National Grid’s communications team rebuilt its measurement approach from the ground up — moving from channel reach to business outcomes, and saving 45 hours a year in the process. Here is the dashboard they built, the data sources behind it, and what to borrow for your own.
Key takeaways
- Start with the outcomes you are trying to move, then work backwards to the metrics that prove progress.
- A quarterly dashboard gave National Grid’s comms team a standing seat in leadership decision-making.
- Give leaders a stripped-back strategic view; keep the operational detail in a separate pack for communicators.
- Pull data from outside your own channels — engagement surveys, pulse surveys, Glassdoor, event attendance.
- Automating the reporting saved the team 45 hours a year that used to go on manual data gathering.
Why analytics matters in internal communications
Most internal communicators know how many messages they sent last quarter. Ask whether those messages changed anything, and the answers get a lot vaguer.
Measurement helps with that. Open rates and click-throughs are a starting point, but good analytics go further. They show you which messages people read and which they skip, which channels they trust, and when they're paying attention. With that information, you can write for the audience you actually have instead of the one you imagine.
It also changes how the rest of the business sees your work. When you can show that a campaign reached the right people and prompted them to act, internal communications stops looking like a stream of announcements and starts looking like a function that helps the company hit its goals.
In our recent webinar, From Metrics to Mastery: How National Grid Transformed Communications with Measurement, Sally Jackson, Senior Manager, Content and Channels, Colleague Communications at National Grid, talked with Andrew Hubbard, Vice President, Culture and Talent Development at Poppulo, about how National Grid put measurement at the center of its communications program. Here's what we learned.
What comms looked like before measurement
National Grid is one of the world’s largest publicly listed utility organizations, with over 30,000 employees across the UK and the US. When Sally joined in 2019, National Grid was undergoing a communications transformation to optimize its channel mix and its approach to reaching employees. She was brought in to establish a planning tool and a comms measurement strategy across the team.
Despite a strong culture of change and an appetite to improve comms, the existing measurement approach was focused on direct outputs — and many channels weren’t being measured at all. There was a clear need to reset. The team identified the key areas where they wanted to make an impact: the reach and effectiveness of their channels, and trust in leaders and leadership communications.
How National Grid implemented advanced analytics
“We started by strategically looking at the key areas where we were trying to make an impact, then determined what metrics we needed to demonstrate how we were going to make progress against those goals.” Sally Jackson - Senior Manager, Content and Channels, Colleague Communications, National Grid
Building the analytics dashboard
Sally and her team started by building a dashboard, which they shared with stakeholders every quarter to inform decisions. It tracked progress against the team's goals and showed the effect their work was having on key business outcomes. It also tracked more direct results, such as shifts in how employees preferred to get information and how well they understood the company's strategy.
The team used what they learned to adjust their approach over time. That track record convinced senior leaders that comms deserved a voice in business decisions and that measurement and reporting were worth their attention.
One of the first campaigns shaped by the new analytics approach focused on company values and employee recognition. Employees were encouraged to nominate colleagues for their achievements through a peer-to-peer program and to recognize each other on internal social media. Because the team was now measuring properly, they could see how many people took part and how actively, and show that participation went hand in hand with higher employee engagement and a better understanding of the company's values.
In the campaign's second year, peers recognized more than 1,000 teams and individuals. Engagement scores rose again, and favorable responses to values-related questions in the engagement survey went up 2%.
The team began with the outcomes that mattered most: how well employees understood the business strategy and where the company was heading. They also tracked how channel usage changed over the year and which audiences were most and least engaged.
Having all of this on one dashboard let the team link their work to its effect on employees and spot where they needed to improve. For example, the data showed that field employees in the US were using digital channels less, which confirmed what the team had been hearing informally. That gave them a choice: get more of that audience using the existing channels, or introduce new ones better suited to deskless workers.
Layer in employee feedback
Listening to employees is part of good measurement too. When the team rolled out new channels for field workers, they asked employees which information and channels they found most useful. They also ran surveys to collect NPS scores and find out where engagement was falling short.
Every so often, the team sent comms pulse surveys to a wider group of colleagues. The answers helped them tie their day-to-day work to the results the business cared about. By comparing specific campaigns against measurable business outcomes, they could show where comms made a difference and use that evidence to sharpen their strategy over time.
Look outside your own channels
The comms team also got creative about finding data. One of their most useful sources was Glassdoor, where employees post honest, anonymous reviews. Those reviews told the team how much people trusted leadership and whether they would recommend National Grid as an employer.
