In mid-1996, after nearly 20 years in the corporate world, I left my job as a senior consultant and regional communications practice leader at a global human resources consulting firm and struck out on my own. My goal was to help organizations apply emerging technologies to their corporate communication efforts while continuing to develop employee communication strategies.

The last 21 years as an independent communications practitioner have been fantastic. As of Tuesday, it’s over. On Tuesday I started work as director of Internal Communications for Webcor Builders, a San Francisco-based commercial construction contractor and one of the largest builders in California.

Why Webcor?

A few months ago, my feeds dished up the job description for the opening. If somebody had asked me to write the job description for my perfect job, this would have been it. With nothing to lose, I applied.

I applied cold, through the web. Conventional wisdom says this is not how you go about getting a job. It’s all about the network. But they replied, asking if I’d take a half-hour phone call with the vice president of Human Resources. That call went on for over an hour. The next thing I knew, I was in the company’s San Francisco headquarters meeting with the CEO, the HR VP, and the director of Business Development. A couple weeks later, I was invited to the company’s Alameda offices to meet with the head of training and knowledge management, an HR director, and the internal communications coordinator. After one last meeting with another exec, the company made me an offer.

A great offer.

Between my first meeting and the offer, I looked into the company. On Glassdoor.com, employees have given the company a 4.1 rating (out of 5). Seventy-seven percent would recommend it to a friend. The CEO, Jes Pedersen, has an amazing 99% approval rating.

Discussions with my new colleagues revealed a dynamic and vital culture with even more potential. The company’s values resonated with me.

The Human Resources vice president, to whom I report, has embraced LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman’s vision of an “alliance” between employees and employer. (If you haven’t read Hoffman’s book, it’s well worth the few hours it will take.) I want to work with her. In fact, I want to work with everyone I’ve met. And so far, they want to work with me.

It looks fun.

Maybe you’re wondering, “Why construction?” Well, why not? I have worked for an oil company, a toy company, a financial services company, two human resources consulting firms, and a pharmaceutical company. I love learning new businesses. This company has a history of impressive projects and is in the process of building more, including the Transbay Transit Center, the new San Francisco General Hospital, and the First and Mission Oceanwide Center. I can’t wait to get onto job sites and learn the entire process, from proposals to completion celebrations.

Why give up my practice?

In addition to grabbing the opportunity Webcor is giving me, I have a few big reasons.

The biggest is the chance to put the new model for employee communication that I introduced earlier this year into practice. As I mentioned, the company is growing and its leaders recognize they need a strategy for communicating with a larger workforce, for aligning employees at all levels and locations with the company’s purpose and values, and for maintaining the “bold” element of the company’s values as things inevitably get more bureaucratic. The model—the subject of a series I have been publishing and which I’m about halfway through—is based on applying ongoing communication practices and philosophies to four core areas where communication can best establish the conditions that enable employees to produce business outcomes. Those areas—culture, engagement, the customer experience (CX), and the employee experience (EX)—align nicely with what Webcor hopes to get from a strategic internal communication function.

Also, the internal communications label is a bit misleading. The function is also responsible for the company’s external-facing social media as well as the news and media section of the external website.

On a more personal note, I’m tired of working by myself. Don’t get me wrong: In the course of my consulting, I work with some awesome people. Some of them I partner with (Ryan Williams and Sharon McIntosh in particular); others are amazing clients. (Graham Dwyer, Ayun Sundari, and Marcia Samson at the Asian Development Bank; and Paul Berto and Renee Brownsey-Joyce at Home Depot Canada are just some of my more recent clients I have loved working with. In fact, I listed Paul and Sharon as references.) When I’m not on the road with these folks, though, I’m alone in my home office. After 21 years, I have come to seriously miss the interaction with other employees in hallways, break rooms, meetings, and the like.

I also miss working a communication plan from strategy through implementation. Most of my work has been strategic. An audit, for example, involves mapping current communication flows, seeing how existing channels and processes work to achieve what leaders and employees want and need; proposing strategies to fix problems, unclog bottlenecks, and take advantage of opportunities; and establishing baseline metrics to measure improvements. Then I leave. Somebody else gets the fun of making it happen. I want to do that work again (without giving up the strategic element).

