Kim Leslie’s PR Blog

PR practitioners should have an active role in employee/internal communication within organizations. Employees should be viewed by organizations as their most important stakeholder group because employees determine whether an organization will be successful or not. Practitioners should encourage organizations to view employees this way and communicate with employees in a way that reflects this view. Engaged employees have a special connection with the organization that causes them to act in the best interest of the company, ultimately benefitting the company (often made possible by PR practitioners). In addition, engaged employees have an increased level of job satisfaction, lead to more profitability for the company, and lower turnover rates and operating costs. Not only do engaged employees provide these benefits to the company, they are also loyal to the company and stay employed there, perform well, encourage others to perform better, and serve as ambassadors that recommend the employer to others and build a positive image of the employer within the community.

PR practitioners can create programs that increase the number of engaged employees in an organization. To do this, practitioners must build trust with employees and encourage transparent internal communication. If internal communication is transparent, communication with external stakeholders will also be transparent, and the organization will be viewed as credible. Practitioners must ensure that internal communication is frequent, authentic, and builds quality relationships with employees. Practitioners already work to build these types of relationships with consumers and other external stakeholders, and are experts on how to engage various stakeholders.

If employee/internal communication and engaged employees are beneficial to organizations in so many ways, why are some organizations not turning to PR practitioners who can offer invaluable expertise?