An internal communications (internal comms) audit is a structured review of how information moves inside an organisation, how people experience it, and whether it drives the actions leaders need. It examines channels, content, timing, governance, and outcomes against clear business goals. The result is evidence-based recommendations and a prioritised plan to improve reach, relevance, comprehension, and impact.
Why run an internal comms audit?
Do one to reduce noise and increase signal. An audit shows what to stop, start, and continue so employees hear less but understand more. It improves safety, service, change adoption, and cost control because staff know what to do and why. It also strengthens trust when leaders communicate consistently and managers are equipped to cascade messages.
Run an audit when growth, restructuring, a merger, new leadership, or major systems changes demand tight coordination. Repeat it to benchmark performance and prove ROI. A well-run audit replaces guesswork with decisions backed by data, which makes budget, headcount, and tooling requests easier to approve.
What does an internal comms audit include?
Channel inventory: email, intranet, chat, mobile app, digital signage, town halls, podcasts, manager toolkits, social enterprise platforms, portals for frontline teams, and printed materials.
Content review: message clarity, tone, reading age, length, actionability, and accessibility (for example, colour contrast and captioning). Use Web Content Accessibility Guidelines like WCAG 2.2 for standards; see w3.org for criteria.
Audience mapping: segments such as frontline/deskless, managers, engineers, sales, shifts, locations, languages, and contractors. Include time-zone and device access constraints.
Governance: who approves what, when; editorial calendar; authoring roles; legal, brand, and information security requirements. If you publish policy content, align terms with the organisation’s single source of truth.
Measurement and analytics: what you measure today, how accurate it is, and what it misses. Tie metrics to outcomes, not just opens and clicks.
Employee experience and sentiment: needs, barriers, channel preferences, trust in sources, and perceived usefulness.
Capabilities and tools: skills in writing, measurement, facilitation, change communication, and the tech stack’s current and potential features.
When and how often should you audit?
Audit at least annually, or every 18–24 months if your operating model is stable. Run a lighter pulse every quarter to track improvements. For high-change periods, align an audit to key milestones: pre-change baseline, mid-change check, post-change consolidation.
How do you run an internal comms audit? (Step-by-step)
1) Define scope, goals, and success criteria
Decide what decisions the audit must enable. For example, “Reduce total email volume by 30% while increasing task completion from 62% to 80% within six months.” Confirm the business outcomes (safety, revenue enablement, change adoption), the audiences, and the timeline. Write three to five questions the audit will answer, such as “Which channels reliably reach our deskless workforce within 24 hours?”
2) Build the stakeholder map and operating rules
List sponsors (usually HR, Comms, Operations, IT), approvers, data owners, and privacy/compliance contacts. Agree ground rules on anonymity, data retention, and reporting. The UK Information Commissioner’s Office provides useful guidance on handling employee information; see ico.org.uk for details. Establish a steering group to unblock access to tools and data.
3) Create a channel and content inventory
Catalogue every channel and stream it carries: newsletters, alerts, leadership notes, change updates, recognition, policy, and learning. Capture purpose, audience, cadence, owner, governance, and analytics available. Pull a representative sample (for example, the last three months of a weekly newsletter) for quality review. Include shadow channels like team emails or unofficial chat groups that employees actually rely on.
4) Collect quantitative data
Export metrics from email, intranet, app, and collaboration platforms. Focus on:
Reach: unique recipients or visitors in the target segment.
Delivery: bounce or failure rates, especially to personal devices for frontline workers.
Open and click rates: directional only; pair with downstream action metrics.
Read time and completion: whether people spend enough time to absorb key points.
Search logs: most-searched terms on the intranet reveal unmet needs.
Time-to-awareness: how long it takes for a material message to reach 80% of the target audience.
Where possible, connect comms exposure to behaviour through tagged links, QR codes on posters, or intranet tasks. Use privacy-preserving analytics and aggregate reporting to avoid identifying individuals.
