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MEASURING THE IMPACT OF DIGITAL INTERNAL COMMUNICATION A "MUST HAVE" FACILITATED BY TECHNOLOGY

Sylvain Soundararadjou

23 February 2024

In the current professional environment, assessing and improving the impact of internal communication is essential, especially given the challenges of engagement and attractiveness. The difficulty in quantifying its results requires the use of various indicators, both quantitative and qualitative.

Internal communication: an essential aspect of corporate life

To begin, internal communication represents the set of actions carried out by an organization to create a meaningful interaction between collaborators. Its main objective is to ensure a smooth flow of information, values, and objectives of the company, across all hierarchical levels and departments, thus ensuring that every member of the organization remains aligned and well-informed.

Beyond the exchange of information, internal communication is a real tool for motivating employees; in this sense, it is an essential pillar to the functioning of the collective.

Depending on the structure, size, and strategic choices of the company, this communication can be managed by different departments within the organization: the general management, human resources management, or the communication department.

Finally, like any department, internal communication must report on its performance, just as external communication does. Internal and external communications are complementary because they target different audiences while contributing to the overall objective of the company. The tools deployed and the communication channels used differ, but together, the two forms of communication ensure a global communication strategy, contributing to the coherence of the company's image, culture, and values.

Measuring internal communication to better manage it

The main objective of internal communication is to disseminate information. It is divided into three flows: downward communication (from leaders to collaborators), upward communication (from collaborators to leaders), and crosswise communication. As the current professional environment is constantly evolving, understanding the effectiveness of your internal communication has become imperative. Measuring the impact of deployed initiatives allows for precise and instructive conclusions about your organization's internal communication strategy.

Let's explore the five key points that demonstrate why assessing the impact of internal communication is essential for companies:

Transparency and clarity: Nowadays, information moves at high speed, ensuring that the right message reaches the right people at the right time is crucial. Measuring the impact of our actions allows us to verify that our communication is not only heard but also understood. It is necessary to take this aspect into account by conducting surveys and polls. By promoting transparency, internal communication helps to identify areas needing improvements, while reducing misunderstandings and conflicts, thus creating a positive work atmosphere.

Adaptation and reactivity: It is essential to facilitate knowledge sharing and encourage a feedback culture in order to gather valuable information that will allow organizations to be reactive and adapt their strategies to needs. This aspect is also measured with various surveys to obtain feedback on the quality of the form and the relevance of the content of the actions implemented, as well as to adapt the communication strategy.

Employee engagement: Well-informed employees are engaged employees. By evaluating the reception of communications (open rates, click-through rates, heat maps of newsletters...), the organization can adjust its strategies to better captivate its audience, thereby strengthening their sense of belonging. By measuring engagement indicators (likes, comments, shares/reposts...), companies gain a clear view of the participation of audiences targeted by the communications.

Corporate culture: Effective internal communication is the foundation of a strong corporate culture. By measuring the impact of internal communication, companies ensure that their messages, objectives, and values are shared and embodied by all. Internal communication plays a key role in strengthening the employer brand, by ensuring that employees are regularly informed about crucial decisions, company developments, and its performances. This practice establishes a climate of trust, strengthens cohesion among team members, and encourages active participation in the collective success of the organization.

Optimization of resources: Every company has limited resources. Measuring the impact of communications helps to allocate time, budget, and effort where they will be most effective. Thus, measuring the return on investment demonstrates the effectiveness of the communication strategy, primarily based on the analysis of key performance indicators.

In addition, after highlighting the importance of measuring the impact of your organization's internal communication, let's explore how analyzing key performance indicators (KPIs*) can reveal the effectiveness of communication efforts within the company.

The priority key performance indicators (KPIs)

KPIs represent essential quantifiable measures for assessing the overall efficiency of an organization. They allow for the analysis of performance in a clear and measurable way, thus helping companies to understand their progress towards their goals and directly influencing their decision-making.

Among the key performance indicators (KPIs) to assess internal communication, we can mention:

The engagement rate, reflecting the involvement of collaborators in communication initiatives.
The open rates and click-through rates, specific to channels like the intranet or corporate social networks, indicate the interest in the publications.
Traffic analysis, such as the number of views or reactions to a post, offers a perspective on the reception of the content.
Etc.

As we can see, multiple indicators allow for the assessment of the effectiveness of internal communication through the intranet and corporate social networks.

For internal initiatives such as webinars and surveys, the most relevant KPIs to analyze will come from satisfaction surveys, including the participation rate and response rate, as well as the duration of attendance and post-event feedback.

The analysis of KPIs allows for the precise measurement of the effectiveness of these internal initiatives, thus offering several advantages. Therefore, KPIs help to identify areas requiring improvements, enable the justification of expenditures on internal communication by demonstrating a return on investment, and promote decision-making based on concrete data.

In summary, they are an essential tool for optimizing internal communication, improving employee engagement, and contributing to the achievement of organizational goals. They allow for the assessment of the effectiveness and quality of the means deployed by your organization by identifying the strengths and weaknesses of each action.

Conclusion

Thus, measuring the impact of an organization's internal communication is not a fleeting trend, but a strategic necessity. It's a powerful tool for companies that wish not only to transmit information, but also to ensure that it is received, understood, and integrated. Effective and well-measured internal communication is the key to improving the functioning of the collective.

This evaluation remains complex to carry out because it is difficult to separate what pertains to each action and its impacts. Different methods must be combined to obtain an analysis of the effectiveness of the actions deployed.

In conclusion, Arctus can support you in this process, with its expertise, from the audit phase to the deployment of various actions through the definition of your objectives. Measuring internal communication must become a practice entrenched in organizations and even more: a professional discipline.

We will see in a second article how to structure your measurement of internal communication, how to benefit from the analysis of your KPIs. We will focus on the implementation of various measurement methods (quantitative and qualitative) and the deployment of a dashboard to track the progress of your actions.

KPI* : Key Performance Indicator.

Sylvain Soundararadjou

Consultant

Sylvain Soundararadjou est consultant en transformation digitale interne. Il se passionne pour tous les sujets liés à la maîtrise d'outils digitaux, l’expérience collaborateur & la facilitation numérique des outils internes.