The Interact Team | Interact Software https://www.interactsoftware.com/author/interact/ Connect your enterprise Thu, 15 Jan 2026 20:17:04 +0000 en-GB hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9 https://www.interactsoftware.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/cropped-interact-logomark-mariner-1-32x32.png The Interact Team | Interact Software https://www.interactsoftware.com/author/interact/ 32 32 Return on experience: What employee ROI is and how to measure and improve it https://www.interactsoftware.com/blog/measuring-the-communicators-impact-on-employee-roi/ Sat, 20 Dec 2025 03:22:00 +0000 https://www.interactsoftware.com/?p=163626 In this article, find out what employee ROI really means, along with key strategies and ways to use employee experience tools to quantify and enhance your organization's return on talent....

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In this article, find out what employee ROI really means, along with key strategies and ways to use employee experience tools to quantify and enhance your organization’s return on talent.


For internal comms and employee experience (EX) teams, proving value isn’t just about engagement – it’s about demonstrating how your efforts influence employee ROI and overall organizational performance.

In this post, we’ll explore practical strategies to connect employee experience initiatives with bottom-line results, show how internal communicators and EX pros can quantify their impact, and share actionable steps to boost ROI through better employee experiences and smarter use of internal comms tools. We’ll also cover the business uses of intranet platforms and employee experience tools in supporting engagement, productivity, and ultimately, higher employee ROI.

What is employee ROI and how is it calculated?

What does employee ROI mean?

Employee ROI, or employee return on investment, is a metric that quantifies the financial benefit an organization gains from employing and investing in its workforce. It considers factors such as:

  • Net profit generated by employees
  • Total employee costs
  • The impact of engagement, training, and retention strategies

By understanding employee ROI, organizations can make informed decisions about resource allocation and employee experience initiatives.

How is employee ROI calculated?

In its simplest form, the formula for employee ROI calculation is:

(Net profit generated by employees – total employee costs) / Total employee costs x 100%

A common variation is “revenue per employee,” which equals total revenue divided by total number of employees. Though McKinsey & Company calls this metric a “a blunt instrument” because it’s influenced by many factors beyond productivity, it consistently separates high-performing companies from their competitors, according to the firm’s years of benchmarking data. 

Of course, these high-level calculations don’t paint the whole picture. Let’s dive a bit deeper into other dimensions that impact employee ROI.

What factors influence an organization’s employee ROI?

An organization’s employee ROI can be influenced by factors such as:

  • Operating expenses, training investments, and compensation (wages and benefits)
  • Absenteeism or unearned PTO
  • Turnover, which can cost a company one-half to two times an exited employee’s salary to refill the position
  • Quantifiable evaluative and perception data, such as satisfaction survey responses, performance reviews, tracked goals, and customer satisfaction scores

Many online calculators exist to help you quantify employee ROI across these and more metrics.

What is return on employee experience (ROX) and how is it calculated?

What is return on employee experience (ROX)?

Return on employee experience (ROX) measures a company’s financial profit from investing in EX and engagement strategies. This is the metric communicators and EX pros can use to articulate the value of employee experience to leadership.

How is return on employee experience (ROX) calculated?

The typical formula for calculating return on employee experience is:

(Net profit generated by EX investment – total EX costs) / Total EX costs x 100%

More nuanced calculations might consider the range of engagement metrics that can influence performance and satisfaction at the employee, function, and organization levels. This can include time spent onboarding, in meetings, and searching for information, along with visits, likes, and shares on employee-facing tech.

Why is measuring the return on employee experience (ROX) important?

Measuring the value of employee experience is crucial for understanding employee experience ROI and its impact on overall business outcomes. ROX is also the surest way that internal comms, culture, and people professionals can boost their organization’s return on talent.

That’s because strong engagement – the product of an enviable employee experience – has an outsized impact on company success. Gallup found that organizations with high employee engagement are 23% more profitable, while poor engagement cost employers $1.9 trillion in lost productivity last year alone.

Engagement can make or break key dimensions of employee ROI. In its 2024 meta-analysis encompassing more than 300 organizations around the world, Gallup found that companies in the top quartile of engagement saw the following median advantages compared to their counterparts in the bottom quartile:

  • 10% better customer loyalty
  • 23% more profitability
  • 14% more productivity based on production records and evaluations
  • 51% lower turnover for organizations in low-turnover industries
  • 78% lower absenteeism
  • 70% higher wellbeing

They also fared substantially better in terms of safety, quality, and participation.

With such profound stakes, visionary communicators are investing heavily in creating experiences that fuel engagement. According to Edelman’s Future of Corporate Communications study, 60% of internal comms leaders identify employee experience as the single most critical area to prioritize in the near term.

What drives employee engagement and disengagement?

Creating covetable experiences starts with identifying the factors that fuel – or stall – engagement.

As an example, McKinsey found that organizations can save up to an estimated $56 million annually by resolving these six drivers of disengagement:

  1. Inadequate resource accessibility
  2. Lack of geographic ties and travel demands
  3. Unsustainable work expectations
  4. Uncaring and uninspiring leaders
  5. Lack of support for employee health and wellbeing
  6. Non-inclusive and unwelcoming community

Further, the experiences likeliest to produce strong engagement, according to Gallup, are:

  • Purpose
  • Development
  • A focus on strengths
  • Ongoing conversations
  • A caring manager

How your digital workplace can impact employee ROI

A thriving digital workplace can help you reinforce drivers – and avoid detours – in employee engagement. Understanding the business uses for intranet platforms and other employee experience tools is essential for maximizing employee ROI and driving organizational efficiency.

Investing in the right employee experience tools can lead to increased productivity and performance by providing employees with the resources and support they need to drive efficiency and contribute to better business outcomes. Digital tools also amplify the value of employee experience by making engagement measurable.

See the table below for an idea of EX software features that can enable each core driver of engagement.

DriverDetoursExample features
PurposeLack of geographic ties and travel demands
Lack of support for employee health and wellbeing
Non-inclusive and unwelcoming community
Content management
Mobile intranet
Personalization
Workplace social networking Workplace search
DevelopmentInadequate resource accessibility  
Unsustainable work expectations
Content management
Mobile intranet
People directory  
Ongoing conversationsLack of support for employee health and wellbeing
Unsustainable work expectations
Communities
Forums
Idea management
Mobile intranet
People directory
Personas
Workplace social networking
Surveys
A focus on strengthsUncaring and uninspiring leaders
Unsustainable work expectations
Rewards and recognition
A caring managerUncaring and uninspiring leadersCommunities
Content management
Workplace social networking

Let’s dive deeper into each driver and its digital workplace enablers.

Why is purpose important for employee ROI?

Nearly two-thirds of executives from highly regarded organizations attribute 30% or more of their companies’ market value to culture, making employee ROI the “most underrated” determinant of “a company’s future success,” Korn Ferry found. When it comes to cultivating a culture imbued with purpose, collective and individual experiences are equally important.

How do shared values affect employee engagement and ROI?

Shared values are central to the value of employee experience and its ROI. Unfortunately, according to Gallup, only 27% of U.S. employees strongly believe in their organization’s values, and less than half even know what those values are. This disconnect can lead to checking out: One in five employees feels disengaged from their work when they aren’t connected to the company or culture, says videoconferencing vendor Owl Labs

An employee experience platform or intranet business’ uses include reinforcing shared values and improving cultural alignment. Look for employee experience software that can broaden access to tools and resources, thereby radiating your organization’s commitment to not only a clear mission, but also top values of today’s workers, such as sustainability and inclusion.

EX software features like content creation tools, enterprise search, topic tags, and social functionality can help improve employee ROI through creation, organization, and promotion of a knowledge base of resources and inspiration that embeds and radiates your values.

A mobile app, meanwhile, can allow deskless workers – who make up 80% of the global workforce – to stay connected to colleagues, leaders, and your organization’s north star, whether they’re on the factory floor making your products or the open road delivering them to customers.  

How does personal clarity contribute to employee ROI?

To feel a sense of purpose and fulfillment at work, employees must understand their role in achieving the company’s mission.

Personalization features in an employee experience platform can boost employee ROI by clarifying, reinforcing, and energizing your people around their distinctive contributions. Organizations can deliver on it through personas, permissions, and built-in intelligence, ensuring relevant content is delivered to each employee based on factors including role, location, and preference.

Profiles and past interactions, for example, can help pinpoint and push relevant news, announcements, and resources to everyone, as well as ensure content being created and shared by active employees is reaching audiences interested in the subject matter.

An AI-driven recommendation engine, meanwhile, can facilitate the automatic discovery of new content, while geofences – virtual perimeters set up around specific locations – can ensure employees see only content intended for them each time they log on. This can be especially helpful for individuals who travel frequently and require different content depending on their context (e.g., salespeople or senior leaders on location visits). 

What role does employee development play in ROI?

According to McKinsey, one of the top ways to build a higher-return workforce is to focus L&D efforts on skill-based learning journeys, which can be “more cost-effective than building traditional cohort- or role-based journeys.” Plus, reskilling current employees for new opportunities cuts down on the recruiting costs that so commonly impact employee ROI.

Here again, personalization can play a role. “The most effective organizations encourage personalized, adaptive learning,” McKinsey explains. “Employees are motivated to own their journeys by deciding which skills and areas of expertise they want to focus on. They are given feedback, along with coaching and peer-learning opportunities, and they are supported by a digital ecosystem that can help them track their progress over time.”

Enabling this dynamic experience can be tough in today’s ever-more distributed world of work: According to Owl Labs, nearly half (48%) of hybrid workers believe they’re missing out on impromptu feedback and development that could hamper their career growth.

So look for software features that spark in-the-moment learning and collaboration, such as a comprehensive knowledge base of courses and materials, a searchable directory of in-house experts to call up at a moment’s notice, lively discussion forums that allow team members to crowdsource precise solutions to their queries, and a mobile app that makes it all available on the go. 

How does focusing on strengths improve employee ROI?

Strengths-based feedback is critical to increasing employee ROI through engagement. According to Gallup, employees who get enough information on goals and successes are 2.8 times more likely to be engaged. But it’s far too rare an experience: One of the hardest statements for an employee to strongly agree with is, “In the past seven days, I have received praise or recognition for doing good work” (Gallup again).

To cement and scale a culture of recognition, look for employee experience tools that reward good work and citizenship with points that can be redeemed for gifts and distinctions.

Why are ongoing conversations vital for employee ROI?

The ability to use talent feedback in transformational ways will set the best companies and internal comms leaders apart in the future of work. The ones “to watch will be those that actively listen to their employees, harness the power of their sentiments and insights, transparently communicate next steps, and drive meaningful change while involving others in the journey,” says Julia Christenson, Edelman’s U.S. Chair of Employee Experience.

How does employee listening enhance ROI?

Employee listening, also called continuous listening, involves the ongoing capture, analysis, and actioning of employee sentiment. In short, it’s how you tap into how your people are doing, individually and collectively, so you can respond in smart and helpful ways. And it can be a powerful driver of employee ROI.

