THE STATE OF INTERNAL COMMUNICATION · The good news is that 46 percent rate themselves satisfied or extremely satisfied. ... Eighty-nine percent say their most crucial current goal

THE STATE OFINTERNALCOMMUNICATIONRespondents’ satisfaction in their internal comms has been growing since 2016. Engagement, personalization and mobile remain major goals.

THE STATE OF INTERNAL COMMUNICATION | 2

Contents

Executive summary 3

Satisfaction rates 5

Finding the right channel 8

Segmentation 13

Money talks 18

Conclusion 20


Executive summary Ask Shanna Crigger how she feels about internal communication in the Watsonville, California-based company Graniterock, and she rates herself “satisfied.”

The company—which produces aggregate, ready-mix concrete, hot-mix asphalt and other building materials—has reached employees mainly through email and print publications.

Recently, however, Graniterock launched an app to update remote workers laboring on construction sites, driving concrete mixers or working in quarries.

This means that half of Graniterock’s nearly 1,000 employees who work outside the office are “getting the same information in the same format at the same time” as their desk-bound colleagues, she says. “This is real time. They’re not getting it a week later at their house.”

Crigger is one of hundreds of participants in a new survey from Ragan Communications and RMG, “The State of Internal Communications.” The survey offers insights into areas ranging from preferred channels to the use of mobile apps, affording organizations the opportunity to benchmark their communication efforts.

Paired with a survey from 2016, it offers perspective on trends in internal communication.

Asked, “How satisfied are you with the internal communications in your company?” more than a third express some degree of dissatisfaction. That is outweighed, however, by those who feel they are on the right track. Yet anomalies exist even among those who are happy with how things are going.

Large majorities see email overload as a problem, yet email is the most heavily used channel, favored by nearly all organizations. Communicators rely heavily on email but are looking for new channels such as mobile apps and text/SMS. Engagement and personalization remain major goals.

Some wish their executives would take a stronger role in communication. “Senior leadership doesn’t communicate to mid-level staff and plays favorites with those who are communicated to,” one survey respondent writes. “The rest are left in the wind.”

Industry and size The largest percentage of respondents work in health care, pharmaceuticals and biotech, making up 18 percent of the group. Financial services communicators come in next, at 14 percent, followed by education (9 percent) and nonprofit (7 percent).

Senior leadership doesn’t communicate to mid-level staff and plays favorites with those who are communicated to. The rest are left in the wind.”

“


The largest numbers of those who are satisfied with their communication efforts come from health care, pharmaceuticals and biotech (18 percent), followed by financial services (14 percent) and energy and education (tied at 10 percent).

Survey respondents represent a range of U.S. organizations, from local businesses to global manufacturers. The largest group—29 percent—work for organizations with 1,000 to 5,000 employees.

The next largest—22 percent—punch the timeclock at organizations of under 500 employees. Sixty-two percent work for organizations with fewer than 5,000 employees.

Major findings in key areas

Forty-six percent of respondents are very satisfied or satisfied with the internal communication in their company, and only 34 percent are somewhat or very dissatisfied.

Dissatisfaction is 15 percentage points higher in smaller organizations (fewer than 500 employees) than in larger ones.

As in our 2016 survey, the top three challenges that internal communicators face in 2018 are email overload (56 percent), insufficient staff (53 percent) and lack of employee engagement (47 percent).

The top three current goals for internal communicators remain unchanged from two years ago. Some 89 percent feel it is most important to increase engagement. Another 69 percent wish to prioritize messages to reduce information overload. Promoting two-way feedback with employees is a top goal for 57 percent of internal communicators.

Mobile remains high on the list of future goals. More than half (51 percent) seek to improve internal communicators’ ability to push content to mobile devices. Forty-one percent want to launch a new communication channel. Some 35 percent are looking for ways to measure internal communications’ performance.

That said, only 13 percent of respondents use mobile applications or text/SMS messaging, making this one of the least-used channels.

The most frequently used internal channels are email (98 percent), company or team meetings (88 percent) and an intranet (80 percent).

