The post-pandemic power of internal communication teams

Chief Communication Officer salaries are soaring — with more than one-third seeing base salaries of $450,000 in 2023 — up from 18% in 2014-2015, according to a survey from Korn Ferry.

The big picture: Communicators are a powerhouse of any organization and the newly seated right hand to modern CEOs. If the last few years taught us anything, it’s organizations that undervalued or under-invested in communication are paying for it — struggling to keep distributed teams aligned.

• "Communications was, at best, an afterthought to business strategy," General Mills CCO Jano Cabrera told Axios. "But at a time in which 4 out of 5 companies are going through a significant period of transformation, communication is critical."

Now, post-pandemic, organizations are relying on comms teams even more to tackle business interruptions and innovations — permanent remote positions, quiet quitting, generative AI — and building a stronger and deeper bench of communication experts, Korn Ferry reports, to guide and engage colleagues:

• 25% of comms teams had teams of 100+ members — up from 16% in 2014–2015.

• 10% had teams of 250+ people — up from only 4% in 2014–2015.

When expanding their teams, CCOs are looking for folks with internal communications skills, media relations training, executive communications experience, and the ability to handle crisis management — to support the complex, nuanced, and increasingly difficult tasks owned and led by a centralized communication function. 

By the numbers: Effective communication has a big impact on organizational success.

• Productivity: Nearly 50% of employees report their productivity being impacted by ineffective communication.

• Employee trust: Over 40% of workers reported that poor communication reduced trust in their leadership and in their individual teams.

• Retention rates: Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace 2023 Report found that 41% of respondents who were “quiet quitting” would change their mind if their org had better engagement and culture. 

• Better customer service: Nearly 30% of colleagues have had poor customer experiences or outcomes due to communication issues. 

The bottom line: It’s only with a fully functioning communication plan — and the cross-functional teams to support it — that a company can keep all employees working toward the same strategic goals. Prioritize it. Invest in it. And your business results will show the impact of it. 

Go deeper: The 2023 state of essential workplace communications report