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Hey Reader,

Each week in this newsletter I tackle a question from a reader. This week’s question comes from an internal communications manager in London who says:

Firstly may I commend you on opening with a dose of flattery in your email. I am an absolute sucker for flattery, you should know this about me, so yes of course I will give you some advice on how to tackle this.

I think this question will resonate with many of you because so many organisations are going through the same situation right now. Budget cuts, layoffs, restructuring, endless change programmes - it's pretty tiring. On the employee side, it's not surprising they're engaging less with the comms because they are probably feeling demotivated and fed up. And on the internal communicators side, it's really hard because you're trying your best in a difficult time but all you see if your engagement metrics dwindle and you feel like you're shouting into the void. It kind of makes you question yourself and your abilities, doesn't it?

But let's remember firstly that declining engagement during times of uncertainty isn’t necessarily a reflection of your communication skills. It’s a pretty natural human response to organisational stress. When people are worried about their jobs, overwhelmed by change or dealing with budget cuts, their priorities shift. Attending a town hall or engaging with a Slack post might feel less important when they’re wondering if they’ll still have a job next month.

Let's look at some practical advice in this newsletter on what you can do if you're in this situation and what kind of things you could focus on.

Working in internal comms can be very isolating. I know, I've been there.

​Maybe you're an internal comms team-of-one. Or maybe you're a communications leader who is expected to have all the answers. You're probably facing challenges that other people in your organisation rarely understand.

​Finding peers who truly get your work and can help you can be difficult.

​This is why I built The Curious Tribe, for people like you.

The Curious Tribe is a premium membership community for ambitious internal communicators who want to transform into strategic partners who are valued and respected for their expertise, all while connecting with peers who get it.

Here's a flavour of some of the events we've got coming up exclusively for members of the tribe. All events are available to join live and also hosted in our tribe video library for playback.

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Ok let's get started. I really firmly believe that the best thing you can do in a situation like this is acknowledge the elephant in the room.

When employees are anxious and overwhelmed and exhausted, we need to stop doing business as usual, pretending everything is normal. If your organisation is going through budget cuts, changes and uncertainty, your employees know it. They feel it. And if your communications aren’t acknowledging this reality, you risk coming across as tone-deaf or out of touch.

I remember working with a client who was going through a major restructure which was emotional and difficult for many employees who had worked there a long time. Leadership wanted to keep morale up by communicating heartwarming people stories and positive business news and pretty much ignore all the rumours that were flying around about redundancies. There was such a mis-match between what leadership wanted to talk about versus what employees wanted to hear about, it was shocking. And my advice was to stop pretending that nothing was happening. There is such power in just being open and honest and acknowledging the uncertainty head-on. I encouraged leaders to say things like: “We know this is a challenging time and many of you have questions about what’s coming next. Here’s what we can tell you right now, here's what we can't answer for you yet and here’s when we’ll have more information to share.”

This simple shift in approach, going from avoidance to acknowledgement, can really help to improve trust and engagement.

What should we be communicating?

If your content is being ignored and no one is attending your townhalls, then that's a good signal that your content is not aligned with what employees need. You need to shift to focusing on what matters most to them right now.

During times of uncertainty, employees can have very specific information needs. They are wondering things like: Am I going to have a job? How will these changes affect me? What do I need to do differently? When will I know more? Are they holding back more information than they're letting on? Do I need to start hunting for a new job straight away?

So have a look at the kind of content you've been working on lately. Does any of it address these topics? Or are you still creating out the same kind content you were sharing six months ago when things were more stable?

Make it more personal and human

Another thing to consider is this: when people are stressed and uncertain, they crave human connection. This is not the time for corporate speak or overly polished communications or lengthy emails full of jargon. It’s time to be more personal, more authentic and more human in your approach.

Think about ditching the slides in the town hall and simply host them as conversations with the CEO instead, with ample time for questions. Create ways for your employees to submit questions in advance, ask questions anonymous, put their hand up live during the event... whatever you can do to encourage your employees to ask the questions they're worried about will help a lot.

I’ve seen great success with leaders sharing more personal updates during events like this; talking about their own uncertainties, acknowledging their mistakes or sharing what they’re learning. This vulnerability can be incredibly powerful during tough times because it makes leaders more relatable and trustworthy.

Invest more time into listening

And the most practical piece of advice I will give you today is this: stop focusing so much on talking and start focusing on listening. Listening is a hugely underrated part of effective communication and it’s often exactly what’s needed when things aren’t working.

If you don’t know why your engagement rates are dropping or how to fix them, this is the time to invest heavily in listening. You can’t solve a problem you don’t properly understand and right now you need to understand what’s really going on with your employees.

The good news is that listening doesn’t have to be complicated or expensive. You can have coffee with people. You host small focus groups. You can message people on Slack and have a quick chat with some targeted questions. You can create anonymous feedback forms. You can ask managers for insights into what's going on inside their teams.

You just want to find simple, easy ways you can listen so that you understand what the problem is, what people need and how you can help.

The key is to listen without trying to immediately solve or justify. Just absorb what you’re hearing, look for patterns and then use those insights to adjust your approach. Often, the solution becomes obvious once you really understand the problem.

Remember: this is temporary

I know it’s tough when you’re in the middle of it, but remember that this challenging period won’t last forever. Your role right now isn’t necessarily to create the most creative, exciting communications you’ve ever done. Your role is to help people through a difficult time by providing clear, honest, helpful information.

Thanks for reading and stay curious,

Joanna

Find me on YouTube, TikTok, LinkedIn and check out my book​

Want to work together?

• Join The Curious Tribe. This is my membership community for ambitious, curious communicators who want to achieve more in their roles and have fun at the same time. Membership allows you to work directly with me for 12 months, make deep connections with other communication pros who 'get it' and improve your skills through training and learning. More info here.
• Ready to review your channels and content but don't know where to start? Download my practical Internal Comms Audit Playbook to guide you through a DIY audit - no expensive consultant needed.​ This has ready-to-use templates and checklists to give you a systematic way to do your own audit which you can repeat every single year. Get it here.
• Take a shortcut. I've developed a collection of tried-and-tested templates, checklists and how-to guides for the key processes you'll need in your role as an internal communicator. You can download my Internal Comms Cheat Sheets here.​

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