The Future of Internal Communication

As economic instability continues to confound politicians across the spectrum, the UK labour market remains fragile. With more young people than ever before not in education, employment or training (NEET) and the ever-present threat of AI-induced job losses, internal communicators must find novel ways to marry the delivery of key organisational information with the concerns of increasingly stressed and anxious workforces.

In this episode, Neil Carberry shares his latest reflections on the current and emergent state of the UK labour market, offering insights for the internal communication professionals as they consider their priorities for 2026.

 

About Neil Carberry OBE, Chief Executive, REC

Neil Carberry was appointed as Chief Executive of the Recruitment and Employment Confederation in June 2018.  He began his career in recruitment in 1999, before doing a post-graduate degree in Human Resources at the London School of Economics and specialising in employment relations. Joining the CBI in 2004, he led the CBI’s work on the labour market, skills, energy and infrastructure. Neil spent a decade as a member of the council of the conciliation service ACAS and two terms as member of the Low Pay Commission, which recommends UK minimum wages. He was appointed an OBE in the King’s Birthday Honours List of 2025. Neil is a Chartered Fellow of the CIPD, a Fellow of the RSA and a member of the Company of HR Professionals. A seven-time nominee to the SIA staffing100 in Europe, Neil is also on the board and exec of the World Employment Confederation and of a Multi-Academy Trust in England. Neil is an RFU-qualified rugby referee and coach and is one of the 8000 co-owners who made Heart of Midlothian the UK’s biggest fan-owned football club.

 

Find Neil on LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/neil-carberry-obe-95948938/

REC: https://www.rec.uk.com/

This year, the IoIC published a new whitepaper to explore the future of internal communication. As the only professional body dedicated to internal communication, it is invested in understanding how workplace communication will change and what this means for its members. It strives to understand both risk and opportunity.

Next-generation technology paves the way for doing more human work – work that no technology can replicate. In increasingly digital environments, fostering human connection to create the cultural conditions for peak performance and flourishing is set to become the most vital of organisational enablers.

In this episode, Jen, Dom and Cat are interviewed by IoIC board member and fellow Joe Salmon. Together they discuss the factors driving change for internal communication and ways in which internal communicators can prepare for an altogether exciting future.

Joe has over two decades of internal comms experience, including in-house, consultancy, and agency roles. He specialises in leadership communications, employee engagement, organisational culture, and communicating change.

Joe is currently Director Corporate Communications at Iron Mountain. His career highlights include senior communication roles at Vodafone, BT, Inmarsat, Spotify, and Hill & Knowlton Strategies. In these roles, he designed and developed compelling employee campaigns to help global clients grow from the inside out by building pride, advocacy, a sense of belonging, and excitement.

Joe is an elected Board Director and Fellow at the Institute of Internal Communications, a trailblazer for the UK Black Comms Network, and a mentor to others in the IC profession. He holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Internal Communication Management. He is also a regular event host, panelist, guest speaker, and awards judge, and was featured on the PRovoke Media Innovator 25 list.

 

About Joe Salmon FIIC

Joe has over two decades of internal comms experience, including in-house, consultancy, and agency roles. He specialises in leadership communications, employee engagement, organisational culture, and communicating change.

Joe is currently Director Corporate Communications at Iron Mountain. His career highlights include senior communication roles at Vodafone, BT, Inmarsat, Spotify, and Hill & Knowlton Strategies. In these roles, he designed and developed compelling employee campaigns to help global clients grow from the inside out by building pride, advocacy, a sense of belonging, and excitement.

Joe is an elected Board Director and Fellow at the Institute of Internal Communications, a trailblazer for the UK Black Comms Network, and a mentor to others in the IC profession. He holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Internal Communication Management. He is also a regular event host, panelist, guest speaker, and awards judge, and was featured on the PRovoke Media Innovator 25 list.

Award-winning author and business executive Margaret Heffernan has written extensively about uncertainty. Her book Uncharted: How to map the future became an instant bestseller and featured on Bloomberg’s Best Books of 2021 list. Her most recent book Embracing Uncertainty: How writers, musicians and artists thrive in an unpredictable world outlines how creatives use ambiguity to stimulate innovation and novel ideas.

In this episode, Jen, Dom and Cat chat with Margaret to her views on the power of conversation. In ambiguous and chaotic work landscapes, convening group discussions to hear diverse perspectives and harness collective intelligence is a new leadership meta-skill.

 

About Margaret Heffernan

Dr. Margaret Heffernan produced programmes for the BBC for 13 years.  She then moved to the US where she spearheaded multimedia productions for Intuit, The Learning Company and Standard&Poors. She was Chief Executive of InfoMation Corporation, ZineZone Corporation and then iCast Corporation, was named one of the “Top 25” by Streaming Media magazine and one of the “Top 100 Media Executives” by The Hollywood Reporter. 