This practice can also boost goodwill and the bottom line. Yet it’s an experience that’s markedly uncommon: Only 30% of U.S. employees strongly believe that their opinions count at work, Gallup says.

To help power your listening strategy, look for employee experience tools with features like:

Just don’t overdo it on the outreach. Gallup found that employee engagement efforts are prone to failure when they introduce too much surveying or complexity.

In its 2023 corporate communications report, Edelman points to a few creative ways to solicit and action feedback, including ideas jams that empower all people to weigh in on important decision points and councils that allow frontline workers to regularly engage senior leadership.

Also consider taking your listening to the next level with employee activation. In this emerging practice, your employees become catalysts of company culture, strategy, and reputation through your systematic collection, synthesis, and application of their insight and enthusiasm. It’s a propulsive combination of listening, empowerment, and advocacy that’ll mark the future of an engaged workforce and a peerless employee experience.

How do collaboration and knowledge sharing impact employee ROI?

Today’s employees are overwhelmed by their workplaces – which have have grown so unweildly that many don’t know where to find the people and information they need to do their jobs. This drags down ROI in a significant way.

One of the key business uses of intranet is to serve as a central hub for internal comms and resources. To reduce such digital friction and facilitate seamless collaboration, look for an EX platform or modern intranet that lets you:

  • Cut through the digital glut with features like single sign-on (SSO) that eliminate the need to remember numerous passwords; biometric authentication options, such as Touch and FaceID, that improve speed, security, and ease of use; and intuitive integrations that curate access – and guide attention – to a single source of truth
  • Create a one-stop shop for core tools, processes, policies, documents, and other information that your employees use the most, all quickly discoverable with built-in intelligence and enterprise search functionality
  • Ensure your entire workforce – including members who are on the go far more often than they are at a desk – to instantly access the tools, information, and colleague connection they need from a shared digital headquarters via a mobile intranet and people directory
  • Promote seamless, accessible information sharing through features like multilanguage translation of text communications, alt-text generation for images, automatic captioning of video content, and text-to-audio conversion for a podcast-like way to digest company news

Why is connection important for employee ROI?

According to Owl Labs, more than a third of managers (34%) who lead remote or hybrid teams cite maintaining cultural connection, team camaraderie, and communication as a top concern. Social intranet features are among the most valuable business benefits of intranets and other employee experience tools for fostering connection. An employee experience platform’s social features can forge strong bonds across ever-more distributed workforces.

Look for social media functionality that makes your platform sticky and keeps your people in conversation. Think @mentioning, #hashtagging, image-friendly newsfeeds, commenting, sharing, and gamification. Also curate forums, discussion boards, and communities of practice that give employees a place to connect over specific challenges or interests.

How do managers influence employee ROI?

The link between manager and employee experience is inextricable. 

McKinsey research on organizational health shows that leaders who effectively “run the place” – e.g., by making good decisions, allocating the right resources, and leading thriving teams – build healthier organizations, which, in turn, deliver three times the total shareholder returns compared to unhealthy organizations.

Managers influence all the dimensions of employee experience discussed so far. EX software can facilitate their success through features that allow them to do things like:

  • Foster development by curating goals-focused learning resources and making career-building connections with the help of a people directory
  • Cultivate team camaraderie through communities, forums, and social capabilities
  • Promote smooth transitions and healthy dynamics through onboarding and enrollment features that get newcomers up to speed quickly

How can communicators demonstrate their impact on employee ROI?

Organizations that prioritize the value of employee experience see measurable improvements in employee experience ROI, engagement, and retention.

Using hard data to measure and enhance your employee experience initiatives can significantly boost your employee ROI. As an example, in addition to a free intranet ROI calculator and guide, Interact has advanced analytics and integrations that help organizations deliver on numerous dimensions of experience and engagement.

As you use such enablers, synthesize the data they collect to quantify your impact on your organization’s overall return on talent. Reporting on employee experience ROI validates the impact of EX initiatives, and highlighting the business uses of your intranet or other employee experience tools in your reporting can do even more to strengthen the case for EX investments going forward.

Frequently asked questions about employee ROI

What is employee ROI and why is it important?

Employee ROI measures the financial return an organization receives from investing in its workforce. It’s important because it helps businesses understand the impact of employee engagement, experience, and productivity on overall profitability.

How can internal communication tools and modern intranet solutions improve employee ROI?

Internal communication tools simplify information sharing, boost engagement, and support collaboration, all of which contribute to higher employee ROI.

What are the business uses for intranet platforms?

Intranet platforms support knowledge sharing, internal comms, employee experience tools, and collaboration, delivering business benefits such as increased efficiency and improved employee ROI.

What is return on employee experience (ROX)?

Return on Employee Experience (ROX) measures the financial and organizational impact of investments in employee experience initiatives such as engagement programs, onboarding improvements, and digital workplace tools.

What strategies help maximize employee ROI and return on employee exerience (ROX)?

Strategies for maximizing employee ROI and employee experience ROI include investing in employee experience tools, fostering a positive culture, and leveraging internal communication platforms to enhance engagement and productivity.

What is the difference between employee ROI and return on employee experience (ROX)?

Unlike employee ROI, which looks at overall workforce costs and profit, ROX focuses on how experience-driven strategies improve productivity, retention, and profitability. Calculating ROX helps communicators and HR teams demonstrate the value of employee experience and justify future investments.

The post Return on experience: What employee ROI is and how to measure and improve it appeared first on Interact software.

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Measuring employee experience: A strategic blueprint for internal communications https://www.interactsoftware.com/blog/measuring-employee-experience-a-strategic-blueprint-for-internal-communications/ Fri, 12 Dec 2025 16:14:00 +0000 https://www.interactsoftware.com/?p=165730 Measuring employee experience (EX) is key to improving it. This article lays out the strategies you need to spot what’s working and what isn’t using seven clear areas of EX. It includes starter metrics, examples, and tips to turn feedback into small, steady improvements – plus how the best employee experience tools and modern intranet solutions can help you along the way....

The post Measuring employee experience: A strategic blueprint for internal communications appeared first on Interact software.

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Last updated:

Measuring employee experience (EX) is key to improving it. This article lays out the strategies you need to spot what’s working and what isn’t using seven clear areas of EX. It includes starter metrics, examples, and tips to turn feedback into small, steady improvements – plus how the best employee experience tools and modern intranet solutions can help you along the way.


Measuring employee experience (EX) doesn’t have to be overwhelming. Whether you’re just starting to think about internal comms measurement, looking to refine your approach, or want to understand what analytics modern intranet solutions can capture for you, this article will help you build a framework that demonstrates real business impact. It will also help you take the data that today’s best internal communications tools provide and use it to inform your employee experience strategy.

The stakes have never been higher. Gallup’s 2024 State of the Global Workplace report shows that global employee engagement remains stagnant at just 23%, with 62% of employees not engaged. Even more concerning, Gartner research reveals that only 33% of employees say their organizations consistently deliver on promises made to them. When you measure what matters and act on those insights, you’re not just improving communications – you’re directly impacting business performance.

What matters most when measuring employee experience?

The single most important thing to keep in mind when measuring employee experience is that there’s no one-size-fits-all measurement approach that works for every organization.

Before diving into intranet KPIs and dashboards, every EX leader must understand that measurement is deeply contextual. What works brilliantly for a 10,000-person enterprise may fall flat at a 200-person startup – even with the best internal communication tools and modern intranet solutions at their disposal. Your industry, culture, and organizational maturity all play a role in shaping the right approach for you.

The goal isn’t perfection – it’s progress and insight. You’re not trying to build the ultimate measurement system on day one. Instead, you’re trying to understand what’s working, what’s not, and where to focus your efforts next.

Start small and iterate often, choosing a few meaningful metrics from your intranet analytics, testing them, learning from what you discover, and adjusting as you go. Think of measurement as an ongoing conversation with your organization, not a one-time audit.

What employee experience metrics does leadership care about?

The metrics your organization’s leaders care about will vary based on their priorities, so you’ll have to do some detective work to uncover them. To figure out which areas of the business are keeping leaders up at night, try the following:

  • Identify your key stakeholders. This includes your C-Suite, senior leaders, and department heads. These are the people who set direction and hold budget authority.
  • Review existing strategic documents. Look at OKRs, annual plans, and employee engagement survey results. What themes emerge? What problems are they trying to solve?
  • Observe what metrics leaders already track. Are they obsessing over retention rates? Productivity metrics? Engagement scores? Are they already reviewing intranet KPIs (e.g., successful search rate, time‑to‑first‑login, content reach) ? These existing metrics reveal what they value.
  • Conduct discovery sessions. Consult with key leaders and influencers across your organization. Ask open-ended questions about their goals, challenges, and how they define success. Listen for recurring themes and pain points – they’ll become the foundation of your measurement strategy.

Once you get insight into what your leaders care about, use it to figure out what to measure. The best internal communication tools and modern intranet solutions provide a variety of metrics related to leaders’ top concerns. These are the employee experience metrics you should track, report on, and work to improve.

7 areas to focus on when measuring employee experience

Employee experience is complex, but it’s not random. Every interaction, from onboarding to recognition, contributes to how employees feel, perform, and stay. That’s why we use the seven EX pillars as a diagnostic framework: they help internal comms teams move beyond surface-level engagement metrics and uncover what truly drives experience across the organization.

These pillars – Communication, Self-Service, Tool Access, Knowledge, Community, Alignment, and Recognition – represent core employee needs. They’re not just categories; they’re lenses through which you can assess friction, identify gaps, and prioritize improvements. Each pillar connects employee expectations with business outcomes, giving you a shared language to collaborate across HR, IT, Legal, and beyond.

A table displaying the employee experience strategy pillars.

By anchoring your measurement strategy in these pillars, you shift from reactive reporting to proactive insight. You’ll be able to ask sharper questions, gather more meaningful data from your intranet analytics, and tell stories that resonate with leadership.

How do you measure employee experience?

Rather than guessing what to measure, use the seven pillars laid out above as a diagnostic tool to systematically uncover priorities across your organization. This will help you understand what to track and how to track it.

To assess these areas of EX, meet with leaders across every function – not just HR and communications. Talk to IT, Legal, Finance, department heads, ERG leaders, project managers, and frontline supervisors. Each brings a unique perspective on what employees need to succeed.

Use the pillars to guide your discovery conversations. For each pillar, ask targeted questions that reveal both current state and aspirations. Document the language leaders use, the metrics they mention, and the problems they’re trying to solve. Then, combine what you’ve learned with intranet analytics and other internal comms data to paint a full picture.

1. Measuring Communication

What it covers: Keeping everyone informed and aligned

Who to talk to: Internal Comms, HR, C-Suite, Frontline Operations

Discovery questions:

  • “How do you currently communicate company-wide news and announcements?”
  • “Do you feel employees are well-informed about strategic goals?”
  • “What communication channels get the best response?”

