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Exploring the Use of Email for Internal Communications

Presented by

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Executive SummaryEmail’s dead, they say? Nonsense. It is an essential channel, yet there is little measurement to increase effectiveness, a new

survey by Newsweaver and Ragan Communications reveals.

This report digs deep into email measurement, showing that many fail to track—and therefore fully utilize—their most

central channel of reaching employees.

On the upside, the survey shows that adding real email measurement could be an easy win for many organizations,

allowing for improved communications and greater confidence in messaging.

Some 615 respondents took the online survey, “Exploring the use of email for internal communications.” Their numbers

included both internal and external communications professionals and a smattering of IT staffers.

But while email is at the center of much of the top-down and employee-to-employee messaging that goes on, the volume

of messages sent threatens to undermine its effectiveness, the survey reveals.

Nearly 60 percent of internal communicators send out emails at least once a week, with 14 percent clicking the send

button as often as once a day. Eighty percent of respondents see email overload as a problem in their organization, and

nearly as many (77 percent) are looking for ways to reduce the volume.

“We send a daily e-newsletter to all employees,” wrote one respondent from a U.S. university. “I believe it’s overkill and I am

working to reduce it to once a week.”

While email is regarded as central,

measurement falls short of its importance.

While 94 percent say it is important or very

important to measure email, 26 percent

measure open and click-through rates only.

Of those who do measure, Microsoft

Outlook remains the most popular, with 61

percent, although all it provides is a read

receipt or delivery metric. Thirty-six percent

liked intranet analytics, while Web-based

email marketing software drew 28 percent.

The poll drew participants from many lines

of business and governments: international

petroleum firms, provincial agencies,

hospitals, banks, and aviation companies.

Which of the following industries best describes your organization?

20%

10%

11%

10% 4% 11%

15%

6% 7%

7% Health care Education Financial services Energy/gas/utilities Pharma/biotech/medical devices Public sector Professional services Retail Nonprofit IT/Technology

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The greatest number—nearly a fifth of the total—were in health care. About 15 percent came from professional services.

Eleven percent came from the public sector, followed by financial services (11 percent), energy/gas/utilities (10 percent),

education (10 percent), and IT/technology, with 7 percent.

The majority of respondents—71 percent—represented organizations of more than 1,000 employees, while organizations

with fewer than 1,000 employees made up 29 percent of the sampling. After that, the largest single group was those in the

1,000 to 5,000-employee range, with 27 percent of the total. Those with more than 50,000 employees comprised about 9

percent of the organizations responding.

In other words, while large organizations make up a small minority of the answers, their email policies affect a far greater

percentage of employees.

Major Findings in Nine Key Areas Email is a significant form of communications in most organizations. Nearly 60 percent of respondents’ corporate

communications send out email at least once a week. Broken down, 19 percent email staffers once a week, 26 percent two to

three times a week, and 14 percent daily.

Engagement is the primary purpose. Three-quarters of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that “Internal communications is

responsible for making sure employees are engaged.”

Click-through tracking isn’t common. Only 26 percent measure open and click-through rates, despite the fact that 94 percent of all

respondents rank it as important or very important to measure email as a channel.

Email is best for critical messages. A landslide majority of 98 percent of respondents use email for critical, must-read information, and

a close percentage emails time-sensitive information. Email is also the favored tool for getting out a consistent message to everyone.

Most have policies. Three-quarters of respondents have a social media policy for employees, but fewer report having such policies

for email, with 62 percent answering yes. When it comes to enforcing the policies, comms takes the lead in social media, while IT

tends to enforce email issues.

Budgeting is most often controlled by the communications department. When it comes to the communications budget,

corporate communications dominates. Half of respondents say this department is in charge. Marketing follows.

Overload. Eighty percent of respondents see email overload as a problem in their organization. Nearly that many—77 percent—

have tried to reduce the amount of email.

