Why Comms Teams Should Become Curators of Attention
Internal communications teams today face a trust and attention challenge among employees. According to the Institute of Internal Communication (IoIC) Index 2026, employees now spend less than 10 minutes per day reading internal comms content – barely enough time to skim a couple of updates. No wonder 83% of employees feel overloaded by information, and 81% link this constant flood of updates to burnout. In large enterprises, it’s nearly universal: 93% say information overload significantly affects them.
When people are overwhelmed by high-volume, low-relevance communications, trust in the channel erodes and they start tuning out altogether. The takeaway for internal comms professionals? If your message doesn’t stand out as relevant and valuable to the recipient, it risks being lost in the noise.
The shift from volume to visibility
It’s time to flip the focus from sending more messages to getting the right visibility on the comms you publish. In practice, this means looking deeper into the data and intranet analytics, such as detailed SharePoint analytics, to understand what’s actually happening in your digital workplace.
Ask yourself the following questions:
- Who is seeing your content?
- Who is engaging with it or acting on it?
- How do employees feel about these communications – do they find them useful to their role, or are they disengaging?
By using SharePoint intranet analytics and similar advanced digital workplace analytics tools, internal comms teams can finally gain these insights. Crucially, this visibility lets you identify whether your comms are resonating or just adding to the overload. After all, 44% of employees say the communications they get now aren’t relevant to them – a clear sign that blasting generic updates to everyone isn’t working. Visibility into engagement means you can spot what’s relevant to whom and cut out clutter that doesn’t serve the audience.
Leveraging analytics for strategic internal communication
Leading comms teams are changing how they measure success, looking beyond basic outputs like open rates and clicks to whether communications actually drive action or outcomes. SharePoint analytics tools, let you measure more than reach, beyond initial consumption (views), you can see if employees took action (a sign of understanding) and even gauge sentiment (via comments, likes or shares).
These deeper insights help ensure you are measuring what truly matters most. By refining your measurement approach, you can clearly demonstrate whether communications are influencing employee behaviours and driving the intended outcomes. This should be embedded within your internal comms strategy and aligned to your wider business objectives.
Ultimately, whatever your organisations top priorities – whether customer satisfaction, cultural alignment, or boosting productivity – your communication strategy should align to and measure progress against those outcomes.
For example, imagine your team shares a new critical HR policy page across the company. The announcement gets plenty of views initially, but analytics reveal that only half of employees actually completed the required follow up action. With that visibility, a strategic communicator can adapt. Perhaps the content overloaded people with detail, the team could tailor and retarget the message – breaking it into shorter, role specific updates, or highlighting the most relevant points to each department – and send follow up reminder to only those who haven’t completed the training or acknowledged the policy page. Far more employees then complete the policy training, directly improving compliance and reducing risk for the business. This data driven approach transforms your internal communication strategy.
Even if employees only have a 10-minute window to engage, they’re spending it on targeted, relevant communications – not wading through irrelevant ones. When employees consistently receive content that feels useful and important to their job, they’re far more likely to pay attention. The important stuff is no longer diluted by an avalanche of trivial updates; it stands out.
Curators of attention
By prioritising visibility over volume, internal communications leaders elevate themselves from broadcasting messages to strategically guiding employee attention. Today’s top comms leads consciously curate who sees what – using robust intranet analytics to target each message to the right audience segments, so every team gets content that truly matters to them. This deliberate curation ties communications tightly to business priorities, ensuring employees’ limited attention is spent on high-value topics. In other words, internal comms isn’t just sending updates anymore; it’s actively shaping what the organisation focuses on.
To become true curators of attention, comms leaders need to champion data-driven insights. By regularly surfacing employee engagement analytics (for example showing what resonates most with certain locations or roles), they build credibility at the executive level. Communication teams that can present clear data on what’s working and what employees act on are better positioned to advise senior leadership – guiding decisions on where to double down or adjust messaging in real time. Equipped with these deep insights, the communications function moves closer to the centre of strategic decision-making. IC leaders emerge as trusted partners who can capture employees’ attention and direct it toward the organisation’s key priorities, proving the tangible impact of communication on business outcomes.
Putting visibility into action
Ready to move beyond volume and start deliberately directing employee attention?
Addin Analytics gives internal comms professionals clear, unmatched visibility into content consumption, understanding, sentiment and content journeys across your SharePoint intranet. It provides clear, defensible data on who’s seeing your content, who’s acting on it, and where attention is being lost – so you can confidently guide decisions and prove what works to your leadership.
When employees only have minutes to spare, Addin Analytics ensures they spend them on the communications that matter most, aligning engagement with real business outcomes.
Speak to us to discover more about how Addin Analytics can help you cut through the noise and focus on communications that count.
FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions):
How can internal communications teams reduce employee information overload?
They can curb information overload by prioritising relevance over quantity. Instead of flooding employees with every update, comms teams should target and tailor messages, so each audience only receives content that’s valuable to them. By cutting low-relevance noise and focusing on high-value communications, important messages stand out and employees stay engaged without feeling overwhelmed.
What does visibility over volume mean in internal communications?
It’s a shift from focusing on how many messages you send to how well your key messages are seen and understood. Visibility over volume means using analytics to ensure the right people actually see, engage with and find value in your content, rather than just pushing out high volumes of messages. In practice, it’s about measuring who consumes and responds to communications and emphasising quality and relevance over sheer output.
How can SharePoint intranet analytics improve internal communications engagement?
SharePoint intranet analytics products such as Addin Analytics shows internal comms teams what’s really happening with their content. By revealing who reads and acts on each intranet post (and who doesn’t), these analytics help identify which messages resonate or fall flat. Equipped with that insight, comms teams can refine their approach – doubling down on content that employees find useful and cutting or reworking what they ignore – so that employees consistently see content that matters to them, boosting engagement over time.
What metrics should internal comms teams track to measure success?
Modern internal comms teams must measure more than clicks or open rates. Key metrics include consumption (who actually viewed or read the content), understanding (did employees take the intended action or indicate they grasped the message – a sign the communication landed), and sentiment (employees’ reactions or feedback, showing how they feel about the message). Internal comms teams should also track content journeys (how employees navigate through related content) and tie communications to concrete outcomes or behaviour changes. By tracking these deeper metrics, comms can tell if messages truly resonate and drive results, rather than just generating surface-level engagement.
How can internal communications prove their impact on business outcomes?
Internal communications can prove impact by connecting comms metrics to business results. This means showing how communications influenced employee behaviour or performance in ways that support organisational goals – for example, demonstrating that a campaign led to higher policy compliance or faster adoption of a new tool. By collecting and presenting data that links communications to tangible outcomes, comms leaders can credibly show senior leadership that their work is driving business value.
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