Hope, the frontline and the power of the people manager: employee comms in 2025

On a chilly Winter Tuesday in Sydney’s CBD, a room full of employee communications professionals squirmed uncomfortably as we listened to a full minute of technology notifications - ringtones, MS Teams beeps, and the like. Presented as an antithesis to a minute of silence, Staffbase (the employee communications tech providers hosting the event) was making a loud, stressful point: the work day has become really overwhelming.

Employees are exhausted. Exhausted by an inundation of communications and constant change, while also having to live, you know, their actual life at the same time. The impact of this is that teams struggle to adapt, productivity then drops, and business outcomes suffer.

The average desk worker uses 11 apps every day to get their job done, switching between said apps around 1,200 times a day. We are living, and working, in a constant digital fog, processing a staggering 34GB of information each day according to a 2012 University of California. And if it was that high 13 years ago, who knows what it would be now.

It’s no surprise then that engagement is suffering, particularly in an environment of significant enterprise change. According to Gallup’s State of Global Workforce report, a decline in employee engagement in 2024 cost the world economy USD$438billion in lost productivity.  

With this much at stake, now is the time for organisations to invest budget into reimagining employee communications strategies to laser-focus on driving positive engagement. 

The Staffbase Creating Clarity event

Featuring a keynote speaker from Gallup, and a panel of Staffbase personnel and employee communications specialists from GFG Alliance and Transdev Sydney, this is what the Comms Club sought to unpack. 

Here are  my key takeaways from the sessions, contextualised with the knowledge we have from Clarity and Sefiani’s work with employee communications specialists at large, complex organisations.

Fostering hope and belonging in times of change

According to Marie-Lou Almeida, from Gallup, there are four critical needs that ‘followers’ (employees) have of their leaders: stability, compassion, trust, and, the one that stood out most to me, hope. Hope was defined as ‘empowering employees to feel positive about their future at the company, and the company’s future’. People need to have hope that the future will be better than the present, and they need to understand their role in making this ‘better future’ happen.

This conversation about hope reminded me of the 2023 edition of the Sefiani (Clarity’s Australian arm) Communications that Matter report which focused on building brand belonging amongst organisations’ key stakeholders. Our insight  was that when belonging isn’t prioritised, organisations are unable to respond to the issues that matter so won’t have a viable future. We also identified just how good belonging is for the business,’ contributing to a 56% increase in  job performance and 50% drop in turnover risk.

So how do you achieve this sense of hope and belonging? At the end of the Report, we presented a model for fostering belonging based on Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs, moving relationships from being transactional, towards building belonging and loyalty. Perhaps in 2025, after a few more years of turmoil and instability, what we also need here is hope. Not just speaking and listening to stakeholders in the present, but showing them how the future will be bright for them specifically, and the vital role they play in enabling their organisation or employer  to get there.

Hope can’t be delivered through a quarterly email from the CEO. Hope is created intentionally, through meaningful two-way communications, clear, simple to understand company goals, and a culture where every individual feels their contribution matters. Hope is delivered with tone and body language, so the use of authentic in-person moments and videos need to be a permanent fixture in employee comms plans.

Closing the gap between HQ and the frontline

I expected most conversations at the event to be focused on AI’s impact but, while this of course was discussed, the recurring theme of the day was the challenge of connecting with frontline teams. For many of Clarity and Sefiani’s clients (ranging from banks, insurers, NGOs, global transportation companies and technology firms etc.) frontline workers comprise the majority of their employees.

And while significant time and energy is spent on employee communications to leaders and desk based workers, the frontline is often seen as an unknown other; much of the time because they may not have access to standard employee communications channels. Many are also customer-facing all day long, or on casual or hourly contracts, meaning dipping out for a company all hands isn’t an option. This means many rarely hear about the organisation’s vision or goals, or how change affects them personally. They’re often simply told what to do, without context or connection.

This ‘cascade’ model (which has become a bit of a dirty phrase in employee comms) isn’t working anymore. You could even argue it is actively contributing to the culture of disengagement plaguing many of our workplaces today.

What are organisations doing then to redress this imbalance and engage frontline workers on their terms, in meaningful ways?  I was really inspired by some of the strategies members of the panel were employing to engage the frontline: from getting frontliners on board by going to depots and speaking with them; being added to WhatsApp chats where frontline feedback could be gathered in real time; and creating employee generated content like company podcasts. All of these tactics provide a tangible connection between employees and their organisation and show individuals the role they can play in achieving the brand vision. 

What the conversation kept coming back to, however, was the untapped power of the people manager as the key to employee comms success.

The power and potential of people managers

According to Gallup, 70% of employee engagement is driven by great managers. This is further reinforced by insights from internal research we recently ran with a client: when we surveyed their people, direct managers alongside the CEO were identified as the most important communicators.

Despite this, people managers and supervisors are an often overlooked channel, even though they’re both a conduit for information and a source of trust and support for the majority of the workforce. They are frequently under-resourced, under-trained, and expected to relay messaging with little support or context. And this is especially the case for frontline managers, many of whom will be approaching their role with strong operational and technical skills, but little insight into what good communications looks like.

As one in two people have left a job because of their manager, supporting senior business leaders as communicators is an important way to build hope and belonging, and retention, in an  organisation. So too is empowering people managers with tools to communicate clearly and authentically, whether it’s tailored training, practical guides, or ongoing support on how to contextualise messages to their teams with clarity and empathy.

Harnessing AI, but keeping the human at the heart

“We can’t not mention AI” is becoming the overused phrase of the moment, the “unprecedented times” of 2025 if you will. At the Staffbase event it was touched on briefly, with a consensus that while technology can support more timely, personalised communication, it can’t replace the human-written empathy that is needed to foster hope. Agentic AI tools can help cut through the noise, adapting messages for different audiences and channels. But true engagement still relies on authentic leadership and a genuine connection between people. This means humans must still be at the centre of crafting impactful communications.

Creating Clarity in a complex world

The theme of the event was ‘Creating Clarity’, nodding to the event’s focus on cutting through the noise with hopeful communications, and allowing me to very neatly weave our brand’s name into this blog - thanks Staffbase.

Where to from here then? How can organisations create hopeful comms as the workplace continues to be shaped by digital overload and ongoing change? Effective employee communications are more crucial than ever. It means moving from one-way, cascaded updates to intentional two-way engagement that fosters hope, belonging, and connection 

Organisations must prioritise the right channels and technology, and empower people managers and leaders to communicate with empathy and clarity. While AI and digital tools can enhance personalisation and reach, it’s the human element (genuine listening, support, and vision) that will build trust, drive engagement, and ensure business success in a challenging environment.

If you’re ready to take your employee communications to the next level, get in touch.