The relationship between internal communication and employee engagement was the subject of two discussions published this week – a half-hour podcast with the UK’s “Engage For Success” movement, and the latest Chuck Chat, an interview written in real time with Chuck Gose, who makes a massive contribution to the #internalcomms tribe with his podcasts, postings and interviews..

The podcast can be found at BlogTalkRadio, and the interview can be found on the blog site of Chuck’s sponsor, Bananatag.

For me, it’s heartening to continue to get air time for the idea that internal communication and employee engagement have become too close.  As I see it, internal communication is strategically handcuffed by the need to align with employee engagement’s focus on shaping and measuring the attitudes of all employees. In turn, the internal comms-driven drumbeat for ever-higher engagement survey scores and participation stifles the development more tailored and individually “engaging” programming from the employee engagement community.

Whether this conversation will catch on is anyone’s guess.

Not so long ago, such thoughts could easily have been classified as heresy akin to “employee engagement denial.” Now, thanks to Chuck Gose and Exchange For Success, there’s a willingness to sponsor and start the discussion, an absolutely critical and welcome step.  Please feel free to join in.