Measuring is crucial. The top channels to measure are intranet/website, ranked by 96 percent of respondents as “very

important” or “important.” Email drew nearly as many votes.

The most popular measurement tool is Outlook. Microsoft Outlook came out on top, with 61 percent, even though it is limited to

read receipts or delivery metrics. Intranet analytics and Web-based email marketing software came in second and third, respectively.

A QUICK NOTE: THE PERCENTAGES IN SOME GRAPHS EXCEED 100 PERCENT BECAUSE WE ROUNDED THE PERCENTAGES UP.

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State of Email Communication

Watch your inbox

Nearly 60 percent of respondents get email at

least once a week. Broken down in detail, 19

percent of respondents say their organization

fires off an email once a week, while 26

percent hit the send button two to three

times a week.

Some 14 percent of communicators provide

their employees daily messages. Another

39 percent of respondents agreed with the

response “it varies.”

But if you land a job with large organizations

worldwide, prepare for a higher volume of

emails. Sixty-two percent of organizations

with more than 100,000 employees send

emails more than twice a week, including the

27 percent that send emails every day.

A U.S. pharmaceuticals company sends out an email at least once a week for its newsletter. Says the survey respondent, “We

try to limit it to no more than two a week if the CEO has an important message that also needs to go out.”

Of those who answered “it varies,” several factors affect communications. One American energy company reported that

fall was busy, while quarter’s end and summertime slow down. A heavy manufacturing company reported, “We never send

corporate emails. We use our intranet.”

“We have four scheduled communications weekly, but also have ad-hoc requests that can come in at any time.”

How often does the communications department send corporate emails?

19%

26%

14%

39%

2% Once a week

2-3 times a week

Daily

It varies

I don’t know

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Reasons for using email

What is your goal in internal communications? What is your overarching approach? Engagement? Information from your leaders?

The survey dug into those questions, and found a variety of answers. Thirty percent strongly agreed with the statement,

“Internal communications is responsible for making sure employees are engaged,” while another 46 percent agreed. Twelve

percent chose “neither agree/disagree.” Eleven percent disagreed, though only 1 percent felt strongly about it.

Got a mandate from the top? Our sampling was split on whether email is the best way to get it out to employees. When

asked, “Top-down, corporate messages are best sent via email,” 40 percent agreed, 7 percent strongly so. Thirty percent

neither agreed nor disagreed.

There was slightly more confidence in the ability to measure the effectiveness of email communication, with 45 percent

agreeing or strongly agreeing that they could do so. Thirty-five percent threw up their hands and said they couldn’t.

You know those internal social networks that are supposed to replace email within five years? Not going to happen in most

organizations, communicators believe.

Some 48 percent disagree—13 percent of them strongly—while only 27 percent of respondents indicate that such networks

are going to muscle out incoming email.

To what extent do you agree with the following statements?

1%

3%

7%

13%

11%

27%

28%

35%

12%

30%

20%

26%

46%

33%

37%

20%

30%

7%

8%

7%

Internal communications is responsible formaking sure employees are engaged.

Top-down, corporate messagesare best sent via email.

We can measure the effectivenessof email communication.

Internal social networks will replace emailin our organization within the next five years.

Strongly disagree Disagree Neither agree/disagree Agree Strongly agree

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Features you have—or would like to have

The survey asked respondents about whether they had a series of features in their email communications. The top three

features respondents wanted but didn’t have were these:

• The ability to measure email engagement over time (73 percent).

• The ability to email only relevant content based on employee preference (61 percent).

• Allowing employees to “like” or comment on content in an email (55 percent).

Among organizations of fewer than 5,000 employees, the most common feature they currently have is not allowing employees

to send company-wide emails (52 percent). For midsized companies, of 10,000 to 20,000, the most common feature was

disallowing company-wide emails (68 percent). At the largest organizations—more than 100,000—the most common was

indicating priority in emails (62 percent).

