Measurement: The new currency for internal communicators

For communicators, measurement is more than analytics and data that show up in a dashboard. It’s the throughline that makes comms pros a key advisor. If internal comms pros can draw connections between how messaging and the numbers behind it influence employee behavior and reinforce trust, they stand a much better chance of earning the ear of leaders.

During Ragan’s Internal Communications Certificate Course, Cat Colella-Graham, adjunct professor at New York University, said that comms pros need to remember that C-suiters aren’t going to buy anecdotes about what’s working — they need to see the metric evidence.

“Measurement helps us connect communication outputs to organizational risk and business impact,” she said. “When you can map KPIs directly to executive priorities, internal comms stops being subjective and starts being strategic.”

She added that communicators need to move beyond what she called “vanity metrics,” which she described as surface-level indicators that show comms activity but don’t explain impact.