How internal communications will change again in 2021

Editor’s note: This article is a re-run as part of our countdown of top stories from the past year.

With the unusual events of 2020 in hindsight, we can only yet imagine what is in store for 2021. Given the trends, we may expect more weirdness and continued challenges for corporate communicators and employees alike. Evolving crises, changing plans, and executive decisions will have to be made, coordinated and communicated quickly.

Certainly, one important question will be, “Are we coming back to the office or staying remote-only?” There is likely a subset of employees who may have already sworn off coming to the office ever again, regardless of the status of the pandemic.

Since the only constant is change, our role as corporate communicators is more important than ever. Here’s a summary of what we forecast for 2021:

Let’s dive into the details.

Executives demand more from communications measurement.

As digital marketing technologies advance, executives have learned to expect and utilize communications analytics to objectively measure and analyze results. However, internal communications is most often devoid of such metrics and data. Internal teams have also discovered the limitations and challenges of trying to learn and use external tools for internal comms.