5) Gather qualitative insight
Run employee surveys, interviews, and focus groups. Keep surveys short (10–15 questions) and focused on usefulness, clarity, timeliness, and channel preferences. In interviews, ask for stories: “Tell me about a time communication helped you do your job better,” and “When did communication fail you?” Include frontline and night shift voices. Provide sessions in multiple languages where relevant.
6) Assess quality and accessibility
Score sampled content against a rubric:
Purpose and audience defined.
One clear action and deadline.
Plain English and short sentences.
Visual hierarchy: headings, bullets, white space.
Accessibility: alt text, captions, readable contrast, no colour-only signalling.
Mobile-first formatting.
Consistent voice and brand.
For web content design principles, GOV.UK’s guidance is a practical reference (gov.uk/guidance/content-design).
7) Evaluate manager enablement and cascade
Managers are the primary source of truth for many employees. Check whether they receive timely toolkits, FAQs, and slides, and if they have a simple way to surface questions. Measure their confidence and the time they spend translating messages. If the cascade is slow or inconsistent, your “time-to-awareness” will lag.
8) Map message flows and pain points
Visualise how a critical update moves from author to employees. Note handoffs, duplicated steps, and bottlenecks. Look for high-friction points such as legal reviews that add days without adding clarity, or distribution lists that miss contractors.
9) Benchmark and rate maturity
Use a simple five-level model:
Level 1: Ad hoc. No plan. Metrics are opens, if any.
Level 2: Reactive. Channels exist but overlap. Limited targeting.
Level 3: Managed. Editorial calendar, basic segmentation, consistent reporting.
Level 5: Optimised. Continuous testing, business KPIs linked to comms, clear ROI.
Score each domain (strategy, channels, content, governance, measurement, capability) and highlight gaps to reach the next level.
10) Synthesise findings into decisions and a roadmap
Turn evidence into a short list of decisions. For example, “Retire X newsletter; replace with two monthly targeted updates for Operations and Sales,” or “Adopt SMS for urgent field alerts; commit to sub-30-minute distribution.” Build a 90-day plan for quick wins and a 12–18 month roadmap for bigger shifts such as intranet replatforming.
11) Socialise and secure commitment
Share a one-page summary with the executive team and a visual heat map by audience and channel. Show the cost of status quo versus the gains from the proposed changes. Confirm owners, budget, and milestones. Tie commitments to performance goals for leaders and managers.
12) Execute, test, and review
Pilot changes with a small group; A/B test subject lines, formats, and send times. Use pre-registered success criteria to avoid bias. Report early wins and adjust. Build changes into business-as-usual processes and playbooks.
What should you measure in an internal comms audit?
Measure outcomes and leading indicators, not just activity.
Reach and coverage: percentage of the intended audience that reliably receives messages across devices and networks.
Timeliness: time from send to awareness. For operational updates, target <60 minutes; for policy updates, aim for same-day awareness.
Comprehension: short quizzes or confirmation questions post-message; target at least 80% correct on critical items.
Action completion: the behaviour a message intends to drive (e.g., completing a security step). Tie to systems-of-record where possible.
Channel performance: deliverability, latency, mobile rendering success, load speed, and failure points.
Engagement quality: meaningful clicks, dwell time, and scroll depth rather than vanity metrics.
Sentiment and trust: do people consider leadership communications credible and useful?
Manager confidence and cascade effectiveness: managers’ self-reported readiness plus their teams’ recall and action rates.
Noise index: volume of messages per person per week versus their stated tolerance; reduce overload to lift attention.
Search and helpdesk deflection: reductions in repeated questions after clarifying communications indicate improved effectiveness.
If you report to the board, map these to business metrics such as safety incidents, customer NPS, time-to-productivity for new hires, or change adoption milestones.
Sample survey and interview questions
Usefulness: Which recurring messages help you do your job? Which don’t?
Clarity: When messages include an action, is the action obvious? Are deadlines clear?
Timeliness: How often do you receive critical updates too late to act?
Channels: Which channels do you check daily? Which do you ignore?
Devices: Can you access key updates on your primary device (personal phone, kiosk, shared terminal)?
