Orizontas — Who should care about internal comms

Who should care about internal comms – and how to do it right

5 MIN READ

Internal communication often gets overlooked – until something goes wrong. It doesn’t usually spark headlines or investor interest. But when it fails, the consequences surface quickly: disengaged teams, confused execution, and reputational risk.

In a recent pulse survey of ASX200 executives, over 60% said a breakdown in internal messaging directly impacted the outcome of a strategic initiative. Leading academia finds that purpose-led organisations outperform when communication is open, responsive, and strategic⁶. Another study from the Australian HR Institute found that nearly half of HR leaders felt internal communication was not effective enough in helping staff understand business priorities.

For organisations going through change – a new strategy, restructure, ESG shift or leadership transition – internal comms isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s a core lever for execution.

What this article offers

This article is for CEOs, corporate affairs leaders, and people and culture teams who want to assess and improve internal communication in their organisations. It offers:

A practical framework to help you think about internal comms
Five questions to evaluate whether your current internal comms is working
A clear view of what good looks like – and what doesn’t
Guidance on what to do next if you want to improve the quality of internal comms

1. Why listen to Orizontas on this?

Orizontas has supported CEOs, corporate affairs leads and people leaders through high-stakes internal communication challenges – including restructures, ESG launches, enterprise strategy resets, and national advocacy campaigns.

Organisations with a clearly articulated and co-created purpose see higher engagement, particularly when leaders practice dialogic communication and active listening to foster that sense of shared mission⁶.

We’ve worked with ASX-listed companies, federal departments, advocacy groups, and health institutions to turn internal comms from a risk factor into a driver of alignment and delivery.

Clients have included:

A national health agency reshaping its operating model
A major university going through cultural transformation
An ASX100 energy company launching a decarbonisation strategy

2. What are internal comms and why does it matter?

Internal comms is how an organisation connects people to strategy. It ensures teams understand priorities, stay aligned, and respond confidently to change. Organisational listening is just as important as delivering the message, it helps identify where communication is landing and where it’s not (as asserted by PR academics in recent industry studies)⁶.

When it’s working, people:

Know where the organisation is heading
Understand how their work contributes
Hear consistent, timely messages from leadership
Feel informed, not sidelined

It’s not just newsletters or cascade emails. Internal comms includes:

Leadership messaging and visibility
Comms planning during transformation
Consistent messaging across departments and levels
Feedback loops that lead to action

3. Who should care and why

CEOs and executive leaders

Unclear internal messaging slows down execution and weakens trust. CEOs rely on strong internal comms to reinforce direction and build confidence.

Impact: Faster execution, better visibility, stronger internal alignment

Corporate affairs and communications teams

Internal comms are the foundation of external credibility. If staff don’t believe the message, external audiences won’t either.

Impact: Message consistency, internal advocacy, reputation resilience

People and culture leaders

Culture is shaped by what people hear, how consistently they hear it, and whether they see follow-through. Poor internal comms undermine engagement.

Impact: Engagement scores, retention, cultural alignment

Five questions to check if your internal comms is working

A strong internal comms system helps people understand what the organisation is doing, why it matters, and how they fit into it.

Here are five practical questions to assess whether yours is doing its job:

Can people across the organisation explain the company’s strategy in their own words?
Ask a handful of staff from different levels or departments. What are we focused on right now? If the answers are vague or inconsistent, your messaging is not landing clearly.
Would two or three teams describe your priorities and values the same way?
Speak to people from different business units or locations. If their view of the company’s direction or values varies significantly, that is a sign of inconsistent communication.
When major decisions are made, do people usually hear about them from a leader or from someone else?
Think back to the last announcement or change. Did staff hear it first from an official update, or through informal channels?
Are your leaders speaking with a consistent voice on key issues?
Review recent leadership updates or team meetings. If leaders are saying different things about the same topic, it creates confusion and undermines trust.
When feedback is collected, is there follow-up and do people know what has been done?
Look at your last engagement survey or team check-in. Was any action taken? Was it communicated back to staff? Without that loop, trust tends to drop.

If two or more of these answers raise doubts, your internal comms likely needs attention.

What good looks like and what doesn’t

If internal comms is working	If internal comms is not working
A handful of people across the business can clearly explain the company’s current strategy	People give inconsistent or vague answers when asked what the organisation is focused on
Teams have a shared understanding of recent decisions and their impact on day-to-day work	Teams are unclear on what has changed or how it affects them
Staff hear major decisions from leadership directly and in a timely way	Updates spread informally or come as a surprise
Leadership messages are consistent and coordinated across functions	Different leaders give different accounts of the same issue
Feedback is followed by clear action and visible updates	Feedback disappears with no clear follow-up or outcome

Recently, Orizontas partnered with three large resource and manufacturing companies to develop internal and external communications for a renewable energy joint venture. The challenge was to create a narrative that would engage three very diverse workforces and gain support. The result was a public announcement on the joint venture with all workforces aligned.

What to do next if you want to improve

Improving internal comms doesn’t have to mean launching a new platform or writing a new strategy. It starts with visibility, alignment and follow-through.

Here are three practical steps:

Run a simple pulse check
Ask five to ten people across different teams to explain the organisation’s top three priorities and how their work contributes. If the answers are inconsistent or unclear, there’s a messaging gap.
Review a recent announcement from end to end
Pick a recent internal communication moment such as a change, initiative or update. Look at how it was written, who approved it, how it was shared and how people responded. This reveals how internal comms are actually functioning.
Choose one improvement to make visible
This could be aligning weekly leadership messages, improving comms timing, or visibly following up on feedback. Start small, but make the change noticeable. It builds trust and shows intent.

Start with something you can see and measure – and build from there.

Need support? Here’s how Orizontas can help

We help CEOs, comms leaders and people and culture teams get ahead of the internal narrative, before it becomes a risk.

In the past two years, Orizontas has:

Advised on internal comms strategy across more than ten organisations
Helped shape internal messaging for restructures, cultural resets and ESG strategy launches
Supported clients across resources, health, government and consumer sectors to build internal confidence before public announcements

If your strategy depends on people to bring it to life, internal comms is not optional.

References

Australian HR Institute. (2023). Internal communication: Its role in engagement and performance
Pulse Insights. (2023). ASX200 Executive Communication Survey
Oak Engage. (2023). Internal Communications Statistics and Trends. https://www.oak.com/blog/internal-communications-statistics/
Pumble. (2024). Workplace Communication Statistics. https://pumble.com/learn/communication/communication-statistics/
Gitnux. (2023). Internal Communication Statistics. https://gitnux.org/internal-communication-statistics/
Hung-Baesecke, Chen & Taylor. (2025). Organisational shared purpose and communication in ageing societies. Public Relations Review

Contact

Ella Eberhardt

Phone Number: +61 (0) 490 391 696

Email: ella.eberhardt@orizontas.com.au

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