, transparent, and genuinely meaningful in a year defined by ambiguity The emotional and practical load on IC practitioners, and how to stay steady when you’re communicating through the same uncertainty as everyone else
IC Measurement Masterclass: Ditch Vanity Metrics to Prove Impact
Clicks, opens, and views might look impressive on a dashboard, but they don’t prove whether your communication made a difference. And that doesn’t cut it anymore. Today, especially in the age of AI, internal communicators who can’t demonstrate business impact risk seeing their value questioned by executive leadership. This 45-minute masterclass with Poppulo’s Senior Director of Communications, Andrew Hubbard, will show you how to move beyond vanity metrics and start measuring what really matters: outcomes that align with business goals and prove the strategic value of your internal communications role. Drawing on his leadership at Poppulo, partnerships with leading global companies, and senior comms experience at Rolls-Royce, Santander, and National Grid, Andrew will share hands-on strategies and tactics you can apply immediately to make that impact. What You’ll Learn Why vanity metrics (opens, clicks, views) fall short and what leaders actually care about Practical methods to measure outcomes: understanding, alignment, behavior change, business results How to link comms measurement directly to organizational goals Using internal benchmarks to track progress and demonstrate continuous improvement Quick-win tools like pre and post campaign surveys to capture impact What You’ll Take Away A framework to shift your measurement approach from outputs to outcomes Confidence to link communications directly to business priorities Inspiration from top organizations already proving their impact Practical steps you can apply immediately to strengthen your IC credibility This is your chance to gain the tools and confidence to demonstrate true impact and elevate your role, before AI forces the question.
The IC Pro’s Framework to Beat AI Threats and Secure Your Future
Comms professionals are feeling uneasy about AI. For some, the ease with which it generates content raises questions about the future of communication roles. While most communicators now use it regularly for drafting messages, creating images and brainstorming, the real opportunity lies beyond. To stay irreplaceable we need a bigger shift: from using AI tactically to using it strategically. Used wisely, AI can free us from time-consuming drudgery for higher-value work such as audience insight, creativity, strategic advice and building trust with stakeholders. Often lacking purpose-built tools or big budgets, Internal Communicators may find AI is the breakthrough they have been waiting for, but only if we act now! In this thought-provoking and practical session, Megan Thomas from Buzz Communications will share her AI Skill-Building Framework for Communication Professionals. Based on more than five years of AI experience and research, the framework is the first of its kind, highlighting the skill gaps, risks and opportunities that will define the profession’s future. You will leave with clear actions to strengthen your role and demonstrate the value of Internal Communication in an AI-driven world. Key Takeaways: Why communicators face a now-or-never moment with AI. How to spot AI “tells” and avoid the risk of being replaced. The six AI competencies every communicator must build: from strategy to ethics, data and change leadership. How to use AI to create a more fulfilling and fun career.