Overview
Internal communications is the discipline of telling your own people first, clearly, and in a way that holds up when it leaks. It covers announcement cascades, leadership visibility, change and restructure messaging, manager toolkits, and the channel design that decides whether anything you send is actually read. It is also the quiet backbone of external credibility: employees are the most-quoted unofficial source a journalist has.
What we do
- Design the announcement cascade: who is told what, in what order, on what channel
- Write leadership notes, all-hands scripts, and manager talking points
- Handle change communications — restructures, leadership transitions, policy shifts
- Build the internal channel map and a cadence people learn to trust
- Align internal messaging with the external narrative before anything ships
What you receive
- Internal communications framework and channel map
- Announcement cascade runbooks by scenario
- Leadership note, all-hands script, and manager toolkit drafts
- Change communications plan for sensitive moments
Who it's for
Companies with enough headcount that news travels before leadership does, and any organization heading into a restructure, acquisition, or leadership change.
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What internal communications is
Internal communications is the practice of informing employees first, clearly, and in language that holds up if it leaks — covering announcement cascades, leadership visibility, change and restructure messaging, manager enablement, and the channel design that determines whether anything you send is read.
When a brand needs this
- Staff learn company news from LinkedIn, a customer, or a reporter
- A restructure, acquisition, layoff, or leadership change is coming
- Managers are asked to explain decisions they were never briefed on
- You have five channels and no rule about what belongs where
- External messaging and internal reality have visibly diverged
Our approach
- 01
Design the cascade
Who is told what, in what order, on which channel, and within what window. Most internal failures are sequencing failures, not writing failures.
- 02
Write for the audience that will screenshot it
Internal notes are semi-public. We draft leadership messages that are honest, specific, and defensible if published verbatim.
- 03
Arm the managers
Talking points, likely questions, and what they are authorised to say. A cascade fails at the layer where managers have to improvise.
- 04
Handle change without hedging
Restructures, transitions and policy shifts need plain language about what is changing, what is not, and what is still undecided — vagueness generates the rumour you were trying to avoid.
- 05
Keep internal and external aligned
Nothing ships externally that contradicts what employees were told, and the internal version goes out first.
Sectors where we run this
How this connects to the rest of the practice
- Corporate Communications
- Same message framework, aimed inward as well as outward.
- Crisis Communications
- Employees are the first audience in almost every incident.
- Funding Announcement PR
- Raise announcements need an internal cascade on the same clock.
- Media Training & PR Training
- Managers and executives face internal questioning as tough as any interview.
Proof and further reading
Published client work, press coverage, and our written analysis of how these programmes are run.
Frequently asked
- Is internal communications part of PR?
- Practically, yes. Employees are the most frequently quoted unofficial source a journalist has, so internal clarity is an external reputation control as much as a culture one.
- Do you write the messages or advise our team?
- Either. Some engagements are drafting — leadership notes, all-hands scripts, cascade runbooks. Others are advisory, where we build the framework and your team writes inside it.
- How do you handle layoffs or restructures?
- With a fixed sequence, plain language, and manager briefings prepared before anything is sent. We also prepare for the external version of the story, because sensitive internal news frequently becomes public.
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We'll map the right scope for internal communications — and you leave with a written brief either way.
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