Track the impact on culture
The dashboard also tracked how the company's transformation was changing its culture. The team started by defining the behaviors and themes the business wanted to become part of everyday working life. Then they used analytics to see which comms activities were helping.
By combining the results of culture surveys and colleague engagement surveys, they could see which parts of the business were changing and check how employees felt about the culture as it stood.
Keep a separate operational view
Beyond tracking outcomes and business impact, the team needed to know how each channel was performing. That meant seeing how emails were doing and which newsletter stories people actually read, along with which groups engaged most with different messages and channels.
To make that easy to follow, Sally's team now puts together a quarterly reporting pack. The comms department and comms business partners use it to see what worked well for each channel and type of content.
Set internal and external benchmarks
“When we think of measurement and analytics, we’re really thinking about stakeholder management. We’re looking at internal and external benchmarks and then telling stakeholders that in order for us to get any kind of success, this is the rule book we have to follow.” Andrew Hubbard - Vice President, Culture and Talent Development, Poppulo
With help from their Poppulo customer success manager, the team set external benchmarks based on industry and company size. They then used those figures to set their own internal benchmarks and spot trends across the organization.
Every quarter, the team updates the reporting pack to guide what they do next. For example, they found that the average reader got through fewer than three news articles a week. So they cut back on the volume of news and folded the most important information into fewer articles.
They now send a weekly global newsletter that's targeted to different parts of the business and tailored to each employee's location. As they've adjusted it to reflect new benchmarks and engagement trends, click rates have gone up significantly.
The seven data sources to build into your comms dashboard
- Colleague engagement surveys
- Organizational pulse surveys
- Polls from social channels and newsletters
- Communication audit results
- Channel usage data (open rates and click rates)
- Glassdoor reviews and ratings
- Attendance rates from town halls and company events
By building a comms dashboard with improved analytics tools, including Poppulo Advanced Analytics, the team no longer needed to waste time manually looking through data and collating it into views that were easy for leaders to understand.
By implementing Poppulo Advanced Analytics, the comms team at National Grid saved over 45 hours per year in data gathering.
Discover how National Grid used Poppulo Advanced Analytics to save over 45 hours per year on data gathering.
Analytics and stakeholder management
Operational metrics mattered to Sally and her team, but they knew senior stakeholders didn't need all of them. Executives wanted only the parts that affected their decisions.
So, the team added an executive summary to the dashboard. It gives a short overview of the team's work along with recommendations drawn from the data.
When leaders see only the numbers and evidence they care about, they're more likely to believe comms is worth investing in and to find budget for new projects.
70% of strategic communicators are using measurement to provide return on investment data for communications — up 18% from the previous year. Source: Gallagher, State of the Sector 2024
How to get started with measurement
Here are the key tips to remember when getting started with measurement:-
- Set aside time to build an analytics strategy. It will save you time later.
- Decide what you're trying to achieve, then pick the metrics that will show whether you're getting there.
- Keep adjusting your strategy as the business and the way people work change.
- Don't overload the dashboard you give leaders. Build a strategic dashboard that shows them the main results, and a separate operational one that tracks the data communicators need.
- Try generative AI to speed up writing and reporting.
Frequently asked questions
What should internal comms teams measure?
Start with the outcomes the business is trying to move — employee understanding of strategy, trust in leadership, engagement — and work backwards to the metrics that demonstrate progress against them. National Grid identified reach and effectiveness of channels, and trust in leaders, as its two impact areas before choosing a single metric.
What’s the difference between comms outputs and outcomes?
Outputs are what your channels did: emails sent, open rates, click rates, town hall attendance. Outcomes are what changed as a result: whether employees understand the strategy, whether behavior shifted, whether engagement scores moved. Most teams start by reporting outputs; the shift to outcomes is what earns comms a seat at the leadership table.
How often should you report comms analytics to leadership?
National Grid shares a strategic dashboard with stakeholders once a quarter, and refines a separate operational reporting pack on the same cadence for communicators and comms business partners.
What data sources belong in an internal comms dashboard?
Colleague engagement surveys, organizational pulse surveys, polls from social channels and newsletters, communication audit results, channel usage data such as open and click rates, Glassdoor reviews and ratings, and attendance rates from town halls and company events.
How do you prove the ROI of internal communications?
Correlate specific campaigns with measurable business outcomes. National Grid’s values and recognition campaign drew over 1,000 peer nominations in its second year and a 2% increase in favorable scores on values-related questions in the engagement survey — evidence the comms team could take directly to leadership.