If you work in internal comms, the 2026 Gallagher Employee Communications Report won’t shock you.
It’s not that companies don’t care about communication (they do). It’s just that everyone is exhausted, information is everywhere, and the people expected to make sense of it all are often running on fumes.
This year’s survey included insights from over 1,300 comms and HR professionals, and the themes feel pretty familiar: burnout is rising, employees can’t keep up with the flow of updates, and many teams simply don’t have the structure or tools they need to support change at the speed the business demands.
Gallagher sums it up nicely with “the Readiness Gap”, otherwise known as the space between what organizations need from communication and what teams can realistically deliver.
The report highlights four priorities to focus on this year:
- Clarity and direction
- Workforce readiness
- Operational enablement
- Human‑centric communication
Let’s break each one down in plain English and explore where Haiilo naturally supports the shift.
1. Clarity & Direction: People can’t follow a strategy they never actually see
Gallagher’s data reflects something most communicators feel day to day: teams want to be strategic partners, but the reality doesn’t match the ambition. Only 18% say they actually operate strategically, even though 73% say that’s the goal.
It shows. “Strategy” often appears once a quarter on a slide, then disappears back into the ether. Employees sense the direction keeps shifting. And when messages don’t connect to a clear narrative, people tune out.
Where Haiilo fits
Haiilo makes strategy part of everyday work instead of something you hear from leadership every few months. By bringing communication, tools, and knowledge into one calm, connected place, Haiilo makes direction more consistent and more visible. Not something employees have to hunt for.
It’s not about “more comms.” It’s about clearer comms, delivered where people already are.
💡Read: The 2026 guide to good internal comms
2. Workforce Readiness: Change isn’t slowing anytime soon
Change communication is the top skill companies say they need right now. At the same time, 61% of teams admit they don’t have any real structure for communicating change.
Add on small team sizes, limited budgets, and managers who often don’t know how to communicate well – 87% say lack of manager capability is a major risk – and it’s no wonder people feel lost.
Where Haiilo fits
Haiilo helps teams navigate change without adding chaos:
- Managers get simple talking points instead of dense PDFs.
- Employees get quick, clear updates that fit into their day
- AVA, Haiilo’s AI assistant, helps simplify complex updates for different audiences.
💡Read: The 2026 guide to AI in internal comms
3. Operational Enablement: Cutting the noise so the important stuff lands
Most organizations still communicate in broadcast mode. Fewer than one in five feel confident in their ability to personalize messages, and 77% aren’t segmenting audiences in any meaningful way.
When everything goes to everyone, burnout rises fast.
Gallagher shows that when teams improve channel agility – the ability to reach the right people at the right time – burnout drops by 14%, and information overload drops by 18%.
💡Read: The Haiilo guide to flow in the workplace
Where Haiilo fits
Haiilo helps teams reduce noise instead of adding to it. With targeted distribution, people only get what’s relevant to them. And because measurement ties communication to actions – not just clicks – comms teams finally get visibility into what’s working and what isn’t.
Haiilo makes personalized, consistent communication possible, even for small, overstretched teams.
4. Human‑Centric Communication: Because “corporate voice” doesn’t land anymore
The report makes clear that sounding corporate is a fast track to losing trust. Teams that use a more human tone see significantly higher effectiveness. In fact, human‑centric communication leads to an 11% uplift in channel performance.
Even though 75% agree that tailoring messages is essential, only 20% actually do it regularly. And only 18% are happy with their personalization tools.
Where Haiilo fits
Haiilo was built to feel human:
- Content is clean, short, and easy to scan.
- Employees can interact, react, comment, and ask questions
- AVA helps rewrite content in a more approachable tone without losing clarity or accuracy.
It’s easier to sound human when the platform itself feels human.
💡Read: How to secure budget for internal comms and prove your impact
The gap is real, but it’s fixable
The Gallagher report simply names the ones communicators have been feeling for a long time: constant change, rising burnout, too much noise, not enough clarity, and systems that weren’t built to help employees navigate complexity.
Closing the “Readiness Gap” isn’t about sending more messages or adding more tools. It’s about creating a better experience. One where strategy is visible, change feels supported, communication is targeted, and everything sounds like it was written by a real person.
Haiilo helps make that possible by reducing friction, simplifying the workday, and helping people find their flow at work.
