Solving the top internal comms challenges (plus a pre-send checklist)
Two of the most common outcomes of underlying internal communications issues are low employee engagement and information overload. To boost employee engagement or reduce information overload, it might be tempting to roll out something flashy—like an entirely new channel—but PoliteMail’s Benchmark Report 2026 shows that 67% of employees still prefer critical updates via email or newsletters (more than any other channel). Reinventing internal comms likely isn’t the answer.
To boost open rates and click rates, take time to pinpoint your top internal comms issues and use data to improve your outcomes. Let’s explore some of the top internal comms challenges and how to solve them.
1. Employees ignore emails.
Low open rates or high ignore rates can signal that employees are tuning out communications—or never seeing them in the first place. Anecdotally, employees might say things like “I didn’t know about that,” or “I never saw that.” They might also ask questions you covered in recent announcements or miss deadlines you communicated via internal campaigns.
How to improve email open rates:
While a high ignore rate doesn’t automatically mean employees are disengaged overall, it may indicate communication fatigue, poor timing or targeting, or irrelevant content. One place to start is by writing attention-grabbing subject lines. PoliteMail Benchmark data finds that the most engaging subject lines use interesting, curious, time-sensitive, and action-oriented keywords. Mention specific dates and keywords such as Update, Action, Important, Reminder, New, Required, and Review.
Focus on creating clear, specific subject lines that tell employees what they will gain by opening the message. Include important dates, deadlines, actions, or updates whenever possible. Audience segmentation can also significantly improve performance by ensuring employees only receive content that applies to them.
Personalization can further increase engagement. Employees are more likely to open messages that feel relevant to their role, department, location, or interests. Rather than sending one generic message to everyone, tailor content whenever possible to create a more meaningful employee experience.
2. Employees skim but don’t read.
If you have a decent open rate, but employees spend little time reading your messages (i.e., low read time, high skim rates), employees might miss important details in the body of your messages.
How to increase email read time:
Make your emails more skimmable, not less. Lean into the skimming behavior. Write descriptive headlines and subheaders, and bold the most important information. Use an “inverted pyramid” structure: begin with the most critical information, and add details in descending order of importance. This way, even if someone only reads the first sentence, they’ll still get the essential message.
3. Employees don’t click links.
When it comes to CTRs, ensure you have realistic expectations. According to PoliteMail’s Benchmark data, the average click-through rate (CTR) across industries is 6.9%. A below-average CTR might indicate that content isn’t resonating or that employees are overwhelmed by too many calls to action.
How to increase email clicks:
Determine if it’s a relevance issue or an overwhelm issue. In some cases, employees simply don’t see enough value in clicking a link. If this is the issue, you can use internal benchmark data to assess whether a link outperforms or underperforms your average CTR and why.
Alternatively, if an email includes too many links, employees may skip them altogether. PoliteMail’s Benchmark data finds that to increase click rates, it’s best to keep your message content brief (one-minute read time or less) with one link near the top and another near the bottom. The more URLs you include in your content, the lower your click rate and total clicks will be.
Relevance also plays a major role. Employees are more likely to click when content is personalized to their needs or responsibilities. Segmenting audiences and tailoring calls to action can often improve click rates more effectively than redesigning an email.
If click rates remain low, compare results against your organization’s historical performance and benchmarks. Looking at click data alongside attention rate and read time can help determine whether employees aren’t seeing the link, aren’t interested in the content, or simply don’t understand the value of taking action.
Note: You can also use PoliteMail to A/B test different CTA variations—varying the placement, appearance, and text. Just make sure you only adjust one aspect of the CTA at a time.
4. One audience is significantly less engaged than the others.
Sometimes the problem isn’t overall engagement—it’s uneven engagement. Segment your metrics by department, role, shift, or location to reveal if one audience consistently opens, reads, or clicks less than others.
How to improve employee engagement across audiences:
Analyze patterns across segments to uncover communication inequities. For example, frontline teams or shift workers may have lower open rates than office-based staff, simply because of the timing of your messages. Or, if one group is more likely to open your messages on mobile, you may need to optimize the formatting to improve their experience.
When one audience consistently underperforms, it can signal that the message, format, timing, or channel isn’t working for that group. Or it might signal a broader engagement or morale issue within a specific team.
Get industry benchmarks from billions of
internal emails sent worldwide!
Discover email trends and analysis with PoliteMail's
Internal Email Benchmark Report.
