Internal communication audit questions: free self-check

How good are your internal communication practices, really? This free self-check asks ten questions across five measures — reach, comprehension, retention, relevance and channel load. It takes about five minutes, shows where your practices are strongest and weakest, and gives you up to three fixes to start with.

What is this self-check — and what is it not?

It is a structured look at your own practices, answered by one person who knows how communication works in the organisation. Each question offers five descriptions of real practice; you choose the one closest to what actually happens, not what should happen.

It is not an audit of what employees understood. Only employees can tell you that. The full IC Quality Index diagnostic adds their evidence: message-tracing interviews down to the frontline, a manager cascade test and a short bilingual pulse. Treat this self-check as a first, honest reading — and as a checklist you can reuse.

How does the self-check work?

Ten questions, two for each of the five measures.
Five levels per question, from "not in place" to "embedded", each describing something you can observe — not an opinion.
Your result: a profile across the five measures, your weakest measure, and up to three fixes chosen from your answers.

The questions are below, so you can read the method before you start, print it for a team discussion, or use it in your own audit.

Reach: does the message get to everyone?

1. How do you know whether a key message reached every group — including frontline, shift and off-site staff?

Level	What it looks like
1	We send it and assume it arrived.
2	We look at delivery or open data for the channels we can see, such as email and the intranet.
3	We also ask supervisors to pass the message to teams without email, but we do not confirm it.
4	We confirm reach for each group, including teams without email — for example, supervisors confirm team by team.
5	We confirm reach for each group by a set deadline, and follow up with any group that was missed before it matters.

2. For your main employee groups, do you know which channels actually reach them?

Level	What it looks like
1	We use the same channels for everyone.
2	We know roughly which groups have email or intranet access.
3	We have a list of channels for each group, but it has not been checked recently.
4	We have a channel map for each group — desk, frontline, field, managers, by language — checked in the last 12 months.
5	The channel map is checked at least once a year, and every important message is planned against it.

Comprehension: do people understand it?

3. How do you check that people understood a key message — not just received it?

Level	What it looks like
1	We do not check.
2	We judge from the questions or complaints that come back.
3	We sometimes ask a few people informally.
4	For key messages, we run a short check — two or three questions with right answers — with a sample from each group.
5	We check every key message by group and language, and rewrite or re-send when a group falls below a target we set in advance.

4. In what language and style are messages written for each group?

Level	What it looks like
1	Messages are written once, in one language and style, without checking what each group reads best.
2	Messages are written in English and translated when someone asks.
3	Key messages are translated into Arabic as standard.
4	Messages for Arabic-first groups are written in Arabic first, in plain language, and checked by a native reader from that group.
5	Each group receives messages written for it — language, style and format, including voice and visuals — and readability is tested before sending.

Retention: do people remember it and act on it?

5. Do you know whether people remember key messages and act on them a week or more later?

Level	What it looks like
1	We do not know.
2	We assume so unless problems appear.
3	We sometimes see it in operational data, but we do not link it to the message.
4	For key messages, we define one behaviour in advance and check it seven days or more later, in operational data or a short recall check.
5	We measure recall and the target behaviour for every key campaign, by group, and the results change the next campaign.

6. How are important messages reinforced after the first announcement?

Level	What it looks like
1	One announcement, then nothing.
2	A reminder if someone asks.
3	A planned reminder through the same channel.
4	Reinforcement through more than one channel, including managers, at planned intervals.
5	A reinforcement plan for each key message — channels, managers' talking points, timing — adjusted using recall results.

Relevance: is it about their work?

7. How much of what employees receive is about their own work?

Level	What it looks like
1	We do not know; we send what departments ask us to send.
2	We know most messages are company news that applies to few people, but we have not changed that yet.
3	We target some messages by department or site.
4	We target messages by group and tag each as work-related or general; most of each group's messages are about their work.
5	We review relevance every month, using content tags and a one-question check, and stop or retarget what a group finds irrelevant.

8. How do employees' questions and concerns come back to the people who communicate?

Level	What it looks like
1	There is no route back.
2	People can reply or email, but nobody tracks it.
3	Questions are collected at town halls or through a mailbox and answered sometimes.
4	Questions come through a known route, are answered within a set time, and the answers are shared.
5	Feedback is collected for each message and group, analysed for themes, and visibly changes what is communicated next.

Channel load: is it coordinated, or is it noise?

9. How coordinated are the senders of internal messages?

Level	What it looks like
1	Any department can send to everyone, at any time.
2	A few senders coordinate informally.
3	There is a shared calendar for major announcements.
4	All company-wide messages go through one planning calendar with an owner, and clashes are resolved before sending.
5	All senders plan through one calendar with clear rules on volume, priority and timing for each group, reviewed monthly.

10. Do you know how many messages each employee group receives in a typical week?

Level	What it looks like
1	No.
2	We could find out for email only.
3	We have counted it once.
4	We track messages per group per week across the main channels.
5	We track volume by group and channel, have an agreed ceiling, and cut or merge messages to stay under it.

How is your result calculated?

Each measure takes the lower of its two answers, because a strong practice in one question cannot make up for a weak one in the other. That level is shown with its name — not in place, informal, partial, established or embedded — and with the two descriptions you chose. Your result is the profile across all five measures — not a single number, because a strong score in one measure cannot make up for a weak one in another.

Your fixes come from your lowest measures below level 4, up to three. Every measure at level 4 or above shows its "keep it" line instead of a fix. Where the weaker of a measure's two questions has its own fix, as questions 4 and 8 do, you get that fix; otherwise you get the fix for the measure. When two measures share a level, the one whose two answers average lower comes first. If they still tie, the order is reach, comprehension, retention, relevance, then channel load: a message that never arrived cannot be understood.

What does an example result look like?

An illustrative example, with invented answers:

Measure	Your two answers	Level	What you get
Comprehension	Question 3: level 3. Question 4: level 1	1, not in place	Fix 1, for question 4: write key messages for Arabic-first groups in Arabic first, and have a native reader check them
Retention	Question 5: level 2. Question 6: level 2	2, informal	Fix 2: define one behaviour for each key message and check it seven days later
Reach	Question 1: level 2. Question 2: level 3	2, informal	Fix 3: map which channels reach each group, and have supervisors confirm reach
Relevance	Question 7: level 4. Question 8: level 3	3, partial	No fix this time: three lower measures come first
Channel load	Question 9: level 4. Question 10: level 5	4, established	The "keep it" line

What does the full IC Quality Index add?

The self-check describes your practices. The IC Quality Index diagnostic measures the system, with evidence from employees: message-tracing interviews down to the frontline, a manager cascade test and a short bilingual pulse. It assesses channel architecture, message clarity, leadership communication capability and governance. You receive an IC maturity scorecard, a channel map with content-flow diagnostics, friction hotspots with quick wins, and a 12-week prioritised improvement plan. If your result shows gaps you want to close, book a 30-minute diagnosis. Between audits, the five measures also give you a working answer to how to measure internal communication effectiveness.

Frequently asked questions

What is an internal communication audit?

A structured review of how communication works in an organisation: the channels, the content, the senders, the managers and the results — what employees received, understood and did. A full audit combines employee research with a review of channels and governance.

How is this self-check different from a full audit?

The self-check is one person's view of practices. A full audit adds evidence from employees, such as comprehension checks, surveys, focus groups and interviews, plus a review of every channel and sender.

Can I use these questions for my own audit?

Yes. Print them, discuss them with your team, or use them as a starting checklist. Please credit GoldinKollar's IC Quality Index self-check when you share them.

How long does it take?

About five minutes.

Internal communication audit questions: a free 10-question self-check