Measuring internal communications: 7 takeaways from our Measuring What Matters live online event

Measuring internal communications is the challenge every IC, HR, and IT leader is wrestling with. Interact’s recent Measuring What Matters live online event saw guest speaker Cheryl McKinnon, a Principal Analyst at Forrester, tackle it head-on. In a fast-paced, research-filled session, Cheryl unpacked how the best teams prove actual business impact rather than just activity. In this post, Interact Director of Engagement Greg Stortz, who hosted the event, lays out seven takeaways organizations can start leveraging today. For the entire event with Cheryl and Interact, you can watch the full session on demand here.  

These seven takeaways are the live session’s highest-value practices, and they’re a solid starting point for any team serious about measuring internal communications as a function of business outcomes. 

1. Measuring internal communications starts with your use cases 

Cheryl opened the session with a blunt reality check: You can’t measure what you haven’t defined. To figure out what to track, she recommended establishing clear use cases. These are the primary jobs your comms program or intranet is there to do, from keeping people informed to helping them find trusted, relevant answers. Define those jobs long before you settle on any metrics, because they’ll influence how you gauge success. 

Drawing on Forrester’s research, Cheryl pointed to four core intranet use cases: content management (ensuring trusted, approved content people can rely on), digital workplace support (providing an integrated digital experience that effectively supports everyday work), employee communication (getting the right messages to the right people through the right channels), and employee engagement (connecting people to culture and mission, while promoting involvement and satisfaction).  

She also discussed extended use cases, which vary based on how organizations operate and what its specific needs are. These can include running application portals, powering digital signage, operating extranets, reaching the frontline, sharing knowledge, and recognizing great work. 

Each use case comes with its own definition of success. If trusted content is the goal, success looks like fewer mistakes, less reliance on out-of-date policies, and greater relevance. If it’s communication, it’s reach and response. Nail down the use case first, and every measurement decision after it gets easier. 

2. Too many comms teams are stuck in a data desert 

Cheryl also drew the audience’s attention to the “data desert,” the analytics black hole where a lot of comms and intranet teams still operate. Homegrown or legacy systems and manual tactics like email blasts provide barely any usable data, so you can’t see what’s working or how you compare with your peers.  

An old SharePoint site or a repurposed web CMS weren’t designed to provide these metrics, and all-company distribution lists rarely give you reliable data. The result is that many IC pros don’t have a performance baseline to improve from. 

Forrester’s own numbers support Cheryl’s finding. In its Q2 2026 Intranet Platforms Forrester Wave Customer Reference Interview Survey, program leaders rated their internal communications tools the highest of all capabilities for satisfaction (4.73 out of 5) but scored reporting and dashboards the lowest (3.76 out of 5). Teams love how these platforms help them communicate, but measurement is still a weak spot. 

Cheryl offered some practical advice for those planning on modernizing or upgrading their tools: collect whatever baseline data you can now, even if it’s rough numbers. This will help you demonstrate progress later. 

3. Build your measurement up in stages, from reach to outcomes 

Cheryl introduced the importance of a measurement maturity curve, drawn from Forrester’s report Take Your Intranet And Internal Communications Success Metrics To The Next Level. It sorts internal communications measurement into four stages – reach, engagement, action, and business outcomes – with the goal of ensuring they climb them over time rather than skipping ahead. You prove you’re reaching people, then that they’re engaging, then that comms is driving action, and finally that those actions moves the business. 

It was the clearest framework Cheryl offered for how to measure internal communications as your program matures. Here’s how the four stages compare: 

Stage	What to measure	Example metrics
Reach	Are you reaching employees?	Sign-ups, mobile app downloads, active users (daily, weekly, or monthly), email opens, content views
Engagement	Are they doing anything with it?	Comments, reactions, shares, dwell time, drop-off rates, sentiment analysis
Action	Is comms driving action?	Calls-to-action taken, journey progress, time to finish a prompted task
Business outcomes	Does it move the business?	Retention, faster onboarding, safety compliance, time saved

Each stage builds on the one before it, with Cheryl framing the earlier ones as stepping stones rather than destinations. “You have to start somewhere,” she said, “but the real value shows up when engagement turns into action, and action into outcomes the business cares about.”  

She offered a reassuring caveat: this isn’t a race to the top. Start where you are, get your hands into the data, and improve one stage at a time. 

4. Measuring internal communications means going beyond click rates 

If there was a headline recommendation from the live event, it was to stop leaning on click rates alone. A click tells you something was seen, but not that it worked. What organizations need to know is whether the communication moved someone to act. 

Borrow the concept of a call to action (CTA) from marketing and point it at your own people: did the message or initiative actually get them to do the thing it asked?  

Cheryl gave a concrete example. If your onboarding comms get a new sales rep up to speed 90 days sooner, that brings their revenue forward by nearly a full quarter, which is exactly the type of number that resonates with stakeholders. So, to get a better idea of how you’re doing, measure factors like task completion, responses to calls to action, and the time it takes to finish a task a communication prompted. 

5. AI is constantly changing what you can measure 

The entire session highlighted AI and its effect on measurement. AI is changing how employees find information, which in turn changes what you can and should measure. Cheryl framed it as an inflection point in how we engage with information, on par with earlier shifts to search and mobile. People increasingly ask semantic-based questions instead of typing searches or clicking links. As AI serves answers directly, click-based metrics mean less and new, developing signals matter more. 

To illustrate this change in employee behaviour, Cheryl shared data from Forrester’s Digital Workplace and Employee Technology Survey (2026). The survey found that 78% of information workers now use AI for work at least twice a day, most often to do research (52%), summarize or review (49%), and find answers (47%). In other words, people are leaning on AI to consume information rather than just create it. 

For measurement, that means an AI assistant increasingly sits between your employee and your content. For example, an employee can get the answer to a question without ever opening a source document, and view and click counts may not reflect that it was used. Instead, comms pros should pay more attention to search success rate. Zero-result searches are key, Cheryl pointed out, because a search that returns nothing points straight at a content gap you can fill with a new policy or how-to. 

Expect AI agents to start helping on the admin side too, from accessibility checks to flagging where your open rates could improve. (And if you’re already putting AI to work in your own comms, our recap of five tips for using AI in internal communications is a useful read.) 

6. The five internal communications metrics that matter most 

The best tip for how to measure internal communications without drowning in dashboards is to keep your list short. Cheryl’s shortlist of internal communications metrics came to just five: active users, search success rate, communications reach, task completion rate, and employee sentiment or trust. Together they cover everything from adoption to business impact: 

1. Percentage of active users. The share of employees using your tools on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. It’s your adoption baseline, and it tells you whether the rest of your numbers are representative of your workforce. 

2. Search success rate. Whether people can find what they’re after. Cheryl was especially interested in the searches that come back empty, since each one hints at a content gap to fill. 

3. Communications reach. How many people your critical messages get to, and whether they open and act on them. Weak reach usually points to a subject line or channel worth testing. 

4. Task completion rate. The proof that a message drove something concrete, from benefits enrollment to compliance training to an onboarding step ticked off. 

5. Employee sentiment and trust. How positive or negative people feel. It’s the clearest link between your communications and business outcomes, helping you build on what’s working and address what isn’t. 

7. Measuring internal communications is a team sport 

Cheryl was clear that the outcomes that matter most don’t belong to comms alone. Many goals worth measuring against sit with other teams, so conversations with departments like IT, sales, and operations are key. Learn what their goals are, then build your communications to help them get there. 

Her practical advice was to ask stakeholders two things: what success looks like for them, and what their top objectives are across 90-day, one-year, and two-year timelines. HR might own a two-year retention goal, sales might want reps productive faster, and operations might need stronger safety compliance. Each one gives comms a concrete outcome to keep in mind. 

Cheryl shared real examples to back it up: a manufacturer that linked consistent shop-floor communication to fewer safety incidents and less downtime, and EX leaders who could attribute a measurable slice of improved retention to their communication platform. 

This kind of joined-up working is still rare. Forrester’s Digital Workplace and Employee Technology Survey (2026) found that just 17% of digital workplaces have a dedicated team responsible for employee experience, so in most organizations no one owns the cross-functional picture by default. This is exactly why comms has to start the conversations. 

One last thing Cheryl cautioned: Don’t lean on numbers alone. Pair the data with employee listening, surveys, and comments to get the story behind them. It’s the same thinking behind the real cost of poor employee experience – the impact becomes measurable once you connect the dots. 

Where to start with measuring internal communications 

The most important thing we can do to accurately measure internal comms is stop tracking activity and start proving impact. That means naming your use cases, climbing out of the data desert, and working up from reach metrics to real business outcomes. 

The Measuring What Matters live online event went even deeper, covering topics like how to steady engagement after layoffs or whose voice should carry a message. And you don’t have to fix it all at once. Start where you are, dig into the data, and improve one stage at a time, alongside the stakeholders whose goals your comms support. 

For the full rundown, watch the Measuring What Matters recording. It’s the best next step for anyone serious about measuring internal communications. 

FAQs about measuring internal communications