If 71% of your workforce opens an email about a major policy change, but only 3 in 10 can explain the policy to a colleague, did your communication work?
I’m asking because I think we’ve built measurement systems that make us feel successful when we should feel lost. I was in a conversation with two internal communications professionals this month. One worked at a financial services firm, the other at a manufacturing company. Both had recently invested in “advanced analytics platforms.” Both were frustrated.
Priya who worked in the financial services sector said: “I can now measure literally everything. Email opens, click-through rates, intranet page dwell time, survey completion rates, who watched how much of a video. We have dashboards. My leadership team is thrilled.”
Marcus from the manufacturing industry felt: “Yeah, I have the same thing. I can tell you that 63% of our workforce opened the last all-hands message. But I have no idea if they understood it. I have no idea if it changed how they think about the restructuring.”
Priya: “Last month we had 71% open rates on an email about a policy change. My boss thought it was a massive success. Then we ran a one-on-one listening session with 12 frontline employees. Only three of them could explain the policy correctly.”
Simpplr released their State of Internal Communications Report 2026 showing that 64% of organizations are keeping their internal communications headcount the same, even as communication demands are increasing. So both Priya and Marcus are supposed to do more with the same people. The analytics platforms promised to make them more efficient. But they’re just making them better at measuring the wrong things.
Marcus: “If I’m trying to accomplish trust, or understanding, or behavior change, email open rates tell me nothing useful. I’m just collecting data that makes my boss feel like something’s working when actually I have no idea what’s landing.”
Priya: “We started running small group conversations instead of surveys. I’ll get five people in a room, give them the message I’m trying to land, and just listen. How do they interpret it? What questions do they have? What are they skeptical about? That takes an hour. A survey takes an hour and gives me numbers that don’t mean anything.”
So, here’s where I need your input.
- What measurement would tell you whether communication is working in your organization?
- What will tell you if people understand, believe, and can act on what you’re communicating?
- Are you measuring reach or are you measuring landed?
Because those are completely different things, and I’m not sure most teams know which one they’re actually optimizing for.
If you had to cut your measurement budget in half, what would you keep and what would you drop? That question usually reveals what matters.