In all three cases, there was a strong desire for the measurement of email engagement over time. Of the smaller organizations,

73 percent wanted this. Of those in the 10,000 to 20,000 range, 71 percent wanted such measurement. In the largest, the figure

was even higher: 81 percent.

Regarding the vital question of measuring email engagement over time, only 14 percent have this.

Twenty-six percent measure open and click-through rates, with 55 percent envying this crowd. Some 18 percent shrug that

this isn’t applicable.

Of the following, which do you have and which would you like to have at your organization?

7%18% 32% 30% 16%

31% 26% 28%13%

47%55% 40%

14% 42%

55%

26%

61%73%

46%26% 28%

56%42%

13%

48%

12% 14%Em

ail comm

unication is optim

ized on allm

obile devices

We m

easure open-and-click through rates

We personalize em

ails (e.g., by nam

e or job title)

Employees are unable to

send company-w

ide emails

We em

bed rich media

(video and/or HTM

L) in em

ail body copy

Employees can like

and/or comm

ent oncontent in an em

ail

We indicate em

ail priority (“urgent response required” versus “fyi”)

The ability to email only

relevant content based on em

ployee preference

Measure em

ail engagem

ent over time

N/A Want it Have it

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The most common feature that respondents currently have was disallowing employees from sending companywide emails,

drawing 56 percent, with another 14 percent who don’t have this feature but long for it.

Surprisingly, the percentage of those able to send their entire organization an email rises among the largest companies—those

with more than 100,000 employees. Only 42 percent of such organizations disallow companywide emails, while 12 percent

want this function. Another 46 percent find it not applicable.

The result is surprising, given that the survey also showed that inbox overload is a problem. This seems to beg the question:

Unless organizations can measure effectiveness, how will they know if overload is a problem?

One energy company communicator laments that a key executive “simply won’t lock down the companywide distribution

lists, so any employee can email all employees—so that’s a matter of choice (his).”

Communicators are recognizing that the age of the smartphone is upon us. Some 46 percent optimize email

communications for all mobile devices, while another 47 percent want this.

Similarly, 42 percent allow the embedding of rich media, with an equal number pining to plug in video and other such media.

“Workforce includes office and field employees, who are harder to reach (via personal email addresses only or secured server logon), which limits the content and hyperlinks we can include in our emails.”

What’s stopping you?

Given the interest in some of the above

functions, why not apply them right now?

The brunt of the blame—at least if you ask

our communicator-heavy sampling—lies

with the technology.

A majority—60 percent—say their email

system lacks the capability. (Survey

respondents were allowed to choose multiple

answers.) Thirty percent selected the choice

“we don’t know how.” “We don’t have time”

drew another 27 percent.

“Need IT involvement to drive it and do it;

they are way too busy,” writes a

What stops you from applying email functionality to your email campaigns?

60%

30%

27%

20%

Our email systemdoes not have the

functionality/capability

We don’t know how

We don’t have time

Other

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communicator from a U.S. health care organization with thousands of employees. “Would likely fall low on their list of

priorities.”

Answers differ when filtered against our cohort of IT professionals, who make up an admittedly small 2 percent of the

respondents. Half of them selected the answer “we don’t have time,” while 42 percent agreed that the system did not

allow such features. An alarming 42 percent of the tech types chose the answer “we don’t know how.”

Communicators seem to think it’s time for their IT colleagues to step up their game. Or perhaps communicators don’t

need to wait for IT but take the lead themselves, making a business case and working with senior management so it

lands on IT’s list of priorities.

Frequency email is used for tasks

How often do you use email to accomplish the following tasks?

18% 15%4% 2%

22% 32%

4%

24%

49%

46%

26%

43%43%

28%

58%

35% 50%

73%

35%

25%

68%

Em

ployee new

sletters

Drive traffic to the

intranet

Leadership com

munication

Deliver critical,

“must-read”

information

Short em

ployee survey (e.g., 5 questions or few

er)

Feedback about

employee events

Tim

e-sensitive inform

ation

Never Sometimes Always

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Communicators have many channel options these days, but if you urgently want something to be seen, email is the weapon

of choice. Nearly everybody—99 percent of respondents—always or sometimes use email for critical, must-read information.

