View the latest 2009/2010 Communication ROI Study Report .
This report summarizes the findings of our 2009/2010 multiregional study. It identifies what the companies with highly effective communication practices are doing to inform and engage their employees in challenging economic times, and shows how these practices vary around the world.

Executive Summary

This report summarizes the findings of our 2007/2008 global study, points out trends of the last six years, and identifies the best practices that offer the greatest potential for increasing communication effectiveness.

Key Findings

• Effective employee communication is a leading indicator of financial performance.
• Companies with the most effective employee communication programs provided a 91 percent total return to shareholders (TRS) from 2002 to 2006, compared with 62 percent for firms that communicated least effectively. Moreover, a significant improvement in communication effectiveness is associated with a 15.7 percent increase in market value.
• Firms that communicate effectively are four times as likely to report high levels of employee engagement as firms that communicate less effectively.
• All nine practices that constitute Watson Wyatt's Hierarchy of Effective Communication continue to have a positive correlation to financial performance.
• The percentage of companies that are measuring employee behavioral change has increased almost 25 percentage points since the 2003/2004 study.
• Since the 2003/2004 study, there has been a decline in the number of companies that take the time to explain the reasons behind major decisions and give employees the opportunity to provide input into decisions that affect them and into how the work gets done.
• Participating companies in Asia-Pacific are better than companies elsewhere at communicating customer needs and being open with employees about matters that affect them.