Eighty-three percent of respondents think it is important or extremely important to personalize content to reach groups of employees. Yet only 40 percent can do this.

The most frequently cited concerns are IT support (55 percent), adoption and rollout (48 percent) and cost (48 percent).

Approximately 70 percent of respondents have annual budgets under $100,000; a sizable 34 percent get by on budgets of less than $10,000.

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

46%

15%

56%

89%

51%

13%

98%

83%

55%

70%


Satisfaction ratesFinding the right mix

When you consider the Texas-size communication challenges that Lara Kohl Burhenn faces, it’s no wonder she sees room for improvement.

Burhenn handles communication for Texas A&M AgriLife Extension, an organization based at the College Station university but funded by the state and counties where its employees work.

“I have 270 offices across the state of Texas with employees that I’m trying to communicate with,” says Burhenn, who rates herself dissatisfied with internal communication. “I’m trying to reinforce this sense of belonging and internal branding with employees that are very much focused on their local community and their local office.”

She’s not alone. Thirty-four percent of respondents pronounce themselves dissatisfied or extremely dissatisfied. The good news is that 46 percent rate themselves satisfied or extremely satisfied.

That’s an uptick of 3 percentage points from 2016, when 44 percent felt things were all right with their internal bullhorn. It’s trending in the right direction.

Survey respondent Valerie Kirk, a communicator with the Maryland credit union SECU, expresses dissatisfaction but says the tide is turning as executives embrace the need to communicate.

“Based on things we have been able to initiate over the past month or two months,” Kirk says, “I’m starting to see leadership recognize that there is a value in internal communications, and what it can do for the morale of the organization. We’re slowly making inroads.”

Dissatisfaction runs higher in smaller organizations. Among firms with fewer than 500 employees, 46 percent are displeased with where things stand, compared with a 31 percent combined dissatisfaction rate among bigger organizations.

How satisfied are you with the internal communications in your company?

Extremely satisfied

Satisfied

Neither satisfiednor dissatisfied

Dissatisfied

Extremely dissatisfied

41%

19%

28%

6% 6%


Could it be that money buys happiness? Fifty-five percent of organizations with budgets greater than $10,000 report they are satisfied or extremely satisfied with their budgets, while only 29 percent are satisfied among those with smaller spending accounts.

On the other hand, among the flusher organizations, only 26 percent express dissatisfaction. Among their poorer comrades, more than half—almost 51 percent—are satisfied or extremely satisfied.

Setting goals—current and future

What’s hot in internal communications? It’s clear that a deeper connection with employees is important. Eighty-nine percent say their most crucial current goal is to increase employee engagement—a number that far outpaces any other objective.

By contrast, prioritizing messages to reduce information overload lags behind engagement. Some 68 percent express a desire to accomplish this.

As if to emphasize the importance of engagement, the No. 3 goal among respondents is another aspect of increasing give-and-take with the workforce. Promoting two-way feedback with employees is a top goal for 57 percent of internal communicators.

Larger organizations, at least, are considering ways to get the right message into the right hands at the right moment. The goal of improving internal communications’ ability to send targeted messages—avowed by only 31 percent of respondents in 2016—leaps by 14 points to 45 percent in 2018.

45%

31%

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

45%

50%

2016 2018

Ability to target messages Ability to “push” content to mobile devices

38%

25%

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

45%

50%

2016 2018

CURRENT GOAL


As of this year, however, improving targeted messaging is more an ambition of the bigger brethren (half of those with more than 500 employees report this aim) than their smaller siblings (30 percent of those with fewer than 00 on staff).

This year’s other priorities roughly track across company sizes. For smaller organizations, increasing engagement is a priority for 84 percent of respondents. Tied for second place are prioritization to reduce overload and promoting two-way feedback (each of those choices drawing raised hands from 57 percent of communicators).

Interestingly, the importance of staff engagement rises along with the size of responding organizations. Among the behemoths—companies with workforces greater than 50,000 people—all of them, 100 percent, list employee engagement as their top priority.

