Measuring What Matters - Proving the Value of Internal Communications in 2026

Internal communications teams are under pressure to prove real business impact in 2026. Success is increasingly defined not just by engagement metrics but by whether communications actually reach employees, are understood, align people with strategic priorities, and lead to measurable behavioral change. Many teams still rely on easy-to-get engagement data (like open rates and views), creating a credibility gap versus what leaders value most — outcome-based evidence that shows internal comms is driving real organizational results.

Transcript

Why Engagement Isn’t Enough

SPEAKER_01 0:00

We are looking at this uh massive report from ActionHQ. It's called Measuring What Matters.

SPEAKER_00 0:06

Yeah, and before we get into the weeds, I think it's important to talk about the scope here.

SPEAKER_01 0:09

Aaron Powell Right. Because this isn't some casual survey.

SPEAKER_00 0:12

Aaron Powell Not at all. We're talking about data from over 280,000 employees across North America. And the key thing is it skews toward these really complex, dispersed workforces, hybrid, frontline heavy.

SPEAKER_01 0:27

So if you're listening and thinking my company's too messy for this, well, this report is actually looking right at you.

SPEAKER_00 0:32

It's built for the messiness.

SPEAKER_01 0:34

So what's our mission with this deep dive then? What's the one problem we're trying to get to the bottom of?

SPEAKER_00 0:39

We're trying to bridge the credibility gap. Internal comms teams, let's just call them IC, they are working harder than ever, but they're really struggling to prove that their work actually moves the needle on the business. Okay. The conflict is this the industry is still stuck measuring engagement clicks, views, that kind of thing. But leaders, they're demanding impact, actual behavior change.

SPEAKER_01 1:01

Okay. I have to pause on that. Yeah. Because engagement has been the holy grail for what, a decade? If I send an email and 90% of the company opens it, I'm celebrating.

SPEAKER_00 1:10

And you should be. But it's a trap. It's a vanity metric.

SPEAKER_01 1:13

A vanity metric.

SPEAKER_00 1:14

Because it's visible, it's easy to track. You get a nice dashboard with green arrows pointing up. It feels good. But leaders, especially CFOs, they're getting smarter. They know that an open doesn't mean someone read it or understood it or cared.

SPEAKER_01 1:30

Like clicking like on an article you haven't actually read just to look smart. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_00 1:34

Precisely. You're signaling participation, not comprehension. And the report nails this. It says engagement is a starting point, not a destination. It just doesn't translate to application.

SPEAKER_01 1:44

Aaron Powell That is such a critical distinction. An output question versus an outcome question.

SPEAKER_00 1:48

Aaron Powell Exactly.

Defining Success Beyond Clicks

SPEAKER_01 1:49

So if we're moving past clicks, where are we going? The report lays out four more mature definitions of success: reach, understanding, alignment, and behavioral change.

SPEAKER_00 2:00

Right.

SPEAKER_01 2:01

Let's zoom in on understanding and alignment. Yeah. Those feel harder to pin down.

SPEAKER_00 2:04

Aaron Powell They are. And this is where the real shift happens. Understanding isn't about volume anymore. It's not how many words you send. It's can an employee explain the key message back to you?

SPEAKER_01 2:14

Aaron Powell In their own words.

SPEAKER_00 2:15

In their own words. That's a high bar.

SPEAKER_01 2:16

Aaron Powell It requires testing, not just tracking.

SPEAKER_00 2:19

It does. And then alignment takes it even further. This is about an employee connecting their daily job, whether they're writing code or driving a truck to the big picture company vision.

SPEAKER_01 2:29

Aaron Powell So IC stops being just a distribution function like a post office.

SPEAKER_00 2:33

Aaron Powell Yes, a glorified post office. And it becomes the fulsion that creates cohesion that makes sure everyone is rowing in the same direction. In 2026, if you aren't aligned, you're drifting, and drifting is expensive.

SPEAKER_01 2:45

Aaron Powell But and there's always a but this is all happening in what the report calls the operating environment of 2026. And reading through it, it just sounds exhausting.

SPEAKER_00 2:56

It's challenging. The report basically says we are in a permanent state of attention scarcity. This isn't a phase. This is just the new normal, an attention recession.

SPEAKER_01 3:04

Aaron Powell The whole noise versus signal problem. But why is it so much worse now?

SPEAKER_00 3:08

It's the sheer volume and variety of the noise. You're not just competing with other work emails. You're fighting against Slack, Teams, news alerts, social media, just total tool fatigue.

