Talking to yourself?

I've been doing a lot of thinking recently about internal communications. It all stems from a conference I chaired for the Internal Communications Alliance - a CIPR sectoral group which we are keen to align more closely with the rest of our membership.

The ICA are an active bunch and work in what I've always thought of as the Cinderella end of our industry. But I believe that's all set to change.

During my thirty year PR career I've often found that internal comms sat somewhere in the HR department rather than in the mainstream comms function. Likewise, although I often told clients about its importance and trotted out the old mantra about your staff being your best ambassadors, it was usually secondary to what I thought of as "real" PR work.

So I was interested to hear this week of a major UK-based multi-national which is restructuring to bring internal comms out of HR and into the PR department - something which a number of those at the ICA event told me was where it ought to be.