How to Measure and Prove ROI in Internal Comms: Insights From 5,000+ IC Leaders

Most internal comms teams enjoy strong executive support, healthy budgets, and a seat at the table – yet 92% still can’t prove their ROI.

That’s the key finding from Measuring What Matters in Internal Comms, our new global report based on insights from over 5,000 IC professionals. It uncovers why proving impact remains so difficult – and what top-performing teams are doing differently.

Internal comms plays a crucial role in engaging, informing, and inspiring employees. But with more than nine out of ten IC teams struggling to prove that impact, it’s clear that measurement is a critical challenge.

This could cause serious problems going forward: without concrete evidence linking IC campaigns to business outcomes, teams may lose executive sponsorship and budget, making it harder to run effective campaigns and drive results.

The Measuring What Matters in Internal Comms report digs into this challenge and more, exploring why measurement has been so hard to pin down – and what IC teams can do instead. Get the key takeaways in our interactive microsite, and download the in-depth PDF for even more insights and actionable tips to enhance your IC strategy and reporting.

What we uncovered

The research reveals that while IC teams have a seat at the strategic table, poorly chosen metrics and tools are holding them back, making it difficult or even impossible to measure ROI.

We discovered that:

• 46% of IC teams say metrics not resonating is the biggest barrier to reporting impact to leadership, making it the top issue
• 34% of IC leaders identify inadequate tools or data as the biggest challenge in measuring internal communications
• Only 36% of IC leaders rate engagement with comms as very high, leaving significant room for improvement
• 44% of IC professionals say that difficulty measuring impact is the top challenge for internal communications over the coming year

To unlock the full benefits of internal comms, IC teams need clear measurement frameworks mapped to business KPIs and accurate, real-time performance insights. Without this data-driven approach, they’ll continue to rely on guesswork, leading to missed opportunities, employee disengagement, and IC team burnout.

Why this matters now

Driving employee engagement is the number-one priority for execs when it comes to internal comms. But without a clear understanding of how comms resonate (or don’t) with their intended audience, it’s impossible for IC teams to connect their work to tangible results, let alone continuously optimize for maximum success.

Inadequate tools, fragmented systems, and disconnected data leave IC teams in the dark about which types of content and formats drive the greatest engagement with comms, making it difficult to pinpoint what workers care about.

Our research shows this isn’t a budget issue. Teams have sufficient financial resources, but growing expectations, mounting burnout, and non-stop demands make it hard for teams to move from reactive to proactive, keeping them stuck in cycles of meh tools – and meh results.

To elevate internal comms and deliver tangible results that delight leadership and employees, IC teams should take immediate action. In the report, we lay out a strategic action plan to help you:

• Connect metrics to business KPIs like employee engagement, retention, change management, and more to prove ROI once and for all
• Follow best practices to avoid common measurement mistakes that could skew your data
• Create a feedback loop that lets you drill into results and continuously improve engagement with comms
• Use the right tech to turn insights into action and accelerate your strategy with AI-powered capabilities so you can focus on what really matters 

Explore the report 

Measuring What Matters in Internal Comms uncovers an industry-wide problem – and outlines the steps forward-thinking teams should take to address it. Organizations have long understood the role of IC teams when it comes to driving key initiatives and promoting company culture. Now, it’s time to turn those felt benefits into undeniable results.

Check out the full Measuring What Matters in Internal Comms microsite here.