The author of six books, Margaret’s third book, Willful Blindness : Why We Ignore the Obvious at our Peril was  named one of the most important business books of the decade by the Financial Times. In 2015, she was awarded the Transmission Prize for  A Bigger Prize: Why Competition isn’t Everything and How We Do Better, described as “meticulously researched…engagingly written…universally relevant and hard to fault.” Her TED talks have been seen by over 13 million people and in 2015 TED published Beyond Measure: The Big Impact of Small Changes. In 2020, she published Uncharted: How to map the future, which quickly became a bestseller and was nominated for the Financial Times Best Business Book award, was one of Bloomberg’s Best Books of 2021 and was chosen as the “Medium Best of the Best” business book. 2025 saw the publication of Embracing Uncertainty: How Writers, Musicians and Artists Thrive in an Unpredictable World, described as ‘a timely, insightful book….Heffernan highlights what it takes to excel in turbulent times.’

In 2024, she was inducted into the  Thinkers50 Hall of Fame, in recognition of her lasting impact on management thinking.  She is a Professor of Practice at the University of Bath, Lead Faculty for the Forward Institute’s Responsible Leadership Programme and, through Merryck & Co., mentors CEOs and senior executives of major global organizations. She chairs the board of DACS and is a parish councillor.

 

Find Margaret on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/margaret-heffernan-ab5205/

Margaret’s website:                   https://www.mheffernan.com/

Margaret on Substack:             https://heffernanm.substack.com/

Margaret’s TED talks:

https://www.ted.com/talks/margaret_heffernan_the_human_skills_we_need_in_an_unpredictable_world

https://www.ted.com/talks/margaret_heffernan_the_dangers_of_willful_blindness

The range of challenges confronting businesses today are constant, complex and deeply entangled. There is no rule book for this level of ambiguity and business leaders must grapple with the unknown on a daily basis. This requires an entirely different mindset and the ability to make sense of and interpret novel situations as they arise.  

In this episode, Jen, Dom and Cat chat with coach and futurist Louise Mowbray about the rapidly evolving future of work and the skills required to successfully navigate it. Access to trusted networks of individuals with alternative viewpoints is a must for those organisations looking to successfully futureproof and survive the coming years.

Communication, connection and community have never been more needed in business today.

 

About Louise Mowbray

Louise is the Founder of Mowbray by Design, the Future-Focused Conscious Leadership Consultancy. She specialises in The Future of Work and Leadership, working with clients across the sectors at the intersection of futures, technology, innovation, transformation and purpose-driven business.

Louise is a leadership advisor, coach, strategist and futurist, the author of Relevant: Future-Focused Leadership, and a co-author of Uncertainty: Making Sense of the World for Better, Bolder Outcomes. She is a sought-after keynote speaker, an occasional visiting lecturer for business schools and a regular guest on podcasts, panel discussions and live events.

In earlier career chapters, Louise worked for listed organisations in the investment banking, technology and executive search sectors, co-founded an executive search firm and was MD MENA for a British luxury lifestyle company. She has lived and worked in the UK, the UAE and South Africa and works with clients around the world. 

Find Louise on LinkedIn:                   https://www.linkedin.com/in/louisemowbray

Mowbray by Design:                         https://mowbraybydesign.com

Relevant: Future-Focused Leadership: https://amzn.eu/d/e677nfv

Relevant Substack:                            https://louisemowbray.substack.com

 

Key blogs

Sensemaking: Making Sense of Non Sense: 

https://louisemowbray.substack.com/p/sensemaking-making-sense-of-non-sense

The Information Overload: 

https://louisemowbray.substack.com/p/the-information-overload

As economic, societal and environmental conditions deteriorate, social tensions are escalating. Some politicians use fear to fuel their own extreme agendas and it’s increasingly popular to blame others for the ills of the world. Nationalism and discrimination are at their worst in decades. This has significant negative impact on workplace cohesion as many feel increasingly marginalised. 

Yet in contrast, scientific research shows the extent to which successful innovation – much needed in most organisations today – comes from diversity of thought. And different perspectives come, of course, from a rich diversity of lived experience. In this episode, Amraze Khan shares his experience of working in EDI and examines the increasingly urgent need for inclusion at work.

 

Amraze Khan (He/Him)

Amraze is the Head of EDI at Manchester Metropolitan University, where he leads the vision, supporting the University to become intentionally inclusive for its 4,500 staff members and around 40,000 students.

He has worked in EDI for nearly a decade, with experience in senior leadership roles across various industries comprising of the NHS, within Charities and Local Government. Prior to this, Amraze worked in senior communication roles in the NHS and Civil Service.

Outside of work, Amraze is a proud Yorkshireman, a carer, father to two cats, a Trustee at Rochdale Mind, an avid blogger, and podcaster.

 

Find Amraze on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amraze-khan-mcipd-miepd-94a1a56b/