Think about the effort, budget, and expertise that goes into external marketing. Every campaign is optimised. Every click and conversion tracked. Personalisation is no longer a nice-to-have; it’s an expectation.
Employee Communications or Internal comms, by comparison, is still a relatively nascent discipline. Data in IC? It can feel like a blessing and a curse. The insights are there, but many teams don’t have the tools or time to act on them. The result? An overwhelming flow of content requests often pushed out ad hoc, without the test-and-learn mindset that marketing takes for granted.
The irony is that the data already exists— surveys, engagement metrics, platform analytics, pulse checks, and feedback loops. What’s missing is the integrated roadmap to interpret it, prioritise, and turn it into impactful consumer-worthy comms.
When employees feel the difference
What does it really mean to be “data-led” in internal comms? At its heart, it means relevance. Employees can tell the difference between communication that’s been designed with them in mind versus generic updates fired out to tick a box. When data informs comms, employees feel heard — their needs, concerns, and motivations are reflected in what they see, hear, and experience at work. And that matters. When communication feels relevant, it doesn’t just inform behaviour, it changes it.
The alignment problem
Data also plays a powerful role in aligning leadership. One of the biggest challenges organisations face is inconsistency between what leaders say and what employees hear. In fact, our World Changers Survey found that 41% of HR leaders highlight lack of communication between managers and employees as a top barrier to employee experience.
Data helps solve that. When leaders are shown what employees are really thinking, feeling, and doing, it forces clarity. It gives them a collective view of the employee experience and helps them prioritise the actions and behaviours that matter most. With a single source of truth, leaders can rally around a consistent story.
From overload to clarity
Sheer volume of messages is an age-old problem for IC functions. Everyone wants their messages pushed out asap. The result is a tidal wave of content competing for employees’ attention. Rather than clarifying, it overwhelms.
Data provides a way to navigate through noise. When comms are anchored in employee needs and overlaid with organisational priorities, teams can push back on low-value requests and focus on what will make the biggest impact. Instead of more content, you get better content. Instead of chaos, you get clarity.
Turning data into action
One of the most common frustrations for people professionals is knowing how to turn raw data into actionable insight. 20% of World Changer respondents cited difficulty translating employee survey data into action.
That’s where a structured approach makes the difference. At scarlettabbott, we use our culture diagnostic ecosystem to view survey data in context. This ecosystem is the interconnected system of values, behaviours, practices, and relationships within an organisation that shapes its culture.
By looking at data through this lens, we don’t just capture what people are saying — we see how it connects to broader patterns of culture and performance. From there, it becomes easier to identify the priorities that will have the greatest effect on engagement, performance, and retention.
A framework to calm the chaos
Of course, data alone isn’t enough. It tells you what is happening, but not what to do about it. That’s where our storytelling framework comes in — a structured but flexible way to translate data into impact.
It’s a three-step process:
- Diagnose needs
- Gather and interpret employee insights from employee survey platform – we like to use Metric, our proprietary culture diagnostic platform
- Design solutions
- Turn those insights into a Comms Plan with clear editorial pillars that balance employee needs with business priorities and organisation goals. This includes identifying the most effective channels and contexts to ensure messages land.
- Deliver and remeasure
- Activate the plan! Then remeasure to track impact, refine the approach, and keep learning.
A major benefit of a data-led framework is the pressure it takes off IC teams. With a clear, agreed roadmap backed by evidence IC can move from reactive to strategic.
The future: hyper-personalisation?
Just as external marketing has moved towards tailoring every message to the individual, internal comms is heading in the same direction.
In the coming years an employee might expect to receive modular content built around their personal needs, motivations, and context. Segmentation will go far deeper than role or department — it will draw on behavioural and cultural data to create truly personalised experiences. We believe that when the same level of care and relevance employees experience as consumers is mirrored inside the workplace, productivity will thrive.
From Noise to Narrative
The role of internal comms is no longer about broadcasting raw messages and hoping they land. It’s about curating a clear, consistent consumer-worthy narrative anchored in what employees really need.
Data is the key to making that shift. It gives comms teams the confidence to prioritise, the evidence to influence stakeholders, and the clarity to deliver impact.
Of course, data alone isn’t the answer. It must be paired with a structured framework that translates insight into action, reduces noise, and brings leaders together around a shared story.
When that happens, internal comms stops being reactive and starts being strategic. And most importantly, employees can feel it — in the relevance, consistency, and humanity of the stories they hear. At its best, data doesn’t drown us in more content. From noise to narrative, it clears the way for stories that matter.