Manager support: Does your manager explain changes clearly? How soon after announcements?
Trust: Which sources do you trust most for operational updates? For strategic updates?
Barriers: What makes it hard to stay informed (shift patterns, connectivity, jargon, language)?
Preferences: Would you trade fewer messages for more targeted ones? What cadence works best for your team?
Tools and methods to support the audit
Email analytics: Measure deliverability, device breakdown, and read time. Tag links to track action completion.
Intranet analytics: Use page views in context with unique visitors, search terms, and task completion funnels.
Mobile app analytics: Monitor active users, push notification opt-in, and conversion from push to action.
Collaboration platforms: Extract message reach in channels, reactions, and comment sentiment. Differentiate noise from signal.
Survey platforms: Ensure anonymity, multilingual options, and branching logic.
User research: Usability testing on priority pages or templates uncovers friction; the Nielsen Norman Group offers useful intranet heuristics at nngroup.com.
Accessibility checks: Automated and manual reviews against WCAG. Provide transcripts and captions for video and audio.
Content management: A style guide and reusable components raise quality and speed; see contentdesign.london for plain English best practice.
Scoring rubric and benchmarks
Create a 100-point rubric for consistent scoring:
Strategy and alignment (20): documented IC strategy tied to business goals; KPIs owned by leadership.
Audience and segmentation (15): defined personas; targeted distribution lists; multi-language support.
Channels and delivery (15): fit-for-purpose channels; mobile-first; reliable urgent alerting.
Content quality (15): clear purpose, action, and accessible formatting.
Manager enablement (10): timely toolkits, FAQs, and cascades with feedback loops.
Measurement and insight (15): outcome-focused metrics; dashboards; experimentation.
Governance and compliance (10): approvals, retention, privacy, and brand consistency.
Use directional benchmarks rather than absolutes because industry and workforce mix vary:
Critical update awareness within 24 hours: >85%.
Policy acknowledgement within 7 days: >90% of targeted audience.
Manager cascade within 72 hours: >80% of teams briefed.
Employee-rated usefulness for weekly updates: 4/5 or higher.
Search success (no further help needed after reading): >70%.
Common pitfalls and how to avoid them
Measuring what’s easy, not what matters: Opens don’t equal understanding or action. Tie messages to behaviours because that’s the outcome leaders need.
Ignoring frontline teams: Deskless workers often lack email or intranet access. Use SMS, printed briefs with QR codes, or mobile apps that work offline.
Over-surveying and under-sharing: Ask only what you’ll use. Share back “You said, we did” within two weeks to maintain trust.
Ambiguous ownership: If no one owns a channel, quality drops. Assign a clear owner and a backup.
Accessibility as an afterthought: Retrofits are slow and costly. Bake accessibility into templates and workflows to decrease risk and increase reach.
One-size-fits-all cadences: Shift workers and global teams need local relevance and timing. Segment by role, shift, and location.
Excessive approvals: Long sign-offs cause delays. Agree service-level targets and empower trained editors to ship routine updates quickly.
Data without consent or compliance: Work with legal and privacy teams upfront. Publish your approach and stick to it.
Governance, privacy, and ethics
Be explicit about what you measure and why. Gain consent for surveys, and explain how you’ll protect anonymity. Avoid monitoring individual reading behaviour unless there’s a clear legal basis and employee understanding; see ico.org.uk for guidance on workplace monitoring in the UK. Keep only the data you need and set retention periods. Ensure translations and formats respect diverse needs. Transparency builds trust, which improves the quality of feedback and the impact of your comms.
How to present findings so leaders act
Start with business impact, not channel trivia. Use a single page that ranks the top five issues, the cost of doing nothing, and the three decisions needed this quarter. Include a heat map by audience showing reach, comprehension, and action completion. Pair problems with fixes, owners, costs, and timeframes. Show one or two pilot case studies with before/after metrics to prove momentum.
