If you work in PR and communications, you know this well: If you want to save time, costs, and creative energy, start with your tech stack. Still, implementing a new set of internal tools for your corporate communications reporting workflow can be met with resistance. Integrating these tools in a workflow that transcends across teams at a major corporation—let alone a global one—requires a dedicated leader.
Our Senior Content Marketing Manager, Haley Thorpe, sat down with Manon Gomes, Former Global Communications Specialist at Ubisoft and Internal Communications and Employer Brand Officer for Meetic, to hear her expertise and advice.
Haley Thorpe: Manon, thanks for joining us today! Can you start by sharing a bit about your career journey in Communications? What’s your favorite part of your role?
Manon Gomes: For as long as I can remember, I’ve been passionate about writing and knew it would become an integral part of my career. After Business School, my event management and Public Relations internships paved the way for a career in communications. I specialised in corporate communications and honed my skills in tech storytelling and external communications. Now at Meetic, I’m embracing my love for celebrating people and successes through internal communications and employer branding.
My favourite part of my Communications role is the incredible variety it offers. I love being at the crossroads of the business. I have the privilege of collaborating across various teams, each with its own unique communications needs. This interconnectedness broadens my perspective and offers extended visibility into my industry or the products my company makes. Overall, every day presents a new challenge and an opportunity to learn something new, which keeps my career journey exciting and fulfilling.
HT: Being at the business's crossroads sounds exciting, yet I imagine it introduces challenges. How has your role in Communications evolved in recent years, and what are some challenges to the role?
MG: I feel the role’s responsibilities have evolved far beyond traditional communications. We’ve become strategic advisors, playing a crucial part in shaping the direction and impact of our and the companies’ initiatives. This expanded responsibility adds depth to the work, making it even more rewarding.
“We’ve become strategic advisors, playing a crucial part in shaping the direction and impact of our and the companies’ initiatives.” - Manon Gomes.
‘Communications’ can mean many different things. One challenge is the common misconception that if you're a Comms pro, you can do anything. I believe you should have different skill sets for various types of communication, whether PR, internal communications, employer branding, or crisis communications. Each comes with its unique set of challenges and, with each company, a different set of needs, requiring a high level of flexibility and adaptability.
Balancing these different areas requires a strategic approach and the ability to pivot quickly between various demands and priorities. To address these challenges, I try to stay continuously ahead of industry trends and evolving cultural norms. This involves constant learning and professional development to ensure I am up-to-date with the latest best practices and innovations in communications.
HT: Given the need for flexibility and constant adaptation, what are your recommendations for streamlining a corporate Communications reporting workflow that meets this need?
MG: It’s definitely not the sexiest part of the job, but improving and investing time in your communications reporting workflow should be a top priority for a communicator. Here’s my advice:
- Make it a priority. As communicators working in the center of so many teams, we often find ourselves in very complex workflows and discussions, which can be frustrating and time-consuming. Investing in your workflow should be at the top of your priorities in streamlining and strengthening your work as a comms professional. If you build that solid foundation, it helps make the rest of your job easier.
- Don’t jump in head-first! Take the time to reflect on the overall communications strategy. What workflows and processes already exist within the organization? Understand how these elements are currently leveraged and identify areas where you can enhance them. There's no need to start from scratch: building on established foundations can save time and provide valuable insights.
- Embrace testing and learning to adapt tools to your specific needs. Experiment with different approaches to find what works best for you and your team. Don't hesitate to seek advice from colleagues or industry peers who may have valuable experience and insights.
HT: How do you build your corporate communications reporting strategy that showcases your impact across teams?
MG: From a communications perspective, showcasing impact across teams involves addressing and educating on the intangible nature of our work. Unlike sales or marketing, the ROI in communications is more challenging to measure, as it relies heavily on long-term, qualitative factors such as reputation and brand perception. We need to educate our internal audiences on the importance and value of communications, even when concrete figures are not readily available.
One effective way to demonstrate impact is through thorough reporting and monitoring. While these tasks can be tedious, they provide a tangible showcase of the communications team's contributions when streamlined and well-executed. Regularly sharing insights, progress, and outcomes from various communication initiatives helps illustrate how our efforts are enhancing the organisation's reputation and achieving strategic goals. It’s important to be consistent with this reporting to show progress over time and to set realistic roadmaps. After all, a company’s image or reputation can take years to build.
Focus on quality rather than quantity. We live in a data-focused world; more than ever, data advises the company’s overall strategy. It’s not the number of clippings or mentions that matters the most but how journalists covered the news and how they mentioned the company.
“Be consistent with reporting to show progress over time… a company’s image or reputation can take years to build.” - Manon Gomes.
HT: Once you’ve prioritized your communications reporting workflow, how would you advise getting buy-in from stakeholders to adopt new internal tools across teams?
MG: It’s crucial to showcase the benefits right away, and you can do this using shareable data. Highlight the potential time savings by coming prepared with data demonstrating efficiency improvements—for example, cutting the time spent on specific tasks in half or reducing it by 10 hours per week. This concrete evidence of increased productivity can make a compelling case for adopting new tools.
You may find a strong resistance to change. To make it easier for all, ensure the onboarding process is as seamless, straightforward, and user-friendly as possible for newcomers. This means you should provide a "clé en main" (turnkey) solution that is easy for stakeholders to adopt without significant effort. It’s extra effort for you, but that’s part of building solid foundations: once it’s there, you won’t have to work on it anymore, and it will support your team’s work more efficiently.
Divide and conquer! Make sure you choose a reporting tool that can translate across roles, leveraged by data analysts or communications interns who are in the weeds, up to C-level decision-makers. Everyone should know how to use the tools and understand the processes so that the team can become more efficient as a whole, and it also prevents bottlenecks at some point in the process.
HT: Thank you, Manon, for sharing your expertise! Any parting words for Communications professionals starting out today?
MG: Automating your reporting workflows will allow you to spend less time on administrative, repetitive tasks that don’t add much value, making more space for what you like to do! My other overall career advice (coming from the advice I’ve received from seasoned comms professionals and turned out to be true on the job!):
- Networking (internal and external) is your most precious resource for this job.
- Make more time to think, be creative, read, and educate yourself on entirely different topics; that’s how you’ll find inspiration and improve at your job.
- Work up the courage to speak your mind or say no when you don’t feel the project is going in the right direction, especially when the stakes are high. It’s a critical part of our job.
- Remember that comms is a marathon and requires long-term thinking. Don’t forget this, especially in challenging or stressful times.