How to measure employee experience in this area:

  • Strategy recall rate in follow-up surveys
  • Open enrollment participation rate
  • Percentage of frontline workers reached by key communications
  • Engagement rate on strategic communications (clicks, comments, shares)
  • Intranet KPIs on reach

2. Measuring self-service

What it covers: Empowering employees to find answers

Who to talk to: HR, IT, Legal, Finance

Discovery questions:

  • “What are the most common employee questions or requests?”
  • “Do you offer self-service options for things like benefits, tech support, or payroll?”
  • “Where do employees get stuck when trying to solve problems on their own?”

Internal comms measurement metrics:

  • Support ticket volume before and after launching self-service content
  • Completion rate of self-service forms (benefits, PTO requests)
  • Reduction in repetitive HR/IT tickets
  • Compliance rate for mandatory tasks like policy acknowledgments

3. Measuring tool access

What it covers: Removing friction from daily work

Who to talk to: IT, HR Onboarding, Operations

Discovery questions:

  • “How do employees access the tools they need?”
  • “Are there any access or adoption issues with key systems?”
  • “How long does it take new hires to get fully set up?”

Measuring employee experience with tools:

  • Survey new hires on ease of tool access during onboarding
  • Login frequency and time-on-tool metrics
  • Number of support requests related to tool access
  • System adoption rate post-onboarding (treat “time‑to‑first‑login” and adoption as core intranet KPIs)

4. Measuring knowledge

What it covers: Making information findable and useful

Who to talk to: HR, Department Heads, Learning & Development

Discovery questions:

  • “How do employees find information or subject matter experts?”
  • “Is institutional knowledge being captured and shared effectively?”
  • “What information do employees repeatedly ask for?”

How to measure:

  • Time-to-productivity for new hires
  • Percentage of successful searches versus failed or abandoned searches according to intranet KPIs
  • Frequency of document reuse across teams
  • Knowledge retention scores via quizzes or feedback

5. Measuring community

What it covers: Building connection and belonging

Who to talk to: ERG Leads, Team Managers, Culture and Engagement Leads

Discovery questions:

  • “Do employees feel connected to each other and the company?”
  • “Are there active communities or collaboration spaces?”
  • “How do cross-functional relationships form?”

Measuring internal comms impact on community:

  • Percentage of community-generated ideas that are actioned
  • Percentage of employees engaging in cross-functional groups
  • Peer-to-peer support rate (questions answered by peers vs. admins)
  • Retention rate among active community members

6. Measuring alignment

What it covers: Connecting daily work to strategy

Who to talk to: Project Managers, Strategy Leads, Communications

Discovery questions:

  • “How do you track progress toward business goals?”
  • “Are employees clear on how their work contributes to strategy?”
  • “What happens after you announce a new strategic initiative?”

Internal comms measurement for alignment:

  • Engagement with strategic communications
  • Time between strategy rollout and task adoption
  • Project success rates and on-time completion
  • Percentage of employees who understand how their work connects to company goals

7. Measuring recognition

What it covers: Celebrating contributions and values

Who to talk to: HR, Team Leads, Culture Champions

Discovery questions:

  • “How do you currently recognize employee contributions?”
  • “Is recognition visible and tied to company values?”
  • “Do employees feel appreciated for their work?”

How to measure employee experience with recognition:

  • Correlation between recognition frequency and performance review scores
  • Employee perception of recognition impact via surveys
  • Correlation between recognition and retention rates
  • Percentage of employees receiving peer recognition

What is the best way to share employee experience findings?

Now that you’ve gathered rich qualitative insights from across your organization, it’s time to turn those conversations into quantifiable indicators that are easy to understand and relate to. The following tips will ensure your findings can be understood by even the busiest stakeholders and collaborators:

  • Choose a balanced mix of metrics. Combine quantitative data (intranet analytics on traffic, reach, and engagement; email open rates; survey scores) with qualitative insights (sentiment analysis, feedback themes). Numbers tell you what’s happening; stories tell you why.
  • Map each metric to a business priority. Every metric you track should connect to either a business goal or a specific communications objective. If you can’t explain why a metric matters, don’t track it.
  • Keep it lean to start. Focus on three to five core metrics initially. You can always add complexity later, but starting with too many metrics leads to paralysis, not insight.

How do you share employee experience progress with stakeholders and leaders?

The best internal communication tools have a variety of data you can extract, but raw numbers won’t inspire action unless you put them to use. Your job is to transform data into narratives that demonstrate the strategic value of internal communications.

  • Create a simple dashboard or monthly snapshot. Make your data visible and accessible with a small set of intranet KPIs tied to the pillars of the employee experience. Leaders should be able to understand your impact at a glance.
  • Use storytelling to show impact. Instead of “Email open rate: 67%,” try “After we redesigned our strategy announcements, engagement rose by 24%, and strategy recall improved among frontline workers by 31%.”
  • Share both wins and lessons learned. Transparency builds credibility. When something doesn’t work, share what you learned and how you’re adjusting.

Sample monthly reporting snapshot for measuring employee experience:

Real-world example: King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust reported that after launching its award-winning intranet – including a personalised onboarding homepage shown for two weeks after a new starter joins – and enabling mobile access, they saw smoother onboarding, fewer support requests, and a 75% positive rating in a pulse survey.

How do you improve the way you measure employee experience?

Measurement isn’t a one-time project – it’s an ongoing practice that evolves with your organization. Here are a few ways to improve your EX measurement strategy over time:

  • Revisit your metrics quarterly or biannually. Business priorities shift, new challenges emerge, and what mattered six months ago may not be relevant today. Build regular review cycles into your workflow.
  • Add complexity only when you have capacity and clarity. It’s tempting to track everything, but more metrics don’t automatically equal better insights. Only expand your measurement framework when you’ve mastered the basics and have a clear reason for the addition.
  • Celebrate progress, not perfection. Every improvement – no matter how small – represents real impact on employee experience. Share those wins widely.

The difference between static EX reporting and dynamic EX reporting

The challenge with traditional measurement approaches is that annual employee engagement surveys and quarterly reports provide valuable snapshots, but they can’t capture the dynamic nature of the modern employee experience.

The limitations of static reporting include:

  • Annual surveys reveal problems six to twelve months too late
  • Quarterly reports can’t respond to real-time challenges
  • One-time measurements miss trends and patterns

Modern internal comms measurement requires continuous listening. Consider implementing tools and approaches that enable ongoing feedback:

  • Pulse surveys allow you to take the temperature of specific initiatives or topics quickly, gathering employee feedback when it’s most relevant rather than waiting for an annual cycle.
  • Real-time signals from your communication platforms – such as engagement patterns, sentiment shifts, and information-seeking behavior – provide early warning signs of emerging issues or opportunities.
  • Always-on feedback channels like digital suggestion boxes, monthly temperature checks, or integrated communication platform analytics help you stay connected to the employee experience as it unfolds.

The most effective measurement strategies combine periodic deep-dive assessments with continuous listening mechanisms. This approach allows you to be both strategic and responsive – understanding long-term trends while remaining agile enough to address immediate concerns.

Invest in modern intranet solutions with built‑in intranet analytics and pulse surveys – the best internal communication tools combine listening and intranet KPIs. These tools shouldn’t create more work – they should make it easier to gather, analyze, and act on insights that improve employee experience every day.

Start measuring what matters

Measuring employee experience doesn’t require a massive budget, a team of data scientists, or perfect conditions. It requires curiosity about what matters to your people, alignment with what matters to your business, and commitment to continuous improvement.

Start with one pillar. Choose three metrics. Build your first dashboard. Tell your first story about impact.

The journey from gut-feel communications to data-informed strategy begins with a single step – and that step can happen today.

Frequently asked questions about measuring employee experience

What does it mean to measure employee experience?

Measuring employee experience means tracking how people feel, find, and get things done at work across the moments that matter – communication, tools, knowledge, community, alignment, and recognition. It blends quantitative signals (engagement, reach, search success, intranet KPIs) with qualitative input (pulse surveys, comments, interviews) to reveal friction, priorities, and the business impact of improvements.

What are the best internal communication tools for measuring employee experience?

The best internal communication tools combine publishing, listening, and intranet analytics in one place. Look for modern intranet solutions with pulse surveys, search insights, and detailed engagement and usage data. Your platform of choice should have an intuitive dashboard so you can track EX pillars and report on your findings without extra spreadsheets.

What’s the easiest way to start measuring the employee experience?

Start small: pick 3–5 high‑signal intranet KPIs tied to a leadership goal, instrument them for eight weeks, then review. Measuring employee experience works best iteratively – set a baseline, run one improvement, and report the delta with a short narrative about what changed for employees and why it matters to the business.

What do intranet analytics typically measure?

Intranet analytics measures how employees interact with modern intranet solutions – with metrics including reach, engagement, search success, task completion, and more – so you can improve your platform and employee experience strategy over time. This turns comms signals into action, helping you measure employee experience continuously instead of once a quarter.

Which intranet KPIs should organizations track first when measuring the employee experience?

Start with a small set of intranet KPIs that map to outcomes: successful search rate, time‑to‑first‑login, homepage content reach, and strategy recall. These expose friction quickly and align to EX pillars without creating reporting overhead. Tie each KPI to a leadership priority.

How often should organizations measure employee experience?

Measuring employee experience benefits from a quarterly deep dive and monthly “heartbeat” snapshots. Blend always‑on intranet analytics with lightweight pulses after key moments (strategy launches, benefits, change comms) so you can see both trendlines and timely feedback without survey fatigue.

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Interact Enters a New Era of Growth with Strategic Investment from Castik https://www.interactsoftware.com/news/interact-enters-a-new-era-of-growth-with-strategic-investment-from-castik/ Fri, 28 Nov 2025 12:06:00 +0000 https://www.interactsoftware.com/?p=165927 We are thrilled to announce a significant milestone in our journey: we have secured a majority investment from Castik, a leading Private Equity firm. This partnership is a profound affirmation of the value we deliver, the strength of our technology, and our unwavering commitment to our customers. Investing in Innovation and Customer Success Castik’s decision...

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We are thrilled to announce a significant milestone in our journey: we have secured a majority investment from Castik, a leading Private Equity firm.

This partnership is a profound affirmation of the value we deliver, the strength of our technology, and our unwavering commitment to our customers.

Investing in Innovation and Customer Success

Castik’s decision to partner with Interact validates the incredible success and rapid growth achieved through our innovation-first approach and customer-centric operations. They recognize the significant untapped market potential we hold, and our reputation as an established leader in the employee experience space.

This strategic investment will serve as a catalyst, allowing us to:

  • Accelerate Product Innovation: Substantially increase investment in our product roadmap to deliver groundbreaking features faster.
  • Expand Global Reach: Pursue strategic acquisitions and market expansion to bring the Interact platform to more organizations worldwide.
  • Scale Operations: Leverage Castik’s deep operational expertise to scale the business and enhance our global service capabilities.

We are confident that Castik is a true strategic partner who shares our vision for growth and success. Our focus remains squarely on serving our incredible customers and delivering the cutting-edge innovations our customers and the market expect from us.

