I remember my former boss on my first day of my first HR Admin job said to me, "As a business, if
you can't measure it, then you don't have it". a It took me quite a long time to fully understand what
she was saying. Now that I have some experience under my belt, I take this as her urging how
important metrics are to a business. If you are measuring how you are doing, then how can goals
be met? Some reasons that organizations would put metrics in place to measure internal
communication would be to see if the message was heard loud and clear. My company currently
does this after every plant meeting. Once a month we have a plant meeting where all 3 shifts meet
and our plant manager goes over our monthly metrics and how the business is doing. After this
meeting, the employees receive an online survey/questionnaire they must fill out, those then get
sent to HR who can see who still had questions and we can then reach out and discuss. What
would the point of these plant meetings be if the communication was not effective? Another way
that organizations would implement metrics would be, maybe in a sales job, there was an internal
message on having better customer service for reps. When customers are done with their
purchase, they would rate how good their rep’s customer service was, this then would be our
metric that we are using as measurement of the communication.
Metrics may differ between external and internal communication. One way would be with sales
revenue or traffic. In manufacturing when there is an external message it usually has an effect that
will need to be measured on whether it is positive or negative. We can look at Bud Light as a prime
example of this, they recently put out an external communication that for their company seems to
have back fired for a lot of their customers. How would they know this? Sales have gone down 17%
and that would be a metric that they are looking at for that external message (Sullivan, 2023). How
this would differ internally is that Bud Light would not use sales as a metric to measure this
communication, they would use surveys, employee satisfaction, and things n that area.
The business environment that the organization operates in is important to know when deciding
what metrics to use for the organization, you need metrics that will give you information that will
help move you forward (Klipfolio, 2023). For example, if a local mom and pop sowing shop has
been opened for 2 years, in a town of 1,000 people, in a rural farming community is measuring how
many followers they have on social media... they may be measuring something that has little to no
worth. Instead, they could be measuring sales inside of their community and sales outside their
community to see where more efforts could be put to increase sales. Use metrics that help you
make better choices.
A company could want to review its internal communication metrics if it feels that the departments
within the company appear to be isolated from one another, which can affect efficiency and hinder
the goals or the products that they are creating. a It would also let the company know how involved
the employees are with the company. Those that communicate more are likely to be more than
those who do not engage as much.
The metrics would be like track how the employee is involved with clients, customers, or partners
but the qualitative data would illustrate a few different things it would show how affective they are
at communicating with those that are not familiar with the product or service the company is
offering and the employees’ ability to sale it to the client.
The business environment determines the metrics that are important. For example, a coffee shop is
not going to be affected by the average time on page metric but and SaaS company might be more
interested as is might mean that they can use their website to communicate faster with clients and
answer any questions they may have.
A business metric is used to document and assess the activity or performance of a certain business
function (What is a business metric, n.d.). These are important for businesses because they
facilitate the tracking and progress of an organization’s long and short-term goals (What is a
business metric, n.d.)
A major consideration that could drive an organization to put metrics in place to measure
effectiveness of internal communication is employee satisfaction and engagement. Then measuring
communication will provide justification or not for an organization to act and if communication is
currently being used effectively (Measuring Communication Effectiveness Across Diverse
Backgrounds and Missions, 2016). Employee feedback surveys are a good way to capture data.
These surveys can help analyze if employees connect their specific job to the organization’s mission
and vision and the results can also shed light on if the organization’s current communication
strategy foster’s an environment of communication or not (Measuring Communication Effectiveness
Across Diverse Backgrounds and Missions, 2016).
Metrics can be used for both internal and external communication to figure out if said internal or
external communication is being used properly or if changes need to be made (Measuring
Communication Effectiveness Across Diverse Backgrounds and Missions, 2016). A major goal of
external communication metrics can be different than internal, and that it is often utilized to
understand stakeholder satisfaction and prioritize their needs (Measuring Communication
Effectiveness Across Diverse Backgrounds and Missions, 2016). a
Business environments are important to consider when implementing business metrics. Each
industry and specific business is unique and will have their own set of strategies and goals, which
means the metrics they utilize should be strategically chosen to meet the needs of their business
(How to develop business metrics, 2022). Environment is also imperative when choosing
benchmarks, because choosing data and benchmarks from organizations that operate differently or
maybe are a completely different industry may not serve as a reliable benchmark to utilize (How to
develop business metrics, 2022).
Resources
How to develop business metrics that matter for your business, (2022). Indeed.
https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/how-to-develop-metrics-that-matter a
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, (2016). Strategies to Enhance Air Force
Communication with Internal and External Audiences: A Workshop Report. Washington, DC: The
National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/21876.) a
What is a business metric, (n.d.). Klipfolia. https://www.klipfolio.com/resources/articles/what-are-
business-metrics a
Sullivan, B. (2023, April 27). Bud Light sales dip after trans promotion, but such boycotts are often
short-lived. NPR. https://www.npr.org/2023/04/27/1172299478/bud-light-sales-fall-trans-influencer-
boycott
Klipfolio. (2023). What is a business metric? https://www.klipfolio.com/resources/articles/what-
are-business-metrics
