For years, Thuso Khoeli was known primarily as a creative. His work centred on ideas, storytelling, campaigns and brands. But after years of working with organisations, leadership teams and employees, he began to recognise a different challenge, one that was happening far beyond the traditional boundaries of marketing and external communication. The problem was often inside the organisation.
Leadership had a strategy, but employees did not always understand it. Leaders communicated decisions, but the intended message could become diluted as it moved through the organisation. Organisations had values, but employees did not always experience those values in their everyday working environment.
For Thuso, it began to resemble the childhood game of broken telephone: a message starts clearly at the top, but as it moves from person to person, it changes.
“Leadership communicates one thing, employees hear another,” he says. “And somewhere in between, clarity gets lost.”
That realisation would increasingly shape the direction of his career.
From creativity to communication strategy
In 2013, Thuso founded Republican Communications, previously known as Republican Creatives.
The business initially reflected his creative background, with a focus on creativity and branding. But as his experience grew, so did his understanding of the role communication plays inside organisations.
Today, Thuso is deliberately repositioning himself from “Thuso the creative” to Thuso the strategic communicator, with Internal Communications becoming a central focus of his work.
For him, the shift is not a rejection of creativity. It is an evolution of how creativity, strategy and communication can work together to solve organisational problems.
“Some of the biggest business challenges are not external. They are internal,” he says.
His focus is now on helping organisations strengthen the connection between leadership and employees, particularly during periods of change, transformation and uncertainty.
Why internal communication matters to business
Thuso believes internal communication is often underestimated because organisations tend to measure it through outputs: emails sent, newsletters published, town halls held or messages distributed. But those measures do not necessarily tell an organisation whether people actually understand what is happening.
“The real question is not simply whether we communicated,” he argues. “It is whether people understood, believed and acted on what was communicated.”
That distinction is particularly important when organisations are implementing new strategies, restructuring operations or navigating significant change.
A leadership team may believe that a strategy has been communicated because it has been presented to employees. But if employees cannot explain what the strategy means for their roles, teams or day-to-day decisions, the communication has not achieved its purpose.
For Thuso, this is where internal communication becomes closely connected to business performance.
When communication breaks down, strategy can lose momentum. Employees can become disconnected from organisational priorities. Managers can interpret messages differently. Culture can weaken and uncertainty can grow.
“Communication is what turns strategy into movement,” he says.
The connection between HR and internal communication
This perspective has also shaped Thuso’s view of the relationship between HR and internal communication.
He argues that the two functions should not operate in isolation. HR understands the people agenda: employee experience, wellbeing, performance, talent, culture and engagement.
Internal communication helps employees understand the organisation's direction, decisions, priorities and purpose. But employees do not experience these things as separate departments. “They experience the organisation as one environment,” Thuso says.
That means communication needs to be considered across the employee experience, particularly when organisations are asking people to adapt to change.
The relationship between HR and internal communication therefore becomes less about ownership of individual messages and more about creating alignment around the employee experience.
Employees are part of your reputation
Another central part of Thuso’s thinking is the relationship between internal employee experience and external reputation.
Organisations can invest heavily in their external brand, but employees are experiencing the organisation every day.
They see how leaders behave. They experience organisational culture. They hear the internal conversations. They know whether the values being communicated externally are reflected internally.
For Thuso, employees are therefore not simply part of the workforce. They are also ambassadors of the organisation.
“How people feel internally will always influence how they speak externally,” he says.
That makes employee trust and communication more than an HR concern. They become business and reputational considerations.
Communication starts with listening
Perhaps the most important shift in Thuso's thinking is that effective communication is not simply about speaking. It is also about listening.
Leaders can communicate strategies, values and decisions repeatedly, but if they are not listening to how employees are interpreting those messages, they may miss important gaps between intention and experience.
Sometimes, that means stepping away from the presentation and having a conversation. A conversation with a team, a walk through the workplace, a discussion with a manager, and a genuine opportunity for employees to say what they understand, what they do not understand and what they need from leadership.
For Thuso, this is where communication becomes a leadership capability rather than simply a corporate function.
A changing role for communication
As organisations navigate transformation, changing employee expectations and increasingly complex workplaces, Thuso believes the role of internal communication will continue to evolve.
The question is no longer simply: “How do we communicate this?” It is “What do our people need to understand, and what will enable them to act?”
That shift moves communication away from producing more messages and towards creating greater clarity, trust and alignment.
It is also the thinking behind Thuso’'s work at Republican Communications.
The organisation's focus is increasingly centred on helping businesses fix the broken telephone between leadership and employees, ensuring that strategy, culture and organisational priorities do not become lost somewhere in the middle.
For Thuso, the goal is ultimately straightforward: Better communication should create better understanding. And better understanding should help organisations move forward together.
