What does leadership want from internal comms?

Let’s be honest. Executives don’t care how many newsletters you send or how many people open them as standalone data points. While internal comms metrics like readership, reach and engagement are essential to the story, leadership ultimately cares about what makes or saves the company money.

Let’s explore what leadership wants to see from internal comms, and how you can communicate the value of your work.

What communication metrics matter to leadership?  

Which metrics should you highlight in leadership reports? Start with a simple question: “How do our internal comms efforts contribute to our company’s larger goals?”

Once you’ve identified the business outcomes that matter most — like retention, engagement, safety or change adoption — work backward. Map each comms initiative to the goal it supports and identify the most relevant internal comms metrics.

For example:

• If the company-wide goal is to reduce turnover, focus on sharing internal comms metrics such as engagement scores, eNPS, and participation rates in career development programs. Engagement and eNPS reveal employee connection and loyalty — key indicators of whether they’ll stay. Tracking participation in growth programs shows whether employees see a future with the company. Together, these metrics help identify where communication can strengthen connection, trust and retention.

• If the company’s goal is to boost employee productivity, you could track questions submitted to comms, HR, IT or managers after a message is sent or a training is conducted. If the number of repeat questions decreases over time, that’s an indication that internal comms is improving clarity and comprehension — helping employees find answers the first time. When people spend less time re-asking or re-explaining, they spend more time actually getting work done, boosting productivity.

Whatever metrics your leadership team cares about, it’s important to go beyond reporting your activity and instead demonstrate alignment with strategic business outcomes.

How to demonstrate the value of internal comms to leadership  

1. Communicate the “ripple effect” of internal comms

Unlike marketing, where a paid ad can directly cause a purchase, internal comms impacts the bottom line through a ripple effect. Communication drives engagement, engagement improves retention and retention saves the company money. Internal comms results often lag behind your efforts. Financial performance this quarter may be tied to comms work that started last quarter — so it’s crucial to help leaders connect those dots.

2. Learn generalized datapoints that show the value of internal comms

The more invested employees feel in their work, the more likely they are to stay at an organization. While it can be tricky to show that ripple effect — how strong internal communication leads to increased satisfaction, retention, and ultimately, profit — that’s the real flow of impact. Keep some datapoints handy to help you communicate this connection.

• A study of 651 organizations across various industries found that companies with highly effective internal communications are 3.5 times more likely to outperform their peers.

• An Economist survey found that communication barriers in the workplace can lead to project delays or failures (44%), low morale (31%), missed performance goals (25%) and lost sales (18%) — some of which are worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

• Research shows that sharing critical information breeds trust. “…[employees] are greatly affected by the presence or absence of communications from management.”

3. Focus on communicating outcomes

Executives care less about updates like “We sent five newsletters” and more about what changed because of your efforts. Link every internal comms campaign to a measurable business objective.

Some projects will have concrete outcomes, such as increased participation or more sign-ups. Others will be more abstract — improving trust in leadership or strengthening culture. In all cases, define the current state and desired outcome, determine how to measure progress and report consistently throughout the campaign.

For example, rather than saying, “We sent five newsletters with a 10% open rate,” say, “We promoted all-hands meetings three times more often, participation increased 15% quarter over quarter and that engagement trend has held steady all year.”

4. Highlight trends

Executives think in patterns and trajectories, not isolated datapoints. Show how your internal comms work influences employee behavior or sentiment over time.

Your leaders want to know: Are we improving? Are our people more connected, informed and motivated than last quarter? Trends tell that story better than one-off data points.

To add more weight to your metrics, you can reference industry benchmarks such as PoliteMail’s Internal Email Communications Benchmark Report. This helps leadership see how your performance compares to industry standards.

5. Connect the dots

Internal comms doesn’t deliver instant results. It’s a chain reaction: better communication builds engagement, engagement drives retention and retention protects the bottom line.

For example, IC can help employees feel more motivated at work — a key factor influencing their intent to stay. Gallup finds that 52% of exiting employees say their manager or organization could have done something to prevent them from leaving. This means there’s a major opportunity for communications to play a role in retention.

By motivating and engaging employees while keeping them informed, IC can directly reduce turnover costs — a measurable return on investment that leadership cares about.

Your work is strongest when it clearly connects to what matters most to leadership. Your job is to make that connection explicit.

As an internal comms professional, you’re in a unique position to demonstrate the ROI of your work. Ask leaders which business outcomes are most valuable to them, and map your communications metrics to those goals. Your campaigns shape engagement, culture and retention — all of which contribute to a stronger bottom line.

Now it’s time to tell that story clearly, confidently, and with data.