The role of internal communications function in supporting a remote workforce across the Canadian public service: Lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

Since March 2020, many employers have required a significant portion of their workforce to work remotely in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This has included Canadian public service organizations, which have traditionally had very few employees working remotely. This experience will likely lead to changes in how public service workplaces operate in the future with more flexible options for remote working. How then do communication practitioners who are responsible for internal communications provide value to the organization when a larger proportion of employees are not working in the office and have less opportunity for valuable face-to-face communication with colleagues, managers and senior leaders? Based on the results of interviews with senior communications practitioners (n=10) from public service agencies across Canada and the responses to a survey of Canadian public servants (n=1,586) this research demonstrates that the experience of the pandemic has reinforced the fundamental best practices of effective internal communications and makes a case that these practices will be even more important as more employees adopt full-time or part-time remote working arrangements.