How many of you PR agency consultants have been in an elevator at a client’s offices and overheard a conversation between the client’s employees? It can be an excellent gauge of internal morale and whether personnel are practicing on the inside what’s being preached on the outside. I can recollect several times when employees were complaining about management or their work conditions or even new marketing and branding initiatives, mainly because of a lack of understanding.

I’m a firm believer that public relations should start with effective internal communications. All too often “communications” focus strictly on external audiences, neglecting to engage those on the inside. The messages within internal and external environments often can be at odds and, occasionally, that conflict creates a communications challenge. It certainly doesn’t benefit the extrenal program.

In reality, an internal communications program is often a marketing orphan. An organization will concentrate much, if not all, of its efforts portraying its brand as one thing, while the internal reality is quite different. And if there is an internal communications program, it’s frequently placed with an employee whose main job is something completely different. He or she often does not have the communications skills – not to mention the time – to make employee communications shine, and frequently is not engaged in the over-arching communications plan.

Compounding the matter can be a leadership team that is out of touch with the real world of employees. The leaders might think, or convince themselves, that everything’s is hunky-dory with staff, so why bother with an internal communications program? You bite into the shiny red apple, only to find the fruit is rotten.

An excellent communications agency brings third-party objectivity to an organization. It’s a fundamental value. And the objective perspective is just as valuable when applied to internal communications. A good agency can recognize and solve challenges within a client’s walls with eyes unclouded by wishful thinking, without being oblivious to problems unnoticed by employees who live and breathe their internal culture every day.

Communications programs that strive to reach outside audiences should be sure to consider internal stakeholders. Employees ideally should understand, embrace, embody and practice everything being preached about their organization.

After all, the “public” of public relations encompasses employees with a vested interest in what their company stands for and says.