Employee communication has long been viewed as a support function. A new study suggests it may be far more valuable than many organizations realize.
Firstup, a provider of workforce communication and engagement technology, has released findings from a commissioned Total Economic Impact™ study conducted by Forrester Consulting. According to the analysis, organizations using Firstup can achieve a 398% return on investment (ROI) over three years, with implementation costs recovered in less than six months.
The report argues that workforce communication is increasingly becoming a business performance driver rather than simply an internal messaging channel. By using AI-powered targeting and centralized communication workflows, organizations reported measurable improvements in frontline retention, employee productivity, workplace safety, and operational efficiency.
For large enterprises struggling to engage dispersed workforces, particularly frontline employees, the findings highlight a growing trend: communication platforms are evolving into strategic workforce management tools.
Communication Is Emerging as a Business Performance Lever
Historically, internal communications focused on distributing company updates, policy changes, and executive messages.
Today, organizations are facing a much different reality. Hybrid work environments, distributed teams, frontline labor shortages, and information overload have made effective communication a critical component of employee engagement and operational execution.
The Forrester study examined organizations using Firstup and modeled outcomes based on a composite enterprise with:
- 10,000 employees
- $2 billion in annual revenue
- A workforce consisting of 65% frontline employees
The resulting analysis found a net present value (NPV) of $7.1 million over three years, driven by improvements across several business functions.
The findings suggest that when employees receive relevant information at the right time, the impact extends far beyond communication metrics and into workforce performance.
Frontline Retention Generates the Largest Financial Impact
The most significant benefit identified in the study was employee retention.
According to the analysis, organizations using Firstup experienced a 4% reduction in frontline employee attrition due to more personalized and targeted communication strategies.
For employers, particularly those in industries with large frontline populations such as healthcare, retail, manufacturing, logistics, and hospitality, turnover remains one of the most expensive workforce challenges.
Recruiting, onboarding, and training replacement workers can cost organizations thousands of dollars per employee, making even modest retention improvements highly valuable.
The study estimates that reduced frontline turnover generated approximately $4.7 million in avoided replacement costs over three years, representing 53% of the total financial benefits identified.
The finding reinforces a growing body of HR research linking employee communication and engagement to workforce retention outcomes.
Productivity Gains Add More Than 69,000 Employee Hours
Another major contributor to the reported ROI came from employee productivity improvements.
Many organizations continue to struggle with fragmented communication systems that force employees to search across emails, intranets, collaboration platforms, and messaging tools to find information.
According to the study, Firstup’s centralized communication model reduced that friction by delivering role-specific information directly to employees.
The result was an estimated savings of more than 69,000 employee hours that would otherwise have been spent searching for information.
For the composite organization, those productivity gains were valued at approximately $2.3 million over three years.
As enterprises increasingly focus on workforce efficiency, reducing information overload has become an important objective for HR, communications, and operational leaders alike.
Safety Outcomes Highlight a New Use Case for Workforce Communication
Perhaps one of the most noteworthy findings in the report relates to workplace safety.
The study found that organizations experienced a 30% reduction in serious safety incidents by the third year of using the platform.
According to Forrester’s analysis, the improvement stemmed from the rapid delivery of critical alerts, targeted safety communications, and improved workforce awareness.
The resulting financial value was estimated at approximately $1.1 million over three years.
For industries such as healthcare, manufacturing, construction, transportation, and energy, workplace safety remains a major operational and financial concern.
The findings suggest that communication technology may play a larger role in risk management than many organizations traditionally recognize.
One healthcare executive interviewed for the study highlighted the platform’s impact on patient safety reporting and harm prevention efforts.
According to the executive, roughly 30% of harm-reduction events within their organization were directly linked to reporting enabled through the platform.
In manufacturing, another communications leader reported a 35% decline in serious injuries following increased focus on safety messaging.
While these results are organization-specific, they illustrate how communication systems are increasingly being leveraged as operational tools rather than solely engagement platforms.
AI Helps Communications Teams Do More With Less
Beyond workforce outcomes, the study found significant efficiency gains for communications teams themselves.
Organizations reported that automated audience targeting and create-once, publish-everywhere capabilities reduced the time required to manage internal communications programs.
The analysis estimates that communications teams saved more than 12,000 hours on content creation and distribution activities over three years.
Those efficiencies translated into approximately $533,000 in value.
As communication teams face growing demands to support employee engagement, change management, leadership communications, and organizational transformation, automation is becoming increasingly important.
Artificial intelligence is playing a central role in this shift by helping teams personalize communications at scale without significantly increasing workloads.
Consolidating Communication Technology Reduces Costs
Many organizations currently rely on multiple disconnected communication tools across departments and regions.
According to the study, consolidating those systems into a single platform generated additional cost savings.
The composite organization eliminated approximately $150,000 annually in legacy communication tool expenses, resulting in total savings of $336,000 over three years.
Beyond direct cost reduction, platform consolidation can also simplify governance, improve message consistency, and enhance workforce reach.
As enterprises continue evaluating software spending, consolidation opportunities are becoming increasingly attractive.
Employee Engagement Remains an Important Untapped Benefit
While the study focused primarily on measurable financial outcomes, researchers also identified several benefits that were not formally quantified.
These included:
- Improved employee engagement scores
- Greater workforce satisfaction
- Enhanced organizational alignment
- Better communication during mergers and organizational change
- Increased strategic influence for communications teams
One IT distribution executive interviewed for the study reported employee engagement improvements of five to six index points, even while navigating a major merger.
These findings reflect a broader trend in workforce management where employee communication is becoming increasingly linked to business resilience and organizational performance.
The Future of Workforce Communication Is AI-Driven
As enterprises invest heavily in artificial intelligence, workforce communication is emerging as one of the most practical and impactful applications of the technology.
Rather than simply sending messages to all employees, AI-enabled platforms can identify who needs specific information, determine the best delivery channels, and measure engagement outcomes in real time.
According to Bill Schuh, workforce communications has evolved into a critical business function capable of influencing retention, productivity, safety, and organizational performance.
That perspective is increasingly shared by HR leaders, internal communications professionals, and business executives seeking measurable returns from workforce technology investments.
While organizations will ultimately need to evaluate their own business cases, the Forrester study suggests that effective communication may no longer be just about informing employees—it may be one of the most underappreciated drivers of workforce performance in the modern enterprise.
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