A working corporate communications framework, from framing the decision to stop rules

What to take away

The framework is a decision record, not a message plan. It shows why the organisation communicates, what it knows and when to stop.
Write the choice in one sentence, then compare four options against the same fields.
Give every audience group a row with its relationship, information task, contact source and evidence gap.
Mark seven gates pass, fail or unresolvedprivacy, employee consultation, accessibility, factual claims, market disclosure, security and contract.
Hold publication until each gate has a reviewer and a written stop rule.

What this framework decides

Corporate communications here means the decisions an organisation makes about what it says publicly about itself, its operations and its statutory disclosures, and the record it keeps of them.

It is not internal communications, public relations, public affairs, marketing, customer service, investor relations, crisis response or a legal notice.

One team may run several of those lanes, but each has its own purpose and approval route.

Frame the choice in one sentence

A useful framework begins with an undecided organisational choice, not a desired headline. Write the choice first and note the options beside it.

Put the choice in one sentence that names the affected site or business unit, and add the date it expires.
List four optionsdo nothing beyond required processes, use existing manual routes, narrow the channel set, or commission new support.
Note the factual owner, the decision owner and the approval each option needs.
Record unresolved facts beside the option they could change.

Frame the decision

One-sentence decision with four options?

Yes

Record owner, site, facts, expiry

Do not proceed to options

The Government Communication Service's OASIS material links objectives, audience insight, strategy, implementation and evaluation. Borrow that sequence as planning discipline; it governs public-sector campaigns and does not validate a company decision.

Build the audience and evidence table

Use one row per group. Record the relationship, eligible population, information task, contact source and evidence gap.

People and evidence rows

Audience group

Employees: Relationship, population, task, source, authority
Customers: Relationship, population, task, source, authority
Suppliers: Relationship, population, task, source, authority
Local community: Relationship, population, task, source, authority
Investors or lenders: Relationship, population, task, source, authority
Journalists: Relationship, population, task, source, authority
Regulators: Relationship, population, task, source, authority
Internal approvers: Relationship, population, task, source, authority

Evidence gap

Employees: Consultation duty unresolved
Customers: Understanding not proven
Suppliers: Contract exposure unknown
Local community: Impact evidence missing
Investors or lenders: Market disclosure gate
Journalists: Not customers or participants
Regulators: Authority and timing
Internal approvers: Approval state

Audience and evidence table

Audience group	Relationship to the choice	Information task	Evidence gap
Employees	Affected by the site or role change	Understand the process and their options	No attendance or response data yet
Customers	Service continuity	Know what changes and when	No query volume by segment
Suppliers	Contracts and lead times	Confirm revised contacts and dates	Terms not reviewed
Local community	Site presence and transport	Understand the timeline	No resident contact list
Lenders or investors	Disclosure duty	Receive accurate, timely statements	Threshold test not run

Do not treat a journalist as a customer or a research participant as a marketing subscriber. Record the gap instead of filling it with an assumption. This article on turning evidence gaps into small tests shows how to size one without risking real audiences.

Employees need their own gate. Acas describes a consultation as a genuine two-way discussion and notes that specific legal duties depend on the issue at hand. Read its consultation guidance before deciding whether a draft briefing is communication or part of a required process.

Compare options against the same fields

Purpose and the event the organisation can evidence.
People included and deliberately excluded.
Source-copy owner and approval state.
Control over publication, delivery and correction.
Accessibility route and alternative format.
Personal-data source, minimum fields and suppression.
Confidentiality and security exposure.
Cash and internal-work inputs, blank until supplied.
Counter-signal, stop condition and review date.

Cost fields stay blank until someone supplies a unit and a date. A blank budget template sets out the cost units and exit dates to fill in.

The ICO's data-minimisation guidance sets the UK-wide principle behind the personal-data field.

The record must preserve unknowns. A page view count shows what was published, not what anyone understood.

Example record

This illustrative record uses the four options and the seven gates.

What it would settle

Do nothing beyond required processes: Statutory notices only
Existing manual routes: Known contacts, no new tooling
Narrower channel set: One employee route, one customer route
Commission new support: Full programme with outside help

Gate outcome

Do nothing beyond required processes: Privacy pass; consultation unresolved
Existing manual routes: Privacy pass; accessibility unresolved
Narrower channel set: Accessibility fail on the primary route
Commission new support: Contract and security unresolved

Cost input

Do nothing beyond required processes: Not supplied
Existing manual routes: Not supplied
Narrower channel set: Not supplied
Commission new support: Not supplied

Test the record with fictional source copy and synthetic contacts. Log expected and observed system events, and claim nothing about real behaviour.

A record is complete when someone who was not in the room can see the choice, the rejected options and the gate that stopped publication.

Set the stop rules

Stop, hold or reopen when:

Stop rules

The scope, site or timing of the proposal changes.
An affected population is missing from the table.
A factual claim has no authority behind it.
An accessibility test fails on the primary route.
A gate stays unresolved past its review date.

Accessibility needs an acceptance test, not an assurance. Write each test as pass or fail: heading order in a screen reader, no meaning carried by colour alone, and a plain-text or large-print version on request. A named reviewer signs off each test. WCAG 2.2 AA expects 4.5:1 contrast for normal body text.

Contract review is a gate, not a formality. The contract clauses to read twice covers the terms that decide whether a correction is possible after publication.

Common questions

Is this a message plan?

No. It is a decision record that shows why the organisation spoke, which options it rejected and which gate stopped publication.

Why keep corporate communications apart from PR and marketing?

Each lane has a different purpose and approval route. Marketing pursues demand and PR pursues reputation. Corporate communications carries the organisation's own account of itself and its disclosures.

What does the record not prove?

It does not prove legality, support or likely results. A publication log shows what was issued, not who understood it.

What must be true before publication?

Every gate must read pass or fail with a reviewer attached. Unresolved gates keep the item on hold.