Read the full press release below:

November 27, 2025. Funds managed by Castik Capital S.à r.l. (“Castik”) have entered into an agreement to acquire a majority stake in Interact Software (“Interact”) from Unicorn Asset Management (“Unicorn”), Octopus Ventures (“Octopus”), Perwyn Advisors (“Perwyn”), the former Chairman, Executive management and other minority shareholders. The significant strategic investment will accelerate Interact’s mission to become the definitive operating system for the enterprise employee experience, powering substantial growth through targeted M&A and deep product development.

Unicorn AIM VCT plc, the former Chairman and Executive management will remain shareholders in the business following the transaction. Simon Dance, CEO of Interact, will continue to lead the business alongside his executive management team.

“In Castik, we have found our partner of choice to support us in expanding our capabilities within the broader employee experience space. We look forward to a close collaboration in the coming years. Castik has deep expertise in the space from previous employee experience investments, and is the perfect partner to take on this journey with us.” says Simon Dance, CEO of Interact.

Headquartered in Manchester, UK, Interact provides a SaaS platform that helps organizations facilitate internal communication, foster knowledge sharing, and boost employee engagement. The company currently serves a broad range of blue-chip customers across North America, EMEA, and the Middle East, with its largest markets being the United States and the United Kingdom.

The global employee experience market continues to demonstrate strong growth as organizations prioritize talent retention and culture alignment in a hybrid world. Interact is strategically positioned to capitalize on this trend by accelerating investments in its core platform and expanding its feature set to address complex enterprise communication challenges.

Interact plans to continue executing its ambitious growth strategy, focused on establishing itself as a leading employee experience platform for enterprise customers. This will include targeted investments in its core intranet platform and further expansion into the broader employee experience space, both organically and through strategic M&A.

“We would like to thank Interact’s management team for the trust they have placed in us, and we are very much looking forward to working together. Interact is perfectly placed in the market to expand its offering and support customers in achieving their communication and engagement goals. Castik will apply its experience from prior human capital management investments to support Interact further accelerate growth,” says Michael Phillips, Partner at Castik Capital.

Interact was advised on the transaction by KeyBanc Capital Markets and Clearwater (M&A), EY Parthenon (Commercial), Deloitte (Financial and Tax), Greenberg Traurig (Legal), Slater Heelis (Legal), and Crosslake (Tech).

Castik Capital S.à r.l. was advised by Houlihan Lokey (M&A and Financing), William Blair (M&A), Bain (Commercial and Tech), PwC (Financial, ESG and Tax structuring), EY (Tax), Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom (Legal), and White and Case (Financing legal).

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New Interact × Ragan research reveals only 1% of company communicators reach frontline workers effectively  https://www.interactsoftware.com/news/new-interact-x-ragan-research-2025/ Wed, 26 Nov 2025 12:01:38 +0000 https://www.interactsoftware.com/?p=165903 A new report from Interact and Ragan Communications uncovers striking gaps in how organizations manage employee experience and internal communications in 2025.  The study, The Employee Experience Blueprint: What’s Working, What’s Not and What’s Next, surveyed more than 200 internal communicators and reveals that while many teams collect data, few are using it to drive...

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A new report from Interact and Ragan Communications uncovers striking gaps in how organizations manage employee experience and internal communications in 2025. 

The study, The Employee Experience Blueprint: What’s Working, What’s Not and What’s Next, surveyed more than 200 internal communicators and reveals that while many teams collect data, few are using it to drive meaningful action. 

Key findings include: 

  • 71% of communicators collect data, but only 11% use it to guide decision-making. 
  • 54% lack a single go-to platform for internal communications. 
  • Just 1% say they’re effectively reaching deskless or frontline workers. 
  • 67% cite information overload as their top frustration. 

These findings come as organizations continue to navigate hybrid work, evolving technology stacks, and rising expectations around employee engagement and productivity. 

“Too many organizations are not delivering the results they want because their workforces are not aligned, informed, and productive,” said Simon Dance, CEO of Interact. “As our research with Ragan shows, many organizations are collecting data but don’t know how to act on it to drive results. At Interact, we’re helping organizations bridge that divide by unifying communication systems so every employee is set up to do their best work.”  

The report also found that more than half of communicators want greater control over their tech stack, with only 15% saying they’re satisfied with their current tools. 

“Internal communications continues to evolve at speed,” said Allison Carter, 
Editorial Director, Ragan Communications. “The teams that embrace unified technology and data-driven strategy are the ones leading culture and engagement across the organization.” 

Interact customer, Kent, added: 

“Employee communication is central to our culture at Kent,” said Joanne Hennigan, SVP, Communications & Advocacy, Kent. “Frank, our Interact-powered intranet, connects engineers, leaders, and frontline staff in one digital space. It isn’t just a communications tool; it’s a cultural differentiator that helps our people feel seen, connected, and empowered.” 

The Employee Experience Blueprint outlines practical recommendations to help organizations: 

  • Turn employee data into actionable insights 
  • Simplify and align fragmented tech stacks 
  • Build communication strategies that truly reach the frontline 

The full report is available now for free download here. 

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Interact named a leader for intranet packaged solutions: A modern intranet for enterprises https://www.interactsoftware.com/news/interact-named-a-leader-for-intranet-packaged-solutions-a-modern-intranet-for-enterprises/ Fri, 10 Oct 2025 09:07:38 +0000 https://www.interactsoftware.com/?p=165706 Interact has been recognized as a Leader in the 2025 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Intranet Packaged Solutions. For us, this recognition isn’t just about a position on a chart. It’s validation of the approach we’ve always taken: building the tools employees actually need, not distracting them with features they don’t. Why Interact was recognized as...

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Interact has been recognized as a Leader in the 2025 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Intranet Packaged Solutions.

For us, this recognition isn’t just about a position on a chart. It’s validation of the approach we’ve always taken: building the tools employees actually need, not distracting them with features they don’t.

Why Interact was recognized as a Modern Enterprise Intranet Platform

Our placement as a Leader highlights strengths that matter most to organizations today:

  • Frontline Reach → Connect dispersed and hard-to-reach employees through a mobile-first solution, digital signage, and targeted content delivery.
  • Deep Personalization → Deliver tailored experiences based on role, location, or persona, giving every employee access to the most relevant tools and information.
  • Ecosystem Integration → Centralize the tools employees already use (Microsoft 365, HRIS, ServiceNow, Salesforce, etc.) for a seamless, unified experience.
  • Balancing Flexibility with Ease → Combine configurability with intuitive management so teams can adapt the platform without technical expertise.
  • All-in-One Employee Experience → Go beyond communication to support the entire employee journey, from clarity around organizational goals to recognition and community-building.

These aren’t just technical capabilities – they’re the foundations of a modern intranet that powers the employee experience. From communication and self-service, to knowledge, community, alignment, and recognition – Interact helps enterprises tackle their most pressing business challenges: reducing support costs, cutting lost productivity, retaining talent, and building highly engaged, connected teams.

Why this matters for our customers

Recognition as a Leader isn’t the end point. It’s proof that Interact can deliver intranet solutions at scale – without unnecessary complexity. Some platforms pile on features for features’ sake. Our approach is different: we focus on modern intranets that are just right – powerful enough to serve thousands, simple enough to use every day.

Customer outcomes in action

Earning recognition as a Leader is meaningful, but what truly matters is the impact Interact delivers for enterprise organizations. Here’s how our customers are achieving measurable business outcomes with the platform:

  • Fast Casual Franchise: Moving to Interact’s modern intranet resulted in an 83% reduction in IT support tickets compared to their previous communications platform. This meant significant savings in IT resources while giving 300,000 frontline workers and franchisees a smoother, more reliable digital workplace experience.
  • Love’s Travel Stops: With 40,000 frontline employees, Love’s needed an enterprise intranet platform that could truly engage dispersed teams. After migrating to Interact, they saw an 11% improvement in retention, a 28% increase in catering sales, and an 80% participation rate in their annual open enrollment. This proves that employee experience drives tangible business results.
  • King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust: For 13,500 clinicians and staff, Interact has become a mission-critical communications hub. With over 1 million monthly page views and 6,000 daily users, the award-winning intranet ensures real-time updates reach frontline workers and helps the Trust stay aligned and responsive.

Together, these examples show why Interact is trusted by leading organizations to drive measurable outcomes: clear communication, easier access to tools, stronger community, and alignment around organizational goals.

Looking ahead

Being named a Leader is an important milestone, but it’s not the destination. We’re doubling down on customer-led innovation, with new features arriving in our Autumn 2025 launch that will take the employee experience even further.

Stay tuned: this is only the beginning.

With our Autumn 2025 launch, we’ll introduce new ways to strengthen communication, streamline self-service, simplify tool access, and improve alignment and recognition – further linking employee experience pillars to business outcomes like productivity, retention, and engagement.

Simon Dance, CEO, Interact Software:

“Too often, vendors build for the sake of novelty – piling on features that look impressive on paper but do little to solve real challenges in the workplace. Our approach has always been different: we build what’s needed, when it’s needed, and we keep it simple enough for every employee to use. Whether you’re a frontline worker at King’s College Hospital, a franchise operator at Domino’s, or part of a global team at Levi’s, Interact is there to make work easier, not harder. That’s what this recognition says to me – that being practical pays off.”

Ready to see more?

Want to see how a modern intranet platform can drive real business impact?

“It’s no surprise to us that Interact has been recognized as an industry leader. Since launching our platform, adoption has exceeded expectations, and the intranet has become a strategic tool that aligns our employees with our goals and culture. This recognition reflects the real value Interact delivers every day.”

Jessica Jensen, Corporate Communications Manager at Love’s Travel Stops


Disclaimer:
Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Intranet Packaged Solutions, 2025. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

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Why your employee listening platform needs signal intelligence to transform EX strategy https://www.interactsoftware.com/blog/why-your-employee-listening-platform-needs-signal-intelligence-to-transform-ex-strategy/ Thu, 09 Oct 2025 15:36:07 +0000 https://www.interactsoftware.com/?p=165703 An employee listening platform shouldn’t just collect feedback. It should decode the signals shaping culture in real time. Discover how signal intelligence turns static employee experience (EX) strategies into responsive ones, helping you predict issues, adapt fast, and build a workplace where employees truly feel heard. Most EX strategies follow a predictable rhythm: launch an...

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An employee listening platform shouldn’t just collect feedback. It should decode the signals shaping culture in real time. Discover how signal intelligence turns static employee experience (EX) strategies into responsive ones, helping you predict issues, adapt fast, and build a workplace where employees truly feel heard.


Most EX strategies follow a predictable rhythm: launch an initiative, wait for the quarterly survey, analyze the feedback, adjust the approach. Rinse and repeat. It’s structured and measurable, but it’s almost always too late.

The gap between employee reality and EX response isn’t a data problem. It’s a timing problem. By the time traditional feedback mechanisms tell you what employees think, the cultural moment that shaped those opinions has already passed. Your EX strategy is perpetually playing catch-up with a workforce that’s already moved on.

