How to measure communications impact, not just outputs
Performance review season has a habit of turning our attention to numbers like how many projects did we deliver? How many communications did we produce? How many articles did we write, town halls did we run or change plans did we complete?
For communications professionals, these measures can feel reassuring because they are tangible - as in, we can point to the work and say, “There it is. I did that.” However, there is a problem with relying too heavily on outputs to demonstrate our value because producing something is not the same as achieving something.
That distinction matters more than ever as AI becomes increasingly embedded in the way communications teams work because technology can already help produce articles, executive messages, presentations, social posts and other communications outputs quickly and at scale. That doesn't make the work irrelevant, but it does change the conversation about where professional communicators add value.
If our value is defined by how much content we can produce, it becomes easier for others to question whether that work could be done differently, faster or more cheaply. If our value is defined by our ability to understand what the organisation is trying to achieve, understand what people need and use communication to help bridge the gap, that is a much more strategic proposition.
The difference between output and impact
Outputs are the things we produce like media releases, intranet articles, presentations, newsletters, town halls, change plans and leader briefings that sit on our work plans. They are necessary, but they don't tell the whole story. A town hall, for example, is an output and iIt tells us that an event happened. It doesn't tell us whether employees understood the strategy afterwards, whether they felt more confident about what was changing or whether anything they heard influenced their behaviour.
The same applies to a campaign. Producing the campaign is not the outcome, the more useful question is what happened because of it. Perhaps employees adopted safer behaviours, used a new system correctly from day one, became more confident talking about a significant change, or even developed a clearer understanding of the organisation's strategy and how their role contributes to it.
These are the things that start to demonstrate value because they show what changed as a result of the work. Which is where performance reviews and goal-setting can become more useful for communicators.
Instead of simply documenting everything that was produced over the previous twelve months, they can provide an opportunity to explain the relationship between the work, the outcome and the broader business impact.
Start with what the business is trying to achieve
The strongest communications goals start with the organisation's strategic priorities. If the business wants to become the preferred choice for its customers, for example, there may be a role for communications in helping employees understand what great customer service looks like, sharing examples of good practice or supporting leaders to create an environment where people feel empowered to make decisions that benefit customers.
If the organisation is implementing a major technology change, communications might contribute to successful adoption by helping people understand why the change is happening, what they need to do differently and where they can get support.
The connection doesn't have to be forced, and communications won't be the only factor influencing the outcome, but there should be a clear line of sight between the business priority, the role communication can play and the change you are trying to support. That line of sight is much more useful than a goal that simply says, “Deliver the internal communications plan.”
Be careful about what you claim
Once we start talking about business impact, there is a temptation to claim too much. Communications rarely causes a business outcome on its own. Employee engagement, for example, is influenced by leadership, culture, workload, remuneration, working conditions, employee experience and many other factors alongside communication.
So rather than claiming that communications “increased employee engagement”, it is more useful to identify the part of the outcome that communications could reasonably influence. The same principle applies to other business measures, where you need to be specific about your contribution rather than taking responsibility for the entire result.
This then makes the measurement more credible, and it also makes it easier to demonstrate where communications are genuinely adding value. Though not everything needs to be a hard number. Qualitative evidence can be just as useful when it is specific and relevant, for example, things like feedback from leaders, observations of behaviour, stakeholder comments and examples of changed practice can all help tell the story of impact.
Use your goals to build your strategic reputation
Your goals can influence how people see the role of communications and, importantly, what they believe you are capable of contributing. If senior leaders currently see communications as the team that writes things, organises things and makes things look polished, producing more of the same is unlikely to change that perception.
A performance review can instead be an opportunity to think about the reputation you want to build, and then, be able to include these as part of your goals. They might require professional development, greater exposure to senior leaders, opportunities to present to leadership teams or involvement in projects outside your usual area of responsibility. The important thing is to connect the development back to a genuine business need, rather than positioning development as something you want because it will help your career, frame it around how the new capability will help you contribute more effectively to the organisation.
Look for the gaps
One of the most valuable things a communicator can bring to a goal-setting conversation is an understanding of what the organisation will need next. Look at where the business is now, where it wants to be and what is coming down the line, then, identify where the gaps are between those things - these gaps can then become opportunities.
Instead of waiting for someone to hand you a list of communications activities, you can identify a problem and propose how you could help solve it to demonstrate something broader than communications capability. It demonstrates business awareness, curiosity and an understanding of where your expertise can make a difference. It may also help you identify opportunities for professional development that have a much stronger business case behind them.
Think beyond the next twelve months
Performance reviews can also become very focused on the immediate future. What did you achieve last year, and what are you going to achieve next year? Though there is value in thinking further ahead to things like: what is the bigger role or capability you are working towards? What skills, experience or relationships will you need to get there?
You might ultimately want to lead a broader corporate affairs function, move into a strategic advisory role or develop expertise in an area that is becoming increasingly important to the organisation. You don't need to achieve the end goal in the next twelve months, but you can use each performance cycle to take another step towards it.
That might mean building commercial knowledge, developing leadership skills, getting experience in another area of the business or deliberately expanding your experience beyond your current communications discipline. Your goals can be more than a list of things you have agreed to deliver, and instead stepping stones towards the capability you want to build.
Make sure the goals are actually achievable
There is one final piece of the puzzle: realism.
It is easy during a goal-setting conversation to create an impressive list of things you'd like to achieve. The problem comes when you add those goals to your existing workload, unexpected projects, urgent requests, organisational changes and all the other things that inevitably appear during a year.
Before committing to a goal, consider what it will actually take to achieve. What would need to happen each month or each week? What other work will have to happen alongside it? Is there enough capacity for the development you want to undertake?
It can be useful to consider both the business impact of a goal and the value it creates for you. The goals that contribute meaningfully to the organisation while also building useful skills, experience or relationships are likely to be the ones worth prioritising.
Not everything needs to make the list, in fact, being selective can be part of demonstrating strategic thinking. A smaller number of meaningful goals that can genuinely be achieved is more useful than a long list of activities that looks impressive at the beginning of the year and becomes impossible to maintain by the end.
The real measure of communications value
AI is making some of the production work faster and easier, and that means communicators need to be increasingly clear about where human judgement, strategic thinking and organisational understanding add value. That doesn't mean abandoning outputs, it just means those outputs should be the means, not the measure of success.
The more useful question is what changed because of the work.
