New research from Oak Engage suggests internal communications teams are still struggling to show commercial value, even as the function gains recognition inside organisations. In a survey of 250 HR and internal communications professionals across the UK, 94% said internal comms is respected, but only 30% said they can clearly measure its business impact.
The findings also point to limited visibility into what employees are actually seeing and acting on. Oak Engage said 60% of respondents do not know whether communications are reaching or influencing employees, while 66% reported information overload among staff. More than half, 56%, said poor communication wastes one to two hours per employee each week.
The survey also found that unofficial “shadow channels” remain widespread. Some 86% of respondents said employees use platforms such as WhatsApp outside formal communications systems. Oak Engage said that makes it harder for organisations to manage message consistency, track engagement, and understand where information is being missed or duplicated.
The company argues that internal communications teams need to move beyond standard engagement metrics such as clicks and views and instead connect their work to retention, productivity, time saved, and cost reduction. That would bring measurement closer to the operational outcomes senior leadership teams are more likely to prioritise.
Nick Hollis, Head of Engagement at Burger King UK, said: “Measure how something was before, whether that’s how much time something took, and then what does that mean in money terms or hours, and then re-measure it at the end and see what the difference is. Then you’re able to give a quantifiable answer – we’ve saved 3000 hours because of X, Y, and Z. Go down the route of money and time.”
Guidance published alongside the research makes a similar case. Jennifer Sproul, CEO of the Institute of Internal Communication, urged teams to begin with the problems the organisation is trying to solve, then show where communication can remove friction or improve performance.
Sproul said: “Find out what the business is dealing with and show that your work contributes towards that wider outcome for an organisation. Go and meet your stakeholders and find out what pain points they’re dealing with and what are the big issues that the business needs to solve. Be somebody that really understands the pulse of the organisation day to day. I would also make sure that your business acumen is up. Read about what’s going on, read around those trends and have that credible, insightful knowledge.”
Oak Engage has packaged the research and supporting guidance into The Credibility Gap Toolkit, which is available to download from its website.
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