How to setup a communication skills programme: A step-by-step guide

How to measure the impact of a communication skills training programme

September 23, 2026

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How to build a business case for a communication skills training programme

Expert Opinion from Rich Watts published September 23, 2026

For many HR managers and L&D leads, the decision to commission a communication skills training programme is not entirely their own to make. Before a programme can be designed and delivered, someone needs to approve the spend.

Getting that approval from a board, a finance director, or a senior leadership team with a long list of competing priorities requires a business case that is clear, credible and persuasive.

This article sets out how to build that case. It covers the evidence that tends to carry most weight, the arguments that land well with senior decision-makers, and the idea of framing the training investment to connect to the outcomes the organisation is already trying to achieve.

A LITTLE BACKGROUND

Why making the case for communication skills training is harder than it should be

Communication skills training should be one of the easiest training investments to justify. Poor communication is one of the most consistently cited sources of friction in organisations. Poor communication slows decisions, generates conflict, undermines team cohesion, and erodes trust. Plus, most senior leaders, if asked directly, will acknowledge that communication is something their organisation could do better.

But still, when it comes to committing budget, the conversation often stalls. The connection between the training and the outcomes the business cares about has not been made explicitly enough, and the expected return on the investment has not been articulated in terms that resonate with the people making the decision.

A business case for communication skills training that consists mainly of participant satisfaction data, anecdotal feedback and a general assertion that 'better communication leads to better performance' is unlikely to get the response it deserves.

Much more effective is a case that is specific about the problem being solved, provides rigorous evidence and is really clear about what success will look like and how it will be measured.

So how do we get there?

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GETTING IT DONE

The four pillars of a credible business case

A strong business case for communication skills training rests on four things: a clear problem statement, a credible evidence base, a specific expected outcome, and a proportionate investment. Working through each in turn will give you the material you need.

A clear problem statement

The business case begins with a precise account of the problem the training is being commissioned to solve. Not 'we have a communication challenge' but rather: managers are avoiding difficult conversations, which is allowing performance issues to fester; or the leadership team's messaging during a period of change has been inconsistent, which is driving uncertainty and disengagement across the organisation. The more specifically you can describe the problem and connect it to challenges facing the business, the stronger your case will be.

A credible evidence base

Decision-makers want to know that the problem is real and not just your perception. The best evidence comes from data that already exists in the organisation: engagement survey findings that point to communication as a source of dissatisfaction; exit interview data showing that poor management communication is a reason people leave; 360 feedback themes that surface consistently across a team or cohort.

A specific expected outcome

What will be measurably different as a result of the programme? This does not need to be expressed in financial terms, though it can be. It might be an increase in the percentage of managers who report feeling confident handling difficult conversations, a reduction in the number of informal HR interventions needed to resolve people management issues, or an improvement in team engagement scores in the six months following the programme. The key is that the expected outcome is specific, observable and connected to something the organisation tracks or cares about.

A proportionate investment

The scale of the investment should be proportionate to the scale of the problem and the significance of the expected outcome. A programme that addresses a contained capability gap across a team of ten managers requires a very different level of investment from one that seeks to shift the entire communication culture of a three-hundred-person organisation. Being clear about the scope of the programme helps decision-makers understand what they are approving and makes the financial ask feel like it has been considered.

MAKING THE CASE

What to include in a business case

In a business case for communication skills training, the evidence that tends to carry most weight with senior decision-makers falls into three categories.

The cost of the problem. Wherever possible, connect the communication challenge to a quantifiable cost. The cost of staff turnover, typically estimated at between six months and one year of salary per person for mid-level roles, is one of the most powerful figures available. If exit data shows that poor management communication is a contributing factor in departures, even a modest reduction in turnover attributable to improved management capability represents a significant return on the training investment. Similarly, if sickness absence data, productivity data or customer satisfaction data can be connected, even loosely, to the communication challenge, those figures belong in the case.
Peer evidence and external benchmarking. Decision-makers in organisations respond well to evidence that peer organisations are taking similar action. If there is published research on the link between management communication capability and team performance, employee engagement or retention, then a brief and well-sourced summary of the most relevant findings can strengthen the case considerably.
Baseline data from a needs analysis. A training needs analysis that is conducted rigorously and documented clearly is itself a form of evidence. It demonstrates that the need has been assessed properly, that the proposed programme is a response to specific and documented gaps rather than a general feeling that more training would be beneficial, and that the organisation is approaching the investment seriously.

