From new engagement strategies to transformational overhauls, internal communication is anything but static in 2025. Blink’s webinar The Future of Internal Comms 2025+ raised interesting points about the state of internal communication today and what issues need to be met to build future-proofed systems that put the employee experience front and centre.

This panel discussion featured a veritable smorgasbord of IC talent, including Ellie Moore from Dominoes, Jennifer Sproul from IOIC, Joanna Parsons from The Curious Route, and Chris Lee from Gallagher. Across a wide-ranging and frankly delightful conversation, chaired by Georgie Scott, Marketing Director of Blink, the panel explored all the opportunities to modernise internal communications.

So, what’s front of mind for these IC leaders?

Hybrid working remains contentious: Joanna raised the ongoing live discussion around hybrid working and bringing people back into the office. It was a major shift to working lives that organisations have not fully reckoned with. The genie is certainly not going back in the bottle. Communicators needed to give it the full consideration it needed to develop effective solutions.

Polarisation on the rise: Jennifer shared her concerns for an increasingly polarised future, exacerbated by AI, and believes that organisational context will play a huge role in navigating divisive times.

Bring external comms habits internal: Ellie discussed how wider communication habits outside of work needed to be built into corporate comms. We experience so much high end, sophisticated comms in our daily lives but too often in internal communications, those expectations aren’t met. This even extended to consumer grade content to compete for employee interest and attention more effectively.

Being a strategic internal communicator: Chris spoke of how much IC’s role has changed, going from misunderstood and underutilised to becoming a strategically focussed asset. He posited the question of whether or not internal comms knew the value they bring to the table and that problems arise when IC professionals know what they want to say instead of what their employees want to know.

We still have room to improve on two-way comms…

From here, a more freeform, open discussion began, starting with Jennifer zeroing in on all the ways we can engage with employee feedback. IC teams need to ask themselves what they’re missing, how are we listening, when do they get comms, and do they truly understand their audience.

Ellie backed this up by saying that if comms ever feels like extra work that you risk people not engaging. She gave an example of the delivery and warehouse teams at Dominoes, who’s schedules are wildly different to the office workers and had to be understood to maintain impact.  Demographics need to be understood in their own contexts, particularly in how they organise their working days, before delivery methods can be determined.

Joanna had similar experiences with the Butler’s chocolate warehouse team, emphasising the importance of comms that connect the dots between what workers need to know to do their jobs, and the wider mission of the organisation. This means familiarising yourself with the full spectrum of working environments to build out initiatives that improve work satisfaction and make people feel understood.

The consensus was that embedding comms more strategically in incremental routine ways would make for more lasting memorable and “shareable” efforts (as Chris put it). There’s an increasing divide in standards of communication and, as Joanna said, it’s easy for people to not truly invest in and care about the employee experience unless these connections are made vital by communicators.

A practical remedy for this was offered by Chris, arguing that teams need a strong tech stack that talk to each other well, essentially inspiring dialogue and centring employee voices at every turn. Shared experience is still the most resonant tool at your disposal. Communicators need to see their people as so much more than “productivity machines” and bring life to their value and hard work. This is what ultimately brings workforces together.

The optimism of this panel was striking, looking at some of the challenging existential questions we’re facing with an eye for opportunity and safe practice. As much as we need energy and focus to truly meet what the future holds, keeping a straightforward and unpretentious approach will enable key communications to cut through to all employees.