If you are looking to follow the lead of the big kids on the playground, this goal clearly is one to adopt.

What lies ahead

Though engagement is high among current goals, it drops to a minuscule 9 percent as a future goal. Presumably, communicators plan to take care of this challenge soon.

At the top of the list of future goals is a way to reach those devices that employees carry in their purses or pockets. More than half (51 percent) want to improve internal communicators’ ability to push content to mobile devices. This marks a 16-point rise from the level reported in 2016.

Forty-one percent wish to launch a new communications channel. Some 35 percent are looking for ways to assess internal communications’ performance through key metrics.

Until its app was launched recently, Graniterock had no way of measuring communications for its construction- and quarry-site employees, who don’t use company email and instead receive the print version of its “Rocktop” newsletter by snail mail.

FUTURE GOALS

Ability to target messages Ability to “push” content to mobile devices

49%

33%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

2016 2018

51%

39%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

2016 2018


“We do hear anecdotally that, ‘Oh, yeah, I love getting ‘Rocktop’ at home,’” she says. “My wife loves it. My children love it. They all read it.’”

The future goals are consistent across organizations of various sizes. Tied for second among smaller organizations was “launching a new channel” and “measuring internal performance through metrics.” Each received 43 percent.

“Pie in the sky, if I could have everything right now, I would absolutely have an email communications mobile application,” Kirk says, adding, “It’s way down the road for us, but it’s a pretty cool feature that I would like to explore.”

Finding the right channelEmail overload and other issues

Wait! Must you really send that email? After all, communicators are swamped, listing email overload as their top challenge, with 56 percent of respondents citing it as a problem. The avalanche of incoming messages outpaces lack of staffing (a problem for 53 percent) and lack of employee engagement (47 percent). Budget restrictions follow, with 41 percent citing it as a problem. Proving the value of internal communication is a challenge for 37 percent of respondents.

Choosing the right channel

Proving the value ofinternal communications

Communicating only the mostrelevant information

Employees acting on importantinformation in a timely manner

Budget restrictions

Having consistent messaging

Timely approval

Launching new initiatives

Lack of employee engagement

Not enough staff

Email overload

Lack of support fromsenior leadership

Other

22% 37%

33%

31%

41%

27% 27% 23%

47%

53%

56%

29%

13%

What are the biggest challenges facing your internal communications department?


The fear of email overload held back communication at SECU, Kirk says. People were inundated, and the company didn’t want to dump frequent distractions into their inboxes.

More recently, Kirk launched an e-newsletter titled “The Week in Review,” summarizing the important news. Instead of multiple individual emails, employees receive just one that outlines, “Here’s what’s coming up next week,” she says. People have begun looking for that important communication, and they are more likely to read a single roundup, Kirk says.

2018 seems to be a year of retrenchment for many. Only 23 percent report they are launching communication initiatives, versus 32 percent in 2016. This year, smaller organizations are more inclined to do so (27 percent) than larger ones (22 percent).

One respondent says she was hired to build internal communication, “which was nonexistent—relied on managers communicating messages top-down.” She adds, “I have many challenges in building a completely new way of thinking that prior to six months ago our leadership team never thought was needed.”

In large organizations, internal communicators seem to be frantically deleting or replying to incoming messages. Email overload is an even greater challenge among respondents overall, with 59 percent calling it a problem. Understaffing hinders the work of 56 percent of respondents. Lack of employee engagement is tied with budget constraints as the third-greatest challenge.

Among organizations of fewer than 500 employees, challenges differ. Lack of employee engagement tops this list, with 59 percent of respondents calling it a problem. That’s followed by email overload (45 percent) and not enough staff (42 percent).

