Leaders Think 27%. Employees Say 9%.
FrequencyMay 18, 202600:06:07

Leaders Think 27%. Employees Say 9%.

Axios HQ's 2026 internal communications report has a number that should stop every comms leader cold: 27% of leaders believe their employees are fully aligned with organisational goals. 9% of employees agree. The same pattern holds across helpfulness, relevance, clarity, and engagement — leaders score themselves at 80% across the board. Employees put them at 50%.

That gap has a price tag. Employees say they spend just 66% of their day doing their actual job. The rest disappears into bad communication, avoidable meetings, and noise that leadership apparently doesn't notice — because they're not the ones sitting in it. Poor communication costs anywhere from $3,640 to $37,440 per employee per year.

Chuck and Jenni push past the data to ask the harder question: when the gap is this wide, at what point does "improving communication" stop being the right answer?

https://views.axioshq.com/assets/69f949ec4014f26b13471fef