Bloomberg is reorganizing its internal communications team in an effort to reimagine how it connects with its employees. In a job posting for a writer to join the team, the company said that it is looking for a communicator to join a team that develops editorial content to “reinforce our cultural attributes, shed light on business priorities, celebrate business and people milestones, inspire employees…and tie to our company’s philanthropic mission.”
There’s a similar effort also happening at The New York Times, where the publisher is looking for a director to implement a global content strategy for employees. “The person in this role will play a critical role in developing stories that embody the spirit, strength of character and mission of The Times across our digital and multimedia platforms.”
It’s particularly interesting that news organizations, experts at storytelling themselves, are also now recognizing this new audience internally, and hiring editorial talent to speak to this group.
We’ve noted before that brand publishing can be a hugely effective tool for helping companies build awareness and engagement among current and prospective clients and customers. For many organizations, particularly in the post-COVID era, connecting with employees has become a hugely important priority. As the labor market continues to tighten and hybrid workers become the norm, figuring out asynchronous communication has become critical for organizations.
To figure this out, many have tried to bring on board editorial talent that treats employees as discrete audiences. We’ve seen similar roles cropping up in other industries, such as at Nike, Ebay and Visa. Publishing initiatives can also help in recruiting efforts, helping to attract talent to a company by communicating an organization’s culture and spirit more broadly.
The data bears this out: Research from Edelman shows that employer media is “more believable” than every other source of information, including the government, media reports, advertising and social media.