A Guide to Finding the Right Match for Your Corporate Communications Team

Your corporate communications department is responsible for making sure your brand is communicated effectively to both inside and outside stakeholders. It acts as a liaison between internal and external departments, ensuring a smooth flow of communication between teams.

The people you bring on board need to be experienced, skilled, and fit within your corporate culture—especially since they will be in charge of communicating the company’s mission, vision, and values through both words and actions.

Here are a few attributes that companies are seeking in candidates for their corporate communications teams:

Verbal and Writing Skills

The candidate you hire for your corporate communications team should possess strong oral and writing skills. After all, it’s a communications role, which requires a strong grasp of the English language in both written and spoken forms.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that they should’ve won a debate championship or a writing competition back in college. However, your new corporate communications recruit should display strong public speaking, storytelling, and content writing skills. The ability to write clearly and concisely in a variety of media is of the essence, and you want someone who can engage your audience. They must know how to write long-form text, like a press release or webpage, as well as short-form text, such as for emails and social media posts.

You also want someone who is naturally adept at interpersonal conversations and skilled in the art of communications and persuasion. These attributes are most effective when derived from natural talent--the candidate either has them or they don’t. You can learn how to exercise and leverage these two talents, but no one can learn communication and persuasion if they don’t have them naturally.

Charisma

A person working in corporate communications should have at least a little charisma. The candidate should also have the ability to build and sustain valuable relationships both with internal clients and external vendors and influencers. These relationships and connections are crucial to the success of your communications strategy and the corporate image you’re trying to build. Thus, the next person to join your communications team should know how to network and make friends within and outside the company.

People with charismatic charm about them do carry an aura of confidence that’s more likely to help them succeed in a communications role than is someone who has a more introverted nature and doesn’t engage much on their own. Charisma, however, does not trump writing or other skills the candidate needs to fulfill the job requirements. High skills and “enough” charisma is a better option than low skills and high charisma.

Cultural Fit

Finally, the ideal candidate should fit in with your company’s culture. The candidate you’re considering may have the written and verbal skills you’re looking for and be incredibly charming, but if their values or ideals don’t align with those of your company, it’s going to be tough for them (and your team) in the long run. If they intrinsically have the matching values of the company and are brought into the mission automatically, they will intuitively know how to execute those values in everyday tactics without being trained. Those who act from the heart rather than having to consult the head are easier to manage and point in the right direction.

When hiring a person for a communications role, it’s critical that you ask yourself whether they embody the attributes you want your employees to have and what you want your audience and clients to see when they think of your company.

About Brookwoods Group

Brookwoods Group is an executive search firm in Houston that can help you find the right candidates for your communications role. Get in touch with our executive staffing agency near San Antonio today for more details.