Measurement is still internal comms’ credibility gap

"A significant number of IC professionals (60%) lack the insight to determine whether their messages are reaching or influencing employees”.

The latest research from Oak Engage is giving me a sense of déjà vu. It feels like we are having the same conversation year after year, and it should give the internal communications profession cause for concern.

On one hand, the findings appear positive. According to the research, 94% of respondents said that they felt internal communication is respected. But multiple studies continue to show that communicators rate their own capability more highly than leaders rate the capability of their IC teams. That gap should concern all of us.

Measurement remains one of the profession’s biggest credibility challenges

According to the research only one in three IC professionals can clearly demonstrate communications' impact on business performance. We know communication matters. The question leaders are increasingly asking is: can you prove it?

That means moving beyond reporting activity and outputs and getting better at demonstrating contribution to outcomes such as adoption, alignment, engagement, productivity, retention, safety or customer experience.

Part of the problem is that internal communication still tends to treat measurement as an optional activity. We measure what is easiest to count rather than what is most useful to understand. Views, clicks, email open rates and channel metrics can tell us something about activity. But they do not tell us whether communication changed behaviour, improved performance, reduced confusion or helped people make better decisions. That is where many teams still get stuck.

The encouraging part is that this is fixable.

Make it part of the job

For me, the issue is not whether better measurement is possible. It is whether we are willing to treat it as part of the job, rather than an optional extra. If internal communication wants more credibility and influence, measurement must become part of the practice, not an afterthought.

Here are five practical ways to start doing that.

1. Measurement cannot sit at the end of the process as a reporting exercise. It has to become part of how communication is planned from the start. Identify the business problem you are trying to solve and the outcome you are trying to influence.
2. Not everything that can be counted counts. Be clear about what you are doing with the data you are collecting and make sure every measure serves a purpose.
3. Understand the jargon. Outputs tell you what you produced and where it appeared. Outtakes tell you how people responded and what they understood. Outcomes tell you what changed as a result.
4. Use the AMEC Integrated Evaluation Framework as a planning tool, not just a reporting template. It helps you align objectives, set benchmarks, choose meaningful measures and track outputs, outtakes, outcomes and impact.
5. Set a baseline before you start. Measurement is more useful when you know where you are starting from, because it gives you something credible to compare progress against.

Measurement is not about proving that communication happened. It is about showing that it makes a difference. And if we want internal communication to be seen as a strategic business function, that must become part of the job, not an optional extra.