In today's episode, we continue talking to Rebecca Sangster-Kelly. She shares a little trick on how to get senior leaders to understand and follow your advice as an internal comms professional.

In this episode, an emerging internal comms thought leader Rebecca Sangster-Kelly talks about the gap in the practical side of comms and the way the IC profession is perceived. That gap was one of the reasons Rebecca started her series of videos for leaders and communication professionals.

Season 2 of the Comms Minute podcast is coming next week, and we’ve made some major changes! 👇

1. Comms Shift is now Comms Minute

The podcast was initially a monthly interview, 30-45 min long.

In season one, we introduced the concept of short 2-5 min long episodes focused on one actionable insight delivered 2-3 times a week.

Our listeners seemed to like it. We heard your feedback and we are doubling down on this.

2. The experts become the hosts

It's been an amazing learning journey for us as we had the chance to interview some brilliant communication consultants, in-house professionals, authors, and thought-leaders.

And today we're excited to announce that two of those experts are becoming the co-hosts of the Comms Minute podcast.

Smarp senior strategic advisors, well-known internal comms experts with over eighty years of combined experience, Mike Klein and Brad Whitworth will take on the hosting duty in season two.

We’re super excited about the new season and hope you are looking forward to it too.

New episodes every Tuesday and Thursday. 🎧

If you got a minute — tune in! 😉

Thank you for being with us this year. It has been a challenge, but together we came out of it stronger. Thanks for tuning in to those 55 Comms Shift podcast episodes that went live in 2020. 🎧 Thanks for being among those 6000 attendees who joined our live sessions this year. 📺 Thanks for those 1200 questions that you asked. 💬 And thank you for the countless pieces of advice that you shared with us and other peers in the community. 🧡 Comms Shift season 2 is coming in January. In different frequency, new formats but with the same goal — to support all of you who care about employee communications, engagement & advocacy. From all of us here at Smarp, we wish you a peaceful, safe & positive new year. May it bring you joy and success! Happy New Year and we'll meet again in season 2 in 2021!

The 2020 crisis has accelerated digital transformation in most organizations. However, this process is far from being over. Brad Whitworth shares the two main priorities to focus on in early 2021 regarding digital transformation. ✅ Firstly, we'll have to critically evaluate what has been done in 2020: what works, what doesn't, and what needs to change. ✅ Secondly, we need to approach digital transformation as an ongoing process, not a single project. We need to continually keep re-evaluating our digital stack to keep up with a fast-paced reality.

According to Gatehouse, communicating strategy, values, and purposes is a key priority for most communicators. At the same time, IBM reports that 72% of employees don't fully understand the company's strategy. So what are we doing wrong?

"The first mistake we often make when trying to communicate company strategy and value is to let the executives, who have developed this, use corporate jargon — those general words that have no meaning and can be applied to any organization, says Brad Whitworth.

The book Brad recommends for everyone who wants to tackle this mistake is called "The Cluetrain Manifesto" by David Weinberger.

The second mistake is that we don't do a good enough job in tying down that high-level strategy to the local levels of the organization. We need to help leaders at all those levels interpret that strategy and give employees tangible guidelines off the back of it.

Smarp's PMM Aleks chats with Kerri Warner, Global Head of Employee Communications at Mastercard. Kerri shares her thoughts on the evolving role of the communicator, as well as her 4Cs framework for what employee communications can bring to the table in enterprise organizations.

Traditional onboarding tends to consist of an onsite intro to the company, a more detailed intro to the actual job role and tools, and maybe some introduction to peers, colleagues, and the key people the new hire interacts with.

Remote onboarding is different, says Mike Klein. The introduction to the role itself has to factor in whether the new hire has access to the work tools. Even if yes, the introduction to the company needs to have more depth - and this is one place where internal comms could play a much more significant role. And even more important, introducing new people to people with knowledge and influence can play a major role in getting a newcomer up to speed.

Read the full article if you want to learn more: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/ic-beyond-onboarding-goes-remote-changing-game-mike-klein

Brad Whitworth shares his checklist for everyone who wants to launch a podcast for internal communications:

👉 Start with why. Define your audience and goals. For example, if you need to reach and engage an audience without regular access to screens - what information do you want to share with them?

👉 Define style for your podcast. Conversational, people-focused for building culture or maybe more tactical, more informative for regular updates, or perhaps mixed as a part of your remote onboarding process?

👉 Make sure you have resources and commitment. Consistency is key when it comes to podcasting. So make sure to build a content plan and stick to it.

👉 Promote the podcast to your audience. Make sure your employees are equipped to listen to it and hungry for new episodes. Listen to their feedback and improve with each new episode.

In most organizations, the transition to a new working model will be gradual as vaccination runs its course around the world.

Business continuity flowing into an orderly transition will be key in 2021. And recognizing that the world may make "orderly" quite tricky.

A key piece will be Organizational Due Diligence - understanding how influence and connections still remain important and where there are gaps from departures or disposals, like selling off parts of your organization for M&A.

Another key will be the quality and seamlessness of your communication platform. 2020 confirmed your internal communication platform as your organization's de facto HQ. The extent to which it is complete, effective, and easy-to-use reflects how you want your employees to think of you.

For those of you looking for a comms platform like that — here's a shortcut 👉 go to https://smarp.com/ and learn how companies like Amazon, Salesforce and KPMG reach and engage all their employees with targeted communications.