How do you evaluate and prove your internal communication’s effectiveness? This is one of the questions that communications managers constantly ask themselves, and for a good reason: analyzing the return on investment (ROI) of an internal communication strategy helps you not only justify the time and resources invested but also adjust the actions you put in place. Key performance indicators (KPIs) are essential tools for measuring internal communication’s ROI. But which ones should be monitored? How can they be analyzed and optimized over time?
In this article, we share with you seven KPIs for tracking your internal communication—both qualitatively and quantitatively. Whether you’re looking to assess the impact of your internal newsletters, adoption of your internal communication tools, or level of employee engagement, you’ve come to the right place!
Quantitative KPIs
1. Employee engagement rate
Employee engagement is among top KPIs for both internal communication and the organization as a whole. A high level of engagement means that employees not only are doing their job but also are motivated to go above and beyond their basic job description. This is then an indicator that has a direct impact on productivity and talent retention.
Only 15% of employees worldwide are engaged at work, reports Gallup. To improve this stat—and by extension company performance—routine monitoring becomes important.
The Employee Net Promoter Score or eNPS is generally used to measure employee engagement. More than an internal communication KPI, this number measures the degree of loyalty employees feel toward their company. It’s derived from one simple but revealing question: “On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend our company as a place to work?” Depending on their answers, you can then determine how much of your workforce includes promoters (9-10), passives (7-8), and detractors (0-6).
How do you measure and optimize the eNPS?
The best way to measure eNPS is to regularly share surveys, such as every quarter, which incorporate the question above. These surveys must always remain anonymous to encourage honest, unbiased responses. The easiest method is by way of an internal communication platform that rapidly and effectively distributes the survey to all employees. On Talkspirit, for example, you can share this type of survey via the publications module.
Once the survey is complete, subtract the percentage of detractors (scores from 0 to 6) from the percentage of promoters (scores from 9 and 10), without taking into account the percentage of passives (scores from 7 and 8). This gives you an eNPS score, which can vary from -100 (the most negative) to 100 (the most positive).
If the score is below 0, the employee engagement rate is relatively low. When it’s between -10 and 10, it’s average. When it’s between 10 and 30, engagement is quite good. And if it’s above 30, your employees are highly engaged!
Whatever your eNPS score, it’s important to monitor it regularly so you can continuously improve it. By the way, if you’re looking to boost your staff’s engagement, we give you 3 tips in this article).
Sometimes used in conjunction with an internal communication platform is the internal newsletter—an essential channel for showcasing company news. You can count on two indicators here to assess your newsletter’s effectiveness:
- The open rate, which measures the percentage of people who have opened the newsletter. The higher the open rate, the more convincing the subject line.
- The click-through rate, i.e. the percentage of people who clicked on one or more links in the email. The higher it is, the more likely it is that your employees are interested in the content.
You can track these internal communication KPIs directly from your emailing solution—or from your enterprise social network if it offers a newsletter function.
Talkspirit‘s platform integrates an internal newsletter module that enables you to send a summary email of the most important publications shared with each of your groups. This way, you can give your news more visibility and encourage your employees to connect to the platform all at once.
(By the way, Talkspirit will soon offer an email module.) 😉 You’ll be able to use it both to send internal newsletters and to exchange with your external partners.
What are “good” open and click-through rates? According to a study by Popolo, internal newsletters have an average open rate of 58%, and an average click-through rate of just 14%. If your figures are above these averages, it’s an indicator that your in-house newsletters are rather effective! If your figures are below average, not to worry. We’re sharing a few tips for optimizing your newsletters:
- Choose a punchy, short, and clear email subject.
- Send your newsletter out at regular intervals (monthly or weekly, for example) to make it a ritual.
- Format your newsletters to make them a genuine pleasure to read. You can incorporate images, divide your content into easy-to-read chunks, make important text bold, and use colors and themes for your charts and illustrations.
- Survey your employees on the content that interests them (both subject and format), to create a newsletter that really meets their expectations.
- Involve employees in the development of certain content (for example, by asking them to share photos/videos from the field).
3. The number of active users on your internal communication tools
The rate of active users is also one of the most important KPIs for internal communication. In fact, it’s a good way of measuring the level of adoption of your various internal communication tools (such as the intranet or the enterprise social network, for example).
How do you measure and optimize it?
You can measure the rate of active users by going directly into each of your tools. For example, on Talkspirit, you can retrieve the rate of active users over different periods (24 hours, 7 days, or 30 days) from the statistics module. To deepen your analysis, you can also analyze the rate of active users on each of the groups where you share information.
If your monthly activity exceeds 70%, your employees have integrated your platform well into their daily work. Conversely, when the monthly active user rate falls below 30%, it’s time to take action to rectify the situation. For example, you might consider:
- Promote the tool at internal meetings and events.
- Use ambassadors to promote it by word of mouth.
- Set up onboarding workshops to present the added value of the tool, and how to use it on a daily basis.
- Develop animation on the platform, offering exclusive content and events (e.g. competitions) that employees can only find on it.
Also read: How To Boost the Adoption of New Collaborative Tools
4. Interaction rate with internal content
One of the main KPIs for internal communication is, of course, interaction with shared content. It’s an indicator that allows us both to assess employees’ interest in shared communications, and to measure their level of engagement and involvement.
On your internal communication platform, you can measure these interactions by looking at the number of views, likes and comments on your publications. Alternatively, if your internal communication isn’t just top-down, you can look at the number of people who regularly share content on your platform.
How do you measure and optimize it?
