Internal Communication Measurement – Why, When and How?

When Should We Measure Communications?Annual in depth surveys. Engagement and satisfaction surveys are typically carried out annually and can carry additional questions to provide some insights into the effectiveness of communications.Prior to a specific communications campaign. In order to best understand the impact of communications, it is necessary to measure (awareness, attitudes, knowledge etc) before a campaign.After a significant communication or campaign. It is important to measure the effectiveness and impact of significant communications programs and initiatives. This allows you to tailor internal communications to make sure they are effective and delivering quantifiable business value.At intervals to track attitudes. Regular measurement helps communicators to gauge the ever shifting feelings and attitudes within an organization and to tailor messages to make sure they are appropriate to their audiences.Pulse checks and temperature checks during and after specific events provide an insight into the issues and challenges an organization faces and to gather feedback on specific issues.At intervals to benchmark and track against KPI’s. Measuring regularly against benchmarks and tracking trends over time provide an early warning of issues that may go undetected until they have escalated further.What to Measure?Determining which aspects of communication to measure will depend on the organization’s specific business and communication objectives. A few examples of useful communications measurements include:Baseline communication measurements prior to communication can measure; existing knowledge, attitudes and behaviors of employees, as well as determining the existing information available, how easy it is to find, the current communications channels available and to identify other factors influencing attitudes and behaviors.Functional communication measurements
Following a communication or campaign, functional aspects of communication should be measured. Comparisons to the baselines measurements are useful. Additional measures can include; the number and types of messages sent, timing of messages, message cut-through / reach, channel effectiveness and appeal, audience satisfaction with content (types, volume etc).What to Measure – Measuring ImpactMeasuring of the impact communication is a critical step and measures can include:Audience perception measurements including factors such as; % and types of messages received, communications remembered. Were messages seen as relevant, consistent and credible? Were the messages understood? How well do employees feel they are being supported? Do employees understand exactly what needs to happen as a result of the communication(s)?Change in Behavior
The objective of most internal communication is to change the attitudes and behaviors of employees. Therefore, it is valuable to identify and measure factors such as; What changed? Was there more or less of a behavior? What is now different?Impact on business goals / Outcomes
Communication measurement should enable Internal Communicators to quantify the impact of communications on business objectives. For example:
The number of employees who signed up for share scheme (following its promotion) The shift in attitudes regarding customer service and the projected impact of increased customer retention The number of usable suggestions submitted via an employee suggestion initiative (and the financial value of those suggestions) Isolating the impact of communicationCommunication does not happen in a vacuum and it can sometimes be difficult to isolate the impact of communication versus other factors (incentive schemes, new product launches, factors external to the organization and so on). Possible solutions include:
Communications control groups ( isolating a group, such as a single remote location, and not communicating them about a specific initiative or goal, then looking at how their actions differ from groups you have communicated with) Assessing the change in behavior with regard to a business goal which was communicated well, versus a business goal with little or no communication Estimate the % influence of communications versus other influencing factors. Calculating the financial value of communicationCalculations of the financial value of communication will, at best, be estimates. However, it is still an important part of communication measurement as it starts a conversation with senior managers as well and can demonstrate the enormous value of effective internal communication.Consider the impact of an effective internal crisis communication response. A comparison can be made against a situation (internally or within a similar organization) which wasn’t handled as well, and quantifiable value attributed to factors such as:Volume of customers retained
Retention of good staff who might otherwise have leftTools to Assist the Measurement of Internal Communication include:
Desktop surveys and quizzes. Aside from in depth online or paper based surveys, pop-up desktop surveys and quizzes can provide additional measurement and benchmarking capability throughout the year. Incentives. A prize incentive can encourage staff to participate in a quiz or survey. Qualitative Communication MeasurementIn addition to quantitative measures of communications effectiveness, qualitative communication measurement should also be undertaken. Qualitative techniques can include:
Free form answers in surveys. Focus groups Discussion forums. Although face-to-face interviews and focus groups are often the best option for qualitative communication measurement, internal social media can be a useful addition or substitute. Set up employee discussion forums to investigate specific issues. Monitor comments made in discussion forums to gather qualitative measures of how employees are thinking feeling and behaving Avoiding Survey BiasAvoiding non-response or self select bias. When surveys rely on employees to opt in or ‘self select’, you may mostly hear from the squeaky wheels or people with an agenda motivating them to participate. A desktop survey tool can provide recurrence, random sampling and escalation options to help ensure that representative internal communications measurement data is collected from across the organization.Control groups. Set up a control groups for communications campaigns. Identify survey responses from control groups and hence to compare and assess the impact of internal communications campaigns.Multiple select questions. For some types of questions, e.g. “Where did you hear about XXX from?” or “What factors influenced your decision” providing single answer options can skew results. In these cases, provide multi-select answer options.Comparisons. Measure the impact of communications on people who saw a particular communications against those who didn’t.The impact of time on recall. Recall rates will drop over time, hence if communication campaigns are to be compared with one another, communications measurement needs to be carried out at the same time period after each campaign. Ensure that communications measurement is carried out at a consistent time after each campaign.Providing context for a quiz or survey. Context should be given for a quiz or survey. For example, a product knowledge quiz without context may cause employees to worry about the purpose of the quiz and possibly work harder to ensure they provide the correct answers. However the same quiz with an explanation “the purpose of this quiz if to see how well the communications team are doing, therefore please be as honest as possible” is more likely to provide an accurate measure of communication effectiveness.Encouraging Survey ParticipationPromoting the survey to encourage participation. The higher survey participation rates are, the more statistically accurate and relevant the results will be. Use innovative internal communications channels such as; desktop alerts, scrolling desktop feeds, screensaver messaging and user generated staff magazines to raise the profile of surveys and encourage participation.Communicating survey findings and actions being taken. When employees believe that the outputs from staff surveys will be constructively used, they are more likely to participate. Therefore, ensure that survey results and the resulting actions being taken are well communicated to staff. Screensaver messages, newsfeeds and articles in the staff magazines are great ways get messages across without their becoming buried in email in-boxes.