In the corporate and business world, internal communication has traditionally been viewed as a system designed to convey information to staff: what they need to know, when, and through which channel it is best to convey it. Digitalisation has made this approach extraordinarily sophisticated. Today we have more comprehensive intranets, better-targeted newsletters, apps, collaborative platforms, town hall meetings, videos, podcasts and a capacity to produce and distribute content that would have been hard to imagine just a decade ago.
This proliferation of channels and formats necessitates a shift in focus. The real quantum leap in internal communication no longer lies in how much we are able to send, but rather in the place which is occupied by the people within that conversation: whether they receive information or whether they also have a say; whether they are familiar with the company or also whether they know each other amongst themselves; and if they contribute, with their experience and their identity, in the construction on a day-to-day basis of corporate culture. In other words: being informed does not amount to feeling part of.
This distinction takes on particular significance now that the employee experience is taking up an increasingly prominent role on the agenda of organisations. Loyalty, commitment, the ability to attract and retain talent or the desire to recommend a company as a place to work do not come are built solely on the basis of communication. It would be naive to attribute such power to it. Yes it can contribute, on the other hand, to create some of the conditions that nurture that experience: listening, recognition, participation, visibility, mutual understanding and the ability to express oneself.
That is why the question is no longer simply how to communicate more effectively with employees. It is also important to consider what happens when we communicate with them, when we enable them to communicate with one another, and when, of their own accord, they begin to look beyond the organisation.
Because the sense of belonging is not something that is communicated. It is built up.
From internal audience to community
Research into internal communication has been pointing in this direction for a while. In 2007, Mary Welch and Paul R. Jackson proposed in Rethinking internal communication: a stakeholder approach to move beyond the view of the employees as a homogeneous internal audience and to address the organisation by catering to its various groups, levels and relationships. The idea remains as relevant as ever, since a company is quite more than a broadcaster when faced with a captive audience. It is a network of conversations, connections and interests which are constantly intertwined.
Almost two decades on, the problem seems to be less resolved than one might expect. The IC Index 2026, compiled from a representative sample of 5,000 British workers, indicates that only 52% believe their organisation welcomes open and honest feedback on its performance as an employer. This figure drops to 44% when asked whether the company adequately demonstrates how it uses its staff’s feedback to guide decisions and actions.
This point is worth noting because it introduces a fundamental distinction. Listening is not the same as setting up a suggestion box, launching a survey or opening a question-and-answer session at the end of a corporate meeting. Listening only becomes valuable when there is a perception that that voice will be heard. And this is where one of the tensions in contemporary internal communication arises: we have greatly increased our capacity to speak out, whilst the capacity to provide feedback on the conversation remains far more uneven.
We do not need to interpret these findings as an automatic cause-and-effect relationship. They are more interesting as an indication of a shift in perspective, whereby internal communication is beginning to move beyond its informative role to address the quality of the relationship an organisation maintains with its people.
That relationship is not limited to the classic two-way company-employee dynamic. In a living organisation, communication is necessarily multidirectional. The company engages with its staff and listens to them; staff interact with one another, exchange knowledge, get to know one another and recognise one another’s value; and, increasingly, some of these voices are also contributing to the external conversation about the company, its activities and the sector to which it belongs. In short, every member of the organisation begins to form part of the narrative.
To be known and recognised
Here is one aspect of the employee experience that I find particularly interesting: being known and recognised.
There is a difference substantial between both things. Recognition is usually associated with performance, to talent, to one’s achievements or to professional contribution. Being recognised introduces an additional layer: that the organisation and, especially, the people with whom we share our day to day know who is behind the role, of the department and of the mere photograph on the intranet. Belonging has quite a lot to do with that.
Companies have put a great deal of effort into defining their values and ensuring that their teams are aware of them. This makes sense. A shared culture requires common points of reference. The dynamic changes when there are spaces in which to express opinions, share knowledge, recount experiences and bring to the fore those personal aspects that each individual chooses to incorporate into their professional life. Collective identity then takes on greater depth because it makes room for individual identities.
This area also encompasses what is known as ‘emotional pay’, a concept that has often been trivialised to the point of becoming a catch-all term for employment benefits that do not appear on the payslip. Recent academic research offers a more precise interpretation. A study published in 2025 in the Journal of Work and Organisational Psychology defines it as a multidimensional set of intentional, non-financial organisational practices aimed at meeting socio-emotional and developmental needs. Its dimensions include relational elements such as recognition, fairness and social support.