And in a related answer, 96 percent always or sometimes fire off emails to convey time-sensitive information.

Some 82 percent of respondents at least sometimes push employee newsletters through email, with 58 percent saying that

they always do so. Less frequent is the use of email to drive traffic to the intranet. Thirty-five percent always do so, while 49

percent sometimes do this.

“We have to use email to get eyes on intranet content, given that not all employees have access to intranet and we span many

time zones,” wrote one survey respondent.

“Many of our all-staff communications are sent via a ‘bulletin board’ application that collates the ‘emails’ over the day and sends them out early the next morning in the one email. The morning email includes heading links to different content which allows employees to pick and choose what they want to read (this stops email clutter throughout the day).”

Choose your channel

Trying to build awareness? Want to up your game in collaboration and problem-solving? Trying to drive change or get a response

or action? Or just plain trying to make sure all those rumor-afflicted employees are getting a consistent message?

Sound goals, all. But what’s your best method of achieving them?

When asked to pick the channels that best help build awareness, digital signage surprisingly topped the list (84 percent), followed

by print publications, with 81 percent. (Multiple choices were allowed.)

Collaboration and problem-solving? One-to-one managerial meetings topped the list, with 78 percent. Internal social networking

tools followed, with 73 percent of respondents raising their hand. In this category, digital signage bottomed out at 4 percent.

Yearning to drive change or get a response or action in your organization? Again, sitting down with the manager is the top method

(72 percent), followed by leadership and town hall meetings (58 percent) and email and electronic publications (52 percent).

But if you want to get a consistent message to everyone, email and electronic publications are the tool of choice, earning a

thumbs-up from 78 percent of respondents.

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Pick the channel(s) that best meet these objectives

68%78% 70%

25%

66% 64%

23%54%

14%

52%37%

55%

38%58%

72% 18%

6%

21%37%

73% 7%

40%78%

4%

81%

67% 71%

42%79%

57% 29%

84%

Print publications

Em

ail/electronic publications

Intranet/website

Internal social netw

orking tools

Video

Leadership/town hall

meetings

One-to-one

managerial m

eetings

Digital signage

Getting a consistent message to everyone Driving change/Getting a response/action

Collaboration & problem solving Building awareness

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Policies

Most have social media policies

Three-quarters of respondents have a social

media policy for employees. Twenty-one

percent say they don’t, with another 4 percent

ticking the box indicating they don’t know.

Among the largest of organizations—those

with more than 50,000 employees—the

percentage of those with social media policies

jumps to 90. Only 61 percent of the smallest

organizations reported having policies.

Legal departments and other advocates

of such policies will weep with the U.S.

communicator who writes: “We are crippled

a bit by the legal implications of such a policy;

we haven’t been successful in convincing HR

to take action on creating a policy.”

“We have an established policy and require employees to go through training before they engage in social media on behalf of the company.”

When it comes to enforcing social media

policies, communications, both external and

internal, is in the driver’s seat, with 39 percent

saying communications is the big stick in their

organization. Human resources trails, with 19

percent, and 10 percent fob off the job on PR.

Other answers included the digital media team,

compliance and HR, and “a legal department

in human resources and the marketing

department.” One communicator at a smaller

U.S. company grimly reports, “No one truly

enforces it.”

Do you have a social media policy for employees?

Which department enforces the social media policy?

75%

21%

4%

Yes No I don’t know

5% 10%

39% 19%

5% 5%

4%

14%

Internal communications

PR

Corporate communications(external and internal)

Human resources

Legal

IT/Technology

I don’t know

Other

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Email policiesless common

Having an email policy is a huge part of tackling

the problem of “inbox clutter.” However, in this

area the numbers are smaller than in social

media, with 62 percent answering yes. Twenty-

nine percent said no; 9 percent shrugged “I

don’t know.”

