Hiring Communicators

Is your department stretched thin? If you don’t have enough people to handle the internal communications work that needs to be done, your first impulse might be to ask for more headcount. Adding another person to your team can certainly help lighten the load, as long as it’s the right person and they have the relevant skills and experience. But the competition for talent is fierce right now.

Here are five reasons the best move might be to hire an internal communications agency instead:

An agency has seen it before

Whether you need to shift the culture, introduce a major change, improve awareness with jobseekers, build an employer brand, promote diversity and inclusion, or even just communicate new safety policies, an experienced internal communications agency will have seen that same challenge in other companies. Solutions they’ve implemented for other organizations could provide a shortcut for yours.

An agency brings an outsider’s view

Although the same challenges occur across companies and industries, the culture of your company is unique. A seasoned internal communications agency will be able to recognize what makes your culture special more easily, because they’re not immersed in it every day — and they’ve worked with a vast array of company cultures in the past. Knowledge of how your culture compares to others can be invaluable.

An agency is multi-talented

By hiring an internal communications agency, you’re able to benefit from the talents and experience of people in a range of disciplines, from research and strategic planning to writing and design. You may need a communications audit now and some content development down the road. With an agency, you’re stretching your budget dollars to buy just the functional expertise you need, when you need it.

An agency manages itself

Don’t have the mindshare available to manage yet another project? A good internal communications agency will have processes in place to move the ball down the field without you worrying about what should be getting done when. Sure, you’ll need to give them input to get going, but then you should be able to focus on other work until they need you to review the next milestone.

An agency can teach your team to fish

You may have the in-house capacity to run certain channels, from the intranet to digital signage to manager toolkits — after you have an internal communications agency get them off the ground. The heavy lifting often occurs at the launch of a new communications program. An agency can help you through the launch, and then equip your people to keep it going on their own.