It is worth drawing a clear line here. Communication, of course, does not in itself create emotional reward. It does, however, have the capacity to influence certain aspects of it, by highlighting a contribution, encouraging people to listen, creating opportunities for participation, connecting people, and recognising identities and knowledge that might otherwise remain hidden.
Because an organisation’s culture is also revealed in who it listens to, who it gives a voice to, and how much scope it gives its staff to be more than just the role they play on an organisational chart.
When the corporate content changes in terms of subject
This reflection takes on another dimension when it is applied to specific projects.
At comma, we have been working for some time with Grupo Mutualidad on ‘Tal como soy’, in collaboration with Esturión Producciones, an internal communications project linked to their Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) policy. Its aim is to give a face and a voice to the diversity within the organisation and to create an environment where people can express their individuality, sharing who they are beyond their job roles.
The premise seems simple, yet its scope in terms of communication is quite a bit greater, since the the content corporate changes from subject.
The organisation provides the framework, the channels and the capacity for production. The floor is then given to the individuals. And here, once again, the idea of being known and recognised comes to the fore. ‘Tal como soy’ allows each participant to express themselves and, at the same time, offers their colleagues the chance to discover aspects that usually remain hidden from professional relationships; backgrounds, families, challenges, hobbies and personal aspirations become points of connection.
Each piece is based on prior research into the individual and their background. From there, the unique aspect of their story is identified, a profile of the subject is drawn up, an approach is defined, and a specific shooting script is developed. The on-camera conversation is deliberately longer than the final edit to allow room for natural responses and spontaneous moments. Next comes the editorial work: selecting, prioritising, contextualising and constructing a story. The video provides a voice, a face and emotion; the written feature allows for a broader context and preserves other nuances. Furthermore, a single conversation gives rise to an ecosystem of content capable of circulating across various internal channels.
This methodology avoids another common risk in corporate communication: turning uniqueness into a label. This is probably one of the project’s most interesting contributions: recognising a person requires taking a broader view of them.
From being heard inside to projecting outwards
There is one more aspect to consider. If internal communication can help people find their own place in the company’s dialogue, it is reasonable to ask what happens when some of those voices extend beyond the corporate boundaries.
This is where ambassador programmes and employee advocacy come in – two concepts that run the risk of being undermined when interpreted as a formula for achieving organic reach through employees’ personal profiles. The more their messaging resembles the company’s corporate account, the less likely it is that their contribution will offer any distinctive value. The strength of a professional voice lies precisely in what they can contribute based on their experience, their knowledge and their understanding of the field in which they work.
In our experience, we have developed this type of strategy primarily on LinkedIn, helping groups of professionals to build their own presence which, at the same time, broadens the way in which the company presents itself to the outside world. The corporate narrative thus coexists with other narratives capable of providing knowledge, sectoral authority and a perspective born of day-to-day work.
An programme for ambassadors makes sense when it identifies knowledge within the the organisation and helps those who possess it to express it with judgement of their own. Communication accompanies that process by providing training, editorial guidance and a framework that enables them to navigate the digital environment safely, without blurring the personality or the authority of the person speaking.
This work also has a knock-on effect. Professionals who participate thoughtfully in public discourse can become role models within the company itself, build trust amongst their colleagues and help others gradually find their own way of doing so. The conversation then takes on a truly multidirectional dimension, as it circulates within the organisation, amongst its members and also outwards. The company stops projecting itself in a single form to begin to recognise itself as a plurality in harmony.
The reputation as a consequence of pride in belonging
For decades, organisations have taken great care in crafting the narrative and the channels through which they communicate externally. That work remains essential. Today, however, corporate reputation is also built from within, through the experience of the people who make up the company and the way in which they choose to speak about it when that experience extends beyond the organisation’s internal boundaries.
The question is no longer how effectively a company gets its professionals to repeat its narrative, but how many discerning voices it is able to accommodate, and to what extent that diversity helps to reinforce a credible reputation. Belonging does not mean everyone speaking in the same way; it means being able to find one’s place within a shared project whilst retaining one’s own voice.
When that internal experience is coherent, recognisable and shared, communication ceases to be merely a tool for information or participation. It becomes also a part of the reputation of the company. And perhaps that is where a community begins which, in addition to being well-informed and feeling part of, has reasons to feel pride and speak well of that to which she belongs.
