How to prove your impact — and finally get the IC budget you deserve
Let’s face it: Internal communications (IC) aren’t always easy to quantify.
You know comms are essential. You see them driving engagement, alignment, and performance day in, day out. But proving their value in concrete, CFO-friendly terms? It’s tough.
Nevertheless, in today’s climate of tighter budgets and rising expectations, proving your value is mission-critical. It’s the only way to prevent comms from being overlooked and underfunded.
So whether you’re pitching for an employee app, new digital signage, manager training, listening tools, or an extra pair of hands on the internal comms team, demonstrating ROI can help unlock the IC investment you need.
Want CFO support for your internal communication strategy? Here’s how to prove internal comms ROI to your finance team.
Internal communication is a business driver, not a nice-to-have
We know. We’re preaching to the converted here. But internal communications isn’t just message-sharing and storytelling. It’s a performance-enabling must-have within any organization.
Effective internal communications are linked to:
- Faster change adoption
- Higher employee engagement and retention
- Improved efficiency and productivity
- Fewer safety incidents
- Improved customer service and satisfaction
And bad internal communication? That costs US businesses up to $1.2 trillion every year. It leads to increased stress, lower productivity, strained relationships, missed deadlines, and lost business.
There’s a lot at stake. But not everyone within every organization is on the same page. Just 22% of IC professionals feel their leaders are advocates for internal communication. And — despite deserving a seat at the table — many IC leaders are still left out of strategic conversations.
This can make it tough to get C-suite buy-in — and the investment you need to improve internal communications across your organization.
So how do you convince leadership that internal communication plays a crucial role in achieving company objectives? Let’s take a look.
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Speaking CFO: Translating comms wins into business metrics
You may be nailing your internal communication KPIs. But what do these stats mean to your finance team? As one internal communicator put it in Gallagher’s annual Employee Communications Report survey:
“Amongst the wealth of data we have, we need to choose the information that matters most to leaders. All the other stuff we need to keep for ourselves. Don’t overwhelm people with numbers.”
You need to frame internal comms outcomes in finance-friendly terms to prove your value. So put a figure on it. For example:
You’re achieving a 96% read rate for critical comms. This means you reach 9,600 employees within 24 hours. That’s equivalent to saving X hours and $X in manager cascade time.
Keen for more ideas? Here are some common internal comms metrics along with their CFO translations.
Employee understanding
> Reduced errors > Lower risk and liability costs
With access to clear, consistent information, employees comply with your policies and are less likely to make errors that hurt workplace safety or the customer experience. Want that in dollars? US businesses spend more than $1 billion per week on workplace injuries alone.
Message reach
> Workforce alignment > Reduced risk and rework
When your messages reach the right people at the right time, everyone stays aligned on priorities and processes. This minimizes confusion, reduces compliance risk, and cuts down on costly mistakes or duplicated effort.
Increased shift coverage
> Reduced overtime and agency spend
Operations run smoothly when employees receive clear information on available shifts and their upcoming shift schedules. Your organization functions at full capacity without racking up costs on agency workers or overtime pay.
Speedy message delivery
> Improved productivity > Lower personnel costs
When your team has the internal communication tools and channels they need to quickly and reliably send out messages, they (and your managers) gain extra hours in the workday. That means more time for value-add tasks — and a better employee cost-per-hour ratio.
Higher staff retention rates
> Reduced recruitment and training costs
Effective comms improve employee retention and save your company money. Gallup estimates that replacing a frontline employee costs 40% of their salary. This rises to 80% for employees in technical roles and 200% for leaders and managers.
Improved employee engagement
> Better morale and alignment > Lower absenteeism and attrition costs
IC drives engagement. And engaged employees show up, stay longer, and do better work. They’re also less likely to take time off sick. Companies with high levels of employee engagement experience a 78% decrease in absenteeism and its associated costs.
Behavior change
> Operational compliance > Lower incident and training costs
Effective internal comms drive action. And when communication leads to measurable behavior change (for example, increased policy adherence or fast adoption of new procedures), it directly contributes to fewer accidents, less downtime, and more efficient onboarding.
Employee advocacy score
> Enhanced employer brand > Reduced recruitment marketing costs
When employees speak positively about your brand, it builds trust and attracts talent — without you needing to splash out on big marketing campaigns. A strong employer brand narrative can cut cost-per-hire by up to 50%.
