Never before we faced social issues related to the human factor been so much in check and have power to mobilize different sectors of society as this year. And they had great pressure worldwide, whether for the fight against racism, the promotion of mental health or the permanent need for isolation as a guarantee of the collective survival. People's voices needed to be heard more carefully. And this voice, which in the corporate sphere is formed by its employees in the first instance and by external stakeholders in the second, has gained much more space and, consequently, more power. The reason is simple: 2020 put at risk the driving force of companies, the employee, and the end customer, it was their health and lives that may made business continuity unfeasible.

In the face of a negationist movement that has taken on more force, and urgent discussions on the legitimacy of information sources, with emphasis on the relevance of the press, under heavy attack, and a fake news industry built under a strong ideological mindset, the role of companies was primarily to inform the employees and public with which they relate with transparency and in a credible and educating manner, with a magnifying lens for the communities where they operate.

It is in this context that the responsibility of corporate communication, now with greater relevance, intersects with the perception on the part of people that companies can do more to solve social problems than the government. In the middle of the field between expectation and reality, what matters most is the personal experience of each one with a certain brand and no longer, at least on the current agenda, what it says it does in the paid spaces on TV or in their profiles on social media.

A survey called Edelman Trust Barometer - a special report by brands in the midst of the crisis, which heard eight thousand people from eight countries, including Brazil, points that personal experience is what impact the most to generate confidence in a brand; followed by earned and spontaneous media (press outlets, documentary, etc.) and conversation with peers (conversations in person or via social media).

Inside out

The first customer of every company is its employee. And it is this group of people who will speak first and with more propriety if the speech and the practice are coherent or not, in other words, if what the company says is what it really does. Assuming that the company's internal community is part of the society and represents, within the corporate context, a smaller scale of the whole, we are through this internal listening, monitoring and evaluating the expectations and social desires of the world or, at least, we should. The purpose reinforces that the look that we had inside, must also now turn even more eloquently to the population outside. This is because, this entire audience, amid dozens of possibilities for interaction - especially in social media and live meetings - has become more firmly, a potential opinion maker all day, especially in times of social distance.

If personal experience has gained ground as a decisive factor of trust and choice, even in B2B companies, it is under this focal point that communication should put its most luminous spotlight. It is already clear that it is necessary to monitor and take care of the employee's experience, from now on with even more proximity and commitment, from the moment he first hears the name of a certain brand, until it is time for him to change his job or position internally. What happens is that the moment demanded a transformation in communication in form and in content to reconstruct this experience: in form because now it needs to be mandatory and predominantly digital, in content because it demands authenticity and representativeness in a concrete way. The reality demanded a synergy of three areas that were not always as close as they should be: HR, Communication and IT. Whoever chose another path may have lost precious time.

With that, the internal and external walls of communication disappeared. It is on LinkedIn that the current financial officer will talk to the guy who is looking for a job at the company; or that the security manager will exchange an idea of good practices with his peer in the competitor; or perhaps the intern will tell an episode of bullying to exemplify something to the president of the Brazilian Senate, all of this via public comment. Communication decentralized, gained more arm. It remains to be seen whether these arms will play for or against. And it all depends on a single point: the legitimacy of corporate speech, which comes mainly from high and medium leadership.

This was a year of collaborativism and this spirit taught us something fundamental, that experience needs to be co-created, especially in communication. The IT guy recommends the professional for a live; the Quality lady will suggest a debate group about pets in the internal communication application or even a safety engagement campaign. Communication is decentralized, just as it happens outside corporate spaces, given the success of TikTok in the production of audiovisual content by ordinary people, for example. It is at this moment that the internal influencers emerge and they, especially their voices, are the great assets of the moment. The strategy is to give a voice to those who can raise our voice as a corporation.

Values have changed. We never worry so much about people, health and the quality of our daily lives. Taking care of the individual experience of these voices from the point of view of communication and people - listening to their fears, desires and dissatisfactions - generates an immediate response and no longer in the medium term and the value of the result of this work is exactly our main goal in this logic.

Externally, hear what a job seeker says in a post; monitor what sector entities and associations are consuming; monitoring the main stakeholders, even causing interactions is taking the lead, generating conversations, creating relationships. Who has not joined a group in your area in recent months to contribute to the construction of a material or to share good practices, including in an environment with competitors and customers? I did.

Attention should be centered on the human factor and its differences, empowering those who are inside and bringing those who are outside closer - it is the new office that prioritizes distance and health care; is the psychologists service available seven days a week to employees and their families; is pre-shipment testing extended to third parties and suppliers. The care with people and their individual demands that will weigh in the evaluation of this experience with the brand and in forming the opinion about it. Today, internal communication platforms can absorb these messages within an environment of greater control while moving to the external environment of greater risk - see Yammer or Social Base, for instance.

The employee's internal experience is the first path of impact of the external experience of its future client, regulatory agent, supplier, or partner. What these audiences have in common: they are people. People want to be heard. Without them, no company stands. 2020 is a proof of that.

About the Author: André Luiz Barros, Corporate Communication Manager at Ocyan

--------------------

New Column

The contents will address general themes of internal and external organizational communication; relationship with the press; social networks and digital marketing; reputation and image and subjects of more recent discussion such as culture and brand; purpose and employer branding.

The new space will be edited by Lia Medeiros (photo), Director of Communication, Sustainability and People at TN Petróleo, and signed by André Luiz Barros, who holds a degree in journalism with an MBA in Strategic Communication from IBMEC and a postgraduate degree in cultural journalism from UERJ. For 12 years has been working with internal and external affairs for large companies and now accumulates the position of head of communication in an oil and gas company in Brazil.