One communicator bemoans last-minute or urgent requests and initiatives. Another cites the “ever-expanding scope for internal comms function; cannot keep to [the] plan, due to constant, urgent executive requests for ‘ad hoc’ support.” Respondents identify an array of challenges. Among them:

“Lack of understanding regarding how to reach remote employees.” “Competing for attentions with other social content (memes, cat videos).” “Communicating to employees without email; communication cascade from managers to employees.” “Communicating to a dispersed workforce. The need to rely on managers to flow down information to team members. Not all

team employees have access to the company intranet or have regular access to email.”

One communicator complains: “In the past four years, the executive director has held three directors’ meetings. We ask for more communication from the top down, but the requests fall on deaf ears.”


A variety of channels Got something to say? Fire off an email, and you’ll be in the majority. Just about every organization—98 percent—uses email as a channel for spreading organizational wisdom. This is true even among those who list email overload as a problem.

An irony emerges—one that we suspect communicators themselves would acknowledge. Nearly everyone (99 percent) who cites email overload as a problem still uses email as a communication channel. They are adding to the volume of inbox messaging, but communicators apparently find it hard to replace those all-staff emails.

If you’re trying to fight the email onslaught, try rounding up your staff for a meeting. Nearly 88 percent report that they use company or team meetings to get the word out, making this the second-most-common channel. Eighty percent use their intranet.

Despite the push for mobile, only about 13 percent use mobile applications. Roughly the same percentage use text or SMS in messaging. This places these two channels at the bottom of those used, below print publications (nearly 33 percent) and internal social platforms (31 percent).

“We don’t have a mobile channel,” lamented a communicator working in defense and aerospace, “and that’s an issue in today’s world of communications.”

There are challenges to having a quiver full of communication arrows. One communicator says messaging is hindered by “information overload, too many channels of communication.”

Among other channels mentioned, one respondent says the “intranet is mobile-friendly.” Many still find other nondigital comms to be of use in various forms: bulletin boards, paper flyers, printed signage and other means of reaching the masses.

Several organizations use cascading information, or, as one describes it, “trickle down through line management.”

Digital signage

Email

Electronic publications

Internal social networking tools

Intranet

“Pushed” content todesktop (i.e., desktop alerts)Video

Social media

Print publications

Text/SMS messaging

Mobile application

Company/team meetings

Other

48%

98%

57%

31%

80%

12%

61%

40%

33%

13% 13%

88%

7%

Which of the following channels does your internal communications department currently use?


Push frequency

It’s one thing to post information on the intranet. It’s another to get employees to check it.

Although people are in the habit of checking a few areas important to them—such as email or their personal Facebook account—they won’t necessarily go to the intranet, as SECU has discovered.

“That was what was missing before,” Kirk says, “that people would put information out there and nobody would know about it because they were not in the habit of going to the intranet.”

Nearly 49 percent of all communicators update or push content through emails weekly, with another 34 percent emailing daily. Less frequently than that, and the numbers dwindle. Only 15 percent limit such emails to monthly or quarterly. That leaves a

After email, the intranet is the big winner in the “people, you gotta read this” sweepstakes. Seventy-nine percent of communicators steer employees electronically toward content on their internal hub. Of those, most post daily (49 percent) or weekly (34 percent), with only 16 percent doing it less often.

Next most popular overall is video, although only 3 percent post to the channel daily. That is more than made up for by the 22 percent who use it weekly and 45 percent monthly. Twenty-three percent find themselves bellowing, “Lights! Camera! Action!” on a quarterly basis.

Digital signage came puffing in at fourth place. Still, 31 percent of those who use digital signage post new content on the screens every day; another 38 percent do so weekly.

For those who do use digital signage, however, it can make a difference. A communicator at a major insurance company with more than 50,000 employees says it is adding digital signs for its call centers, providing live data to its workers.

“That will be a real-time stat that we can deliver to our different call centers,” she says, “so the associates can understand the impact that they’re having. ... It will also, we’re hoping, drive associates to make themselves available and take calls more often.”

The biggest change this year over 2016 comes in the use of “pushed content,” such as desktop alerts. Twenty-five percent employed this tactic two years ago, but that has been roughly halved this year, to 12 percent. Might employers feel pop-up notifications distract people from their work?