Curiously, in contrast with their social media

policies, only 57 percent of the biggest kids

on the block—those with more than 50,000

employees—say they have such a policy.

That differs little from the smallest

organizations—those with fewer than 1,000

employees—where 58 percent reported having

an email policy.

“We have an ‘acceptable use’ policy that I guarantee nobody knows about or has read. It would include guidelines for appropriate use of email. Aside from that, we restrict access to sending email to large groups of associates.”

Who’s the big stick? Asked which department

enforces the policy, a plurality of respondents

said IT is the email cop, with 26 percent. HR

served in that role in 23 percent of organizations,

with corporate communications following

up (19 percent).

In some organizations, there’s a division of labor. Corporate communications enforces the font, graphic, and signature

standards, one respondent states, while IT enforces the policy regarding all-staff emails.

“We have a department called Compass that oversees all messaging, phone calls, emails, etc. to make sure they meet the policy requirements.”

Do you have an email policy for employees?

62%

29%

9%

Yes

No

I don’t know

Which department enforces the email policy?

7% 3%

19%

23%

6%

26%

7% 9%

Internal communications

PR

Corporate communications(external and internal)

Human resources

Legal

IT/Technology

I don’t know

Other

s

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important messages ‘must’ be sent via email.”

Respondents reported receiving as many as 300 emails a day. At a business with a large number of field and work-from-

home employees, one respondent wrote, “It’s ridiculous!”

“Sometimes people can’t distinguish when to just pick up the phone. I groan when I get looped into a whole long conversation at the very end—it is like a Gordian knot.”

Reducing email

If your employees are overwhelmed with what’s landing in their inboxes, have you tried to reduce the amount of email that is

sent in your organization? Some 77 percent of respondents—almost as many as noted the problem—said, “Yes.”

But the real question is just what has worked. Respondents bothered by the volume of email are dealing with the problem in

a variety of ways. One Canadian university is trying to come up with a way to aggregate information to email in Twitter-style

newsbytes once a week.

A communicator at a California university adds, “We get a huge push-back if we send what our faculty and staff—but

particularly faculty—view as too many emails. They don’t just ignore them, they complain!”

Some have banned organization-wide emails except from a handful of employees. One respondent went even further: “We

don’t send any organizational messages out on email. It is seen as spam.”

“It is nearly impossible to reduce the amount at this point, because email remains an effective and essential comms channel. But we surely have put effort into improving, streamlining, shortening emails and moving deep content and lasting content to other channels, namely intranet.”

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By how much?

Some report that they successfully

reduced email. But try to nail them

down on how much, and most—57

percent—can’t say.

A minority are willing to state a figure.

Twenty-two percent say it’s down by

a quarter. Six percent of email policers

have dropped the email load by half.

And a ferocious 4 percent have slashed

email by more than three-quarters.

“We can only measure the messages sent from communications which is down from several (up to 10) emails a week to one for all employees and one for people leaders.”

What works to reduce email overload?

What was the most effective tactic for reducing email? Our respondents reported a variety of approaches. One organization

discouraged everyone from sending all-staff emails by introducing a bulletin board and policing the issue. Another solicited

news from various departments and included it in a single email. Webinars and meetings helped one U.S. retail company with

more than 5,000 employees to reduce its email flow by a quarter.

Many also recommended directing employees to the intranet as a way to reduce emails.

“We launched a contest that provided employees with helpful tips and strategies to reduce and manage their email.”

By how much did you manage to reduce the amount of email?

About a quarter

By half

More than three-quarters

I don’t know

Other

22%

6%

4% 57%

12%

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Failing to hold back the tide

Those who haven’t tackled the problem

overwhelmingly blame lack of priorities (80

percent). “The VPs are unwilling to make the

problem a priority,” wrote one respondent from

a Canadian university. “Instead, they just have

underlings manage their email accounts.”