5. Employees ask the same questions repeatedly.
If employees continually ask questions you’ve already answered in your comms, it may indicate a clarity issue rather than an awareness issue. Even important messages can flop if employees can’t find the information they need, don’t quickly understand the content, or can’t figure out what actually applies to them.
How to improve email clarity:
Recurring questions or high FAQ traffic often suggest a clarity issue rather than a communication gap. Employees may be opening and reading your messages, but they still can’t quickly find the information they need or understand how it applies to them.
Start by organizing content around employee needs. Clearly answer the questions employees are most likely to ask: What is changing? Why does it matter? What do I need to do? When do I need to do it? Use descriptive headings, bullet points, and bold text to make important information easy to find.
Finally, simplify your language. PoliteMail Benchmark data finds that “very easy” and “easy” texts—as measured by the Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease scale—achieve over 20% higher readership rates than short messages with very difficult text. As a best practice, keep your language to a 4th-grade level.
6. Change communication doesn’t drive adoption.
When organizations introduce new technology, processes, or other workplace changes, the internal comms team often measures the success of their communications by the actions employees take (or fail to take). Employees may open emails announcing a change but fail to complete the required training, use the new tool, transfer their information, or follow the new process.
How to improve change communication adoption:
If you’ve sent change communications, but you’re seeing low participation or delayed adoption, your employees likely don’t understand the “why” or see the value, or they might feel unclear about the expectations. To boost participation, consider how you can create more audience-centered messaging to help employees answer the question: “Why should I care?”
7. Managers aren’t reinforcing communication.
Employees consistently rank managers among their most trusted sources of workplace information, which means communication efforts can struggle if leaders don’t reinforce key messages from internal comms. Employees might clue you in by saying things like, “My manager never mentioned it.” Or you may start to notice inconsistent understanding across teams, indicating a breakdown in manager communication.
How to improve manager communication:
Managers play a critical role in reinforcing organizational messages, but many don’t have the time, context, or confidence to communicate effectively with their teams. Even the best companywide email can lose impact if managers aren’t prepared to answer questions or explain how the information affects their employees.
To improve manager communication, make it as easy as possible for leaders to share and reinforce key messages. Create manager toolkits with talking points, FAQs, presentation slides, and discussion prompts that can be incorporated into team meetings. Consider providing managers with information before it is distributed to the broader organization so they have time to review the message and prepare for employee questions.
You can also measure manager engagement by comparing communication performance across teams. If one department consistently shows lower open rates, read rates, or participation than others, it may indicate that managers need additional support. When managers actively reinforce communications and provide local context, employees are more likely to understand key messages, trust the information, and take action.
8. Employees tune out messages over time.
Sometimes, communication challenges reveal themselves over time. A steady decline in opens, attention rates, read time, or participation may suggest that employees are growing tired of your communication style or fatigued by the volume.
How to prevent communication fatigue:
Communication fatigue doesn’t happen overnight. It often develops gradually as employees become overwhelmed by the volume of messages they receive or begin to perceive communications as repetitive, irrelevant, or low value. When this happens, engagement metrics such as opens, attention rates, read time, and clicks may slowly decline over time.
The first step is to monitor trends and identify when engagement begins to drop. Using PoliteMail, communicators can measure performance over time and compare results against company averages and benchmarks to determine whether engagement challenges are isolated or part of a larger pattern.
To combat information overload, focus on delivering fewer, more relevant messages whenever possible. Audience segmentation and personalization can help ensure employees only receive content that applies to them. You can also experiment with different formats, storytelling techniques, and interactive elements such as polls, Q&As, videos, and reactions to keep communications fresh and engaging.
Don’t be afraid to test new approaches. A/B testing subject lines, calls to action, content length, and send times can help you identify what resonates most with your audience and prevent communication habits from becoming stale.
Using an Email Health Score
Improving internal communication outcomes rarely comes from a single tactic. The most effective communicators combine audience insights, engagement metrics, benchmarking, and continuous testing to better understand what resonates with employees over time.
Rather than focusing on a single metric, communicators should evaluate the overall health of their communications program. An Email Health Score combines multiple engagement indicators, including opens, attention rates, read time, clicks, and audience trends, to provide a more complete view of communication effectiveness. Looking at engagement holistically helps teams identify problems earlier and make more informed decisions.
View our pre and post-send email checklist to ensure you are getting the highest employee engagement