SUMMING IT ALL UP

Build the measurement into the case from the start

One of the most persuasive things to include in a business case for communication skills training is a clear account of how the impact of the investment will be measured. Decision-makers who are asked to approve training spend without a measurement plan are being asked to sign something off based solely on trust.

The measurement plan does not need to be elaborate. At its simplest, it involves identifying the indicators the organisation cares about, such as manager confidence ratings, team engagement scores, the number of HR-managed performance cases, staff retention in targeted teams. This is followed by gathering a baseline before the programme begins, and then repeating the measurement at an agreed point after the programme has concluded.

For a more detailed guide to building a measurement framework, see our other article: how to measure the impact of a communication skills training programme.

GOING FURTHER

Need help building the case? We can support that too.

Further Communications works with HR managers and L&D leads not just to design and deliver communication skills programmes, but to help make the case for them internally. We are experienced at helping organisations conduct the needs analysis that produces the evidence, articulate the expected outcomes in terms that resonate with senior decision-makers, and design a measurement framework that demonstrates the return on the investment.

If you are at the stage of trying to get sign-off for a programme you believe in, we are happy to talk through how to frame the case for your particular organisation and audience.

Please do get in touch directly and we will get back to you within one working day.

Frequently Asked Questions

Here are some of the questions that we are most commonly asked about setting up a communication skills programme.

1What ROI can we expect from a communication skills training programme?

Return on investment in communication skills training is rarely expressed as a simple financial ratio, though it can be, where the cost of turnover or the savings from reduced HR management time can be connected to the programme's outcomes. More commonly, the ROI is expressed in terms of the metrics the organisation cares about: improvements in manager confidence ratings, increases in team engagement scores, reductions in the frequency of people management escalations, or improvements in the quality of internal communication as observed and reported by senior leaders. The organisations that get the clearest ROI data are those that build measurement into the programme from the outset — gathering baseline data before the programme begins and tracking the agreed indicators at three to six months after delivery.

2How do I make the case when there is no existing data on the problem?

The absence of existing data is itself an argument for starting with a structured training needs analysis. A well-conducted needs analysis produces precisely the kind of baseline evidence that a business case requires: specific data on the current capability level, the gaps that exist, and the contexts in which those gaps are most consequential. The needs analysis also demonstrates to decision-makers that the organisation has approached the investment rigorously rather than reactively. If there is no budget for a formal needs analysis, a set of structured conversations with a representative sample of the target group, documented clearly, can serve a similar purpose.

3How do I handle the objection that communication skills training is hard to measure?

This is the most common objection, and it is partly justified. Communication skills training is genuinely harder to measure than, say, the completion rate of a mandatory compliance module. But it is not immeasurable and the assumption that it cannot be evaluated rigorously is largely a product of organisations not building measurement in from the start. The strongest response to this objection is to agree that measurement requires planning, and to present a specific measurement framework as part of the programme proposal rather than as an afterthought. When a decision-maker can see that the programme includes baseline data collection, mid-programme check-ins and a follow-up evaluation, the objection becomes much harder to sustain.

4Should the business case focus on cost savings or on people outcomes?

The most effective business cases do both, and are tailored to the audience. For a finance director or a board focused on organisational efficiency, the cost-saving frame of connecting communication failures to turnover, absence, productivity loss is the most direct route to approval. For a people director or a leadership team focused on culture, engagement and the quality of working life in the organisation, the people-outcomes frame carries more weight. In most organisations, the decision-makers for training spend are a mixed group, and the strongest business case addresses both frames. It will make the cost argument concisely and then ground the case in the people outcomes the organisation already cares about.

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