Travel is another issue. I absolutely love being with people at all the consulting assignments and speaking gigs that have been my bread and butter for better than two decades. Getting there and back is another thing. Webcor’s work is almost all in California. One executive told me he hardly ever travels without being back home for dinner with his family. That sounds nice.

Then there’s my own value proposition. When I started Holtz Communication + Technology, nearly every company had to be convinced to take the net and the Web seriously. Some companies got it, of course. I was able to leave my HR consulting job because Bank of America and Cigna, among others, were already calling me to help them develop this idea they had for a website dedicated to connecting the company with the media. Other companies, like Elf Atochem in Philadelphia, were developing their first intranets and needed help. I worked with some great organizations in those early days and helped other companies get rolling when social media was new.

Today, while I still love staying two steps ahead and convincing communicators that they need to understand how emerging technologies will affect their jobs and their companies (blockchain, anyone?), I’m hardly alone anymore. I compete with thousands of consultants in this space, not the five or ten who were consulting on technology and communication in 1996 or the hundred or so—independent and in agencies—offering social media services in 2005.

Frankly, the most fun I’ve had in the last several years has been conducting internal communication audits for the likes of ESPN, ConAgra Foods, Johns Hopkins Medicine, and Home Depot Canada. Yes, technology excites me, but not because I’m attracted to shiny objects. Rather, I have always been pumped up about the potential of these tools for improving communication. And my heart has always been with employee communication, which is where I got my start with ARCO in 1977. Now I get to do that for real.

Finally, did I mention that the package I was offered is amazing?

What does this mean for my existing work?

The “For Immediate Release” podcast—which I started with my friend Neville Hobson in January 2005—will continue in its current form at least through the end of the year. Sponsors have paid through the end of the year and I’m not going to hang them out to dry. I’ll move recording and production to Sundays so I can do it on my own time. I’ll continue to publish the show on Mondays. By the first of the year, I will have decided what comes next. It’s unlikely FIR will continue in its current form; it’s too time-consuming. I may reduce the frequency. I may change the format. I may transition to a monthly show with Neville, with whom I’m currently recording a monthly version of our old weekly “Hobson and Holtz Report.” I do know I don’t want to spend three-quarters of my weekends working on the show when I have a wife, kids, and grandchildren I’d like to spend time with, so something has to give. But in one form another, FIR will continue. I can’t quit it. It’s in my blood.

The FIR Podcast Network isn’t going anywhere, either. The hosts of the various shows in the network handle their own production and posting; my involvement is minimal and easily handled on my own time.

I also plan to continue producing the Friday Wrap (on my blog) and the HC+T Briefing (the email newsletter version of the Wrap). It may not be as detailed as it has been, but I do the Wrap for my own benefit as much as anybody else’s; it’s how I force myself to stay current on trends and technologies affecting communication. Publishing it is just my way of sharing it with anyone else who’s interested.

If I have committed to a speaking engagement or a webinar or consulting, I will make good on that commitment. Webcor is fully behind the fact that I need to wind down my consulting activities.

As for future speaking engagements, I told my new boss that I’d stop but she encouraged me to keep it up. Execs giving talks is good for the company, she said. I’ll be more selective, though.

My blog (and the series I’m writing on my new model for employee communication) will continue, as well.

That’s my story; I’m sticking with it

So there you have it. In my 40th year in the communication industry, and after 21 years as an independent practitioner, I’m a full-time employee again.

The consulting thing has been a great ride and I owe a huge debt of gratitude to a lot of people who have influenced me, helped me, hired me, and bailed me out more times than I can count. I have been at this so long that some of them aren’t even with us anymore. Top of mind right now are Sharon McIntosh, Ryan Williams (and his late, great, dad, Tudor), Jen McClure (and the Society for New Communication Research), Mark Ragan and all the folks at Ragan Communications and Ragan Consulting Group, and the entire International Association of Business Communicators. Our relationships aren’t over; they’re just entering a new phase.

Onward.