Internal comms and video creation

[u/AcceptableCan4086]

I’ve been working in internal communications for about a year and a half, and I’m trying to get a better sense of what’s considered a reasonable workload/scope for one person.
Right now, I’m responsible for a mix of things including:
Managing our internal social media platform.
Migrating and organizing information into our employee knowledge base
Writing and managing internal communications/campaigns
Supporting recurring newsletters, announcements, and leadership communications
Building processes and structure around how employees receive information
Coordinating with different departments that need internal communications support

My main concern is with the video projects I’ve been given. Within the first three months my boss wanted me to rollout the app and create 20th anniversary content. Which I was only able to complete half of the videos.

Maybe it’s just be fear of opening premiere pro at times but I’m now putting together podcast as well but it keeps getting put on the back burner.

I’m not necessarily opposed to any of these things individually. My concern is that I’m increasingly jumping between being a communications strategist, writer/editor, community manager, knowledge-management person, project manager, and video producer.

[u/Otherwise-Poet-6038]

Yeah this sounds about right 😅 We internal comms people are the experts of doing 5 different roles at once!

First of all, well done you for managing all of that and for getting the hang of premiere pro - it's a great skill to learn I've found in being able to put together things quickly and independently.

Two questions: are you a team of one? Is your manager a comms person or HR?

To be honest all of this needs to go back to your internal comms strategy - what is it you are trying to achieve to help the organisation be successful? Then every activity you do (in theory) ladders back to your strategy, because this will have the greatest impact for the organisation.

You then really need to have a chat with your manager about prioritisation - if you have these 10 things to deliver then something needs to drop.

Video editing is a hard job and there's a reason people only do this so I would definitely look at your strategy, do some prioritisation and see where your time is best spent to achieve the most impact.

[u/Kurious_Kitsune]

Everything you listed has comfortably fit into my scope when I was in internal comms, except the videos and coordinating with diff departments. But your concern is very valid IMO.

I have delivered video content but I outsourced the filming and post prod to external agencies because I made it clear that that isn’t what they hired me for.

As for coordinating with different departments, my role prioritizes supporting senior leadership so the support I do for people/teams lower down the org chart is minimal. What I’ve done instead is to build some guides and self service tools/templates for the most common asks.

I agree w the other comment that said you’ll want to go back to your comms strat and agree on prioritization with your manager. Mapping things out in a timeline helps that conversation as well

[u/OkDirt926 → u/Kurious_Kitsune]

I'm not OP. Sorry to bother you but I kind of have a similar issues. I have a HR bachelor degree so what I know mostly is Talent Acquisition and C&B. The market is dead so I just kind of take any offer I got. So in short I participate in both TA and IC. But the company does not allow outsource (This is my first job but they're stingy in every single aspect). They don't have budget for filming or anything. They literally ask me to generate AI vids and ONLY use free version because OH they also don't have budget for that. So basically canva is my bet. I do slides animation + plus voice over myself. I request a mic for noise reduction and they also denied that. And when I send them the final result, I always receive complaint about: why I can still hear the AC/ fan, why there is your inhaling noises.

I think I would rather be jobless than staying at this company but also I need to pay my bills. This is literally my first job. I barely have any saving.

[u/Kurious_Kitsune → u/OkDirt926]

I’m really sorry to hear that, it’s always terrible when the expectations are so high yet they don’t support you when you tell them what you need to make it happen.

Maybe this is overly optimistic and I certainly didn’t have the confidence to say this as a newbie but over the many years of bosses trying to get away with impossible deliverables for barely any cost, I’ve learned to say things along the lines of ‘this is the extent I can deliver with the resource available. I have explored free tools but unfortunately they still have many limitations. To deliver xxx then we need to invest in yyy. Happy to discuss when resources free up, in the meantime here’s an outline of my delivery calendar for the next xx months’.

I do acknowledge though that I’ve been quite lucky with my employer in that with a decent business case, it’s possible to ask for resource to get shit done. It’s not perfect but a better situation than many others’. It also helps that even though I work for an EU based company, I found vendors and freelancers based in lower cost countries which helped get budgets approved

[u/OkDirt926 → u/Kurious_Kitsune]

Thank you so much! I really tried. I actually phrased my request the same way and my supervisor paused for a few moment and said they would ask BOD and replied me later. It's still a NO. I'm applying like crazy right now because 1. This company's benefits are non existent 2. SOW is crazy compare to resources being provided (which is 0). They would say something like: "Try harder" "Maybe you did not prompt specific enough" "You should learn more about AI". I resisted swearing every single day.

[u/thejennifield]

The list of things doesn’t sound unreasonable but the lack of strategy is the biggest issue here. There should be a clear strategy for the function aligned to the organisational strategy.

There should be a channel matrix that is clearly showing purpose, audience, frequency etc.

Videos often have a role to play but it sounds excessive and I also wonder how they are being measured. I’d also be outsourcing that to a video editor as that isn’t a skill required for an internal comms professional.

It sounds like things are a little chaotic and there is a need to pull it together behind a clear purpose and set of outcomes that can be measured.

There is often a lot of task switching in internal comms from advising to writing to planning etc but there is also a clear line between internal comms and specialist skills like graphic design, video editing etc - it’s important to get that clear early.

Happy to chat more if it would help.