The role of internal communications has changed dramatically over the years. It is now tasked with supporting everything from culture building and the employee experience to change management, employee engagement and organizational alignment.
Measurement, however, continues to lag and has remained largely tactical in nature. The lack of strategic measurement is a key reason internal communications budgets remain tight. Investments in technology are limited, and achieving the proverbial seat at the table is difficult.
Open rates, views, attendance numbers and the like are the norm. Yet none of these things keep business leaders up at night. Tactical measures don’t speak to what is important to your business, nor do they demonstrate the value of internal communications.
When it comes to measurement, we need to tie the work we do in internal communications to key business metrics and objectives.
Having worked for several organizations throughout my career, I know that data can be hard to come by, either because it is not being captured or it is difficult to access and time-consuming to compile. But maybe the real problem is that we need to take a broader view of what we should be measuring.
There is an opportunity to look beyond traditional internal communications measurements to think about not only what we own but also what we can influence. This starts by gauging what the organization is prioritizing and measuring related to business goals and performance. That provides a great foundation to discuss how internal communications can partner with other business areas to positively impact metrics that matter.
Take human resources (HR), for example. There can be any number of opportunities related to employee engagement, with surveys providing a rich source of data as well as a measurement opportunity. Internal communications can partner with HR and others to move scores for one or more survey items in the desired direction. Internal communication campaigns can also drive employee referrals or encourage employees to use social media to share their views on what it’s like to work for your organization. Metrics for these examples could include the number of successful referrals and retention rates as well as company ratings on sites like Indeed and Glassdoor.
In addition to engagement and retention metrics, internal communications can also help create line of sight with business objectives. This opens the door to partnering with departments and teams throughout the organization to improve operational performance and goal achievement. Internal communication can promote idea generation and innovation by getting employees to identify ways to generate cost savings or drive revenues.
The point is that internal communications can and should partner with others to solve business challenges and drive results.
In the end, this is about showing that internal communications is invested in producing positive and measurable outcomes for the business.
Taking a strategic approach to measurement can help ensure that internal communications is brought in early to play an integral role in strategy and the execution of programs, campaigns and initiatives. It is important to focus on connecting internal communications to the metrics that matter, regardless of whether your leaders are currently requesting metrics from you. In fact, this is especially crucial if they aren’t.
