Discover how internal communications are evolving in 2026 as AI, personalization, and clarity replace overload and reignite employee engagement.
Effective internal communication is the backbone of every successful organization. Learn the ins and outs of internal communications with our research-backed white paper.
Access NowIn a world where change is constant and information flows across multiple channels, internal communication is a strategic imperative. It’s how organizations bridge the gap between intention and action, ensuring that every employee understands where the company is going and why. When communication is clear, timely, and two-way, it builds confidence and cohesion across the workforce. However, effective employee engagement has been declining globally.
Gallup’s State of the Workplace 2025 report maintains the primary cause of this is due to a drop in manager engagement. The problem is that manager engagement affects team engagement and productivity. And, as Gallup warns, if this isn’t addressed, business performance (and ultimately GDP growth) will be affected. Stats from Gallup research highlight just how dire the situation is.
In 2024, the global percentage of engaged employees fell from 23% to 21%, and manager engagement from 30% to 27%. This is the most significant decline in any sector of the workforce. At the same time, the total number of employees who aren’t engaged is 62%, while another 17% are actively disengaged.
“If manager engagement continues to decline, it won’t stop with managers, and it won’t stop with engagement. The productivity of the world’s workplace is at risk” Gallup
Grammarly talks about “communication inflation” in its 2025 state of workplace productivity report, The Productivity Shift. They define this as “an excessive increase in messages and interactions that attempt to make up for fragmented and ineffective communication.”
One result is that 60% of professionals struggle to focus on tasks because of the constant flow of notifications. Because of this, they warn that productivity is reaching a breaking point. Many things must change, including a rethink of productivity, the report states. In essence, it needs to shift from “busyness” to meaningful outcomes.
How will we cope in 2026?
It’s all about communication. However, even when there is communication between leadership and employees, it isn’t always effective, as Grammarly’s The 2024 State of Business Communication shows.
“Businesses run on communication. When communication is effective, it creates value and fuels success—but when it’s not, businesses face avoidable costs in the form of lost productivity, declining morale, customer churn, and eroded brand reputation.”
Grammarly
Ultimately, they predict that “Which way each business tips will depend on how well it scales effective communication and harnesses the power of AI.”
Undoubtedly, the evolution of internal communications is complex and challenging, but critically important to organizations to ensure that they thrive in the modern workplace. With all this in mind, our comprehensive guide examines the intricate world of internal communications. Whether you are a seasoned internal communicator or just getting started, it will provide you with a wealth of knowledge, insights, and information about best practices to help you navigate and master the complex field of employee communication that lies ahead.
As we move into 2026, internal communications will continue to evolve from a functional necessity into a strategic enabler of employee experience, culture, and productivity. The next wave of progress will be defined by smarter technology, empathetic leadership, and data-driven personalization. Done well it will help to rebuild engagement in an era of information overload.
Nevertheless, the role of AI and hyper-personalization continue to dominate, as Gallagher’s 2025 State of the Sector Employee Communications Report reveals. In 2024, Tarek Kamil, Founder and CEO of Cerkl, co-hosted a webinar with Preston Lewis, Founder and CEO of Intactic, How AI Makes Internal Communications More Human. Their conversation clearly shows how AI technology saves time, money, and enables us to get on with the work that matters. AI can enable internal communicators to improve their function.
Tarek also highlights how companies like Amazon and Netflix have been personalizing customer experiences for years. And it works extremely well. This, he explains, is exactly what Cerkl Broadcast does. Furthermore, the hyper-personalized experience that Broadcast delivers is becoming increasingly sophisticated, with more insights and analytics, as well as more available channels.
However, there are other developments that are gaining traction, including what The Productivity Shift identifies as “communication inflation.” This refers to an excessive or unnecessary increase in the volume of communication that outpaces its value, diminishing productivity and clarity.”
The results of communication inflation are far-reaching. It stifles growth and productivity, drains more than 13 hours from workers’ weeks, and is closely linked to increased stress and burnout. Grammarly assesses that the total cost of communication inflation for a company with 1,000 employees is $25.7 million. On the other hand, the total savings from “fluent” AI use and effective internal communications is $70.8 million.