This is where signal intelligence becomes critical, and why forward-thinking organizations are embedding employee listening capabilities directly into their employee experience platforms. Rather than treating listening as a separate function, they’re creating systems where continuous employee listening transforms static EX strategies into dynamic, sentiment-responsive initiatives that evolve with culture in real time.

Why traditional EX measurement falls short

Conventional approaches struggle to keep pace with modern workplace dynamics because they rely on scheduled touchpoints:

  • Annual engagement surveys
  • Quarterly pulse checks
  • Exit interviews
  • Periodic focus groups

Forrester’s recent research highlights that most EX programs still rely on “scheduled snapshots” that miss the everyday signals shaping how employees actually experience work. They recommend pairing traditional surveys with continuous listening – capturing sentiment and behavioral cues as they happen – to get a truer picture of what’s really going on inside the organization.

In the time between these snapshots, entire cultural shifts can occur:

  • A policy change creates confusion
  • A leadership message lands wrong
  • A successful initiative gains unexpected momentum
  • Recognition patterns shift
  • Team dynamics evolve

By the time your next survey rolls around, these moments have either resolved themselves or crystallized into deeper issues, and your EX team is responding to history, not shaping the present.

This retrospective model also positions employees as respondents rather than participants. They’re asked to recall experiences and predict future engagement, but only when you’re ready to ask. The rest of the time, their ongoing questions and concerns exist outside your strategic field of vision.

How an employee listening platform should unlock strategic advantage

Modern employee experience platforms with built-in signal intelligence operate on an entirely different model. Instead of waiting for scheduled feedback, they enable continuous listening that captures sentiment, questions, and cultural indicators as they emerge naturally in workplace interactions.

This shift from periodic measurement to constant monitoring fundamentally changes what’s possible in EX strategy. You’re no longer limited to knowing how employees felt last quarter – you can understand how they’re experiencing work right now and use that insight to shape initiatives that meet genuine, current needs.

The platforms making this shift possible increasingly rely on agentic AI – a new generation of artificial intelligence that doesn’t just analyze data, but acts on it. Rather than waiting for prompts, agentic AI proactively connects signals across the digital workplace – surfacing patterns, identifying sentiment shifts, and recommending timely actions. It’s this kind of intelligent autonomy that turns continuous listening into a strategic advantage.

McKinsey’s research echoes this shift, describing “continuous listening” as a defining feature of organizations that outperform peers in engagement and retention. Companies integrating real-time sentiment data into decision-making can detect emerging cultural risks up to three months earlier than those relying solely on quarterly or annual feedback cycles.

The strategic value of real-time cultural intelligence

When an employee listening platform detects patterns across chat conversations, comment threads, recognition posts, and Q&A forums, you gain three strategic capabilities traditional feedback can’t deliver:

  1. Predictive insight
    Spot emerging issues before they become widespread problems. A localized concern about workload becomes visible before it spreads or shows up in engagement scores months later.
  2. Responsive messaging
    Adapt communications mid-campaign based on how messages are actually landing. If hybrid work messaging is generating confusion in frontline teams, you’ll know immediately – not after the next survey.
  3. Strategic prioritization
    Instead of guessing which initiatives matter most, continuous listening reveals what employees are actually grappling with. Their questions, concerns, and celebrations become your roadmap for investment.

Operationalizing signal intelligence in your EX strategy

Understanding the value of signal intelligence is step one. Operationalizing it requires a shift in how you plan, execute, and measure EX initiatives, and it starts with the right platform infrastructure.

Mapping signal types to strategic outcomes

  • Volume signals: Indicate where attention is concentrated. A spike in questions about a topic reveals knowledge gaps or high-priority concerns.
  • Sentiment signals: Show emotional responses to initiatives or changes.
    • Positive sentiment around a new benefit suggests amplification.
    • Negative sentiment flags the need for clearer communication or policy refinement.
  • Recognition signals: Expose cultural health and manager effectiveness.
  • Behavioral signals: Reveal what employees actually do versus what they say – engagement patterns, repeated questions, participation trends.

By categorizing signals this way, your continuous employee listening platform can become a strategic dashboard that tells you not just what’s happening, but what kind of response each situation requires.

Creating feedback loops

  • Daily monitoring for urgent issues
  • Weekly reviews for emerging patterns
  • Monthly analysis for strategic themes

Assign clear ownership and make responses visible to employees. This builds trust and reinforces engagement.

Integrating signals into planning

  • Before launching initiatives: Review signals for context, spot gaps, establish baseline sentiment.
  • During rollout: Monitor reception in real time, adjust messaging mid-campaign.
  • After implementation: Track long-term impact beyond initial reactions.

From reactive programs to responsive culture

The ultimate promise of signal intelligence isn’t just better data – it’s transforming EX from reactive programs to a responsive culture where leadership acts on what employees experience right now.

Success is no longer measured by engagement scores alone, but by responsiveness: how quickly you detect needs, interpret them accurately, and address them before they escalate.

Making the shift to signal-driven EX strategy

If your current EX approach relies on scheduled feedback, the transition to continuous employee listening won’t happen overnight. Start by:

  • Identifying blind spots
  • Implementing an EX platform with embedded continuous employee listening features
  • Providing teams with tools that translate insight into action

Because in today’s workplace, the EX strategies that win aren’t built on the most comprehensive annual surveys – they’re built on the ability to listen continuously, interpret accurately, and respond meaningfully every day.

Your employees are already signaling what they need. The question is whether your EX strategy is designed to hear them.

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Agentic AI tools for internal comms: Listening, learning, and lifting culture https://www.interactsoftware.com/blog/agentic-ai-for-internal-comms-listening-learning-and-lifting-culture/ Fri, 19 Sep 2025 15:18:39 +0000 https://www.interactsoftware.com/?p=165583 Discover the potential of agentic AI tools for internal comms and get ready to turn scattered signals from across the digital workplace into actionable insights. As an internal communicator you’re part strategist, therapist, translator, and data scientist. You’re navigating a sea of messages, channels, and feedback loops, all while trying to connect people to purpose...

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Discover the potential of agentic AI tools for internal comms and get ready to turn scattered signals from across the digital workplace into actionable insights.


As an internal communicator you’re part strategist, therapist, translator, and data scientist. You’re navigating a sea of messages, channels, and feedback loops, all while trying to connect people to purpose and each other.

Now imagine if you could get ahead of the noise with agentic AI tools that read employee feedback, spots patterns, and tells you what to act on before you even ask. This is exactly the promise of agentic AI for internal comms.

We’re talking about a very real and fast-approaching shift from content support to strategic enablement. Think AI agents that:

  • Spot signals and patterns
  • Surface insights
  • Nudge your team toward the moments that matter most

Not just listening, but understanding. Not just analyzing, but enabling.

This is the emerging power of agentic AI for internal communications – to help teams stop firefighting and start taking action for a better future of work. It’s already being tested in real comms environments and it’s showing great promise.

What is agentic AI? It’s a strategic partner.

Before we get too excited, let’s pin down the basics. What is agentic AI?

Agentic AI frameworks are built to operate autonomously within defined parameters, making them fundamentally different from the AI tools most teams use today.

In simple terms, it’s like a sharp, proactive partner that can act independently on your behalf to achieve a goal.

Unlike AI tools you may already be using, which require specific sets of instructions (and usually a fair bit of trial and error), agentic AI tools do three very useful things.

What agentic AI frameworks do:

  • Connects the dots: Agentic AI frameworks plug into your internal systems. From your intranet to Slack, to your HRIS, agentic AI will work quietly in the background to gather context others might miss.
  • Finds the gold: It will dig through feedback, engagement data, and comms channels to unearth patterns and spot the meaningful details your team might have missed.
  • Prompts action: When agentic AI systems provide a true picture of what’s happening in your organization, you can take proactive steps to amplify the good and fix the bad.

Agentic AI vs Generative AI: what’s the difference?

Now, let’s clear up the big question of agentic AI vs. generative AI. How exactly do they differ?

Generative AI is great at creating content; the classic “write me an email about X.” But agentic AI? That’s a different beast. It’s more about context and consequence. It knows why a message might be needed in the first place and helps you decide what should happen next. Less copy-paste, more connect-the-dots.

Generative AI systemsAgentic AI systems
Write contentSuggest what content is needed
Require promptsAct on signals
ReactiveProactive

This shift – from assistant to advisor – is why agentic AI has so much potential for internal comms.

As agentic AI frameworks mature, they’ll become increasingly sophisticated at understanding organizational context and recommending strategic interventions.

Agentic AI for internal communications: The impact on your day-to-day

With agentic AI in internal comms, the benefits will show up in the flow of everyday work. It’s less about more tools to manage, and more about fewer distractions, clearer signals, and time back for the conversations that matter.

How agentic AI can help internal comms

Delegating the drudgery to digital intelligence

You know the drill – combing through survey data, interpreting open text fields, manually tagging themes. It’s thankless, time-consuming, and doesn’t always yield anything useful.

Soon, agentic AI for internal comms will take this off your plate. Agentic AI tools are specifically designed to handle these repetitive analytical tasks, freeing you to focus on strategic decision-making.

Instead of staring at spreadsheets, you’ll get proactive insights: what’s changing, where attention is needed, and why. That’s not just time saved but clarity gained.

Transforming raw data into cultural intelligence

There’s a world of difference between reporting numbers and understanding meaning. An AI agent can do both. For example, it could pull together sentiment from employee recognition platforms, engagement surveys, and chat tools to give you real-time cultural snapshots.

Imagine knowing not just that engagement dropped, but why it did, and what topic triggered it. That’s where internal comms moves from messenger to meaning-maker.

Enabling leadership through foresight, not hindsight

The biggest win will be getting ahead of problems before they become headlines. With agentic AI monitoring countless employee datapoints in the background, internal comms will be able to act on early signals, whether that’s a growing concern about return-to-office policies or a swell of quiet pride in a team’s recent success.

When you spot the pattern early, you can help leaders act in the moment – not weeks later, when the energy has passed or the damage is done.

How agentic AI works for employee comms

If you’re wondering how agentic AI frameworks work for employee comms, the answer starts with their role as connectors. These frameworks are designed to integrate seamlessly with existing communication tools. For internal communicators dealing with endless messages, pulse survey results, and signals, agentic AI turns that noise into insights.

Recognition agents

Imagine having an agent that “listens” across your company’s digital channels. It notices when someone gives a colleague kudos in a meeting chat or praises them in a team post. That moment gets flagged for you instead of buried in a transcript.

The result? Recognition that’s timely, authentic, and far less likely to slip through the cracks.

Signal detection

Agentic AI systems excel at continuous monitoring across multiple channels simultaneously. Imagine the AI agent notices a spike in questions about a confusing policy, or picks up on declining morale in a specific region. It surfaces these findings and shows context so you’re not just informed – you’re empowered.

AI-powered campaign support

Forget racking your brain for content ideas that fit what you think employees need. Agentic AI will look back at which comms resonated, who engaged with what, and what topics are gaining traction. In turn, this allows you to build content strategies based on real data, not gut feeling.

In other words, you get insights before you hit publish – not after.

Agentic AI use cases for internal comms

Here’s a few further use cases to help internal communicators envision what the future looks like:

  • Major company changes: As big initiatives roll out, agentic AI systems will listen for employee sentiment in real time and suggest adjustments to messaging as chatter evolves.
  • Return-to-office transitions: During phased return-to-office plans, it has the potential to surface patterns in ongoing conversations, flagging pain points and recommending targeted communications.
  • Open enrollment periods: Agentic AI will beable to track recurring questions or misconceptions about open enrollment, then propose tailored reminders or refreshed FAQs to make benefits communication clearer and more effective.

Beyond the comms team: The deeper impact on your organization

The value of agentic AI for internal communications reaches far beyond the comms team. These agentic AI frameworks enable a shift from reactive to proactive communication strategies. By turning scattered feedback and signals into clear insights, they will help leaders understand theirpeople, guide managers toward smarter decisions, and ultimately make the whole organization more connected and responsive.

Improving the employee experience

Employees don’t want more communication. They want better communication. Agentic AI will help to deliver the right messages to the right people, at the right moment, based on actual signals, not assumptions. Less spray and pray, more smart targeting. It’s like moving from broadcast to narrowcast, without losing the human touch.

Building a culture of transparency and trust

In a world of distributed teams, back-to-back meetings, and endless emails, trust gets built (or eroded) one message at a time. When AI can help comms teams surface real-time sentiment and respond to what people are actually feeling, leaders can show they’re listening – and acting.

That’s how you earn trust. Not just by being transparent, but by being timely.

Driving business alignment and agility

No strategy survives if people don’t hear about it or understand how they fit into it. Agentic AI will give internal comms the power to cut through the noise and reinforce key messages with precision. You’ll spend less time chasing visibility and more time creating clarity.

Freeing up precious time for strategic thinking

Let’s not confuse using agentic AI tools for internal communications with handing over the reins. The smartest teams will use agentic AI to free up time and energy for what humans do best – storytelling, empathy, intuition.

The future of internal communications with Agentic AI tools

The most exciting thing about the future of internal communications with AI agents isn’t just the technology. It’s what it frees you up to focus on.

When agentic AI takes on the signal-sorting, the insight-spotting, and the repetitive lift, your team is no longer bogged down in output. Agentic AI systems handle the operational burden while your team focuses on the human elements of communication. In turn, you get to spend more time on the work that actually moves the needle: shaping culture, deepening understanding, and making communication genuinely meaningful.

The next era of internal comms won’t be measured by the volume of messages sent. It’ll be measured by resonance, relevance, and response. The rise of agentic AI for internal comms is the shift that enables this – turning data into direction, and giving comms professionals the space to do more strategic, human, and high-impact work.

These tools are coming, and fast. The real question is: what will you do with the time and insight they give you?

Because that’s where the future of internal communications really gets interesting.

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Employee experience strategy: driving engagement and performance with a human-centered approach https://www.interactsoftware.com/blog/employee-experience-strategy-driving-engagement-and-performance/ Thu, 12 Jun 2025 09:55:00 +0000 https://www.interactsoftware.com/?p=164253 Discover how a human-centered employee experience strategy can boost engagement, performance, and connection. Learn to create a workplace where employees feel valued, motivated, and aligned with your mission. A human-centered employee experience (EX) strategy is a thoughtful, holistic approach to creating a workplace where people feel supported, empowered, and motivated throughout their journey — from...

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Discover how a human-centered employee experience strategy can boost engagement, performance, and connection. Learn to create a workplace where employees feel valued, motivated, and aligned with your mission.


A human-centered employee experience (EX) strategy is a thoughtful, holistic approach to creating a workplace where people feel supported, empowered, and motivated throughout their journey — from recruitment to alumni engagement. It is not merely a collection of initiatives, but a deliberate effort to shape how employees perceive their roles, relationships, and the organizational culture they are part of.

Think of it as a roadmap that touches every key moment, including recruitment and onboarding, daily work and collaboration, growth and development, recognition and feedback, offboarding and alumni engagement.

A strong EX strategy is built on six foundational pillars that align employee needs with business outcomes. These pillars are:

  • Communication: employees need to understand company strategy, news, and events
  • Self-service: employees need to find people and expertise to do their job
  • Knowledge: employees need task-driven hubs to manage work and goal progress
  • Alignment: employees need easy access to processes and software
  • Recognition: employees need praise and public recognition from peers and leaders
  • Community: employees need opportunities to connect, collaborate, and innovate
A table displaying the employee experience strategy pillars.

Why an employee experience strategy matters

At its core, an employee experience strategy is about deeply understanding and intentionally designing the human side of work. It bridges the gap between organizational objectives and employee expectations, creating an environment where both can thrive. When employees feel valued and connected, they are more likely to stay longer, perform better, and advocate for the organization.

Organizations that prioritize employee experience tend to outperform competitors in key areas such as engagement and productivity. Gallup research shows that highly engaged workforces are 21% more profitable than those with poor engagement.

Creating an employee experience strategy

An effective EX strategy examines the complete landscape of work — emotional connection, technological support, workspace design, professional growth, and culture. It begins with a thorough understanding of employee needs, gathered through surveys, focus groups, and informal conversations. This feedback helps identify trends and areas requiring attention.

Creating personas to represent different employee groups ensures the strategy addresses diverse needs. Journey mapping helps identify key moments that define the employee experience, from onboarding to performance reviews and milestone celebrations.

A clip from Interact’s webinar ‘From Nice-to-Have to Non-Negotiable: Prove the Value of Your EX Stack’.

Steps to establish a strong foundation

  • Understand employee needs through surveys and conversations
  • Create employee personas to reflect diverse roles and experiences
  • Map the employee journey to identify key moments
  • Design for physical, digital, and cultural touchpoints

Each of these steps should be informed by the six EX pillars. For example, communication and knowledge sharing are essential for onboarding, while recognition and community are vital for engagement and retention.

Clear communication: a cornerstone of EX

Clear and accessible communication ensures employees are informed and aligned with the company’s mission and values. It fosters trust and engagement, and supports a transparent environment where employees feel empowered to contribute.

Employees in a conference room creating an employee experience strategy.

Getting the right information to the right people at the right time isn’t as easy as it seems. 47% of digital workers struggle to find information or data needed to effectively perform their jobs, according to Gartner, with 40% of digital workers using more than 11 applications to do their job, and 5% of workers using 26 or more.

Organizations should establish a centralized hub for updates, policies, and resources. Digital tools such as intranets play a critical role in streamlining communication and integrating human-centric design with technology.

  • Create a central hub for updates and resources
  • Encourage two-way communication through feedback tools
  • Use storytelling to humanize messages and build connection

Recognition: fueling motivation and belonging

Recognition is a powerful driver of motivation. Employees who feel their contributions are acknowledged are more likely to remain committed and aligned with organizational goals. Effective recognition can take many forms — from shoutouts in meetings to peer-to-peer programs and milestone celebrations.

Digital tools can amplify recognition efforts, making it easier to cultivate a culture of appreciation that resonates across the organization.

  • Spotlight achievements during team meetings or newsletters
  • Implement peer-to-peer recognition programs
  • Celebrate milestones with personalized messages or awards

Measuring the impact of your strategy

Without regular evaluation, even well-designed strategies can lose their impact. Continuous improvement requires setting clear goals and tracking progress. Key metrics provide insights into the success of your EX strategy and help refine it over time.

  • Participation in training and recognition programs
  • Employee engagement survey results
  • Retention and turnover rates
An employee being recognized with a trophy as part of an employee experience strategy.

Sustaining a human-centered strategy

Creating an effective employee experience is an ongoing journey. It requires continuous listening, flexibility, and a genuine commitment to understanding what truly matters to employees. Organizations that excel in this area recognize that their workforce is their most valuable asset.

By investing in meaningful connections, providing clear pathways for growth, and demonstrating authentic care, companies can transform workplace culture from a transactional environment to a collaborative community. The most impactful strategies emerge from a deep understanding of human needs — going beyond traditional metrics to create an ecosystem where individuals feel supported, heard, and inspired.

Final takeaway

An exceptional employee experience strategy turns work into more than just a job. It becomes a platform for personal growth, collective achievement, and shared purpose. By anchoring your strategy in the six EX pillars — communication, self-service, knowledge, alignment, recognition, and community — you build a workplace where both people and performance thrive.

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Bring Pride celebrations to your digital workplace with an intranet makeover and more https://www.interactsoftware.com/blog/unite-your-organization-with-a-thematic-intranet-makeover/ Thu, 01 May 2025 09:38:00 +0000 https://www.interactsoftware.com/?p=156204 Embracing and showcasing support for Pride on your digital workplace platforms sets a powerful tone of acceptance and unity. This article recommends practical ways to infuse the vibrant spirit of Pride into the heart of your digital workspace. You probably have an exciting agenda of events and activities planned to make this Pride Month a...

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Embracing and showcasing support for Pride on your digital workplace platforms sets a powerful tone of acceptance and unity. This article recommends practical ways to infuse the vibrant spirit of Pride into the heart of your digital workspace.


You probably have an exciting agenda of events and activities planned to make this Pride Month a meaningful one that reinforces belonging, but don’t forget to extend the vibe into your digital workplace. Research shows that many in the LGBTQ+ community still fear bringing their full selves to work, so for that reason, its important to celebrate and promote inclusion and awareness across your entire workplace.

Why it’s important to celebrate Pride in the digital workplace

Thinking beyond in-person activities and events is essential when we consider that not all employees have the opportunity to participate in physical Pride events due to geographical or logistical reasons.

Supporting Pride in your digital workplace ensures that all employees, regardless of location or circumstances, feel included and valued. Planning virtual events and discussions, and ensuring resources can be easily accessed from anywhere with an internet connection will further foster a sense of belonging for all employees.

Even a simple gesture such as theming your internal branding across your digital workplace can serve as a daily reminder that your organization is partipacting in Pride Month – however (and this is a big however), meaningful participation requires more than simply adding the colours of the Pride flag to your company logo and should include a roster of relevant and purposeful activities and events.

How to mark a celebration with an intranet makeover

As the digital home of your organization, you can use your intranet not just to highlight how your events schedule is engaging with commemorative or celebratory events, but to create and distribute themed content and activities. Even more importantly, it’s a perfect way to share the love.

A thematic intranet makeover is one great way to use design and content to embed a theme like DE&I recognition within your organization. This isn’t just true for events like Pride Month, but for so many other important dates such as Black History Month, Women’s History Month, and Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month (AAPI).

Your comprehensive guide to the world of intranet design

Understand the essential considerations behind over 1,500 intranet design and UX examples from Interact’s in-house experts.

You may also have dates that are especially important to your organization, such as a landmark anniversary since the business was founded. Whatever you choose to celebrate, these are our tips for placing that theme front and center on your employee experience platform (EXP).

