One of the hottest trends connected to measurement strategies are employee communication measurement dashboards.

And for good reason. Done correctly, dashboards provide invaluable insights into the effectiveness of your internal messaging strategies to your different audience segments. But here's the kicker: not all dashboards are created equal.

If you’re only collecting a slew of metrics, charting them, and then plopping them into a PowerPoint or PDF, that is not a dashboard.

Dashboards are storytelling tools.

Just like the content we create for our audiences, the only way to make your data “story” meaningful is to make sure you’re thinking of your audience first and targeting your messaging accordingly.

That’s right …. you’ve heard us say this in our workshops before: one-size-fits-all communications simply don’t work. The same goes for dashboards.

So, here are a few examples (not an absolute list) of how to customize dashboards for your different audiences:

Executive Suite Elegance: We’ve had the opportunity to talk to thousands of executives all over the world. A consistent finding: they don’t care about how many clicks or views your content gets. What they want to know is SO WHAT? If you have 500 opens on an email, how did it help provide employees with what they need to help contribute to success?

When crafting a dashboard for your executives, focus on big-picture metrics that speak to organizational goals. Think revenue impact, employee sentiment trends, and overarching communication effectiveness. Keep it clean, concise, and visually appealing to catch their attention (these people don’t have the time to wade through a sea of numbers or charts).

Middle Management Mastery: Middle managers are the linchpins of communication within their respective teams.  For this audience, consider incorporating metrics related to strategic communication topics that help their teams succeed in whatever they do. Which are the most effective channels to reach their teams? And, one of my favorites,  give managers a chance to ‘fill in the blank’ on their own dashboard.

Ask them to fill in the top 3-5 questions they’ve heard from employees in a given time period for a strategic topic you’ve recently communicated. This provides a constant feedback loop and helps you identify areas of clarity, confusion, or alignment … allowing your team to proactively address gaps in communication and reinforce key messages more effectively.

Transparency, trust and a strategic partnership with one of your biggest communication channels … managers. This one is a winner!

HR Harmony: HR professionals play a pivotal role in shaping the employee experience. Equip them with dashboards that offer insights into workforce sentiment, training effectiveness, and cultural alignment. Additionally, provide access to historical data for trend analysis so they can better plan for the future.

Comm Team Toolkit: While our executives might not care about opens, clicks and shares … our own comm team certainly does. Give your team a view of which channels are working, and which ones aren’t. How do your various audience segments use (or not use) your different channels? Which headlines grabbed the most attention? What are the traffic metrics grouped by strategic topics?

This type of dashboard will shed some serious light on the effectiveness of your current communication strategy and where you need to improve.

So, whether you're catering to the discerning eyes of the executive suite, empowering middle managers to lead with clarity, partnering with HR's to create a healthy culture, or equipping your communication team with the tools they need to thrive, always keep your audience front and center. Because in the end, it's not just about the dashboard; it's about the story it tells and the impact it has on your organization's success.