Employee Communicators Discuss Strategy, Tech and Trust

Internal communicators are navigating a moment of rapid change — rising expectations for transparency, new AI-driven tools and increasing pressure to prove business impact. 

To explore what’s ahead, leaders from PRSA’s Employee Communications Section gathered for a roundtable discussion on the forces reshaping the profession and how practitioners can strengthen their strategic voice.

Participants:

• Ellen Griley, Founder, Equilibrious Communications, Chair, 2026 PRSA Employee Communications Section 

• Sarah LaBorde, APR, MBA, Communications & Sustainability Manager, Crest Industries

• Treshea N. Wade, National Director, Internal & Movement Communications, Boys & Girls Clubs of America

_{What’s the biggest factor you see reshaping employee communications?}

_{Ellen Griley}: We’re at a critical inflection point. There’s mounting pressure to demonstrate business outcomes — driven partly by AI anxieties and demands to prove our value — while simultaneously navigating unprecedented collective stress from ongoing layoffs, political upheaval, climate change and compounding crises. 

The tension is real: We’re called to drive results and speak the language of revenue while honoring our employees’ full humanity. Smart practitioners will do both. This means acquiring business acumen — truly understanding how our companies make money — while deepening our skills in approaches that meet people where they are. For me, this looks like trauma-informed practice. The future belongs to communicators who can bridge this gap.

_{Sarah LaBorde, APR, MBA}: The biggest shift reshaping employee communications today is the heightened expectation of transparency. Employees have constant access to information, alternative narratives and external benchmarks, which fundamentally changes how they evaluate leadership credibility. 

The COVID-19 pandemic set a new standard for frequent, authentic and clear communication from executives. While that crisis has passed, the expectation has not. Employees are demanding context, vulnerability, and a clear “why?” behind decisions and change, especially as Gen Z and Gen Alpha enter the workforce. When internal communications fail to meet these expectations, trust erodes quickly, and engagement and retention suffer. Transparency is no longer optional; it’s foundational, and internal comms pros must rise to meet the moment.

_{Treshea N. Wade}: The biggest shift is that internal communications can no longer exist just to “get the message out.” Employees don’t want a broadcast — they want clarity, context and a reason to care. Today’s workforce is asking “why?” before they decide how they’ll show up. 

If leaders don’t answer that, then employees will go find their own answers — and you may not like the sources. Effective employee communications now centers on purpose, transparency and respect. And here’s the part we sometimes skip: You have to treat employees like they matter before you can convince them that the message does. When people feel informed and valued, alignment follows.

_{How are new technologies — including AI and emerging collaboration tools — changing the way that internal communicators listen, respond and engage?}

_Griley: From an AI standpoint, there’s never been a better time to be an internal communicator. Even with limited resources, you can do meaningful sentiment analysis — analyzing Glassdoor comments or intranet engagement using basic ChatGPT, tracking event attendance, measuring content performance, correlating voluntary separations with exit-interview themes. If you have access to people analytics, you can build robust personas to understand who’s engaging with your content and innovate ways to reach those who aren’t. 

The key is rooting these insights within reality. We cannot assume people have 100% cognitive capacity or perfectly regulated nervous systems. The abundance of data and tools means we can finally design communications that work with people’s actual capacity rather than against it, making our strategies both smarter and more human.

_LaBorde: Technology is changing how we play the game, not the rules. Internal communication is about informing, connecting and engaging employees. Tools like AI and collaborative platforms empower us to do that work more efficiently and effectively because they allow communicators to focus efforts on long-term strategic thinking, audience insight and message-quality rather than daily implementation. 

I’ve seen firsthand how new technology like AI assistants, LLM features and Microsoft’s collaborative tools have helped my team become more organized, pressure-test messaging and quickly strengthen our strategies based on industry best practices. 

We are working faster, smarter and more collaboratively because these tools help us to break down the barriers in our way — geography, clarity of priority and time constraints. Our responsibility as communicators is to apply these tools ethically and intentionally to strengthen human connection, not substitute it.