Employee satisfaction
> Improved morale, productivity, and retention
Deliver engaging internal comms and you improve the employee experience. And that makes a big difference to your bottom line. Companies that make the Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For® List deliver stock market returns 3.5 times greater than their peers.
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Proving your IC business case with data
81% of internal communicators say they use data to demonstrate the value of comms. They’re measuring things like reach, understanding, behavior change, and comms satisfaction.
Don’t know where to start with internal comms data? Here are a couple of places to look.
Platform analytics
If you’re already using an internal communication platform, look at your analytics. You can track metrics like platform adoption, content consumption, content engagement, and message response rates. You can also look at which communication channels are most and least effective.
Employee feedback
Use surveys, polls, and listening tools to find out what employees think of your internal communications. Ask how comms impact their productivity, workplace relationships, engagement, and loyalty. And consider making your surveys anonymous to ensure open and honest responses.
Listening tours
A listening tour goes deeper than an employee survey. You can use focus groups, 1-to-1 interviews, and workplace walk-throughs to gather rich, qualitative comms feedback from employees.
Other stakeholders
Talk to HR, ops, IT, and line managers. Maybe your IT team is overwhelmed with intranet support requests. Or your HR team spends hours every day on manual tasks that a self-serve system could handle in seconds. Other stakeholders often have data and stories you can use to build a cross-functional business case.
Why ROI is often even bigger for deskless teams
Frontline employees have been left behind when it comes to internal comms. 63% of desk-based employees rate internal communication as excellent. But just 55% of frontline employees agree.
Deskless teams often lack corporate email, have limited access to a desktop computer, and rely on word-of-mouth or manual communication channels.
But ineffective frontline communication creates huge business risks.
It adds to already high rates of frontline employee churn. It also leads to missed shifts, policy breaches, and safety failures. And it puts the managers tasked with endlessly sharing and clarifying comms at risk of burnout.
Ready for the good news? Fixing IC for frontline teams often delivers faster and more significant returns for your organization.
When comms are mobile, targeted, and trackable, you can transform the frontline experience. Just take a look at Elara Caring, a large home care organization.
A couple of years ago, Elara’s 32,000 carers were disconnected. They had no corporate email or phone numbers. They spent their days caring for clients in their homes, so had limited opportunities to pool their knowledge and connect with co-workers.
To book carers onto shifts, managers had to call their personal phones, one by one. This meant hundreds of unfilled shifts every week and hours of manager time wasted.
Now, thanks to IC investment, Elara Caring has transformed the frontline experience — and the company’s bottom line.
The company uses Blink’s internal communication platform — including instant messaging, shift swap functions, a news feed, and employee surveys — to reach all employees, no matter where they spend their work day.
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Get CFO buy-in: Tips for structuring your business case
Data acts as your foundation. But to seal the deal, you need more than just a spreadsheet full of stats. Here’s how to build a business case that resonates with your CFO.
Follow a formula
When presenting a business case for more employee communications investment, try following this formula:
Problem → Business risk → Solution → Financial impact → Request
This helps you present a focused and logical argument — and hone in on the financial impacts that matter most to your CFO.
Revise and refine
Turned down for IC investment? Don’t be too disheartened. We’ve heard of finance teams who routinely test commitment to a project this way. So go back with stronger data and a clearer story and you may have better luck next time.
Tell the story
Yes, numbers matter — but (as internal communicators know well) so does a compelling story. There are lots of ways to bring your data to life.
Perhaps the investment you’re asking for is equivalent to the cost of a coffee for every employee. Maybe you can share real-world examples or employee quotes. Or paint a picture of how organizational goals will be impacted if you don’t get the financial support you need.
Take digital tools for a test drive
If you’re looking for budget for new internal communications tools, demo them first. That way you can give a first-hand account of your chosen solution’s pros and cons alongside a detailed quote. Also, share platform stats and reviews along with the names of high-profile organizations already using the tool.
Make internal communications impossible to ignore
Internal communication is integral to the health of any business. It impacts employee morale, productivity, retention, customer satisfaction, and business agility — big, bottom line-boosting stuff.
If you aren’t already, it’s time to gather data that proves your value, then present it in terms your CFO can relate to.
Tech tools with built-in analytics are a godsend. But you can also collect data from employee surveys and from other stakeholders within the business.
However you do it, proving the ROI of internal communications will help you secure the backing and the budget you need to take IC at your org to the next level.
Blink. And discover how internal communicators will power the future of work.
