Once upon a time the remit of an external communications professional was clear:

To reach and engage with identified audiences, via appropriate channels, to promote and enhance the company or organisation’s products or services.

While the world of external communications has always been a multi-faceted discipline, these days, with hybrid working, the advance of AI and heightened expectations from CEO’s, it’s become even more so. A recent external comms round table discussion, hosted by VMA GROUP, highlighted this when we invited a group of senior managers and Heads of Comms to share their thoughts alongside the findings from VMA GROUP’S The View, a snapshot of the external communications industry in 2023. We had representation from a range of industries including aviation, construction, housing, energy, and property, and it was interesting to hear these common denominators.

Perhaps these resonate? We would be interested in hearing from you:

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The change in work patterns:

While by and large hybrid working has become the norm, the increased expectation from employees as to what this looks like, is presenting some challenges. Pre Covid the usual pattern was office-based, with flexibility of working from home, dependent on work remits. Now, Heads of Comms are expressing frustration with new employees joining their teams who seem to expect there to be specific reasons to come into the office. While most will agree that the best working patterns are about productivity, and not ticking boxes for the sake of it, the challenge of having to spell out why there is an expectation to be physically