Katya Dimitrova is a strategic communications consultant, managing partner of the “Interimage” agency. A communications consultant with more than 25 years of experience in the sector. She began her career as a creative advertiser, went through a number of market transformations, the latest of which was the imposition of an employer brand and the management of transformational crises.Looking forward as a strategic business partner, the agency is one of the first communicators with deep competence in the field of environmental and social management policies, as well as diversity and inclusion.
Year after year, after a period of adaptation and enthusiastic “embracing” of the novelties related to the unprecedented hybrid models of communication and work, the topic of the “big transformation” in business does not leave the agenda – starting from the media and reaching daily meetings that begin and end with conversations about this process.
As a result of this constant “negotiation” this transformation ceases to be large. It becomes a daily routine. We don’t have time for big planning for big moves, big innovations, big changes – businesses just have to make them happen in passing, with the times and with one foot in tomorrow.
People and teams in the center – but as a prelude
Over the past five years, business behavior and communications have shifted from mass to community. The person with his individuality and characteristics took center stage, and the business focused on the deployment of the employer brand and placed the development of its people as the main emphasis in its communications.
Employer branding has ceased to be just a campaign, it has become the DNA of the business and acquired measurable, practical results. Undeniably a big transformation from our familiar mass, declarative communication messages of the recent past. But every transformation is penultimate, right?
Artificial intelligence and its taming
Artificial intelligence is advancing very intelligently and uncompromisingly, and it is clear that we cannot stop it, but we can get under its skin with knowledge, direction, regulation of work with it and use it both for process optimization and multiplying human creativity. Artificial intelligence has given a new impetus to the work of business, and therefore to communicators – but it has put a number of questions on the agenda.
Mainly about the credibility of the generated information and about the authorship. It is no coincidence that the World Congress of ICCO (International Communications Consultants Organization) this year in Warsaw adopted ethical principles for working with artificial intelligence, quickly adapted and adopted in our country by the main organizations of communication consultants (Bulgarian Association of PR Agencies, BAPRA, and the Bulgarian Society for public relations, BDVO). Some of them are for transparency when working with artificial intelligence, verification of information from several sources, human intervention to check bias and bias, the ethics and responsibility that are primordial for the profession, which also apply to this new type of “colleague” in communications.
However, the person in the center is no longer enough – neither for business nor for communication agencies. The footprint on society, the environment and the contribution to the inclusion of diversity is at the center of the behavior of both companies and agencies.
ESG and DEI are outgrowing and replacing Employer Branding
In this fundamentally changed environment, the employer brand seems too limited a space for expression and communication and is already perceived as lacking a goal and a horizon. With every right, society expects businesses to take the next step by taking care of their people and adding care to society as a whole and to planet Earth. This progress is natural, but the thing is that it happened very quickly, and companies need to respond by rethinking their entire philosophy about the world.
Otherwise they will be losers. For them, this means forming communities with their partners and consumers based on Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance (ESG), as well as by advocating the principles of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI).
Let us not be surprised, then, that global communities such as B Corporation – corporations for good, already have their representatives in Bulgaria, and in the countries where the movement is established, consumers are looking for the B Corp label, i.e. a business’s efforts to serve not only its shareholders, but society and nature really sell.
Paper policies are outdated. Recognition among the business team is a focus Where is the role of communication here? It is as essential as ever, albeit new. Communication specialists help companies send meaningful messages to their employees, who must understand and accept the ESG and DEI policy not just as a necessity and inevitability, but above all as something truly good.
To understand that the word “business” is filled with new content and there is no going back. Communication is designed to send strong messages to the entire circle of partners, because clear climate goals, a real sustainability policy, transparency in work and data analysis, care and responsibility for employees – these are already the criteria for partner selection.
Those who do not meet these criteria cannot count on sustained success. And communication comes to help explain why. Finally, communication must effectively reach consumers – informing and persuading with simple words, not clichés and conceit.
It is not an exaggeration to say that at certain points communication is decisive whether a business will be. This is because the messages are really much more complex and comprehensive, business is no longer equal to a product/service, but a complex system of values.
The time of easy slogans is over. In-depth communication is needed at a time when keeping people’s attention is a Sisyphean task.
Sustainability reports counter greenwashing
And what about the phenomenon of greenwashing? These are the false declarations of a company’s environmental policy. It is because of this communication pollution that business leaders have recently been paying close attention to their sustainability reports. They are based on serious data sets, and the assessment is carried out against internationally recognized criteria and indicators. This is how transparency is achieved. That is why the importance of this type of document will grow, and therefore its adequate communication to different audiences and stakeholders.
Without claiming to be exhaustive, here are the main types of activities that should be implemented by businesses, and of course properly communicated to internal and external audiences:
adopting a sustainable business model – rethinking the current one;
setting realistic, science-based goals related to environmental management;
creation and maintenance of strategic partnerships in the ESG and DEI spheres;
strengthening the monitoring of the supply chain / partners in the direction of implementing sustainable practices;
investment in quality data collection tools;
analysis of the performance in the ESG & DEI spheres and regular updating of the data;
increasing the competences of the team in terms of policies related to environmental and social management, equality and inclusion;
investment in the mental and physical health of employees.
Communications agencies: ESG-compliant by default
As an intermediary between business and society, the communications agency is itself a business – and the same transformation applies to it. To be competitive, an agency must first embody ESG and DEI principles in its own vision and philosophy. Ideally, she should even be ahead of her clients to guide them as a trusted consultant.
And while only a year ago communication agencies were mostly involved in the design and layout of business sustainability reports, today the role of communication consultants in structuring and creating the content of these reports is key. This is a new area of competence of the agencies, but a mandatory one. Thus, the client-agency relationship becomes even more connected and important. For the good of all.
Such is the new reality in communications. Whatever we do, our work must be measurable and have an impact on a better future. This motivates teams and certainly leads to higher results.
