It’s a great time to be working in internal communications (IC). This year’s Inside Insight survey received our largest response yet, with 557 IC professionals taking part, making up what we believe to be a healthy representation of the industry. In the first of a two-part series, we’ll take you through the key take-aways from the first four chapters, with the final five chapters coming next week.

Chapter 1: Profile of an IC professional

According to Inside Insight 2017, the average profile of an IC professional remains fairly constant, with the majority of people working full time in the office, five days a week. Largely female, highly-educated and based in London or the south east, the industry’s demographic is broadly unchanged. However, it is encouraging to see the sector spread of IC professionals is varied, despite financial and professional services predictably dominating overall.

Another element continuing the theme of previous years is the reported lack of junior talent starting their careers in IC. This does give cause for concern as to where the IC professionals of the future will come from, and begs the question of what we should be doing to attract junior communications talent and school leavers / graduates into the profession.

One of the changes we have been able to track over the last few years is the closer integration of IC and HR, as the number of IC teams sitting in the HR function continues to see steady growth: 13% in 2015, 18% in 2016 and 21% in 2017.

Chapter 2: Your IC Department

The sector continues to grow and more opportunities are being created. At the same time, the value and importance of IC continues to be recognise