Over the first half of 2023 GAVRILO has conducted a “10 Communications Challenges” survey in order to investigate the state of Communications profession within the professional community and to assess the role Communications function currently plays in guiding the business and/or organisational strategy and success.  

The respondents that took part in the survey are international communications professionals working both in the private sector across various industries and in the public administration.  

 

Efforts are needed to
include Communications in the decision-making. 

The findings show that in 55% of cases, the communications people or function is included in the decision-making of the company as a regular part of the Management team.  However, as much as 45% of respondents said that they take part in the business decisions only as support or as help in crisis situations.   

Companies and
organisations that are open for innovations and future advancement see
Communications as a strategic partner in the journey.

When implementing innovation or digital transformation, in 63% of cases the companies recognise the importance of communications and include them as integral
part of such strategic projects.  This is a good indication that businesses that are open for the future advancements recognise communications as an important strategic partner in the journey.

 

The companies of the
future require the communications practice of the future.

Still 47% of respondents said that the communications are used only to generate coverage and report about company activities in the area of innovation, which on one hand does demonstrate the importance of innovations, but could also suggest that there is a need to review and adjust communications practices in order to meet with the needs of digital transformations and innovations.

 

Having a
communication strategy in place and implementing it properly, both internally
and externally, is seen as important for business success.

When it comes to the communications practice, almost 80% of companies have communications strategies in place, and they implement them through the activities.  As much as 80% is successful in cascading the business priorities across all organisation levels and understands that this is important for business success.  

 

The organisational
mindset is definitely important for achieving success, and the leadership plays
a critical role in creating it.

Almost 90% of respondent confirmed that the company mindset is important for achieving the company or organisation goals.   In this context, 79% of respondents said that their Management team was successful in building the business mindset in their organisation, while in 26% of cases the Management focused on the top and middle management only when sharing priorities and goals.  

 

Consumers’ needs and
habits are driving the business activities.

All respondents, without exception, said that their companies actively recognise the consumers’ and/or users’ needs by monitoring them and adjusting all the activities to their habits.

 

The Managements are
open to listen to communications professionals about the emerging topics and to
include them in the corporate strategy.

The Management teams (90%) are open to listen to the communications professionals and embrace the need to deal with the emerging topics.  The topics companies find important to address are:  sustainability strategy, implementation of ESG factors, diversity and work-life balance.

 

Professional
gatherings and discussions about the trends in communication practice are
important for bringing the Communications sector closer to other business
functions.

Finally, the majority of communications professionals (79%) find gatherings of professionals, networking and discussions important for strengthening the reputation of the profession.  However, 21% indicate the efforts are still needed in this area. 

The survey was conducted amongst international professionals from various industries.