The biggest change this year over 2016 comes in the use of “pushed content,” such as desktop alerts. Twenty-five percent employed this tactic two years ago, but that has been roughly halved this year, to 12 percent. Might employers feel pop-up notifications distract people from their work?

One surprise emerges among smaller organizations, those with fewer than 500 employees. Their frequency of mobile content-pushing—including SMS, texts and apps—surpasses that of the big kids. Of those using this approach, 25 percent of smaller organizations send text or SMS messages daily and nearly 13 percent send them weekly, compared with 8 percent daily and 24 percent weekly by their bulkier brethren.

Nearly 49 percent of all communicators push content through emails weekly, with another 34 percent emailing daily.”

“


When it comes to frequency of mobile app communications, the little guys are even more clearly outpacing the galumphing goliaths. Half of the smaller firms that use this form of messaging do so daily, and 33 percent do so weekly. Monthly or quarterly? None of the smaller organizations fessed up to pushing content that infrequently, but—go figure—almost 17 percent use the channel “less than quarterly/never.” (Don’t tell the boss, but it sounds like that big budget allocation for app design didn’t quite work out.)

Compared to the peewee league’s 50 percent daily text and SMS use, the big leaguers’ 39 percent looks a little pathetic. The big companies do elbow out their smaller brethren when it comes to weekly posts, with 39 percent posting daily, compared with 33 percent among smaller organizations.

Pushing content Looking for one-button, multichannel distribution of messaging? Only about 13 percent of internal communicators can push content from a single source to staffers’ desktops, their mobile devices and digital signage. Some 76 percent say they do not have this capability, and 10 percent are unsure.

Yet they recognize they lack an important tool. A total of 65 percent of respondents think it is important or extremely important to be able to push content from a single source.

Internal communications’ ability to push content doesn’t appear to be affected by the number of employees within the organization, the internal communications budget or overall satisfaction. Among organizations of both fewer or greater than 500 employees, there is only a 1 percentage point difference (14 percent of organizations of a more svelte workforce size, versus 13 percent of the bulked-up battalion).

Among those who are satisfied with their communications, 15 percent can push content. For the dissatisfied, the percentage is 11. Money seems to make less of an impact than one might suspect. Among firms with communication budgets of less than $10,000, 11 percent push content. That percentage is 14 among those with fatter wallets.

In two areas, gaps open between the groups: The ability to push content is more important for organizations with more than 500 employees, and for those whose annual budgets exceed $10,000.

13%

76%

10%

Yes

No

Unsure

Can your internal communications department push content from a single source to employees’ desktops, mobile

devices, and digital displays?

22%

43%

29%

6%

<1%

Extremely important

Important

Neither important nor unimportant

Unimportant

Extremely unimportant

How important is it to be able to do so?


SegmentationTargeting by department and location

Targeting content based on department, location and other factors is a new frontier in internal communication. Those who succeed will find a far more receptive audience if, for example, vital sales information gets to sales staff on the road or safety updates ping the relevant phones of company miners or factory workers. Employees are more likely to read messaging that they know will relate to them.

Graniterock can segment within its email system to send messages to work types such as estimators or project managers, Crigger says, but it hasn’t been able to get as specific as she would like. (The new app might change that, she says.)

“We have about 100 concrete drivers that only work in their trucks and never sit at a computer; they don’t have corporate email,” Crigger says. “So how do we get content only for mixer truck drivers? How do we get an email that is only for the guys that are working on a certain project in a certain location? We really don’t have that ability right now.”

A total of 83 percent of respondents think it is important or extremely important to personalize content to effectively reach groups of employees—yet only 40 percent can do so.

Another 52 percent of respondents shove their hands in their pockets and mumble that they cannot personalize. Nine percent can’t answer either way. Interestingly, a larger percentage of smaller organizations of under 500 employees can personalize content (41 percent) than larger ones (39 percent).

40%

52%

9%

Yes

No

Unsure

Does your internal communications department have the ability to

personalize content (i.e., different content based on department,

location, etc.) to effectively reach groups of employees?