_Wade: Technology has finally given internal communicators something we’ve always wanted: visibility into the full journey of our communications — not just what we sent, but how it landed. 

AI and collaboration tools help us listen at scale, spot patterns faster and respond with more precision. That’s powerful (and a little dangerous) because insight without intention is just noise. The opportunity now is to pair data with judgment: understanding sentiment, friction points and engagement trends, then adjusting in real time. The goal isn’t to automate empathy — it’s to make room for it by working smarter, not louder.

_{How can internal communications earn a stronger strategic voice at the leadership table, especially during times of change or uncertainty?}

_Griley: This challenge isn’t unique to us — HR, marketing, even senior executives in essential functions like Legal struggle to be truly heard when they don’t directly touch revenue. But we can get smarter. Use AI for predictive modeling that shows leadership what’s at stake if they ignore your recommendations — tie it to concrete business risks using the abundant research on employee engagement, clarity and retention. 

But here’s our biggest opportunity: AI adoption. We’re uniquely positioned to design governance systems, drive adoption strategies and be the human factor in the equation. Agentic AI lives or dies on context, and we’re the only function equipped to understand the nuance and stakes of context at scale. This is our moment to become indispensable. From there, we build.

_LaBorde: Data earns a seat at the leadership table faster than volume or repetition ever will. As a PR practitioner in a room full of engineers and accountants, I’ve learned that evidence resonates more than anything else. When internal communicators can connect their work directly to business outcomes (productivity, safety, retention, change adoption, etc.) credibility follows. 

Demonstrating how strategic communication drives results or how gaps in communication create risk helps leaders view comms as a strategic business necessity rather than an operations-support function. The rules of good PR apply internally: Know your audience, define your objective, measure impact and adjust accordingly. Trust builds over time but consistently showing value earns influence.

_Wade: You can earn your seat by knowing your audience — including your leaders. Some want data. Some want stories. Some just want to know that there’s a plan and it won’t fall apart at 9 a.m. 

Internal communicators have to translate complexity into clarity and show up ready, not reactive. Think beyond execution. That means being armed with insight — and being willing to speak up when silence would cost trust. During uncertainty, internal comms isn’t a support function; it’s a stabilizing force. So yes, fight for your place at the table — and once you’re there, turn your microphone on.

_{How can the PRSA Employee Communications Section help practitioners navigate what’s ahead and maximize their impact?}

_Griley: Our Section’s strength is our depth of experience — we have abundant practitioners with 15-plus years in the field and director-level-or-above expertise. I’m a member of several communications communities and I don’t think any one of them comes close to our bench. 

So, our 2026 strategy leverages this: creating programming, conversations and mentorship opportunities that connect experienced practitioners with those new to internal communications, whether through career pivots, role consolidation or joining teams as early-in-career talent. 

We’re using AI and sentiment analysis to understand what the profession is discussing and what our members need, then designing opportunities for knowledge-sharing. If you’re new to this work, you’ll find experienced professionals ready to guide and support you. If you’re seasoned, we’re creating platforms to share your expertise. It’s about welcoming newcomers while celebrating the excellence already here.

_LaBorde: The Employee Communications Section brings together some of the most innovative internal comms professionals in the nation. That level of access into strategic minds and the opportunity for collaboration and mentorship isn’t available anywhere else. 

I remember going to my first PRSA Connect conference and thinking, “These are my people.” They know your struggle. Many have been there before, and we’re all working to address the same challenges. 

As a younger professional without senior comms leaders in my organization to lean on, the Section is an incredible resource for perspective, confidence and growth for me and my organization. The practitioners who share their insight elevate not only individual communicators, but also the discipline, and that sense of community is powerful.

_Wade: By being a real-world sounding board — not just a thought-leadership echo chamber. Practitioners need space to share what’s working, what failed spectacularly and what they’d do differently next time. 

The Section can help by spotlighting practical frameworks, emerging tools and honest case studies — especially during moments of change, burnout and transformation. Just as important, it can build community among people who often operate behind the scenes but carry enormous responsibility. Internal communicators don’t need more theory — they need connection, credibility and the confidence to lead with both strategy and heart.