Internal communications, often abbreviated as internal comms, is the nexus of corporate communication. It is a process that involves sharing information, ideas, and feedback within an organization. This helps to foster collaboration, engagement, and alignment with company goals.
A good internal communication strategy serves as the backbone for creating and disseminating messages and campaigns on behalf of management, promoting two-way employee communications, and honing the communication abilities of the organization. While traditionally it may have involved company newsletters or meetings, today’s internal communications strategies encompass a broader range of tools and initiatives. Internal communicators now take advantage of project management systems, social media, and instant messaging tools.
When efficiently executed, internal communications plays a vital role by:
Ultimately, it can generate a synergy that aligns everyone with the company’s overall objectives.
Effective internal communication is pivotal in creating a motivated, informed, and engaged workforce. These are benefits that hold even more substance for remote and hybrid workers. And this is a sizable chunk of the modern economy’s employees.
However, many organizations face challenges that result in ineffective internal communications. Common issues include misalignment between leaders and employees, lack of context, incomplete data due to inadequate tracking, and inaccessible insights. These communication breakdowns can have significant financial implications.
For instance, the Grammarly report, developed in collaboration with The Harris Poll, emphasizes that ineffective communication costs U.S. businesses up to $1.2 trillion annually.
Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace 2025 Report reveals that the reduction in employee engagement in the past year costs the world economy US$438 billion in lost productivity. The primary cause was a drop in manager engagement. This is a wakeup call. The reality is that if executive leaders don’t address this breakdown, it’s going to affect team engagement, and productivity.
Addressing all the challenges that negatively impact internal communication is crucial for fostering a cohesive and efficient work environment. Ultimately, they will contribute to the organization’s success.
The reality is that when internal communications are inadequate, employees often feel uncertain, inefficient, and isolated from corporate objectives. That’s why it’s crucial for organizations to establish internal communications strategies that prioritizes trust and employee engagement.
Implementing internal communications initiatives like regular feedback, sharing of information, and open communication avenues can foster greater co-worker trust. They also increase employee engagement, and achieve the organization’s overall business objectives. Ultimately, the importance of staff communication is about facilitating meaningful dialogue.
Internal communications can take many forms, including formal and informal methods, as well as typical top-down and bottom-up channels. Understanding these different types of communication and selecting the most appropriate channels for specific messages ensures that information is effectively shared and understood by employees at all levels. Let’s look at a few less obvious examples.
Turn your internal communications strategy around today
Despite the best efforts of organizations and internal communicators, challenges and obstacles can arise in the pursuit of effective internal communication. By recognizing these, and exploring successful solutions to address them, organizations can continually refine their communication strategies. They can also adapt to changing circumstances, and ensure the ongoing success of their internal communication efforts.
Whether they’re working in the office or remotely, ensuring employees feel heard, informed, and part of the company initiative is vital for success.
Some common internal communication challenges include information overload, lack of clarity in messaging, inconsistent communication, and difficulty in reaching remote or distributed employees.
The reality is that when employees are engaged and interested in reading the communications sent to them, they become more closely aligned with the broader goals of the organization. However, as Gallup has found over and over again, employee engagement in the US continues to drop. Jim Harter, Gallup, chief scientist of Workplace Management and Wellbeing, wrote in April 2025 that global engagement and employee wellbeing fell for the second time since 2009. While individual employee engagement remained at 18%, manager engagement fell from 30% to 27%.
“Gallup research suggests leaders should rethink managerial roles entirely. By redesigning role responsibilities around performance coaching, organizations can improve team performance for the new workplace, not the old one.” Jim Harter
Implementing best practices, such as clear and concise messaging, using appropriate communication channels, and leveraging technology tools, effectively overcomes these challenges. It also creates a more cohesive and engaged workforce.
