🧰 Internal Communications Introductions: Meet Adrian J. Hopkins

Director, Internal Communications at General Assembly

About Adrian

Adrian J. Hopkins is the Director of Internal Communications at General Assembly, a leading provider of digital skills education and talent around the world. He believes thoughtful and transparent communication to employees plays a critical role in powering company strategy because it can help staff see themselves and their work reflected in business priorities. His portfolio includes programming all-company meetings, advising executive messaging, and more.

Before General Assembly, Adrian led several culture change initiatives at The New York Times. He created the company's first global employee mentorship program, which produced higher promotion and lower turnover rates for its participants, particularly for employees of color. He also led the strategy to provide on-demand professional coaching to 4,700 Times employees and, as co-chair of the Black@NYT employee resource group, advised the development of the company’s inaugural diversity report.

Adrian’s approach to communication is grounded in strategy and branding expertise honed at T Brand Studio (The Times’s brand marketing division), Viacom, and a boutique creative agency. He has also been a career coach and writer whose career advice and personal narratives have been published in publications including The Daily Muse, TIME, and Forbes.

Originally from Richmond, Virginia, Adrian earned a B.A. in History from Yale and an M.A. in Media Studies from The New School. He lives in Brooklyn, New York with his wife and rescue dog.

---

How did you get your start in internal communications?

Well, I first recognized how critical the role of internal communications is at the onset of the pandemic in 2020. I was working at The New York Times then and company leaders were doing a good job of communicating what they knew and what they didn’t know, but I knew that it was going to take a lot more than emails to help employees like me stay connected to my colleagues and to the culture at large.

Running the mentorship program and leading an employee resource group gave me lots of experience producing large events and I had also launched two companywide career development newsletters, so by the time senior executives started assembling a task force on culture and communications I knew I had the right ingredients to contribute something meaningful to it.

I helped that small team dive headfirst into projects ranging from standardizing the all-hands meeting cadence to answering employee questions (on any subject, within 48 hours!) via an #askthecompany channel on Slack. That was my third and final role at The Times until I was recruited to be the first-ever Director of Internal Communications at General Assembly.

How do you define internal communications?

Having practiced internal communications to some extent in two different environments, I think I can confidently say that each company has to define it for their particular context.

At General Assembly, we’re in the middle of a major transformation and not just because of the pandemic. The tech/digital skills education industry that we helped create is now more competitive than ever, so we have a pressing need to remain a culture that is both high-performance and highly inclusive to maintain our category leadership.

In that context, I’m using internal communications to be a mirror for my colleagues to see themselves, each other, and their work reflected in the company’s strategy. This means delivering information that’s transparent and trustworthy while also creating opportunities for more people outside of leadership to be seen and heard.

What is a project you are proud of having led?

One thing I’ve never forgotten from my time in branding and media is to connect with audiences where they’re already gathering. Slack is the primary platform for all communications at GA, so I’m proud of the way that we’ve started to cultivate team culture there in my eight months with the company.

When I started, I inherited an email newsletter called “This Week @ GA,” which initially launched to provide key updates during the pandemic. To try making it a true heartbeat of the company, I started publishing it directly to Slack on our “no-meeting Wednesdays” (an initiative we started for stress relief and workload management). This has helped us increase engagement in a big way, especially when we incorporate video content like employee profiles and “behind the scenes” vlogs from leaders as well shout-outs to colleagues for their tenure anniversaries. I guess you could say working at top media companies got me obsessed with trying to create  destination content!

We’ve also created the company’s first Slack communication guidelines by leveraging historical usage data and employee input. Every online community needs deliberate and thoughtful management. Yes, Slack is a “tech” platform, but teams who manage team culture also have to take ownership of how this is used to prevent it becoming a “free for all.” We expect to implement our guidelines in 2022.

What are the skills that are needed in internal communications?

The one-two punch is definitely being both a listener and translator. We need to understand the goals and objectives of every single stakeholder in our company –– from new hires to tenured staff, from entry level to executives. Everyone needs to feel that their voice and perspective is important and that it matters to the direction of the organization.

One stat that I’ve really taken to heart is that more than 70% of employees in a large study reported that when they feel their voices are heard they also feel empowered to do their best work. And when we hear those voices, we have to reflect that feedback clearly, honestly, and succinctly. 

How has your time as a career coach helped you in your internal communications work?

I view both roles as being in service of other people’s success. I got into coaching first as a writer who wanted to share the lessons I had learned to help others, then I got to do that on a more personal level with one-on-one relationships and designing the mentorship program.

Advising hundreds of professionals over several years gave me insight into the challenges that exist in multiple roles and industries, so in its own way coaching and advising was like an extensive research study to start a career in internal communications.

How do you continue learning about internal communications?

In addition to being a huge sponge for business journalism and literature, I’ve recognized that relationships matter a whole lot to me, so I’ve developed a mini “braintrust” of friends and peers who do similar work at companies of various sizes to swap notes with. Because none of us went to school to do this type of work, none of us believe that there is a playbook of tactics that always work, so we’re all open to learning and experimenting together.