Action plan template (90 days and 12 months)
Days 0–30: Stop low-value sends; consolidate overlapping newsletters. Ship a plain-English style guide and new message template. Launch a manager “Monday brief” with talking points and FAQs. Pilot mobile alerts for frontline with opt-in.
Days 31–60: Build a prioritised editorial calendar tied to business goals. Introduce tagged links for action tracking. Train content authors on accessibility and microcopy. Start monthly dashboards with outcome metrics.
Days 61–90: Expand segmentation (role, location, shift). Replace “all-staff” blasts with targeted sends. Roll out a short “message comprehension” check for critical updates. Publish “You said, we did” to close the loop.
Months 4–12: Replatform or enhance intranet search and navigation if needed. Formalise governance with RACI and SLAs. Establish a quarterly experimentation cadence (subject lines, formats, timing). Refresh manager enablement with short videos and just-in-time toolkits. Review and renew the IC strategy annually.
Comms audit vs. engagement survey vs. culture assessment
Internal comms audit: Focuses on information flow, message quality, channels, and outcomes like action completion and time-to-awareness. It asks, “Are we reaching the right people with clear messages that change behaviour?”
Engagement survey: Measures how people feel about work (motivation, pride, intent to stay). It’s an outcome influenced by comms, leadership, and management quality.
Culture assessment: Explores norms and behaviours (“how things get done here”), often through qualitative research. Comms supports culture but doesn’t define it alone.
Use these together: an audit improves clarity and access; better comms can lift engagement and reinforce desired cultural behaviours.
Building the ROI and business case
Quantify both savings and gains.
Time saved: Fewer, clearer messages cut reading time. If 5,000 employees save 5 minutes per day, that’s roughly 416 hours per day—more than 100,000 hours per year. Even at modest blended rates, the value is material.
Faster change adoption: When people understand the “what” and “why,” systems and process changes stick sooner. Measure feature adoption curves and support ticket volumes.
Manager productivity: Toolkits reduce prep time for team briefings. If managers save 30 minutes weekly, multiply by manager headcount to show reclaimed capacity.
Channel consolidation: Retiring overlapping tools or newsletters lowers licensing and production costs.
Present ROI with conservative assumptions. Validate with pilots to strengthen the case for broader investment.
Practical tips to raise quality fast
Lead with outcome. Start every message with “What’s changing” and “What you need to do by when.”
Cut the word count by a third. Shorter messages are read, remembered, and acted on.
Use one CTA per message. Multiple asks split attention and reduce completion.
Ship for mobile first. Most employees, especially frontline, skim on phones.
Pair email with a persistent home (intranet or app) and link to it. Email is the prompt; the destination holds the latest source of truth.
Make it accessible by default. Add alt text, captions, readable fonts, and adequate contrast because it expands reach and reduces risk.
Test and learn. A/B test subject lines and formats. Keep winners, retire losers.
Close the loop. Publish “You said, we did” and show how feedback changed the plan.
Frequently asked questions
How long does an internal comms audit take?
Four to eight weeks for a thorough review in a mid-sized organisation. Complex, multi-country businesses may need 10–12 weeks, especially with translations and multiple unions or works councils.
Who should own the audit?
Internal Communications should lead with HR, Operations, and IT as core partners. Legal, Privacy, and Security advise on compliance. The CEO or COO should sponsor to speed decisions.
Do we need external help?
Bring in a specialist if you lack bandwidth, measurement skills, or stakeholder neutrality. For smaller scopes, an internal team can run it with a clear plan and part-time analyst support.
What about anonymity?
Protect it. Aggregate and threshold report results (e.g., show only groups with 10+ respondents). Explain methods up front to improve participation and candour.
How do we keep momentum after the audit?
Convert recommendations into an OKR or KPI set. Review progress monthly. Keep one public backlog of improvements and mark wins as you deliver them.
90-day quick-win plan and 12–18 month roadmap agreed.
Closing thought
Use an internal comms audit to replace noise with clarity, and activity with impact. Decide what to stop, fix what matters, and measure outcomes that leaders and employees value. Then keep iterating.