Learning from companies with successful internal communication strategies can offer valuable insights. Case studies provide real-world examples of how businesses use their internal communication tools. They also provide strategies to improve employee engagement, meet business goals, and foster a positive company culture. These stories can serve as inspiration and best practice guidelines for others.
For example, Paycor’s case study is impressive. This HR software company had all its employees working remotely, from home, soon after COVID-19 hit. It was a challenge they embraced, and the result was that they expanded and transitioned into the first fully virtual-first national technology company. Key to their success was the Cerkl Broadcast platform. This is what enabled them to reorganize their communications strategy using their existing Intranet. Open rates, click-through rates, and employee satisfaction and engagement improved. The rest is history.
When Church & Dwight, a company recognized globally for its household and personal care products, reached out to Cerkl, one of their primary challenges was an inability to effectively engage their workforce. The Church & Dwight case study shows the positive impact of creating a seamless communication experience for employees that enhances engagement. The platform’s advanced features have also enabled the company to make vital data-driven decisions.
Paycor Success Story Video
Developing a successful internal communication strategy is a multifaceted process that involves crafting a plan, establishing goals and objectives, and measuring the effectiveness of communication efforts. Taking a strategic approach to internal communications ensures that information is shared in a timely, consistent, and engaging manner. Ultimately, this leads to more engaged employees and contributes to overall organizational success.
An internal communication audit is a comprehensive assessment of how well your organization engages and communicates with its employees. As a crucial element of your overall internal communications plan, it provides valuable insights that inform and shape your internal communications strategy. The goal of an audit is to optimize internal communications to drive business outcomes. It also involves improving employee experience, and enhancing organizational performance.
Setting clear, realistic goals and objectives is crucial to the success of any internal communication strategy. Adopting the SMART logic is an excellent approach. By being Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound ensures that communication goals are focused, actionable, and aligned with the overall business objectives.
A well-crafted communication plan serves as the foundation for a convincing internal communications strategy.
Creating the plan involves defining the goals, identifying key messages, selecting communication channels, and establishing an approval process. A good communication plan also includes provisions for regular updates, revisions, and feedback systems to track progress. This way you will be able to improve the effectiveness of internal communications.
Evaluating the effectiveness of internal communication efforts is essential for identifying what works. It will show what needs improvement, and how to make informed adjustments to the communication strategy. Tracking key metrics, such as employee engagement, response rates, and feedback, provides valuable insights into the success of communication initiatives. It also supports data-driven decisions to enhance strategies moving forward.
The methodology might involve surveys to gather employee feedback, tracking metrics like open, click-through, and read rates of digital internal communications. You will also be able to track participation in company initiatives, and more.
There are various tools and technologies available in the modern work environment to support and enhance internal communication efforts. These include:
The various options allow organizations to ensure that information is effectively shared and understood by employees at all levels. So, let’s explore some of the most popular and effective internal communication tools used today.
Employee newsletters have metamorphosed from printed documents to an automated, dynamic medium that improves employee engagement and the employee experience. Today, digital employee newsletters offer a range of benefits, including increased accessibility, personalized content, and real-time updates. By leveraging automation and analytics, organizations can tailor their newsletters to specific audience segments, and track engagement. Doing this will enable you to also measure the impact on employee sentiment and behavior.
By adopting a modern employee newsletter strategy, organizations can foster a more informed, engaged, and connected workforce.
Email and messaging systems are widely used in internal communication. They provide a fast and efficient means of sharing information, documents, and files with colleagues. While these tools can be highly effective, they also come with certain limitations and challenges. These include the potential for miscommunication, communication overload, and decreased productivity due to excessive use.
To overcome these challenges it makes sense to consider combining email and instant messaging with video conferencing and collaboration tools. This will optimize communication and ensure that employees receive the information they need in a timely and efficient manner.
Software used to engage employees is designed to help organizations enhance engagement with their personnel through various features, including:
Utilizing these platforms improves internal communications, fosters a stronger sense of connection and belonging among team members. Ultimately, it increases employee satisfaction and productivity.
