Here's the thing about working in internal comms: we're meant to be the ones keeping everyone informed, but half the time we're flying completely blind ourselves. Internal communications is often a team of one, trying to be the thinker and the doer, which can leave very little space for proper analysis.
We know our All-Hands happened. We know we sent that Slack update. We know the newsletter went out on time. But do we actually know if any of it worked? If people read it, engaged with it, or changed their behaviour because of it? Often, no.
It's not our fault. Comms is inherently difficult to measure. We don't have clean data sources like Sales (revenue, pipeline, conversion rates) or Product (feature adoption, user retention). Our metrics are fuzzy at best, and even when we can measure something, it's often impossible to tie it back to the KPIs that actually matter to the business. Leaders (understandably) aren’t going to be interested in an individual post’s click rate, unless you can tie that to a metric they do care about.
So we end up reactive. Putting out fires. Responding to requests from leadership. Trying to fix things that feel broken without really understanding why they broke in the first place.
An internal comms audit changes that. It shifts you from reactive to proactive. It helps you understand where you're keeping people well informed and where you're missing the mark entirely. And crucially, it gives you the data to build a strategy for the year ahead that isn't just based on gut feeling or whatever the loudest voice in the room wants.
If you're heading into planning season for 2026 and you don't have a clear picture of what's actually working in your comms, this is for you!
The Nine Stages of an IC Audit
Stage 1: Start by defining the questions
You cannot answer questions you haven't asked. I know that sounds obvious, but this is where most people go wrong.
The temptation is to pull all the data you can get your hands on first, and then try to find patterns in it afterwards. Don't do this. If you work backwards like that, you'll inevitably manipulate the data to confirm what you already think, rather than discovering what's actually true.
Instead, start by writing down the questions you need answered. What are the things keeping you up at night? What does leadership keep asking you about? What patterns have you noticed anecdotally that you want to validate (or disprove)?
Some examples of good audit questions:
