Having a great idea for a new digital employee experience is one thing; getting your organisation to invest in it is another. The key is making a compelling business case that speaks the language of the business. Leadership and finance teams speak in terms of impact, risk, and return on investment (ROI). It’s often not enough simply to want to improve employee engagement and communications – you have to quantify the value of investing in it.
Strong internal communication is a critical driver of employee retention. When companies foster transparent, two-way communication, employees feel heard, valued, and aligned with company goals. According to Forbes, companies with highly effective internal comms strategies are 3.5 times more likely to significantly outperform their peers. Open dialogue builds trust and clarity around career growth and company direction, making employees feel secure and recognised, which directly reduces employee attrition.
These justifications can be strengthened in partnership with IT. Many organisations pay for a Microsoft 365 E3 licence (over £40 per user per month), yet only use 3 or 4 of the 10+ services it includes. A strong business case can demonstrate how an internal comms initiative will unlock more value from such investments – in addition to the direct benefits it will deliver. That’s music to a CFO’s ears.
A common mistake is framing the business case around internal comms team challenges alone. Instead, broaden your perspective: how does your project solve problems across the organisation?
Here’s how a handful of different departments might benefit:
By gathering input from multiple departments, you build a coalition of support. When several teams say “we need this,” your proposal becomes harder to ignore. Include data or endorsements from these groups to strengthen your case—e.g. “Operations reports that 45% of incidents last year were due to outdated procedures.”
What is your organisation really aiming to do? Grow the client base? Bed in acquisitions? Generate donations?
To win business case approval, in addition to garnering support from departments, it is important to demonstrate how a new digital employee experience can help the organisation to meet its top level strategic goal.
Here are two examples of how that can be done.
For a business that wants to grow the client base and generate more revenue the following justification might be made: By providing one version of the truth for our products, services and case studies we can support the sales motion. By centralising brand assets we can ensure we put our best foot forward when we pitch for new business and meet with existing clients. By offering community and cultural content we can ensure our people reflect our values and our organisation is represented as we want it to be when we engage with clients and prospects.
For a business that wants to get value on M&A activity the following justification might be made: By providing a centre for news and community our acquisitions can understand what we do and who we are – and connect with what they are becoming part of. Centralising brand assets will allow our acquisitions to start using the correct marketing materials as soon as we need them to. Our industry and product information will help the acquirer and acquired understand the full breadth of our value proposition and support cross-selling opportunities quickly.
So, you’ve done your homework on business needs, now you need to structure all this information into a persuasive business case document. Here’s our proven format:
Goals: How will this investment help the organisation to meet its top priority? How will this investment also help department heads to solve some of their pains? Why do I in my department want it to happen? Follow this order for maximum impact.
Proposed Solution: What are you proposing to do? Keep this high-level; details can go in appendices. Focus on the what and how it addresses the need.
Benefits: How will this solution benefit the organisation? Why is it better than alternative solutions?
Risks of Not Acting: What if nothing is done? Highlight the risk of status quo and acknowledge any risks in doing the project and how you’ll mitigate them.
Investment and Requirements: What resources, budget, or time are needed? The digital employee experience should be framed as an investment not a cost.
This structured approach ensures no key question is left unanswered. By the end, the reader (or listener) knows what you want to do and why, the benefits and investment – and that many parts of the business are on board.
Before you even finalise your business case, it pays to do a bit of detective work: conduct an intranet audit. This gives you a baseline of what’s working and what isn’t in your current digital employee experience. This can be used to support the business case, especially when there is interest beyond the initial pitch from stakeholders and they ask deeper questions: What exactly will change and why? Why isn’t what we have good enough?
For internal communications, consider examining:
Often an audit is eye-opening for leadership who are often unaware of what is possible or where the rest of the market is.
We’re offering you an exclusive opportunity to register for a free intranet audit with one of our Microsoft MVPs, global experts in Microsoft 365. No strings attached, just helpful tips you can put to work right away. Click here to find out more.
