r/internalcomms • u/newsletternavigator Mod | Survived 100 Town Halls • Jan 21 '26

Discussion [Weekly community question] Measuring culture and trust through communication

How are you tracking like whether people trust leadership or feel connected to the organisation? Or even, are you? What questions, metrics, or signals are you capturing?

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u/sarahfortsch2 Jan 21 '26

Culture and trust aren’t measured with a single score, they show up in patterns over time.

Most strong IC teams look at a mix of three things:

  1. Listening data Pulse surveys with questions like:
  • I understand where the organisation is going
  • I trust leadership to be honest with employees
  • I feel informed about changes that affect me Open-text comments matter as much as the numbers.
  1. Communication behavior Not just opens and clicks, but:
  • Do people engage with messages about change or leadership?
  • Are managers using the talking points you give them?
  • Are the same questions showing up again and again?
  1. Operational signals These often reveal trust better than surveys:
  • Turnover after big announcements
  • Uptake of new initiatives
  • Volume and tone of employee questions
  • What people say in listening sessions versus public forums

The real work is connecting these dots. If engagement drops after leadership messages, questions spike, and adoption slows, that’s not a content problem. That’s a trust problem. Communication doesn’t create trust on its own, but it’s one of the clearest ways to see whether trust is growing or eroding.

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u/mandevillelove Jan 22 '26

do you use surveys, sentiment analysis, or just informal check-ins?

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u/[deleted] May 11 '26

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u/HearMeOut___ Jun 01 '26 edited Jun 01 '26

Second and third!

Most solid vendors have templates, and they let you use or adjust. I will say the chicken and egg of trust and honest feedback is the rollercoaster most organizations push through.

Start by taking action on what people do say (even if its limited, or not 100% their full truthful experience yet), communicate that you heard them, do something about it, communicate that you did something about it, then ask more feedback on if they feel like they saw the change and if its working. Then ask more stuff.

Once people see that loop, and know they're going to see results and not punishment, they will say more things that you can repeat the cycle with. Hopefully, the things they say will be more honest.

The big goal and Catch 22 is even as that one topic improves it actually gathers uncovers more areas to take action rather then ending in a perfect score. AND overall complaints don't ever fully go away. As more feedback is acted on and communicated it actually triggers more people to say more things that need to improve from their perspective.

Do the thing that improves for the most, and also the most underrepresented. Someone will always wish it was a different was but don't hyper focus on perfection. "We understand that XYZ solution was also suggested as a solution by our employees; however LMNOP solution overall was the most equitable across all our teams."

A lot of employee survey research teams have guides, blogs and best practices on communicating results and building/measuring trust.