Update your intranet theme

A great place to start is by updating the look and feel of your intranet by making use of the theme editor, if your intranet has one. Here you have control over many of the design elements that make your intranet site appealing and have the ability to upload new themed versions of your logo, wallpaper for your sign-in landing page, and even the bookmark and responsive web app icons for your intranet. 

We recommend that you have a backup of any logos and wallpapers before making a change to help you revert back in the future.

Themed backgrounds for Zoom or Teams

You can extend your theme to your organization’s online interactions by providing themed and branded video backgrounds for employees to use. If your intranet has an image gallery that your employees can access, you can store these images there so your people can browse, like, and comment on them, and save their favorites to use as they wish.

You can also help people to find and use these themed backgrounds by posting an article on your intranet homepage feed, complete with download links, or attaching to a dedicated page that they can download them from.

If you don’t have internal design resources, your design team is too busy to help out, or you just need inspiration to get started, free-to-use visual content creation sites can be a great help. Canva has all the tools and images you need to create themed backgrounds.

Listen to employee ideas for celebrating Pride

By actively seeking input from LGBTQ+ employees and allies, you can demonstrate a genuine commitment to honoring diverse perspectives and experiences. This ensures that events and initiatives are meaningful and reflective of the community you’re supporting.

Establishing a Pride Month committee and use Idea Management technology to gather thoughts and suggestions from across your organization. This will ensure that all voices are heard, regardless of hierarchy or location, and that Pride Month initiatives are truly representative of the diverse perspectives within the workforce.

Community Book Corner or Club

Why not celebrate your theme on your intranet by sharing and asking for some relevant reading recommendations? You can generate engagement by asking employees to share their favourite titles and authors on an open intranet forum which could be used all year round, or by creating a dedicated intranet page with a call to action for people to share their contributions in the comments section. Both options will surely get your employees engaging and sharing with one another. 

Boost LGBTQ+ voices

While you may have put a lot of effort into organizing Pride Month celebrations, it’s important to give employees a space – and a voice – to choose how they celebrate. And that may not always be through the activities that you have planned.

Your intranet should be a space where anyone feels encouraged to express themselves in their own way, and providing everybody with access to social intranet features can empower employees to create and share their own posts, receive likes and comments, and interact with posts from their peers.

Do some content planning

The power of content planning in advance cannot be overstated. A quick brainstorm can often generate a few ideas for articles that you can create, publish, and share through your intranet. If your organization has an active community connected to your theme, such as an active LGBTQ+ community, asking for advice, or better yet, inviting people from that community to contribute will not only give them a platform to amplify their voice, it will also help to ensure your content is both meaningful and authentic.

Your comprehensive guide to the world of intranet design

Understand the essential considerations behind over 1,500 intranet design and UX examples from Interact’s in-house experts.

Another way to encourage an all-company conversation is by sharing an article with a call to action to share words of encouragement or support for their peers using the comments of the article page. Also consider leveraging user-generated content by creating a themed photo gallery for staff members to share how they are marking the occasion.

Some quick example ideas for an LGBTQ+ History Month intranet makeover include:

  • Spotlight local LGBTQ+ partners or charities that support the communities external to your organization. Connecting staff to community charities and partners will allow them to find creative ways to get involved.
  • Share stories of diversity and inclusivity in your workplace.
  • Present opportunities for training and learning about allyship and support for relevant communities. There are a lot of great resources out there that will bring diversity, equity, and inclusion to your workplace.

Build a themed community space

We have seen our customers build amazing online communities through their intranets and it is inspiring to see many create safe spaces for LGBTQ+ communities and allies in this way. A workplace community on your intranet is perfect for starting conversations, offering specialized support and resources, and even gaining valuable insights that help you make better organizational changes to support a more diverse workforce.

Intranet communities are easy to create, but they do require a little bit of love to keep them updated and useful. We recommend that you find a few willing colleagues to stand up and be caretakers of the community to ensure questions are answered and staff using it feel validated. 

Your comprehensive guide to the world of intranet design

Understand the essential considerations behind over 1,500 intranet design and UX examples from Interact’s in-house experts.

If you already have a community available for employees to use, the period that you use to celebrate your chosen theme is a great time to advertise and grow that community. Ensure that articles are pointing staff to the community and make use of navigation or a dedicated widget on your homepage to drive traffic there too. 

Host a virtual or hybrid event

Virtual or hybrid events can bring people together and help to ensure that those who work remotely also feel included too. The sky is the limit here when it comes to bringing colleagues together in meetings convened for a specific purpose, but if your organization also runs regular town halls or all hands meetings, it could be a great opportunity to apply a theme to those as well. 


Reflecting your organization’s support for Pride on your digital workplace platforms is not only a powerful statement of inclusivity but also a crucial step in fostering a welcoming and diverse environment. By showcasing your commitment through visible support, thoughtful content, and active engagement, you can create a culture where all employees feel valued and respected. But remember, these efforts must go beyond tokenistic gestures and should be part of a fully rounded strategy for celebrating Pride with meaning.

Your comprehensive guide to the world of intranet design

Understand the essential considerations behind over 1,500 intranet design and UX examples from Interact’s in-house experts.

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The plot twist for internal comms tech strategies (and how to avoid Black Mirror moments) https://www.interactsoftware.com/blog/why-its-time-to-take-ownership-of-your-internal-communications-technology-strategy/ Fri, 25 Apr 2025 10:05:13 +0000 https://www.interactsoftware.com/?p=163801 In this article, we explore why taking ownership of your internal communications technology strategy could be the power move comms professionals need – and why now is the perfect time to seize control before you find yourself in a narrative where technology decisions are happening to you, not for you. The line between traditional business...

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In this article, we explore why taking ownership of your internal communications technology strategy could be the power move comms professionals need – and why now is the perfect time to seize control before you find yourself in a narrative where technology decisions are happening to you, not for you.


The line between traditional business roles and technological expertise is becoming increasingly blurred.

This shift is particularly true for internal communicators, whose role now extends far beyond crafting and delivering messages. Today, they must also manage and influence the internal communications technology strategy to truly meet the demands of their organizations, or risk losing control of the narrative entirely.

For Chief Information Officers (CIOs), this shift is particularly significant as they increasingly push for shared leadership in technology across departments. For internal communicators, taking ownership of the internal communications technology strategy isn’t just necessary – it’s a powerful way to ascend into strategic leadership and avoid that Black Mirror moment where decisions are made for you, not by you.

By actively shaping the technology strategy in their department, internal communicators can enhance their credibility, streamline processes, leverage data for smarter decision-making, future-proof their careers, and unlock exciting new opportunities for advancement.

CIOs are pushing for shared tech ownership – are you ready to claim your piece?

Here’s a reality check: a recent Gartner survey shows that 46% of CIOs are now moving toward co-owning digital leadership within their organizations. Think about that for a second. Almost half of tech leaders are actively looking for partners across the business.

The report highlights something crucial – CIOs who share responsibility with their peers, placing the design and management of digital capabilities in the hands of those closest to where value is created, are simply more successful in maximizing their digital investments.

What does this mean for you as an internal communicator? It’s an open invitation to step up. To remain relevant and effective, you’ve got to take ownership of your internal communications technology strategy. By collaborating with IT rather than just submitting tickets and hope, you ensure your specific needs are met while aligning with broader organizational goals.

This isn’t just about improving how your department performs – it’s your opportunity to become a digital transformation driver. Are you ready to grab it?

How ownership of the internal communications technology strategy boosts your credibility

Businesswoman presenting internal communications technology strategy metrics on a wall-mounted screen.

When you take responsibility for your internal communications technology strategy, something magical happens to your professional reputation. Understanding the tools, platforms, and systems that power your communications transforms you from “the message person” to a strategic partner who’s driving digital growth.

Think about it – what happens when you can confidently talk tech in leadership meetings? When you can lead decisions about communication platforms rather than just accepting what you’re given? You immediately position yourself as a forward-thinking leader.

You become the go-to person for critical initiatives like employee engagement, culture transformation, and crisis communications. Rather than being seen as “just” a communicator, you become an influential stakeholder who shapes both the message and the medium. And isn’t that the seat at the table you’ve been working toward?

Improving communication efficiency with the right technology (that YOU choose)

Have you ever been stuck with a communication tool that makes your job harder, not easier? When you own your technology strategy, that frustration disappears. You get to implement tools and platforms that actually streamline your processes instead of complicating them.

Take low-code intranets, for example. They’re a game-changer for non-technical communicators who want to take control without needing to become coding experts overnight. Imagine having an intuitive content management system (CMS) with AI-assisted writing and seamless integrations with your other business tools – all selected by you because they fit your specific needs.

What could you do with all the time you’d save from not manually posting the same content across multiple platforms? Or from struggling with clunky systems that weren’t designed with communicators in mind?

When you drive your tech strategy, you’re not just improving your team’s efficiency – you’re enhancing the entire organization’s communication flow. Your colleagues get timely, well-delivered messages, and you get to focus on strategy instead of fighting with tech.

Leveraging data for smarter decision making (and proving your worth)

Let’s face it, gut feelings don’t impress the C-suite anymore. Data does. And when you take ownership of your technology strategy, you gain access to powerful analytics that can transform how you work and how you’re perceived.

Instead of saying “I think our benefits announcement went well,” you can confidently state “Our benefits announcement saw 87% readership, with 40% of employees accessing it via mobile, and the average reading time was 3.5 minutes – 15% higher than our previous major announcements.”

Which version of you has more influence in the next budget meeting?

With the right tech stack – one that you’ve chosen strategically – you can see which content types resonate most with employees, which channels drive the highest engagement, and where there might be communication gaps you need to address.

This isn’t just about making your communications better (though it certainly does that). It’s about demonstrating your strategic value through measurable results that tie directly to business success. When you bring data-backed insights to leadership conversations, you’re speaking the language that gets attention and builds your reputation as an indispensable business partner.

Future-proofing your career in a digital-first world

The workplace is changing at warp speed. Are your skills keeping pace?

By taking ownership of your internal communications technology strategy, you’re not just improving your current performance. You’re also investing in your future marketability. Digital transformation is reshaping every industry, and communicators who understand technology aren’t just preferred candidates – they’re essential ones.

When you proactively learn about emerging platforms, explore AI communication tools, and master data analytics, you’re building skills that will keep you relevant no matter how the communication landscape evolves. You become adaptable in a way that technology-resistant communicators simply can’t match.

Think about where internal communication was five years ago compared to today. Now imagine the changes we’ll see in the next five years. By positioning yourself at the intersection of communication and technology now, you’re preparing to lead rather than scramble to catch up when the next big shift happens.

Unlocking career advancement opportunities (hello, promotion!)

A shot of a woman's lower legs and feet in black jeans and red shoes ascending a staircase, representing the unlocking new career advancement opportunities through internal communications technology strategy ownership

Want to move up? Tech savvy is your secret weapon.

When you embrace technology leadership, you open doors to roles that simply didn’t exist a few years ago. Digital communications manager. Employee experience technology lead. Internal platforms strategist. These hybrid positions that blend communication expertise with technical knowledge are increasingly valuable, and they typically come with higher visibility, greater influence, and yes, better compensation.