36%

47%

14%

3%

<1%

Extremely important

Important

Neither important nor unimportant

Unimportant

Extremely unimportant

How important is it do so?


A dividing line emerges between those who are satisfied with their internal communications and those who are not. Of the happy campers, 50 percent can personalize, twice the figure for those who are unsatisfied (25 percent).

Money also makes a difference among those who have the personalization problem solved. Those spending more than $10,000 are more likely to personalize (43 percent) than those on a tighter budget.

Reasons? Well, it’s not that most are claiming personalization simply isn’t a priority. Not only does such precise targeting rate as important or extremely important among 83 percent of respondents, large majorities under every category say it’s a big deal.

This includes organizations with legions of employees and those who could gather their entire staff in a modest rural meeting house. It is true for those with fat wallets and for those rattling tin cups on the corner for handouts. It includes those pleased as punch with their communications and those grumbling about their bosses’ dinosaur approaches to reaching the masses.

Channeling to the right person

Among those who personalize content, email was the channel most often used. Eighty-three percent of those who personalize do so through email, versus 37 percent on the intranet and 22 percent through electronic publications. For organizations under 500 employees, electronic publications and social media are tied as channels for which content is personalized (26 percent), trailing the whopping 87 percent who crank out differentiated content for email. Only 17 percent personalize for the intranet.

For the beefy battalions—those with more than 500 employees—the percentage of those who personalize email drops to 82. Intranet comes in far higher, with 42 percent personalizing the content, followed by digital signage and electronic publications (20 percent each).

Digital signage

Email



Intranet

“Pushed” content to desktop(i.e., desktop alerts)

Video

Social media

Print publications

Text/SMS messaging

Mobile application

Company/team meetings

Other

None of the above

18%

83%

22% 16%

37%

7%

18%

14%

<1%10%

9%

0% <1%5%

Which of the following channels does your internal communications department generate personalized content for?


Another variation is seen between those who are satisfied with their messaging and those who come home grumbling to spouses every night. Those who are satisfied are more likely to personalize content across various platforms, among them email (85 percent), intranet (43 percent), electronic publications (32 percent), digital signage (25 percent) and even video (23 percent).

Among the unhappy throng, 81 percent generate personalized content for email, but no other category rises out of the teens. Just 18 percent personalize for the intranet, and just 14 percent do so for social media and internal social networking tools.

One respondent notes that her organization produces a newsletter differentiated by geographic location.

Another distinguishes personalized from segmented. “We do not send any personalized messaging,” she states. “We send to segmented groups (i.e. the Dayton office), but not personalized.”

The importance of measurement

A total of 93 percent of respondents say it’s important or extremely important to measure the effectiveness of internal communications across all channels. Only 5 percent rate measurement as neither important nor unimportant, and 2 percent shrug that it isn’t important at all. So nearly everybody’s measuring cross-channel communications, right?

Actually, no. Only 27 percent can do so.

When asked how important it is to measure the effectiveness of internal communications across multiple channels, the insurance company communicator says, “Extremely important.” Yet when asked if her department can do this, she answers, “No.”

She is negotiating with a vendor to subscribe to software that would allow her company to track all emails sent, including the day and time a message was opened, whether associates clicked on the links, how long they stayed on pages and other data. All this will help communicators better reach the workforce, she says.

“That’s all important, because it helps us understand when our audience is most likely to read messages,” she says. “That helps from a strategic perspective, because I do plan out my leadership messages weeks in advance at times.”

27%

62%

11%

0%

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20%

30%

40%

50%

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70%

Yes No Unsure

Does your internal communications department currently have the ability to measure effectiveness across channels?


Naturally, some platforms create greater problems in measurement. How, she wonders, do you measure whether someone walking past a digital sign saw a given message? She says her department is working on improving its ability to measure across all channels.

Others say they would love to have expanded measurement abilities, but budget restrictions and resistance upstairs hold them back.

