7 success metrics of a modern internal comms plan

Bad communication isn’t just an inconvenience — it’s a business risk.

In a hybrid, fast-changing workplace, outdated internal comms strategies can lead to disengagement, confusion, and missed opportunities.

It’s time to rethink your approach and measure what truly drives success.

Thanks to evolving internal communications software, comms team leaders increasingly have the tools they need to deliver a modern internal communications plan. They can share important company news, boost workforce resilience, and create a strong company culture. 

They can also measure the impact of your internal communication strategies, proving ROI and finding meaningful ways to improve internal comms and achieve your communication goals going forward.

Let’s look at the hard (quantitative) and soft (qualitative) metrics you should be looking at to get a holistic view of your comms performance.

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Key metrics for a modern internal communications plan

Hard metrics

Hard metrics are quantitative. They’re objective measures that don’t rely on opinion or perception. This means they’re easy to measure and track — and they provide clear benchmarks for performance.

Here are the key qualitative metrics you should be using to assess the success of your modern internal communication strategies.

#1. Read and response rates

This metric shows you how often employees open and respond to internal communications. You can gather these metrics via the analytics dashboard on your company intranet.

High read and response rates signal that:

• Your internal key messages are relevant to their target audience
• Your messages contain clear, actionable information
• Employees know where to find internal messages on your internal communications channels

Low read and response rates suggest that employees aren’t engaging with your internal messages — and there are several reasons this could be the case.

Perhaps you aren’t personalizing content to employees in different roles, locations, and departments. As a result, employees receive too many irrelevant messages and have decided — out of overwhelm or frustration — to switch off from employee communications.

Message timing (particularly if you have employees who work shifts), complicated communication channels, and a lack of clarity could also be to blame.

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#2. Platform adoption rates

This metric shows you what proportion of employees are using your internal communication platform. High platform adoption rates signal that:

• You provide effective communications about platform onboarding and training
• Your communications platform is accessible to all employees
• Your platform is user-friendly

Low platform adoption rates indicate that:

• Employees are having difficulty accessing your comms platform. This could be because you have a desktop-based intranet that your frontline employees can’t access easily. Or because it’s difficult for employees to remember the login details for multiple internal communication tools.
  
• Employees don’t like using your comms platform. Perhaps your platform isn’t intuitive to use. Or employees aren’t aware of all the useful communication tools it provides. Or it doesn’t offer the levels of engagement and gamification they’re getting from shadow IT solutions.

#3. Employee engagement metrics

You can track employee engagement by looking at a variety of data, including the following:

• Survey participation
• Attendance at company events
• How often employees interact with your intranet
• Interactions by target audience, team, and location

Low levels of employee engagement are a cause for concern — especially when engaged employees are more likely to be more productive and stay at their company for longer. So this metric is a useful warning sign that your employee experience — both on and off your internal communication channels — could use some work.

#4. User-generated content (UGC) metrics

UGC is a key part of any modern internal communication plan. It’s also a useful way to judge the effectiveness of your employee comms. With Blink analytics, you can see which employees post most regularly — and identify those who rarely interact with your news feed.

You can also track useful metrics like these:

• Number of user-generated posts
• Number of likes, shares, and comments on news feed posts
• Number of unique contributors

There’s a correlation between high levels of UGC and a thriving workplace culture. So if these metrics are low, consider what you can do to build a strong company culture and foster a sense of togetherness.

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Soft metrics

Soft metrics capture the emotional and cultural impact of your employee communications. They uncover the opinions and feelings of your employees, revealing the “why” behind the numbers provided by hard metrics.

Here are some soft metrics that will help you to assess the effectiveness of your internal communication strategies.

#5. Employee sentiment

You can measure employee sentiment with the help of focus groups and employee surveys. Include employees from across your organization and ask open-ended questions like:

• What one thing would improve the internal communication function at [your organization]?
• Which communication channels work best for you and why?
• What could managers do differently to improve two-way communication with their teams?

You can then analyze answers — ideally with the help of analytics software — assessing whether employee sentiment is largely negative or positive and identifying recurring themes. Consider deploying pulse surveys in addition to long-form annual engagement surveys to benefit from more frequent and real-time responses.

#6. Observations of employee behavior

Another way to gather soft metrics is by observing employee behavior.

Perhaps there’s been an uptick in cross-departmental collaboration and engagement. Or maybe there’s been a shift in tone and participation during meetings. It could be that employees are now more likely to reference company values and organizational strategy in their online and offline contributions.

Tracking these changes — across all business units, teams, and locations — gives you insight into how your employee communications contribute to a strong company culture.

#7. Quality of feedback and suggestions

Any modern internal communication plan should encourage employee feedback. So the quality of that feedback is another soft metric you can track. 

Alongside qualitative data — like the number of survey responses and the number of questions completed — you can analyze the depth and constructiveness of the employee feedback you receive.

Assess whether suggestions are feasible and aligned with organizational goals — and whether suggestions are coming from all parts of the organization.

If employee feedback isn’t useful, you could try:

• Rewording your survey questions
• Reassuring employees of survey anonymity
• Ensuring surveys are easy to complete, via each employee’s communication channel of choice (this is especially important for frontline workers!)

Also, be sure to close the feedback loop. Inform employees of your survey findings and proposed actions so they retain faith in the feedback process.

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Bridging the gap: Use hard and soft metrics to assess your internal communications strategy.

When tackling your internal communications planning, combine both hard and soft metrics. This gives you a holistic view of what’s happening within your organization.

Use hard data to validate qualitative observations — and use soft data to provide context for your qualitative findings. Then, break down your data by department, role, and location to identify patterns.

Be sure to make use of advanced analytics software, too. It helps you make quick and easy sense of your data. And you can use it to tie metrics to bigger business goals — like employee engagement levels, productivity, employee retention, and business revenue.

Together, hard and soft metrics give you a deeper understanding of comms performance — and help you make targeted and effective improvements to meet your communication goals.

‍Blink. And modernize your internal comms plan.