By taking ownership of your department’s technology strategy, you naturally position yourself to lead cross-functional projects. You become the bridge between communications and IT, making you invaluable in digital transformation initiatives. This increased visibility puts you on leadership’s radar in a whole new way.

Don’t be surprised when you find yourself being considered for opportunities that previously might have gone to someone else. When you demonstrate that you understand both the human and technical sides of modern communication, you become a rare and valuable talent – one worth promoting.

Final thoughts: Seize control or risk becoming the cautionary tale

Being “just” a great communicator isn’t enough anymore. To truly thrive, you need to step beyond traditional boundaries and claim ownership of your internal communications technology strategy.

Unlike those helpless Black Mirror protagonists watching technology control their fate, you have the opportunity to write your own story. By enhancing your credibility as a strategic partner, streamlining communication processes with tools you select, making data-driven decisions that impress leadership, and future-proofing your skill set, you position yourself for success in our increasingly digital world.

With CIOs actively seeking partners across departments, there’s never been a better time to step up and embrace technology leadership. Taking control of your internal communications technology strategy isn’t just about making your current job easier – though it certainly does that – it’s about securing your future as an indispensable leader in the digital age.

So what’s it going to be? Will you take control of your technological destiny, or let someone else write your Black Mirror episode? The choice, for now at least, is yours.

Main image by Freepik.

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Build or buy an intranet: Making the right choice in 2025 https://www.interactsoftware.com/blog/build-or-buy-intranet/ Thu, 03 Apr 2025 15:11:35 +0000 https://www.interactsoftware.com/?p=157254 Should you build or buy an intranet? Which option is more cost-effective? Which is the best choice for your organization? This article will provide all the answers you need. You don’t have the luxury of waiting months or years to see results from your intranet. That’s why making the decision whether to build or buy...

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Should you build or buy an intranet? Which option is more cost-effective? Which is the best choice for your organization? This article will provide all the answers you need.


You don’t have the luxury of waiting months or years to see results from your intranet. That’s why making the decision whether to build or buy is crucial – after all, you’re not just purchasing software; you’re investing in a solution to your organization’s challenges.

There are many options available for organizations considering a new intranet project. On the surface, it may seem a feasible option to build a SharePoint intranet due to the natural integration with Microsoft 365, but is that the best solution to help you achieve your most critical business objectives? 

Organizations typically invest in intranet software for these key reasons:

  1. A lack of a one-stop-shop that is easy to search and provides employee self-service options 
  2. Employees don’t feel like they know what’s going on in the organization which slows down the execution of new initiatives.
  3. Comms or HR teams don’t have a way to measure how they are making an impact on improving efficiency, collaboration, and culture. 

These challenges are often expressed in the following ways throughout your organization: 

  • “Employees can’t find what they need”  
  • “Our employees don’t feel informed” 
  • “I want a bigger seat at the table and to show how we help the business achieve its goals” 

To address these challenges, organizations must carefully evaluate the true cost when deciding whether to build or buy an intranet, looking beyond just the upfront expenses.

What is the true cost of building an intranet?

At first glance, building your own intranet may seem like a cost-effective choice that benefits the organization’s bottom line. However, when you consider the time, resources, and ongoing maintenance required, the true cost may be higher than expected. This is a key factor in the build or buy an intranet decision-making process.

Key questions to ask when evaluating the cost of building an intranet include:

  • How many months, or years will it take your organization to build out a custom instance? With the rate of change happening today, will what you’ve built still be relevant by the time it’s implemented? 
  • Does your organization have the technical and functional resources that can both understand the needs of the business and execute on building a solution that solves your biggest challenges? 
  • Do custom solutions provide the data you need to justify the cost and prove strategic impact? 
  • Will HR or Comms teams be able to create and manage content on a daily basis rather than relying on technical or IT resources? 

Why SharePoint intranets cost more in the long run

Because packaged intranets can be launched faster than custom-builds that use platforms like SharePoint, organizations can experience the benefits earlier. This is a key advantage when considering whether to build or buy an intranet.

Packaged intranet solutions can often be live for all employees – or a significant subset – in as little as three or four months. Building a custom solution (e.g., on SharePoint), however, can take at least fourteen months, according to Nielsen Norman, with a correspondingly slow time to value.

In addition, costs over the long term can quickly rise. Not just from the potential external (e.g., consultants) and internal initial effort and expertise involved in year one, but from the additional work required in further years, plus rising license costs. Gartner frequently highlights SharePoint’s complexity, noting that deployments often demand skilled IT staff or external consultants.  

With a SaaS-based intranet, new features are constantly being released, and engagement is kept high. Hosting, support, updates, and security testing are all part of the predictable costs. This leaves organizations room to focus on their mission, rather than the distraction of supporting internally managed systems. 

Forrester, Gartner & IDC all reach the same conclusion through their varying reports that packaged solutions are optimized for organizations prioritizing rapid deployment, ease of use, and cost predictability aligning with wider cost optimization strategies.  

The benefits of an out-of-the-box solution

Packaged intranets, also known as out-of-the-box solutions like those provided by Interact, offer a compelling choice for organizations debating whether to build or buy an intranet. Here’s how out-of-the-box solutions address your challenges while keeping costs and implementation timelines to a minimum:

Provide immediate impact: 

Interact provides a pre-built intranet platform that can be rolled out in weeks, not months, with minimal customization required. This reduces the demand on IT resources, freeing teams to focus on higher-value tasks rather than ongoing intranet maintenance. This quick deployment is a major benefit when deciding to build or buy an intranet.

Work with your existing Microsoft tools: 

Interact seamlessly connects with the broader Microsoft 365 ecosystem, including Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure AD) for authentication, SharePoint for content management, Teams for collaboration, and Tasks and Calendars for productivity. These integrations enhance functionality without the need for costly custom development. 

Meets employees where they are: 

Designed with deskless employees in mind, Interact delivers an intuitive, optimized mobile experience that boosts engagement among offline workers, even on personal devices.  

Create an engaging space: 

More than a repository of information, two-way communication tools, recognition, and rewards capture employee’s attention so they tune in to what you want them to hear. 

Prove your impact: 

Out-of-the-box reporting and analytics as well as the ability to export data into your business intelligence tools means you know who’s engaging with your content and who isn’t day one. You no longer have to guess whether your initiatives are making an impact on the business goals. 

Avoid budget surprises: 

With a transparent pricing model and no need for extensive add-ons or custom builds, tools like Interact are predictable and lower the total cost of ownership compared to SharePoint’s hidden expenses

A long-term solution that evolves with your business

One major benefit of out-of-the-box intranets is their ability to adapt and evolve with your organization’s needs. With a SaaS-based intranet like Interact:

  • New features and updates are released regularly, ensuring your intranet remains modern and efficient
  • Security, compliance, and performance improvements are handled by the provider, minimizing risks and disruptions
  • Support teams are available to troubleshoot issues, reducing reliance on internal IT teams for problem resolution

Final verdict: Build or buy an intranet?

When considering whether to build or buy an intranet, organizations must weigh factors like cost, time-to-value, scalability, and ongoing support. While a custom-built intranet might offer unique configurations, the hidden costs, long development time, and maintenance challenges often outweigh the benefits.

On the other hand, an out-of-the-box intranet solution like Interact provides:

  • Faster deployment
  • Lower long-term costs
  • Seamless integration with existing tools
  • A mobile-friendly, engaging experience
  • AI-powered analytics and insights
  • Predictable pricing with ongoing innovation

For companies focused on rapid implementation, efficiency, and future-proofing their digital workplace, the decision is clear – buy, don’t build.

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Interact enhances industry-leading employee experience platform with AI-powered Email Newsletter tool https://www.interactsoftware.com/news/introducing-email-newsletter-from-interact/ Wed, 12 Mar 2025 15:32:25 +0000 https://www.interactsoftware.com/?p=164632 Today marks the launch of the latest AI-powered tool in Interact’s industry-leading employee experience platform. Email Newsletter is the first internal comms-focused newsletter solution using artificial intelligence and fully integrated with other communication channels, removing reliance on costly third-party email software. Email Newsletter has been developed in direct response to challenges faced by internal communicators...

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Today marks the launch of the latest AI-powered tool in Interact’s industry-leading employee experience platform. Email Newsletter is the first internal comms-focused newsletter solution using artificial intelligence and fully integrated with other communication channels, removing reliance on costly third-party email software.

Email Newsletter has been developed in direct response to challenges faced by internal communicators every day as they strive to keep employees updated and informed across multiple platforms and channels.

“Almost every company we speak to shares that they struggle with fragmented communication tooling that isn’t integrated with their intranets or people data, which leads to huge time drains and inefficient operations because of duplicated work and weak reporting. With Interact’s existing people system integrations, targeting and reporting is a breeze,” said Tom Walters, VP of Product at Interact Software.

“Enterprises need a way to confidently reach all employees, whether they are at desks on laptops or are busy, time-poor frontline team members. Our multichannel platform makes connecting the dots easy.”

With email newsletters seamlessly integrated into the Interact EX platform, silos that breed disconnection are eliminated. The solution ensures consistent communication across all channels – intranet, email, chat platforms (e.g., Teams, Slack), mobile app notifications, digital signage, and SMS – reaching every employee, regardless of their location or device.

“The costs of employee disengagement and reduced productivity are staggering,” said Simon Dance, CEO of Interact. “This is a $9 trillion problem. And companies can’t solve it unless they have absolute confidence they are reaching, informing, and engaging every single employee. Tailored, well-timed communications are at the heart of a great company culture, and that is why we’ve invested in empowering every team to build just that, with the most robust and easy to use platform in the market.”

Companies can now deliver targeted, relevant information that drives engagement and productivity, not just send emails into the void. With AI-powered personalization and robust analytics, Interact Email Newsletter empowers communicators to measure impact and refine strategies, ensuring every message resonates.

“This isn’t just about efficiency; it’s about building a culture where every employee feels informed, valued, and engaged,” continued Dance. “We’re solving the $9 trillion problem, one employee at a time.”

It’s not just Interact that is excited about Email Newsletter. Here’s what Brittany Fullenkamp, Internal Brand Manager at Interact customer Airstream, has to say about the launch:

“We look forward to using Interact’s Email Newsletter feature to better connect with Airstream associates. Because it utilizes the same employee data we are feeding to the intranet from our HRIS, we won’t have to manually create and update distribution lists in a separate system. Personas will automatically be updated, allowing us to easily share targeted content with specific groups of associates, ensuring the messaging is relevant, accurate, and consistent for each audience. This will foster better associate engagement and save us time as well.”

Ready to transform your internal communications? See how Interact’s AI-powered Email Newsletter tool can reduce costs, streamline communications, and eliminate silos. Book a demo today or explore the product page to learn more!

The post Interact enhances industry-leading employee experience platform with AI-powered Email Newsletter tool appeared first on Interact software.

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