Among larger organizations, 27 percent can measure communications effectiveness across channels, compared with 23 percent of those with fewer than 500 employees:

Asked how important it is to measure effectiveness across multiple channels, a far greater group of large organizations (54 percent) consider it extremely important than do their smaller-staffed kinfolk (27 percent). Even when those who feel it mildly important are added, bigger organizations are 7 percentage points more likely to consider this a major issue.

Respondents indicating they are satisfied or extremely satisfied with their organization’s internal communications are more likely to have the capability to measure key metrics. Of the satisfied, 35 percent have this capacity; amid the unhappy, 12 percent do.

Interestingly, there is little difference among those reporting varying budgets. Those with budgets under $10,000 are almost as likely as their better-funded colleagues to measure (26 percent versus 27 percent).

48% 45%

4% 2%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

Extremely important

Important Neither important nor unimportant

Unimportant Extremely unimportant

<1%

How important is it to measure the effectiveness of internal communications across channels?


Just what do you measure?

Well, then, if measurement’s so important, which channels are communicators evaluating? Email remains the top channel for those who measure, with 75 percent. Intranet trails, with 64 percent, followed by electronic publications (45 percent), video (41 percent) and social media (30 percent). Internal social media draws a healthy 20 percent, whereas only 10 percent measure text/SMS messaging.

Among smaller organizations (under 500 employees), email and social media take priority, tying at 54 percent. Electronic publications and video follow, each at about 38 percent.

In the big-shouldered firms, however, email (80 percent) reigns as king of the measurement hill, followed by intranet (70 percent) and electronic publications (46 percent).

“Other than a basic open rate, that’s the only measurement that I have,” Burhenn says. “I’m struggling to figure out how do I measure not only open rate, but who’s interested in which topics, and what are the topics that they want to hear about.”

One satisfied communicator adds town halls to the measurement mix.

Some, however, lament the ad hoc nature of their measurement. “We have the ability, but it’s currently not done systematically or strategically,” one survey participant writes.

And one respondent says, “We don’t have an internal comm department.”

What keeps you up at night?

Hey, IT folks. Want to earn the undying gratitude of the comms department? Be there for your people.

Digital signage

Email



Intranet

“Pushed” content to desktop(i.e., desktop alerts)

Video

Social media

Text/SMS messaging

Mobile applicationNone of the above

6%

75%

45%

20% 64%

4%

41%

30%

10%

1% 4%

Which of the following channels does your internal communications department measure?


That is the logical conclusion of survey results regarding the biggest concerns or challenges internal communicators are facing in mobile applications. No. 1 on the list: 55 percent are furrowing their brows over IT. IT support is a top concern across multiple groups of survey respondents. It is the top thorn in the side of communicators at organizations large (56 percent) and small (52 percent), and among those who are satisfied (54 percent) and dissatisfied (58 percent).

Those with bulging bags of budget bullion are, if anything, more irked at IT than their financially strapped fellow communicators are. IT is the top challenge among organizations with budgets greater than $10,000 (57 percent) and with those forced to pinch pennies (52 percent).

Other concerns are multifarious. Adoption and rollouts keep 49 percent awake at night. Costs have 48 percent of respondents muttering. Integration with other company platforms isn’t making everyone happy, with 44 percent listing it as a concern.

Among other challenges, respondents listed these issues:

One confesses to lacking the “knowledge and skills to successfully implement.” Another writes, “If we didn’t have a messy HR platform ... we would already have a tool.” “Persuading employees to pay attention on mobile devices” is a problem for a third. “Staff don’t have time to check email, intranet, etc.,” “Production area communication versus interoffice.”

Money talks

The bottom line

With one exception—the 3 percent elite in the “over $1 million club”—communication budgets are easy to chart: More organizations have smaller budgets than larger ones.

Access to personal phones/devices

Security

IT support

Hourly employees/labor laws

Adoption and roll-out

Productivity loss

Proprietary information/sharing

Cost

Executive support/buy-in

Integration with othercompany platforms

Other

40%

44%

55%

31%

48% 9%

28%

48%

33%

44%

8%

Thinking about mobile applications, what are the biggest concerns or challenges facing your internal communications department?