Turn your internal communications strategy around today
Intranet platforms are a powerful tool for internal communication, providing a centralized, accessible space for employees to access important company information, news, and resources. Using an intranet platform can help improve collaboration, streamline communication, and keep employees informed and engaged. This can make them an essential component of any internal communications strategy.
Some popular intranet platforms include Jive, Microsoft SharePoint, and Workplace. When selecting an intranet platform, consider the full range of factors. These include business goals, strategic vision, hosting options, features and functionality, scalability, data storage, budget, user experience, integration capabilities, and support and training.
Team communication apps are designed to facilitate real-time communication and collaboration. They provide a centralized platform for teams to share information, discuss projects, and work together more efficiently. By using team communication apps, organizations can improve communication, increase productivity, and enhance collaboration. Popular options include Microsoft Teams, Google Workspace (formerly G Suite), Discord, Flock, Slack, and Slack alternatives.
When selecting a team communication app, consider factors like:
By choosing the right team communication app, organizations can improve internal communication, enhance collaboration, and drive business results.
To ensure internal communications are effective, organizations should follow best practices. These include writing effective messages, managing crisis communications internally, and encouraging two-way feedback from employees.
Personalizing and targeting internal communications is crucial to engaging employees and driving business outcomes. By leveraging employee data and analytics, organizations can tailor their messages, content, and channels to specific audience segments. This will increase the relevance and impact of their communications. This involves identifying and understanding different employee personas, interests, and preferences, and using this information to create targeted campaigns.
A clear and concise message is the secret to good internal communications. The content should be relevant, timely, and in a conversational tone to promote engagement. Moreover, the use of a company newsletter to share such information makes the message unified, ensuring everyone is on the same page.
Internal communications play a critical role in crisis management, helping organizations respond effectively and efficiently to unexpected events and challenges. Having a well-defined internal communications strategy in place during times of crisis minimizes the negative impact. It also provides guidance on how to move forward, and maintains trust with employees.
Effective crisis communication involves being transparent, timely, and empathetic, ensuring that employees receive accurate information and feel supported throughout the crisis.
Two-way feedback is essential for maintaining a positive employee experience. Internal communications create an opportunity for employees to voice their ideas, concerns, or suggestions. A range of communication channels including surveys, town halls, or suggestion boxes can facilitate exchange. This supports a culture of transparency and openness.
Effective internal communication is vital for organizations to foster employee engagement, enhance productivity, and achieve overall success. By understanding the key principles of internal communication, the role of internal communicators, and the various types of communication channels, you can develop and implement successful strategies that meet the needs of your workforce.
As the remote work era continues to evolve, organizations must adapt their internal communication strategies. This ensures that employees remain connected, informed, and aligned with company goals, regardless of their location. By embracing best practices and leveraging the latest tools and technologies, organizations can create a more cohesive, engaged, and high-performing workforce.
Cerkl Broadcast recognizes the need for a holistic approach to employee engagement and internal communications. The Broadcast platform is structured for you to align employees with organizational goals. For example, it delivers personalized emails and intranet content to engage and inform employees. It also enables you to create unique newsletter templates and garner feedback from communications.
The platform’s top features include Email Blasts or Eblasts. These save time and effort, as do Broadcast News Digests. These innovative newsletters enable you to send regularly scheduled emails including content individual employees find interesting directly to their inbox via Eblasts. Personalization of both Eblasts and News Digests increases employee engagement, which, in turn increases productivity.
Another huge advantage is that you will also receive real-time analytics on how your employees interact with the posts that you share. These include open rates, click rates, and engagement scores. The insights these analytics provide will enable you to assess what content resonates best with your workforce. This eliminates the guessing game and will allow you to make data-driven decisions.
How are your internal communications performing? Chances are you won’t be able to identify success rates or problems. Don’t worry. We’ve got the answer for you. Cerkl Broadcast’s free strategic internal communications white paper will help you improve your internal comms strategy quickly and efficiently.
What are you waiting for? Download it now.
Turn your internal communications strategy around today
Turn your internal communications strategy around today
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