Hey there, I'm Devin!
Most of the time you can catch me deep in the world of internal comms at Workshop (yes, the Happy Mondays folks!), and while I love AI, there are just some comms questions that need a human who really gets it… that’s me!
So… Devin,
Every report says something different about the “best time” to send comms. But in a real company, timing depends on culture, workflows, and noise. How do I figure out the right cadence for my organization?
First of all, I have to say I LOVE that you’re reading reports and paying attention to the broader internal comms landscape. I tihnk it’s really easy to get heads-down and siloed inside your own company, so kudos to you for zooming out and learning from what others are doing.
That said, when it comes to the “best” time to send internal comms, it’s almost always going to come down to testing inside your own organization. What works on paper or in an industry report won’t always hold up in real life.
One practical way to do this is to run a simple experiment over 90 days. Pick one email you send regularly, ideally something that goes out weekly. Then rotate the send time across a few consistent options, like 9 a.m., noon, and 3 p.m. Over that period, measure and compare open rates and engagement to see which time performs best for your team.
One thing I want to call out here is why this matters. The goal isn’t just higher open rates. It’s about sending communications at times when employees are most likely to be engaged, while also being respectful of their workday and work-life balance. Nobody wants to wake up to an internal email first thing in the morning, but we also know employees are incredibly digitally connected and often carve out specific moments to catch up on messages.
Because of that, I wouldn’t get too hung up on send times alone. They’re helpful data points, but they’re not the whole picture. It’s just as important to look at click-through rates and, honestly, comprehension. If you’re hearing things like, “I never saw that update,” even though you definitely sent it, that’s a signal that timing, format, or relevance might be off.
So absolutely test different send times and build a point of view based on your own data. Just remember that cadence is about more than the clock. Paying attention to how information is actually landing, understood, and acted on will give you a much clearer answer than industry averages ever will.