A third (34 percent) of respondents say their budget is $10,000 or less. Twenty-three percent write out checks in the $10,000 to $50,000 range, and 12 percent budget between $50,000 and $100,000.

The winnowing cadres continue through the $500,000 to $750,000 range, with 2 percent reporting that budget window. A mere 0.4 percent spend in the $750,000 to $1 million range. Both these categories are outnumbered by the lucky 3 percent burning through more than a million bucks a year.

Roughly 70 percent of respondents have annual budgets under $100,000, and a good plurality rank far below that: 34 percent have a piggy bank of $10,000 or less. (Don’t expect them to pick up your lunch on the company dime.)

Go ahead, dream

That said, let’s dream big. If you had unlimited funds, what would your organization spend it on? A yacht for comms department R&R? A retreat on the Cote d’Azur? Or, more practically, an investment in incremental staff?

You guessed it. Of the above options, the largest group of comms professionals (35 percent) would choose the third option. Fewer would invest in new communications channels (19 percent) or buy software to track internal communications metrics (14 percent). Twelve percent would invest in a mobile solution.

“That’s something I have been investigating,” Burhenn says. “In 2018, we’re all on our mobile. Whether it’s a company device or a personal device, we’re all going to be mobile-first.”

Assuming an increase in the budget, which of the following would be the most beneficial to your internal communications department?

Hire incremental staff

Purchase software to help trackinternal communications metrics

Invest in a mobile solution

Invest in social media

Invest in new communicationchannels

Purchase software toautomate communication

Hire a PR firm

Invest in team training

Other

35%

14% 12%

1%

19%

6%

1% 7% 6%


A communicator with a financial services firm of more than 30,000 employees says the communicators “need both staff and technology: dedicated ‘branding’ comms person for CEO, in addition to the global messaging from CEO/leadership, plus technology to reach all employees for surveys.”

Just 7 percent would spend money on team training; an even smaller percentage (6 percent) would buy software to automate communication. Those with fewer than 500 employees are more likely to report smaller budgets of under $10,000 (63 percent), and those with larger workforces are better represented in the $100,000-plus range (35 percent).

Daydreaming how to spend your cut when the corporate slot machine pours out a budget windfall? Communicators go for these options:

Hiring an internal comms firm to help with strategy and auditing Auditing existing internal communications and recommending improvements Hiring staff and investing in new communication channels

One communicator at a smaller firm of fewer than 500 employees recognizes that money can’t buy love. “Our biggest need is persuading employees to engage and share information,” he writes.

ConclusionCommunicators are more satisfied than dissatisfied with their messaging, but many wish for greater support, in terms of money and leaders’ backing. They are savvy enough to recognize the changing field, with new technology improving messaging and even feedback to employees themselves through digital screens.

Most of all, they wish to move beyond email and use the power of that pocket platform, the mobile phone.

Finding better ways to communicate is important—not just for the workforce, but externally in a public agency dependent on state funding—as Texas A&M AgriLife Extension has learned.

“We have nearly 800 brand advocates, and if I can make them proud of the agency that they work for and make them advocates of our message, that’s part of my charge as a communicator,” Burhenn says.

It’s a charge many organizations would embrace. Through one channel or another, build your own team of advocates and spread your message. Measure your success. Adjust. And watch your organization change for the better.

The Go-To Employee App

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THE NEXT GENERATIONOF INTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS

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Brought To You By RMGRMG, a global leader in visual enterprise solutions for more than 35 years, goes beyond traditional communications to help businesses increase productivity, efficiency, and engagement through digital messaging. As internal communications specialists, RMG combines best-in-class software, hardware, business applications, and services, to provide truly turnkey visual solutions.

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THE STATE OF INTERNAL COMMUNICATION · The good news is that 46 percent rate themselves satisfied or extremely satisfied. ... Eighty-nine percent say their most crucial current goal