Smaller numbers clicked “lack of time” (33 percent),

“lack of resources” (32 percent), and “we don’t

know how” (27 percent).

“I simply do not think that reducing email is the best answer to keeping people informed and engaged. Improving email yes, and that may mean fewer in some cases, and certainly shorter and more targeted, informative and friendly.But not necessarily fewer.”

‘Measurement is an essential’

Which channels are most important to measure? A question about ranking importance highlighted a contradiction.

Email rated a close second in priorities, with a combined total of 94 percent of respondents rating it important or very

important. Yet in an earlier question, only 45 percent of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that they could measure the

effectiveness of email communication.

Intranet/website topped the list, with 96 percent of respondents ranking it as very important or important. (Multiple answers

were allowed.)

Interestingly, of all the channels we asked about, in this area alone not a single survey respondent out of 615 was lukewarm

about measurement: Not one person clicked the options “somewhat important” or “somewhat unimportant” on any of the 11

areas of measurement, ranging from blogs to webcasts. And the enthusiasm was far stronger on the side of measurement.

An internal communicator from a major financial services company stated, “Measurement is an essential part of the

communications process! To say it is anything less than ‘very important’ is to be a poor communicator!”

Electronic publications came in third, with a 91 percent score, followed by leadership and town hall meetings (84 percent).

Print publications are way down at 71 percent, after video (83 percent).

We haven’t reduced the amount of email due to:

33%

32%

27%

80%

Lack of time

Lack of resources

We don’t know how

It’s not a priority

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Only 80 percent of respondents felt that measuring the effectiveness of managers’ one-to-one meetings was important

or very important.

Among organizations of more than 100,000 employees, email topped the list: 100 percent said it is important or very

important to measure. Second place was a tie between intranet/website and leadership/town hall meetings, both receiving a

96 percent show of hands.

For smaller organizations—those with fewer than 1,000 employees—email topped the list, with 93 percent. Intranet/website

closely followed, with 91 percent.

“Email remains our prime method of communicating to all staff, though internal communications has been an afterthought.”

Rank the importance of measuring the following channels

9%4%

14%6%

19%

6%17%

3%

17%4%1%

3%

2%

3%

2%

5%

4%

6%16%

4% 5%3%

8%

10%

11%

7%

17%

13%

27%

44%

39%47%

28%

36% 49%

39%

39%

36%

39%

33%

27%

55%44%

68%

41%34% 28%

45%

25%

41%

17%

Print publications

Email

Electronic publications

Intranet/website

Internal socialnetw

orking tools

Video

Webcasts

Leadership/tow

n hall meetings

Blogs

One-to-one

managerial m

eetings

Digital signage

N/A Very unimportant Unimportant Important Very important

1%1%

1%1%

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Tools for measuring

If you measure, you need tools. Despite

its limitations, Microsoft Outlook topped

the list at 61 percent. Thirty-six percent

liked intranet analytics, while Web-

based email marketing software drew

28 percent.

By contrast, only 5 percent are using on-

premises email marketing software. Twelve

percent have a custom in-house tool.

Respondents who do use a specific

email measure software mentioned

several options, including Newsweaver.

Wrote one respondent, “Our customer

based emails get measured and

tracked, but unfortunately, we’re not

actively measuring any of our internal

communications.” Another said

measurement was limited to “our annual

survey,” in which “we ask employees to rate

the effectiveness of corporate emails.”

Clearly, there is room at many organizations to expand email measurement—and learn from the insights it brings.

“Our customer based emails get measured and tracked, but unfortunately, we’re not actively measuring any of our internal communications.”

Which email measurement tools do you use?

Microsoft Outlook

Email marketing software(Web based)

Email marketing software(On premises)

Intranet analytics

Intranet plug-ins

Custom in-house tool 12%

3%

36%

5%

28%

61%

Phone: