The Trust Gap is Real: What the 2025 Employee Communication Impact Study Means for Internal Comms

Emma Fischer: Hey everybody, and welcome back to You've Got Comms, your bi-weekly touchpoint for all things workplace impact, employee experience, and of course, above all, internal communications. I'm your host for today, Staffbase Content Marketing Manager Emma Fischer. And today we're going to talk about something that is rather big. And no, for once this isn't the elephant in the room, but rather the 2025 Employee Communication Impact Study results, that were brought to you by Staffbase and YouGov.So over 3500 employees across six countries were surveyed, and the goal was to find out what is really going on with employee communication at work. And to be honest, the results were quite eye-opening. To help break it all down, I am joined by Andrea Holland, who will provide a North American lens as the head of North America Communications at Staffbase. I hope you guys really enjoy the insights, revelations and solutions we discuss in today's episode. Hey, Andrea, welcome to the show. And I know you've been deeply involved in the Impact Study. So, do you mind telling us a little bit about your role with Staffbase and the study?

Andrea Holland: Good morning. Thank you, Emma. Yes, thanks so much for having me. My job here in North America is to amplify Staffbase North America and the voice of the internal communicator in this specific market. So yes, I've been very involved in bringing our 2025 Employee Communication Impact Study to life, starting with figuring out a lot of the questions, figuring out who exactly we wanted to target, and what kind of outcomes we were keen to see.

Emma Fischer: I'm so excited to get into this. I'm going to get started right away. And this is one of the most pressing issues that I know the study revealed. It is non-desk employees and the fact that they are not receiving equal communication. According to our US data, only 10% of non-desk workers are very satisfied with the internal communications. And then we have 40% rating it fair to poor.So, Andrea, in your opinion, why do you think non-desk workers are still being left behind in 2025? We have all the tech, so what is missing from the way organizations are reaching audiences?

Andrea Holland: I know. It's wild, right? And it's something I didn't really think a lot about, to be honest, until I started working with Staffbase because I never really had worked with an organization that had catered to frontline workers. Because when you think about it, a lot of communication strategies are historically catered to desk-based employees like you and me. Non-desk employees, these frontline workers, they often lack access to email and intranets. They're not in front of their computers all day like us. So I think that's one thing.These messages, I think, also they're rarely personalized to their environment or their role, again, catering to these desk-based workers. Like you said, 10% of non-desk workers were satisfied with the comms they get from the outside organization. This is wild. I think part of this larger trust gap that we're seeing when employees feel uninformed, the trust completely deteriorates. So I think it's really catering the strategy and making sure that it's personalized and you're using the right tools to reach these people.

Emma Fischer: So speaking of trust, what strategies are actually working for organizations to reach their workers in order to establish that shared connection?

Andrea Holland: Absolutely. So, as we mentioned, a lot of these folks are not in front of their computer all day like us, they're on their phones, they're out in the field. So this mobile-first communication is always going to be an organization's best bet. And that's oftentimes through an employee app, right? I also believe that empowering these frontline managers and their friends, their peers within the organization, is really key.A lot of these folks already hold informal authority within their team. So when you give them the right tools, they can really help build and reinforce that trust. When you think about it, like sometimes you trust your friends and your peers a lot more than you do these top-down channels. So I think equipping them with the right messaging and the tools to relay that down to their teams is really key. And I think, lastly, keeping it simple. Frontline workers, they don't necessarily need to know everything that is happening on the company intranet. They care about the important stuff. They care, "Is the timing of my shift changing? Is there a change in my benefits? Is there a crisis?" Keeping it very clear, very simple, mobile first.

Emma Fischer: I think when it comes to comms, when someone says, "Keep it simple," that's almost always one of the best advice you can give, because it's very easy, but it's really overlooked. Sometimes, myself included, we're really overthinking things. It's not always the most elaborate solution.

Andrea Holland: No, and I'll say this really quick. I had a boss years ago, this is probably 15 years ago. And she would always say to me, "Andrea, word diet, word diet." And it sticks with me to this day. I'm like, "Cut it down, make it clean, make it simple."

Emma Fischer: Would you say that there is something else that it's like, "That's so obvious," but people are overlooking it? What are we really overlooking when it comes to communication strategies?

Andrea Holland: You know, I think the survey was so telling with this message of isolation, this isolation that the non-desk workers feel. It's a different world from those of us that sit in an office and can hear these "water cooler conversations." A lot of people are back in the office now. It'd be one thing if all of this related to remote work, but it doesn't. It's actually physically in the office. So the study found that 12% of employees feel lonely at work, and that's not insignificant. Imagine if you had a 1,000-person organization, that's 120 people. So I think what communicators are really overlooking is that this is not just content delivery. Communication has to figure out how to prioritize emotional connection.

Emma Fischer: Oh, I think that is fundamental, especially when we have hybrid workforces. I know the role I've stepped into, the woman before, she was amazing, but she was in Vancouver. The rest of the team is in Germany. You have the time difference. You have the meeting difference. It gets really grating if someone's continually isolated. So I think that is fundamental to the hybrid workforce.

Andrea Holland: I couldn't agree more.

Emma Fischer: Another thing we talked a lot about is trust. And we found out that employees trust their immediate supervisor the most, unless they have an employee app. In that case, it's app is number one, supervisor's number two. So with that in mind, how can internal comms better support managers as the touchpoint for communication?

Andrea Holland: Yes, this one hit close to home for me. I was never trained to be a manager, and it was just expected that I knew how to do it, and it showed. 

Emma Fischer: That's a big, big thing.

Andrea Holland: I was not good at it. A very big thing. I think you need to consider treating managers almost like a formal channel, just like you would an email or an intranet. And what I mean by this is recognizing this role is a primary source of communication. What does that mean? That means equipping them with timely information. It means giving them messaging. It means supporting them so they can deliver consistent, effective messaging. It means training. It means talking points. It means templates.It just means giving them support and training them to be a communications tool. I know if I had that, I would have felt a lot more set up for success. When I was a manager, even starting 10 years ago, I really had no clue what I was doing. Like I said, it showed.

Emma Fischer: I'm so glad you brought that up because I feel like sometimes in companies, people are expecting it's a natural progression, "I get a raise, I move up, I'm the manager," but it's not about longevity. It doesn't really matter if you're in the company for 10 years, or if you're new. There's these specific traits that make someone a good manager. And I think that sometimes goes overlooked.

Andrea Holland: It's a skillset you have to learn, just like anything else.

Emma Fischer: Would you say that this disconnect is more of a systematic issue or an issue of mindset?

Andrea Holland: Great question. I think it's both. I think it's systemic. I think there is a lack of tools, there's a lack of alignment, there's a lack of training. The infrastructure is not always in place to support someone systems-wise. But I think it's also a mindset. And I remember running into this. Just because you're sending a message does not mean that it's being received. And I think this is like any relationship, whether it's personal or professional. Just because you're saying something, doesn't mean it's been understood, it's been internalized, or it's been acted upon.And communicators really need to follow up just to ensure, "Is this message actually landing with my team? Do they understand what I'm saying? Do they understand the importance of it? Did I communicate it in a way that they understand? Do I understand how they communicate?" And part of that is actually personalization with it. So when you tell a manager that they can tailor their messages in their own words and deliver it to their teams in a way that fits their team's culture, it feels more genuine, it feels more credible, and that in itself is going to build that trust and it's going to increase the likelihood that the messages will be understood, remembered, and acted upon. It's like love languages, "How do you receive and accept this? Am I making the effort to meet you there?"

Emma Fischer: Oh, I love that you said that because a lot of times people are thinking, "Hey, I'm doing all these things that I would consider care, I would consider this as communication," and they're not considering the mindset of the person they're communicating with. And I think someone who really translated this in our company, Frank Wolf, when he wrote "The Narrative Age," it was, it doesn't matter how good you think your message is, if the people aren't receiving that message as intended, it wasn't a clear message. And I think, to me, that's something I always remember and I don't ever blame the audience anymore. I'm like, "Well, what did I do in my communication that wasn't thorough enough?"

Andrea Holland: It's true. And that's why, even looking at the data from this study and just getting more involved in this internal communications world here at Staffbase, I was like, there are so many parallels, just in relationships and in life.

Emma Fischer: That is so true. And I think when we're talking about leadership clarity, so we're looking at leaders, how does this lead to job satisfaction? Because we saw in the study that if someone is satisfied in their job, they're much more likely to stay in that role. But if they're dissatisfied, this is one of the leading reasons why they would leave their role. So what kind of impact does leadership have on that?

Andrea Holland: It's huge. I think clarity in any situation reduces stress, and it boosts your confidence, right? Think about how you feel. Again, I'm going to make the parallel of personal relationships. Clear communication puts us at ease. So as an employee, we want to know, where's the company going? How do we contribute to that? What do they expect of us? What do I expect of them? And the study really showed it well. 91% of employees who say leadership communication is clear are happy at work. And it was only 30% that were happy when it was unclear. That's a huge gap.

Emma Fischer: That reminds me, when I was writing an article about leadership communication, the number was shocking to me. I think it is 70%. So leaders impact as much as 70% of team motivation. And that makes so much sense to me. If your leader isn't being clear about what's going on, why am I going to care if I'm doing something and it's not being supported? And 70% of motivation, then when we see the significant role that plays in job retention, I think it's no surprise that some people are losing their top talent because they're not putting effort into training that leadership role.

Andrea Holland: Right. It was that saying, "People stay for people." People stay at jobs for people, not always the job. It is for the people that they're surrounded by there.

Emma Fischer: And I think one of the big questions right now is we're talking about the cost of how quickly can we get things done, but the humanity about that, I mean that's just a huge topic with AI, with everything going on. Would you say that organizations are starting to underestimate the cost of vague messaging and that lack of a human touch?

Andrea Holland: I think so. I think a lot of organizations don't understand the impact of the downside of it. And I think they're starting to, which is a really good thing. I think that a lot of organizations aren't realizing that this ambiguity in messaging can actually breed a lot of distrust and ultimately disengagement. And it takes longer to rebuild trust than it does to maintain it with transparency. So I think an important takeaway and something that's easy to remember is clear communication and messaging; it doesn't require perfection. It requires honesty. Just honesty along the way.People are going to be more engaged when they know, "I'm getting a clear, honest message from the top down on what's happening. I feel in the loop. I feel in the know and I feel like I know what's happening within this organization," versus, "I'm getting one communication once every few months," and you're just left in the dark, because I had to be perfect, right? Emma Fischer: And this is what you were saying earlier, that simple is better sometimes. It doesn't have to be this huge strategy. Of course, don't make jokes during something very serious, be straightforward, but it's so much harder to rebuild that trust than it is to keep it in the first place.

Andrea Holland: And it humanizes you. As a leadership team, it humanizes you, and people connect with that. Humans connect with humans, not products, not things, with other humans. So the more honest and vulnerable you are, the more engaged of a workforce you're going to have.

Emma Fischer: I think that's so true. That's how you build the psychological safety that people need in order to feel comfortable and safe.

Andrea Holland: 100%.

Emma Fischer: But then, when it comes to connection, it's just a bit surprising to me. I'm not a super tech-savvy person, I'm much more on the creative side, but I look and I see there's no shortage of tech solutions. Like there's basically a tech solution for any issue you have. There's even a website, there's an app for that. So it’s like, are companies just underutilizing the employee apps because they have this all at their fingertips? Is it just a question of usage?

Andrea Holland: I think so. Short answer, yes. Just based on what we saw from the study, the study found that only 11% of US employees get crisis updates on their apps. But of that, 79% of those people rated this crisis communication is excellent, which shows you that they're looking at the app. It shows you that frontline workers are looking for communication. So the apps really need to offer push face notifications or whatever other technological features are within there to utilize them fully because their frontline workers are looking at it, and they do want information.

Emma Fischer: Honestly, I think to me, that was the most eye-opening statistic. It's that only 11% of the employees are getting these crisis updates for big crises. When almost 80% of the people, four-fifths the workforce, are rating this as useful, I can't really understand why it's not being used.

Andrea Holland: Right. I think a big problem is actually how they roll it out. Oftentimes, organizations will have these apps for their frontline workers, but they're treating it like an app update or an IT project, not an actual communications tool. So maybe there's not anyone championing it from the comms team. Maybe there's no onboarding for the frontline workers on how to use it and training. But I think there needs to be a content strategy aligned with it.People won't know what to expect. You have to tell them what to expect. So I think a lot of the problems or mistakes with a lot of these apps that people are using is there's no content strategy attached to them. There's no expectation. There's no "Here's what to expect." So that's where I think a content strategy comes into play, and treating it like a true communications tool.

Emma Fischer: I think that's really great. I was talking to Nicholas Bruneau on this podcast earlier in the month, and he was saying you can build the internal advocacy programs. Like you get people within your company, you build them up as champions of your company, you spread information. There are just so many overlooked channels in which, like you said, you can't just expect someone to see the app and, oh, everything is right in front of them.

Andrea Holland: No. And I love that because I think another overlooked thing is exactly what you said there. There are influencers within an organization. There are people and employees within an organization that regardless of their role, people naturally look to them, people naturally trust them. And so I think to identifying who those key players are within your organization, again, regardless of role, it could be someone that's been there three months, it could be someone that's been there 13 years, but identifying those people and building them up within the organization as like those are your influencers, for lack of a better term, and making sure they're armed, because those are the people that will advocate for you.

Emma Fischer: I think that's fantastic. And people bring different roles. I think sometimes it's the personality hire now, but it's like you serve so many roles, but you want that person who is like, "Hey, I'm a genuine advocate of this company, and I'm here to talk about it." So I think that is huge. And now, I would love to move on to something else that I'm really eager to explore, and that is in the United States. So what trends do we have and what red flags should we talk about?

Andrea Holland: I think the biggest thing I took from the study is that people do not feel heard. And as much as we talk about, "Oh, I'm an organization," or "I'm a leader that really sees my employees, that really hears them," the data simply showed us differently. So I think the biggest red flag that jumped out to me was the number of highly dissatisfied, non-desk workers, and the fact that only 35% of non-desk workers actually felt like their feedback was heard, was considered.This means that employees either don't have the channels to provide the input, or their voices just simply aren't being heard. I don't know how many people, myself included, over the years, would get the survey from the organization being like, "Tell us how we're doing." And frankly, in the back of my mind, I was like, "Well, does it matter?" And so I think that's a big thing. I think there's a disconnect there.Also, there was a stat in there that showed that 60% of employees considered leaving their jobs due to poor communication. And that's kind of what I said earlier around people actually don't leave organizations always for products or what the company is. Yes, of course, sometimes, but oftentimes it's the people and the lack of connection. The communication is clearly tied to retention and morale.I know people that have stayed at companies and foregone pay raises and IPO options, all kind of stuff, because they're like, "I really like who I work with. I really feel connected. I feel like this is my family. I feel safe here. And that's more important to me." So I think that was the biggest red flag that I saw in the US study, was that there's a lot of talk about how companies do this, but again, it's not received.

Emma Fischer: I couldn't agree more. Whether with a work issue or personally, I really found that almost every single problem I have boils down to not what is being asked, but how it's being said. I'm very flexible and I've no problem taking on something, but clarify what's going on, be clear with the process, the expectations, be open about the truth. One thing I really like at Staffbase is we have the AMAs and we have them that they're open. So it’s like sometimes I think people write more spicier questions, or they're really getting into things and I admire when people are not afraid to call out an organization or challenge something.And then the organization itself is also very transparent about that. So I definitely think this is something, in the US in particular, please correct me, but I think people want that transparency.

Andrea Holland: 100%. Especially Gen Z, which is the biggest next workforce. That is what they want. That is a priority to them. They have made that very, very clear. And I admire that. And I think it's incredibly important, like we said, to tie people together. And what I love about Staffbase, too, this is one of the most transparent organizations that I have ever worked for. So even in these AMAs, if somebody asks a hard question, they will answer the hard question, versus a lot of organizations will not. "You know what? We're not going to touch this, and we're going to pretend we didn't get this one." They will answer the question, which I deeply, deeply respect.

Emma Fischer: Me too. I have to say I really appreciate that. But I'm really curious, was there anything about the study that surprised you?

Andrea Holland: I don't know that it surprised me, but it also did in the sad way, was just the loneliness piece of it. I think I expected more of that post-pandemic, during the pandemic, people just assumed, "Oh, you're remote, you're lonely." But this was not based on remote workers. We still found that one in three employees felt lonely within the workplace, sometimes or often. And again, I think if this was a remote-only situation, maybe it wouldn't have surprised me enough, but it wasn't. So I think the workplace loneliness was a big thing that was a little bit jarring and just reiterated that connection-building needs to be so intentional.

Emma Fischer: I really think, during the pandemic, of course, it was so isolating, but a lot of companies really focused on that connection to try to do something. And then everyone thought, "Well, the pandemic ended, everything goes back to normal." But I think, for so many people, this "normal" never really resumed. And it kind of leaves people in this in-between state in which they're not sure how to forge these connections. They don't know which days to go to work or what kind of things they can do to form that community. So I do think we should really pay attention to one in three people, like you said, feeling lonely sometimes or often.

Andrea Holland: Yes, absolutely.

Emma Fischer: So, I think we really shed light on the biggest issues. We have the loneliness, we have the disconnect for the frontline workers, the non-desk workers. And we also have this growing sense of who can we trust and the need to train our managers. But what is one step now to turn this into action that comms leaders can take this quarter?

Andrea Holland: Absolutely. I know I'm a big action-oriented person, don’t give me the information, but tell me what I can actually do with it. But I think like a lot of comms people, right? 

Emma Fischer: Yes.

Andrea Holland: I think one thing you can do today is really just look at your entire organization and conduct a communications equity audit, right? Figure out, from all your messaging, from all your strategies, from all your initiatives, who in your organization is not being effectively reached? Taking a look at all the audiences within your organization, who is not being reached right now, and focus your efforts on improving communications to that group only.And I think, for a lot of people, they should start with frontline workers. Really, what is the comms that they are receiving? And I think you really need to prioritize this action over the intention. That's again, like anything in life, intention is great, action is everything.

Emma Fischer: I think that's really great. I think that is really showing that individualization. I always say, I read this one time, when you're playing "Mario Kart," the person in front, they're not getting extra things to help them stay in front, it's the people on the back. You have to boost the people in the back sometimes, and not focus on everybody gets equal things. So I love that you're finding that group and giving them the attention that they deserve.

Andrea Holland: Yes. Also, "Mario Kart," love "Mario Kart." Take me back!

Emma Fischer: I don’t know if I used this analogy before in the podcast, and I'm like, "I really like that,"

Andrea Holland:  It's a good one.

Emma Fischer: because when I'm in the front place . . . I myself, I'm not in the front place, but you're really needing that stuff, you need the booster when you're in the back. No one wants to get the booster when they're already in third place or second place. So that always applies to the workplace as well. I really like that we've challenged some things in this episode. So as we're starting to wrap up, what would you say is one mindset shift? For myself, I know I can look at things really intensely. And then I step back, and I'm like, "I didn't see this accurately." What do you think is some place people are getting stuck, and we can pull them back?

Andrea Holland: I would say it's more of a mindset shift. As a communicator, we're often programmed. How am I communicating this? What is the messaging? How am I broadcasting this information out? And I think it's remembering that, yes, that is part of the role as an internal communicator, but more so it's about building trust. It's about building clarity, and it's about community.It's not just about, "I'm broadcasting this information out. It's there. Great. I did my job. It's done." It's like, is this messaging and how I'm broadcasting this actually building this trust, clarity, and community? Because again, that's what people stay for. That's what people want. I'll leave it at that. That's what people want. That's what employees want. And that's what's going to engage your teams and that's what's going to provide retention in your company.

Emma Fischer: I really think this is the overarching message. And another way to back it up, it just reminded me, is redefining our metrics because a lot of the times, like you said, people are like, "Well, this many people got the email," but it's like, how many people remembered that email? How many people interacted with it? How many people felt moved by it?So that feedback has to be welcome and then two ways. Like you said, if we're writing in, "How are we feeling?" and nobody's responding to us, and nothing changes, we're going to just disengage. It really has to be this proactive and continuous process.

Andrea Holland: Right. We can literally close it with that Maya Angelou quote, "People don't remember what you said. People remember how you made them feel."

Emma Fischer: I love that. I think those are great closing words, but I'll have to ask, is there anything else you'd like to add about this study?

Andrea Holland: You know, I think it was a beautiful study in the fact that it gave us a roadmap. It showed us where the trust gaps were. It showed us what we can do about them. And it just really reinforced that communication has the power to drive the community, drive the clarity, and the confidence, and it's our job to close the gap.

Emma Fischer: Thank you so much, Andrea. It was a pleasure to have you on today.

Andrea Holland: It was so fun. Thank you for having me.

Emma Fischer: That was You've Got Comms, and we hope that everybody joins us again next time.