SPEAKER_01 3:19

So employees are already mentally drained before they even see your message.

SPEAKER_00 3:23

Their cognitive batteries are in the red. They are actively looking for reasons to ignore you.

SPEAKER_01 3:27

That's a terrifying thought. And right on cue, enter AI. You'd think that would be the magic bullet.

Attention Scarcity And AI Trust

SPEAKER_00 3:33

You would think. But it's a real double-edged sword. Yes, the benefit is speed, efficiency. You can version a newsletter for five different teams in seconds. But the risk, and the report is very clear on this, is a massive erosion of trust.

SPEAKER_01 3:50

Because it feels generic. People know a bot wrote it.

SPEAKER_00 3:53

Employees are smart. They can smell a mass-produced generic email from a mile away. If leadership is using a bot to talk about something like culture, it feels performative. It feels like they didn't care enough to write it themselves.

SPEAKER_01 4:05

Become soulless.

SPEAKER_00 4:06

Completely. And the report's nuance is that AI cannot and should not replace the human dimension. Judgment, context, ethics, figuring out what really matters to people. That still takes a human.

SPEAKER_01 4:17

So AI is a drafting tool, not a strategy tool.

SPEAKER_00 4:20

Perfect way to put it. And all this is happening while resources are tight, expectations are going up, more channels, more impact, but budgets and headcount, not so much.

SPEAKER_01 4:28

Right. Do more with less.

SPEAKER_00 4:29

The mantra of our time.

SPEAKER_01 4:31

Okay, let's talk about the absolute foundation of all this. The report has this line: there is no communication without reach. Which seems so obvious. It does, but you'd be shocked. Why is this still such a big deal? Why are we struggling to just reach people in 2026?

SPEAKER_00 4:48

Because the workplace is so fragmented now. The report shows this huge equity gap with frontline and deskless workers. We're talking about people in manufacturing, logistics, healthcare. Exactly. Or they have device restrictions on the factory floor. Or they just don't have a digital identity in the system. They clock in and they clock out. They aren't logging into an intranet.

SPEAKER_01 5:12

That seems like a massive blind spot.

The Reach Gap For Frontline Teams

SPEAKER_00 5:14

It's an inclusion issue. That's how the report frames it. If you can't reach them, you're denying them context. You're basically creating a two-tier workforce. The informed class at their desks and the uninformed class on the front line.

SPEAKER_01 5:26

And that just breeds resentment.

SPEAKER_00 5:27

It does. One size fits all is dead, buried. You have to be intentional. You have to go where they are. Break room screens, manager huddles, mobile apps, you can't expect them to come to you.

SPEAKER_01 5:38

Which brings us to another huge topic in the report. Repetition. Now, when I hear that word, I just think of spam. Nagging.

SPEAKER_00 5:48

And that's the wrong way to do it, for sure. If you just send the same email five times, you train people to ignore you. But the data shows repetition is critical for retention. We're talking a seven to nine importance rating out of ten.

SPEAKER_01 6:01

Because complex messages just don't land the first time.

SPEAKER_00 6:04

They don't. The brain needs to see information multiple times to really absorb it.

SPEAKER_01 6:08

So what's the right way to do it without being annoying?

SPEAKER_00 6:11

It's all about multi-channel reinforcement. The core message, the what and the why, stays the same, but you vary the delivery.

SPEAKER_01 6:17

The same song, just a different remix.

Repetition Without The Spam

SPEAKER_00 6:19

Exactly. Monday, it's a short video. Wednesday, it's a visual on a digital screen. Friday, it's a talking point in a team meeting. And this is the most critical part. You use your managers. It's non-negotiable. A message from the CEO is corporate news. A message from my direct boss is my reality. My boss is the one who can connect that big corporate message to my work right now.

SPEAKER_01 6:43

So the job isn't just talking to employees, it's equipping managers to have those conversations.

SPEAKER_00 6:48

100%. If you aren't building toolkits for your managers, you are bypassing your most influential communication channel. Period.

SPEAKER_01 6:55

Okay. So reach, repetition, managers.

SPEAKER_00 6:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:59

Which leads us to what the report calls the holy grail, behavioral change.

SPEAKER_00 7:03

This is it. This is what the C-suite actually cares about. This is the strongest proof of value, rated eight to ten in importance. Success isn't what people know, it's what people do.

SPEAKER_01 7:12

Knowledge without action is just trivia.

SPEAKER_00 7:14

It is. We're talking about people adopting a new tool, following a new safety rule, changing a habit.

SPEAKER_01 7:19

There's this one quote in the report that I loved. The distinction between ROI and what was it?

SPEAKER_00 7:25

Return on experience. It's brilliant. ROI shows what you delivered. We delivered a training program. Great. Return on experience shows what actually changed for the employee. Did their work get easier? Did accidents go down?

SPEAKER_01 7:35

I love that. Return on experience. Because if nobody changes how they work, the return is zero. It's just a cost.

SPEAKER_00 7:43

And they have a case study that proves this. A company was trying to get employees to adopt a new digital tool.

SPEAKER_01 7:49

Right.

SPEAKER_00 7:50

They didn't just send an email. They did the whole multi-channel manager-led reinforcement campaign. The result, they drove adoption rates from 42% to 93%.

SPEAKER_01 8:01

Let's just sit with that number. 42 to 93%. That is the difference between a failed project and a wild success.

Managers As The Prime Channel

SPEAKER_00 8:06

Aaron Powell That is a number you can take to the CFO. That isn't we sent a nice newsletter. That is our communication strategy drove a business outcome. That justifies your budget.

SPEAKER_01 8:15

And here's the irony, right? This the report points out that while everyone agrees this is the most valuable metric, it's the least tracked one by IC teams. Why?

SPEAKER_00 8:23

It's the measurement gap. It's a structural problem. The data on behavior software adoption, safety incidents, employee retention. That data doesn't usually live with the communications team.

SPEAKER_01 8:33

It's an HR system or operations or IT.

SPEAKER_00 8:35

Exactly. So the comms team doesn't have the keys to the data vault that actually proves their value.

SPEAKER_01 8:40

Aaron Powell So they're being judged on the only data they can access, which is the vanity metrics.

SPEAKER_00 8:45

Aaron Powell And that leads to this KPI's paradox, as the report calls it. Right. Leaders say they want outcomes, but when it comes to performance reviews, the IC team is still being measured on activity, open rates, page views, how many posts they publish.

SPEAKER_01 9:00

Aaron Powell So your boss says prove alignment, but your bonus is tied to getting a 50% open rate.

SPEAKER_00 9:05

It's a total disconnect. And the risk is huge. If IC teams can't speak the language of impact, they'll always be seen as a cost center, and cost centers get cut.

Behaviour Change And ROI vs ROX

SPEAKER_01 9:14

So the way out of this is to build those bridges, to go to the other department heads and connect the dots.

SPEAKER_00 9:19

Aaron Powell That's the whole move toward data impact. It's about partnership. Going to the head of sales and saying, let's work together, I'll run a campaign for your launch, and you share the sales data so we can see what worked.

SPEAKER_01 9:29

Aaron Powell Shifting the conversation from how many people read it to did it work?

SPEAKER_00 9:34

Yes. That's the whole game right there.

SPEAKER_01 9:36

This has been a lot, but it feels like there's a really clear roadmap. What are the big takeaways for someone listening to this feeling that pressure right now?

SPEAKER_00 9:44

I think there are three things you have to get right in 2026. First, reach must be designed. It's an inclusion decision. You have to solve for your deskless workers.

SPEAKER_01 9:54

Can't leave them behind.

SPEAKER_00 9:56

Second, repetition is a discipline. Stop spamming. Start reinforcing your message across different channels. And third, leadership reinforcement is non-negotiable. Your managers are your most important channel.

SPEAKER_01 10:09

And please stop counting clicks as the end goal.

SPEAKER_00 10:12

Please. Engagement is the handshake. It's not the deal. It's just the start of the conversation.

SPEAKER_01 10:17

You know, that brings up a final thought for me. We're in businesses that measure everything by outcome. Sales measures revenue, not calls made. Manufacturing measures yield, not machine uptime.

SPEAKER_00 10:29

Right.

SPEAKER_01 10:30

So if every other part of the organization is measured by its outcome, why is communication still so often measured by its output?

Partnering For Data And Impact

SPEAKER_00 10:37

That's the million dollar question, isn't it? Is it finally time to stop counting clicks and start counting actual conversations?

SPEAKER_01 10:43

If you can answer that, you close the credibility gap. You stop being the newsletter person.

SPEAKER_00 10:48

And you become the strategy person.

SPEAKER_01 10:50

Well, plenty to think about there. If you want to see that full data impact model, definitely check out the source material from ActionHQ. It's a gold mine.

SPEAKER_00 10:58

Absolutely. Well worth the read.

SPEAKER_01 11:00

Thanks for diving in with us today. Until next time, keep asking the hard questions.