Fighting to be heard

Is internal communication the neglected stepchild in the world of measurement? That’s the question posed by the latest survey from Ragan Communications and PoliteMail, which finds that most communicators believe that internal communications doesn’t get much respect from the higher-ups. Although most of the communicators surveyed (68 per cent) currently measure their internal communications programmes, 64 per cent of those who measure say that internal communications does not receive the same attention or budget that external programmes (marketing/public relations, sales) receive. Communicators display considerable dissatisfaction with the way their organisations measure internal communications: 47 per cent said they were unsatisfied with how it’s measured, and nine per cent said they were very unsatisfied.

Communicators in Europe and the Middle East were more likely to say they were satisfied with their internal communications measurement: 29 per cent said they were satisfied or very satisfied, compared to 12 percent in the Americas and 11 per cent of communicators in Asia Pacific. This dissatisfaction, the report suggests, is linked to data: 59 per cent of the dissatisfied communicators blame the fact that not enough useful data is collected, while 47 per cent are unhappy with only being able to measure outputs, not outcomes. 32 per cent blame the tools available to them, and 30 per cent say that nothing is done with the collected data. Oh dear. Despite this, most communicators plan to increase their measurement efforts in the next year or three - which suggests that despite current high levels of dissatisfaction, communication professionals are determined to bring an end to the neglect and welcome internal communication measurement into the fold

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