Building collaborative partnerships across departments

During Ragan’s Employee Communications Conference this past April, VP of Communications at Tampa International Airport Veronica Cintron spoke with Ragan Director of Leaning and Council Content Mike Prokopeak, offering quick tips for finding approaches for communicators hoping to work better with colleagues across functions.

Here’s what stuck out.

Brainstorms drive alignment and boost credibility

Though many internal communicators sit under the HR function, communicators don’t always work symbiotically with those who hold dedicated HR titles and scopes.

“Like in any organization, every department has its own interests, their own goals, their own agendas at times,” said Cintron,

“HR may have an idea to execute on something or to reach employees in a certain way, with a certain timing on a specific thing. When communications get wind of that, we may have a completely different approach or outlook on what should be done and why.”

Bringing both entities into the room to have a conversational brainstorm creates alignment, which ultimately helps in the execution.

When a message comes primarily from an HR lens and comms doesn’t have eyes on it, employees can tell.