To measure the rate of interaction with your content, go to your internal communication tool’s group statistics module. On Talkspirit, this module enables you to identify the following within each of your groups:
- members with the most publications
- members who interact the most with publications (such as with likes or comments)
- the number of shared publications
- the number of likes and comments on these publications
- the most-liked publications
If the number of publications shared is lower than the number of interactions, then your users are fairly engaged. Conversely, if you find that the number of publications is higher than the number of interactions, then your users are not very engaged, and you need to implement targeted actions to correct the situation. For example, you might want to:
- Reorganize the groups in which you share information
- Vary the types of content you share and improve the overall blend and quality
- Create more interactive publications (such as through polls)
- Highlight internal success stories in your publications
- Invite more people to share publications
Also read: How to Make Your Internal Communication Successful With Talkspirit
5. Participation in internal events
Another internal communication KPI you can easily measure is the participation rate in internal events. These include meetings, seminars, training sessions, or team-building activities. High attendance is often a sign that employees feel involved and valued within the company. On the other hand, low participation may signal underlying problems such as a lack of interest in, or communication about, the event.
How do you measure and optimize it?
To measure event attendance, simply divide the number of participants by the total number of guests, then multiply this figure by 100. On Talkspirit, you can obtain these figures directly from your agenda, for example.
The rate of participation will depend on the theme chosen, the date and the people you invited. In more concrete terms, the more targeted your invitation, the more likely it is that invited employees will attend. Conversely, if you’re aiming for a wide audience, expect a lower proportion to show up.
To take things even further, you should also ask your colleagues for feedback. Ask them:
- what they thought of the event (theme, program, format, schedule, etc.)
- how satisfied (or not) they were with the event
- how likely they are to recommend this event to a friend or colleague (that eNPS we talked about earlier, measured on a scale from 0 to 10)
- what they liked and disliked
- improvements they’d like to make
This way, you’ll know what to do to improve attendance at your next event!
Qualitative KPIs
6. Level of satisfaction with internal communication
The best way to assess the effectiveness of internal communication is, of course, to measure your employees’ level of satisfaction with internal communication. The higher this KPI is, the more likely it is that your employees feel well-informed and can easily access information. That in itself ultimately makes them more productive at work.
How do you measure and optimize it?
Surveys and polls are a good way of finding out how satisfied your employees are. Here are some examples of questions to include:
- On a scale of 0 to 10, how would you rate your overall satisfaction with the company’s internal communication?
- How clear and easy is it to understand the information we provided?
- Do we share internal communication too frequently or infrequently?
- Does our internal communication help you understand the company’s objectives and strategy?
- Do you have the opportunity to share your opinion about internal issues? If so, do you feel that this feedback is valued?
- Do you have all the information and resources you need to do your job effectively?
- Do you ever receive irrelevant information? If so, how often?
- How long does it take you to find the information you need?
- How would you rate the support your internal communication tools provide you (as in Talkspirit)?
- What changes could we make to improve your level of satisfaction with internal communication?
These questions will give you a 360° view of what employees think about internal communication. It will also make it easier for you to identify your strengths and weaknesses, as well as priority areas for improvement.
Also read: How Can You Improve Internal Communication in Your Company?
7. The level of transparency within the company
The last internal communication KPI to measure is the level of transparency in your company. It measures the extent to which information is shared openly and transparently between management and employees as well as different departments.
High levels of transparency often foster trust, better collaboration among teams, and greater employee engagement. Conversely, a lack of transparency can lead to rumors, mistrust, and decreased motivation.
Transparency also rhymes with performance. As proof: according to a 2024 study with Ipsos, 44% of French employees believe that a company that shares information transparently is more efficient than one that does not.
Despite this, only 12% of employees consider their company to be transparent. So how can we measure and improve this indicator? Here’s how.
How do you measure and optimize it?
As with many internal communication KPIs, you can leverage employee surveys to measure transparency. This can be supplemented by small-scale feedback sessions that can be attached to HR interviews), enabling you to delve deeper into the needs and issues expressed in the surveys.
Here are a few questions you can ask both in writing and orally:
- Do you feel that management communicates openly about important company decisions?
- Does management encourage and respond openly to employee questions?
- Are the decision-making processes in your department transparent?
- Are promotions and performance appraisals conducted transparently?
- Does management provide clear explanations and justifications for major changes or new policies?
- To what extent do you trust management to communicate honestly about the challenges the company may face?
- In what areas would you like to see greater transparency?
- What improvements would you suggest to increase transparency within the company?
Once you’ve gathered everyone’s opinions, you’ll be able to prioritize the actions you need to take to improve transparency in your company. For example, you could consider:
- Document roles, responsibilities and business processes using a dedicated tool such as Holaspirit.
- Centralize information on an all-in-one communication tool like Talkspirit, to avoid the back-and-forth between applications.
- Create groups on this tool to organize information by theme and/or department.
- Set up a consent-based decision-making process. This allows you to consult with employees before making major decisions. If no employee objects, then the proposal can be validated.
A final word
Conducting regular internal surveys is essential for measuring and monitoring your internal communication KPIs. By analyzing indicators such as the engagement rate or the level of transparency of information, you’ll be able to better understand the impact of your internal communication and implement appropriate corrective actions.
To continuously improve your internal communication, you also need to consider the tools you use. With internal communication platforms such as Talkspirit, you can streamline information sharing as well as track employees’ interactions with your various content.
Measuring the ROI of internal communication is a long-term process that requires precisely monitoring KPIs over the long haul—and implementing the right tools at every step of the way.
By the way, did you know that the tools you use can have an impact not just on your performance, but on your company’s culture as well? That’s the topic we tackle in our white paper, “What Tools for Next-Generation Companies?” 👇
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