Engaging Employees in 2018: What Communicators are Focused on Now

Whether driven from inside or outside the organisation, the pace of change accelerated in 2017 – a trend we expect to continue into 2018. The work our clients hired FTI Consulting’s People & Change practice to support in 2017 is an indication of where they focused their attention and what they considered to be their most formidable challenges.

Here are six big needs we saw in 2017 and what we think they foreshadow for 2018:

• The digitisation of internal communications, human resources and learning and development

• Identifying influential employees

• Improving business results with internal communications

• Supporting leadership transitions

• Evolving cultures to support business growth

• Enhancing the customer experience

The digitisation of internal communications, human resources and learning and development. The internal corporate functions that support employees have for years struggled with how to get beyond the traditional intranet and capitalize on digital tools to engage employees while operating efficiently. We saw a significant uptick during 2017 in real efforts to design and deploy digital technologies in the world of internal communications and organizational development. Our work this year has included planning for the global launch of a new digital intranet for a global pharma leader and developing a destination microsite to educate employees on and engage them in a new business strategy. We have seen many companies taking a real look at how to leverage employees’ mobile devices, knowing that they are a primary communications channel that has not yet been fully leveraged.