Internal comms (IC) is not for the faint hearted; our worst critic is likely to be a colleague, while our leaders think internal comms is easy (ignoring, tone, messaging, timing, audience, channel and culture) and that most of their (sometimes very poor) ideas are just great. We are not applauded enough for our instantaneous problem-solving – such as talking colleagues out of some risky decisions (think senior leader knee-jerk anger-charged response to an employee criticism on the internal platform, rather than a measured response that doubles as a learning opportunity). All of this while maintaining good relationships, translating ideas to make them culture-ready and keeping our job.
And often, nobody takes our deadlines seriously. We are credited with the ability to bend time and be OK with an approval that is two days past the actual deadline (not the fake deadline that is two days before that). There is so much to steel ourselves against to produce the right intervention at the right time or provide timely trusted counsel, averting crises or managing the fallout. It definitely takes guts.
Often, that fallout is culture-based or specifically, permitted behaviour-based. EDI (equality, diversity and inclusion) is a protective framework of every employee’s human (and protected) characteristics. Whether you manage the communications for HR, the CEO’s office or EDI (DEI and/or D&I), IC is perfectly positioned as the harbinger of a psychologically safe culture. It’s expressed in the way we communicate with each other in the workplace – not only the in-house tone of voice, but the topics for which that voice will offer support or stay silent.
Why staying silent is not the answer
In the medical world high blood pressure, or hypertension, is commonly known as the silent killer. Years can elapse with no obvious explicit symptoms, yet all the major organs are being damaged as your body ‘dies’ from the inside. Silence about issues that affect race in your workplace has a similar effect, with the damage being inflicted on the psyche and mental well-being of your racially minoritised colleagues. This is backed up by Mind – the UK’s foremost mental health charity – which recognises the psychological impact of having to face racism and experience racial violence both inside and out of work. It maintains that the damaging impact of racism is real.
Imagine only seeing or hearing yourself represented when your colleagues gather in the kitchen (I think that still happens physically. It absolutely happens on chat or video call). They ‘discuss’, the race of the domestic terrorist, the gang member, the grooming gang, the footballers who missed penalties – and not always in whispered tones – but stay silent when the white nationalist (fascist) followers of Stephen Yaxley Lennon (AKA Tommy Robinson) march in their thousands baying for Black and Brown blood. And worse, imagine what it is like to listen to your colleagues openly and comfortably discussing how they attend these marches with their flags, but are ‘absolutely not racist’ because they have Black/Asian friends, neighbours or colleagues. All of whom probably think they are racist.
As storytellers we can do better than celebrating different foods or allowing some posters for Black History Month or South Asian Heritage Month.
How about:
- Encouraging your leaders to send a message of support and solidarity to colleagues affected by racially motivated events out of work that absolutely impact their well-being and feeling of safety in work.
- Drafting comms that clearly positions the organisation’s employee brand not only internally but externally. I’d want to know who I work for.
- Resisting the temptation to drop this work into the lap of Black or Brown colleagues. There really isn’t the emotional capacity to deal with this and be part of the global majority (think everyday racism, microaggressions and misogynoir).
- Check in with your colleagues either privately or visibly to show clear support for them.
- Take a look at policies that damage and discriminate against your Black and Brown colleagues. Think confirmation bias in recruitment, ethnicity pay gaps, weaponised performance management tools (the infamous PIPs). Be proactive in working with HR to clarify policies for all communities, especially Black and Asian.
- Make sure any employee resource groups that support race have senior leader sponsorship and a voice.
- Find your empathy. Don’t wait to be asked. The impact may not be direct, but you are being impacted. That could mean withdrawn colleagues, increased sick leave or even resignations.
Many of us who have spent the majority of our careers on the inside have fought hard to be seen as credible, influential and essential. Talking about race is difficult but, as we established earlier, the entire role is fraught with difficulty. When it comes to race let’s do what we do best: listen, create and deliver, taking our audience with us.
Barbara Phillips is the founder of Brownstone Communications, and chair of Public Relations and Communications Association (PRCA)’s Race and Ethnicity Equity Board (REEB)