Leadership does not need a 20-row engagement dashboard. They need to know whether messages reached the people who had to act, whether those people did the thing, and what it did to cost or risk. Everything else is a status report from the communications team to itself.
HR gets stuck reporting opens because opens are easy and because the alternative feels like claiming credit for the medical plan. You do not need to claim the whole plan. You need a short chain: reach → action → a unit cost your carrier already publishes. That chain is the same one in how to measure ROI and proving HR ROI. This post is the one-page version you can drop in a QBR.
The five numbers that belong on page one
Reach by segment. Share of each workforce slice that could have seen a required message within 48 hours — email-on-file and not bouncing, SMS opted in, or a documented worksite handoff. Split at least desk vs. deskless, or hourly vs. salaried. A blended 80% reach that is 98% at HQ and 40% on the floor is a fail, not an 80.
On-time action. Enrollment completed before the last 48 hours. Life-event elections inside the window. Required notices with a delivery proof file. These are process outcomes. They do not require a causal thesis about claims.
Promoted-program use. Utilization of the two or three things you actually pushed this quarter — telehealth, preventive visit, HSA funding, EAP first appointment — versus the prior period and versus a site you did not target. If you promoted nothing specific, you do not get to call a utilization wiggle a communication win.
Care-setting mix (when you ran a where-to-go campaign). ER vs. urgent care vs. primary vs. telehealth for the following 60–90 days, with the carrier’s unit costs attached. This is the cleanest dollar story most mid-size employers can tell. The mechanism is in reducing costs through communication.
Question load. Ticket volume on the ten repeating questions. Down is good if utilization is not also down. Down plus colder utilization means people gave up, not that they understood.
The numbers that should stay in the appendix
Open rates, click rates, webinar attendance, poster impressions, “content pieces shipped,” and vendor “engagement scores.” You may watch them operationally. You should not lead with them. They invite a conversation about activity, which is the conversation that gets the budget treated as overhead.
Employee satisfaction with “communication” belongs in a diagnostic survey, not in the leadership packet, unless you are reporting the specific items — could you explain an urgent-care cost; could a spouse get in without your login — as leading indicators. A single 4.2 out of 5 is not a KPI. It is a vibe.
How to show the dollar without over-claiming
Pick one campaign. State the reach, the action, the unit cost, and the conservative math. “We reached 70% of the night shift with the urgent-care card. Urgent-care visits rose and ER visits fell in that group vs. the prior quarter. At $X vs. $Y allowed, the mix shift is $Z. We are not claiming the whole $Z is communication. We are claiming the mix moved after the only change we made was the card.” That sentence is defensible. “We saved $2 million with storytelling” is not.
If you do not have a comparison group, use time and honesty: here is the before, here is the after, here is what else changed (plan design, network, flu season). Leadership can discount. They cannot discount a slide that hides the confounders.
Cadence
Monthly: reach and on-time action, plus ticket load. Quarterly: promoted-program use and one mix-shift or funding story. Annually: the conservative dollar page and the segment reach gap you will close next. That is enough. A weekly dashboard of clicks is how analysts stay busy and executives stop opening the file.
Give each KPI an owner and a definition written down. “Reach” that means something different in marketing automation and in HRIS is how you argue about the number instead of the plant that is dark.
Key takeaways
- Page one: reach by segment, on-time action, promoted-program use, care mix when relevant, ticket load.
- Opens and clicks stay in the appendix. They are operations, not the leadership story.
- Attach carrier unit costs and say what you are not claiming.
- A blended reach number that hides the floor is a fail.
- Monthly process, quarterly behavior, annual dollars — not a weekly vanity pack.
Frequently asked questions
What is the single most important benefits communication KPI?
Reach by segment. Every other metric is multiplied by it. If half the workforce never sees the message, your content quality is a debate about the other half. Leadership understands a coverage gap. They do not need a lecture on click-through.
How do we put a dollar on communication without a randomized trial?
Use a promoted behavior, a before/after or site comparison, and the carrier’s unit cost. State the other things that changed. Conservative and explicit beats a precise-looking model nobody believes. One clean story per quarter is enough.
Should we report email open rates to the CFO?
Not as the lead. If they ask why tickets fell, you can show that the SMS landed. Opens are a diagnostic when a campaign failed. They are not the outcome. The outcome is the election, the visit type, or the funded HSA.
How many KPIs should be on the slide?
Five or fewer on page one. If you need a sixth, you are still sorting what you believe. Add a definition footnote for reach and for the dollar method so the next meeting does not restart the argument.
If you want the packet built into the system, start with the scorecard or a 20-minute demo.
A co-founder of Touchpoints with two decades of experience in employee benefits communication. He partners hands-on with benefits firms and employers nationwide to build strategies that deliver real outcomes.
